Help! Academy Level 4: The Alliance *Spoilers*

[erased. over. out]

Hi guys. I've been trying to defeat Isabel for quite some time now, but she has way too many Paladins for me to knock her out for good. I've tried with virtually all of my heroes, who have reached atleast level 27 or 28. I pick off the Archangels first, 'cause they have a nasty habit of ressurrecting fallen allies, then concentrated my firepower on the enemy archers and paladins.

As you know, Isabel uses "Mass Haste," "Mass Endurance," etc so its increasingly difficult to make my attacks effective. I captured all of the enemy towns, vanquished my foes, and have built up a formidable force. However, spending week after week builing up an army means that Isabel's army grows as well- at one point she had over 400 Paladins and 50 Archangels. So I decided to start the level over, and go directly for her castle in as few days as possible. Alas, she had about 170 Paladins and 30 Archangels. Just enough to beat my forces. I've used Raelag and his Empowered Spells, the Mage (I forget his name) and his Phoenix summonning, and the Ranger with his all round good stats. Still nothing. I shave off the Angels, but the Paladins lead to my downfall.

For those who have finished the game, I'd like to hear your strategies for defeating Isabel. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[maltz]

I've used Raelag and his Empowered Spells, the Mage (I forget his name) and his Phoenix summonning, and the Ranger with his all round good stats. Still nothing. I shave off the Angels, but the Paladins lead to my downfall.

I haven't heard a key word: Frenzy.

First, empowered spell gives you mostly 2000-3000 damage. While it might be useful in Raelag's own mission 3-4, that kind of damage output is miserable in a huge encounter like this. So you can cross him out completely unless he has some really useful buff spells.

Summon phoenix: same thing here. What kind of damage can ONE phoenix give you? At most 3000 even if your spell power is 40+. You can forget about this idea.

Findan: High stats are great. How do you build up your Findan? Can you mass haste and mass something yourself?

Also, you don't have to rush Isabel. You have 8 cities, and 4 of them give you troops. By just waiting 2 months or 3, you will have a lot of troops to face her as well. If Isabel's army grows insanely fast, it might be a bug as in C5M5, where people find Nicolai's army growing way too fast. Try patch 1.2.

[Ari]

I had incredible luck with phantom forces on my archangels (obviously this implies master summoning, but given that summoning is a "native" school of the academy, there's a good chance you'll have this). I'd cast PF on them, the new stack would get a turn almost immediately and would get a chance to resurrect regardless of whether the original stack had. They could even resurrect the original stack! Moreover the enemy would target them and often by this point they'd be forced to use a melee attack which meant that i'd get a 50% chance at a wicked relatiation to boot.

On a bigger picture note, Isabel's forces increase over time, but not nearly as fast as yours do. She seems to start with a base (huge) number of units which is added to with only one castle's growth. You have 4 and using hill forts you can hire all creatures in all 4 castles. If your first attack fails, in other words, simply wait a few weeks and try again.

One saving grace is that Isabel has far lower knowledge or spellpower, which means that eventually (and this is a looooong battle) she'll be reduced to using attacks and benediction. Since "my" Isabel had had mass haste, mass endurance, and mass righteous might, finally being RID of those buffs made the later rounds much easier.

[erased. over. out]

Thanks for the advice Ari and Maltz. I just completed the level and went on to finish the game as well. I used Findan to defeat Isabel. The tactic I used is as folows:

I played the level over, captured all the towns, and used the Haven towns to generate my troops. With the right amount of gold at my disposable, I converted almost every Peasant to Marksmen using Godric's training ability. I had over 2K Marksmen, 80 Archangels, a couple of hundred Griffins and 30 or so Paladins to use as a meat shield. I stationed the Paladins right in front of the enemy gate, to prevent them from charging towards me. I kept ressurecting them round after round, as my Marksmen picked off the Paladins and Angels

I noticed that my catapult broke down the walls, thereby allowing the enemy another way to my forces, which is why I used fireball on my own catapult, destroying it in 2 rounds, haha. It took a good hour or so to finally beat her. I'm pretty sure many will agree that this is by far the toughest battle in the whole game. Phew, I'm glad that's over! Thanks again for your input

[Trevan]

Strange, my Isabel only had 11 archangels by month 2. I attacked her with over 50 archangels. Hard difficulty. Wonder if Heroic makes that much of a difference. I pretty much just summoned my 1700 hp 100 attack 700 average damage phoenix and watched it kill her units.

[Ari]

That's strange. I played on normal, and while I can't remember precisely when I got to Isabel, I was going as quickly as possible to the final castle. If it was in month two at all (and it may have even been month one) it was certainly in the first week or two. And I saw 50+ archangels, hundreds of paladins, ~300 imperial griffons, and nearly a *thousand* footmen. One saving grace was that there weren't many marksmen in play and no inquisitors.

Oddly, after building my forces and attacking again, I saw inquisitors among the troops (and marginally higher levels of everything else).

[bo_nk]

i cannot get to Isabel!?!?!
when i pass the garrison where Raelag and Shadya stay behind and after the movie, i'm getting - green player defeated and you lost the game.
i cannot get what i'm doing wrong???
any suggestions???