HELP! The (failed) Assault on General Karador's Necro-Castle
 

Having attempted this one on three separate occasions with full stacks at lvl22, Karador's skelie-archer + necro spam + debuff tactic seems almost unbeatable.

Normal Difficulty
Paladin, lvl22
A10 D10 I8

Latest attempt used Elven archers, cyclops, swordsmen, human archers and skelie-archers.

Any tips and hints etc would be helpful at this point.

Edit: Current Leadership = 17500~18000

The spirit of Black hole!
There is a qwest eich gives u a powerful anty-undead order spell.

Sadly it does less damage than a fireball/icesnake. And its "fear" is pretty useless. Use alot of units that are immune to hypnotize. And take out the obelisk asap. Then lower the necromancer stack without killing it. When you kill a stack place a troop on top of it to prevent it being Called back. Or necro call the fallen stack yourself.

I won at the first attempt, quite lucky i guess couse by accident i used quite good and effective tactic.

I would say that you need to have necromancers in your army if you got the Dark commander skill that gives +initiative to undead it helps.
When i started combat i did Fire Rain on their necromancers , im a mage so i had x2 spell in 1 turn. When i killed their necromancer i used mine to ress his and i had 2 x necromancers.

Be sure that when you kill an enemy stack next to move is 1 of your necromancers, becouse if you dont take control over the dead bodies the Boss or his crystal will ressurect them :)

I guess thats simply the key.

Ofcourse there is the spell of light thing that do damage and make the mobs go away but Fire rain + 30% Fire amulet if you got it is kinda better. Just eauip intel items to be sure you kill their necromancer in 1 turn so you gain control over him by ressing him using your own necro.

P.S

BTW as i remember when i won the fight there was an item that i bought in the castle (maybe it was some other place but i think it was that castle)...the item name is PAIN SKULL and it also have a 2nd lvl called DEAD SKULL, i cant simply upgrade it. There is something like: Power of Spell : 100% and im guessing from the info when i will use the item in many fights and it feed itself with my mana (steals 50% of mana every fight) the power will go to 0% and i will be able to upgrade it.
So my questions are:
1. Do it really needs to be used till 0% of power of spell when it can be upgraded?
2. What are the Stats of the DEAD SKULL? (is it even worth to try to get it)
2.I noticed that 1 fight lowered 2% of the power. Do i need to fight 50x to take it to 0%? Im a mage i cant afford that.

I got the item too and manage to upgrade it. The % drop more as it get lower so it is less than 50 battles but the upgraded version is worth it. It has +5att and +5int with no penalties.

Archers dont do too much good to enemy skeleton archers due to their "Bone" ability, imo try to get more Inquisitors to do double dmg due to their "Holiness" talent.

And your stats seem to be on the low side for a level 22 Pally. I have a same level pally with A21 D19 I12 Lead 16800

I had difficulty the first time as well. Then I switched to a team of Dryads, Ancient Ents, Unicorns, Black Unicorns, and Elven Archers. Use the unicorns for attack, the ent as a tank/shooter, have the dryad plant, and use the archers to knock out the crystal. The plant ability of the dryad is very important because it will allow you to create thorns which can reproduce on top of corpses. That'll keep the crystal from resurrecting troops. Do the same with the unicorns and ent and you should be ok.

As mentioned above, Black Hole helps a lot. Also the Gloth's (?) Armor is great for your elven archers. Additionally, if you can still raise the holy avenge ability, while appearing a waste, it will really help with the battle. Also the mass healing/undead hurting spell (light of life?) is fantastic for the fight.

How do you upgrade it? It does not have an upgrade option. Also, is it possible to use items during combat? (THere are several items that suggest they are to be used during combat but I haven't found a way to use them).

If you're playing as a Paladin, it's a unique mind skill. Maxed you get +15 offense when fighting undead and demons. While a niche skill, you'll be fighting plenty of both in the game.

Too many weak units in those stacks, IMO. I would definitely use Elven Archers or even better Hunters (you can get them in Demonia if you've been there), but I wouldn't use human or skeleton archers. They suck. And in the big fights everything is too uncontrollable with the various spells etc that are cast. You can't sit back and snipe like you would usually. So my general advice is to ditch the swordsmen, human and skeleton archers and get some stronger units such as:

Undead Black Knight
Horsemen (I always have a stack of these)
Demon (the big red one)
Demon Cerebus
Demon Demoness (with Anga's Ring equipped)

I won this fight fairly easily on Hard with Black Knights, Horsemen, Demonesses, Elven Archers and I can't remember what else. :-P