This question, Karla answered two ways. The first was if she only had the resources of Kaeleer at her disposal, which meant the majority of her funds went into troop care and maintenance, along with a bit left over for things like bribes for the Arcerians to help defend her borders and Coaches for troop deployment. As the darkest Jeweled witch in Terreille, her troops could use a faster Wind than Hobart's troops and hopefully keep their advantage that way.

However, if Karla had access to worlds outside of Kaeleer, then things changed. Now most of her resources went to alliances and tech from other worlds. Even something so simple as handguns drastically changed the face of warfare, never mind weapons more complicated than that.