Where exactly do you get the Sphere of Inhibition so quickly? I don't remember.
And later, there are about 10,000 Minotaurs, give or take, depending on the time.
On the Cursed Earth, resurrection won't work, and losing a lot of units, especially before a battle with the Ashwing, is very undesirable.
In the end, I bought some expendable archers and cleared the area without losing any of my main troops (not even one). And it's not that difficult to level up there; you just buy Uland, run around the huts and stones, then get free upgrades, and use him to kill neutral monsters. You don't need to invest too much; just max out his Archery, Defense, and Earth Magic skills, and that's it. The lower his stats, the longer the battle with the Minotaurs will be.

As far as I remember, the Sphere of Inhibition is unlocked to the left of the city of Ilondé for 500 peasants (on the new map after defeating Targron, but this is also clearly before the battle with the Minotaurs).

And what losses are you talking about? The Minotaurs are slowed down by the armor, after which the Sphere of Inhibition comes into play. We run away from the Minotaurs within the city walls (so they don't reach the archers in one turn), the Cyclops destroy the walls and towers, and then we just shoot down the Minotaurs with all our weapons (the snipers and mages have 32 charges - that's more than enough). Almost forgot - the Spirit of Despair is necessary for this battle. The losses should be from 6-9 tower attacks, but that's negligible.

Added after 8 minutes
And on the revised map, movement around the cities of Torold is much easier. I usually captured Agaron with completely unrecruited troops, and even Glacaron with an army that was only two weeks old. Now, Torold will run to Agaron for reinforcements himself