strategy guide!

[Eat-Man]

Thanks for the guide, before I got here I was using peasants/sprites/dragonfly/swordsman/bowman until they died, always replacing dead units, avoiding too many fights, after the guide I changed to Royal Snakes/Griffins/Inquitor/Priest/Alchemist, I got to them running, cleared swamps by lv4/5, with 5-6 losses on griffins and snakes together, now lv6 15int fighting most slightly/strong enemies with no losses, got banner of faith+ancient amulet on store with spear of rage+book of beast rage to use the box of spirits faster and some +int items that gave me +5int.

I got one question as a mage, should I upgrade Alchemy before learn and upgrade more spells or I will find enough crystals although getting Alchemy could speed the process?