Interesting, Vilk, I may have missed that scroll. I did almost all quests available (I think only the red dragon eggs is not done yet) and didn't see this one. Are you referring to "The wayward book" quest, taken from necromancer kvorum?
As for the tank, all I have available now is emerald and black dragons. Black dragons are nice, but I can't cast target on them, and even though they're wickedly powerful, those black knights and zombies prove to be a bit too much if I leave them in the line of fire too much.
I only try to drop the barricades if I need any units to get out and fight. Sprites and faeries can't do a great deal sitting behind them, because Karador loves to cast fear them, and the same goes for any dryads you might have. I did try that thorn tactic.
Well, I will try a few more army setups and see what happens. I'm sort of limited in terms of army selection in ellinia... Even some sea dogs with their three-pronged attack would have been nice to use with some time back.
EDIT: Updated. I tried doing a strategy with inquisitors + canoneers + dryads + giants (or dragons) as tanks and hunters. I tried setting a wall in the 3 free hexes there are and summoned a thorn on the free spot after the dragon went on tanking. In that case karador casts fear on the dryads and one of the necromancers uses his attack to destroy both the barricade and the wall. The ghosts and the black knights charge in and... you can imagine the rest
EDIT 2: Tried using ice thorns, hunter thorns and a book of evil on the free spot. To not that good effect either... the following few turns I managed to buy weren't enough to drop karador's party down to a reasonable amount of troops.
I guess I will try going to demonis and get a few more levels and a few more units. I can remember how easy this battle was with this tactic on normal and hard - but I guess impossible is another matter
The AI plays very strongly and takes out your important units with spells and debuffs first. I don't recall having that much trouble on the other 2 difficulties... But it's normal. With the XP I have, I would have been lvl 26 on hard (meaning I can get even more troops, because it means + 1300 leadership) or lvl 28 on normal (that's even more troops, because it's +2700 leadership)... or level 30 on easy, LOL
