Tactical techniques for conducting battles in Heroes of Might and Magic II.

the question is, how many druids died during this turn?

That's not important. By the way, the example is incorrect. The correct example is:

I have druids, the enemy has phoenixes

Turn 1:
- phoenixes fly in and attack the druids
- I cast Blind on the phoenixes and move the druids back

Turn 2
- I cast Slow on the phoenixes and shoot with the druids

Turn 3 and all subsequent turns
- I cast Blind on the phoenixes and shoot with the druids

If you don't cast Slow, the phoenixes will attack on the next turn after the druids shoot, and the battle will be lost.

Added 3 minutes later

The elementals are definitely stronger in all aspects.
However, it's sometimes not very rational to build them because the nest is not needed for building titans.

Without the elementals, the wizard simply won't be able to develop. Well, actually, my reasoning applies to the Impossible difficulty. Where, after that, it is simply impossible to build anything for the first 2-3 weeks.