NOVAOpen, a wargaming convention here in MD/VA/DC area.
Surge abilities can be used as many times as you have the surges to activate them, unless they use the Unique Surge symbol, seen on some of the new Latari units. Surge+ just denotes that each activation of it can use variable numbers of surges. (RRG page 18, 80.1 bullet 2) With Combat Ingenuity dropping the surge cost on the Archers' blight ability, plus the surge on the dial, generally you are getting a minimum of 2, and up to 4 per archer unit.
Yeah, losing the banner before getting there sucks, but if you keep your archers within range 1-3 of the Reanimate block I ran, Ardus grabs the archers' surge ability as well, including the reduced cost. So he can throw out some blight too.