I'm in the habit of always choosing experience instead of lump sum gold from loot boxes I come across. I remember that being a better long-term investment. Maybe I'll have to just take the cash.

you get free EXP from killing creatures, taking the EXP instead of gold is a classic noob mistake

and also you don't need to buy up all the dwellings every month, i just buy up the strongest units and ranged units and the rest i leave "as is" until an invading army approaches (mostly as a deterrent to the A.I because they do not care how what types of units are stored in a castle, just how many)

if you want the easy mode of this game just level diplomacy and things will win on their own

literally how i beat the majority of the RoE campaign (and as for inferno you got the best access to fire magic)