the game i won i finished with many champions not fully equipped
even though i had thousand golds in mid game after you discover magic stuff they cost a lot of money so it takes time to wear them all
id say money is quite balanced
even thogh i dont like cities spamming i had 3
how many cities do you usually build?
as for mana my pool increased during mid game i got nearly 2000
but when the real war started i REALLY had to spam spells in each fight to win and around end game i got to ZERO Mana again! but then war was over
anyway im not sure i had really that much, having a few more could have helped
i had only 5 shards i think mid game maybe thats the reason