First we need a god at level 5 (perun or lada), lada is good cus we have an extra character(the sage) it will help you in many challenges and gathering in the party, if you pick perun, use the 4 research points on nimblewood and dragon leather to make some +6 gathering tools X3 or 4, then gather more dragon leather to make the best medium armor x5 or more, at that point the current turn is 70 or less, when the cosmic tree quest appear, you must kill the zmei as fast as you can,(this is gonna be easy in the easy difficulty. i won my game at turn 90, you can make it less than that

Is cheap and fast to get, give good armor and leech

The shield doesn't matter, you can make it with pavises that gives you 4 armor and 7 shielding bonus, but if you have time, you can make a lot of moster slayer swods, to add more leech and good damage and shieding (use mosterbone and dragon leather to get the leech bonus)

1.- The rusalka: at the run 10-30 you get the rusalka quest, if you make it quick, you will get 4 children and a good armor and weaps at the finish of the quest, and those childs will grow up at the turn 40-60,(make 2-3 warrios and 1-2 workers to help gathering and fight)
2.-the bandit camp.- if you get the bandit quest, try to reason and get a bandit to have an additional party member