Well, I had 1 point in learning and was wearing the Tactics Treatise for a while for the lack of a good second artifact (all late in the game for me). No KoL or Blood Band.
And then again, I used all the tricks you can, like buying every upgradeable item and upgrade them (I have 2 Archmage's Staffs and sold them. I never had 2 with a mage and now I get two as a Warrior). Also I killed everything outside the Labyrinth and Murock (logically, Key Quest and all) before I went to Baal. Nothing special actually.
And I made sure to beat the early bosses on as low a lvl as possible for they yield the most exp. Like the Giant Turtle. Killed her with one Ancient Vampire (of course I made sure I have one in the game) and random ranged units incl Archmage to give the vamps their shield. And casting magic spring. The turtle cannot kill the Ancient Vampire in one hit with those buffs so he regenerates after each round giving you enough time to kill the Turtle (which ar lvl 3 and some 10-odd Bowmen takes a while ^^).
I also complete every quest in a way so that I get the most XP out of them. For instance if you hoist King Mark's flags over the Frog's houses you get more XP. Most people would make it so that the quest ends in favor of one of the frogs because they'll have some desired item or troop after that and because hoisting Mark's flag will fail the quest for Bagaba/Squelch retroactively (but you keep the XP you got
) and people don't want a failed quest in their summary. But you get to fight one more frog castle and can complete the quest in favor of Frogis, to boot.
There are other examples which I can't think of now.
btw: funniest shit ever. Yesterday I killed Dragon Dreddho in the tournament in 3 rounds (before he could even begin to think about casting Geyser xD ) because he was as stupid as to lightning my Vampire bats that were in the top position. But everybody else on my team was out of reach. So what happened ? He Lightning'd his entire army, shocking them. So nobody except the Evil Beholders that stood right in front of the Vampire Bats was able to attack in round one with their one Action Point ^^ My Skellies took out 122 Knights in two turns. And the Dragons suicided themselves by attacking my two vampire stacks and the two demons (taking marginal damage only. I had to ress ONE Demon ^^), dying from mass Dragon Slayer'd supported retaliation (Demonesses slew 8 Red Dragons without (!) the Whip equipped)
Long story short, I didn't even have to use Time Back so I just Underground Blade'd them once and then Black Hole'd them all. Round 1 Icy Thorns for the Skellies ofc. I was lucky he cast Pygmy on my Demonesses in round two instead of Geyser (idiot ^^). And his last stack died before they could move in round 3.
Easy Dragon Slayer Sword and know what the good thing is ? I had one before already. Now I have 2 Dragon Slayer Swords and Dragon Slayer spell at lvl 3 (mass) :>
But I only wear one of them because Demetrius makes more sense to me in the other slot. -20% ldr for Demons and I currently run with Demons and -esses. At the cost of one Atk. Fair deal :>
@Edit: dismissed troops do not count as losses, dude. Only what is displayed as such after battles qualifies as losses.