I kept Griffins mainly because of the Guardians. It was extremely amusing to watch enemy heroes try to hypnotize them :D

Yes, Guardians are a worthwhile unit – they can't be burned or poisoned... And the Griffins' second ability is also good – I often sacrificed summoning in the first turn for it, because 8 initiative is very useful for an Enchanter (whose Attack skill is difficult to upgrade).

There was a shortage of the birds themselves – they were only sold in four places, and in the first two, there were very few, and by the end, my Leadership was skyrocketing to over 50k.

Mine is even better – in two places – on Veronia and Tekron :)

Hmm, I wonder if there will be a lot of money on the "impossible" difficulty level too?

I don't know about the impossible difficulty – I haven't played it yet (but I will), but on the hard difficulty now (after "clearing" everything except Sheterra, the Nameless One, and Rehau), I have over 1.5 million – even though I buy all the minor artifacts for crystals, I rarely take chests on the battlefield, and I only upgraded trophies to level 1 (for training). Random chests worth 10-15k are already getting a bit boring. But it's better to get 15k than 4 scrolls of "Wrath Control" :D
I try to avoid losses, but it doesn't always work out :o Recently, Elenhel "pleased" me a lot. A companion for a mage is extremely useful, but at level 40, he complains that he has already learned everything. I don't really want to let him go... So, I successfully destroyed the frog without any losses, left with 30 mana, gained a level, and then died in a battle with the companion around round six... I tried to gain experience through quests – he doesn't want to fight until you go into battle :( I had to find a weak squad and finish the battle, replenishing my mana to the maximum – there were still significant losses, even considering the resurrection spells and two phantoms (maybe I built the battle incorrectly, but I didn't want to replay it). After that, by the way, Khnaga and Ftaghn fell without any problems or losses :)
By the way, while playing as a mage, I noticed a pattern: troops that become effective under the guidance of a mage are often useless in the enemy's army (like Dryads, Celestial Guardians), and the mage gets little benefit from those that can cause serious trouble (like Berserk Goblins, Demonesses with their ability swap)... Although there are exceptions – like Giants, Dreadnoughts, or Cyclops :cool: