SPOILER: After the first boss ..
 

.. my whole army gets wiped and I'm forced to use crappy Human troops. And ofc I sold the Human-specific gear because I thought I would never have to use those bland units. Loki's Mark from the Soothsayers alone makes the Viking army far superior imho..



Is it normal that I only have 3 valkyries yet? I had assumed you find them all in the snowy "viking" areas, but I guess I am wrong. Where should I go look for the remaining 2 in order to start building their rage abilities as early as possible?

You don't find all Valkyries in the Viking areas, also you really don't need to look for them hard, they are kind of conveniently placed so you happen to find them while you are doing your thing anyway. Also you will find many Viking troops later in the game and there is an item thingie named Mysterious Parcel that you can use to buy any troop anywhere (except level 5 ones I think).

Thanks - good to know. I guess Human troops can be OK if you play a warrior or something, but for my ranged/keep-away soothsayer play style there is much better races. At least Runemages are neat.

Not as neat as they used to be, though. The lack of Revive was a downer.

Also, provided you have cash, it's possible to recruit a variety of things in the three areas you can wander. I've found dragons, ogres, cyclops and giants, for example.

After the Giant Spider, you fight another boss, and after than boss, all unit you bring along, all die, include those in reserve!
So better put them at Castle Garison, bring all the low cost with you, they all die in the end :)
After that, you move to human world, and wow so many powerful units, hard to choose :(