Ugh, I don't know how to maintain no-losses as a Mage early in the game. I just started a Mage (Vampire) Impossible this morning and I got through four fights unscathed, but I can't defeat the Captain of the Guard in front of the Black Gate without losses.
All I have is 2 Vampires and then trashy units like Ghosts, Snakes, Zombies and Skeleton Archers. Only spells as Poison and Slow. Obviously you'd want to use the Vampires to suck up the damage, but even so I can't keep everything alive with all those dwarves running at me.
Anyone else got further than this as a Vampire without losses?
EDIT: similar problem with the Orc and the Captain of the Guard. This battle seems easier as an Orc but with only Slow and Haste, I can't take those dwarves down very easily. There's a vendor on Tristem at the beginning who has Trolls for sale, but one Troll is 3600 gold and I only had 1600 or so
EDIT 2: Demoness class is SO much easier than the other two at the start! Not only did I get past the Captain of the Guard, but I was able to defeat all but one of the spiders in the Catacombs without loss. So now that's 12 no-loss fights by the time I reached Shelter. I didn't do that very early quest to kill a hero. Basically, the Demon unit is by far the best thing this early in the game.