Trouble with Freedom Islands

[Rinah]

your hero will be much weaker at that point than the armies in the Isles

I have never had any problems with that. Not when playing on hard difficulty, anyway. I have never tried impossible, so I suppose I shouldn't be making such broad claims. At what difficulty are you playing, Skeletons777?

especially if you've been ignoring the (small) leadership bonus offered at level-up

Is that a bad thing? It always seemed such a waste of an opportunity to rise the stats to me.

it's a good idea to collect all those leadership banners on the isles (there are lots), runes and other stuff.

Of course it is. But I don't see why one shouldn't be able to kill the enemies at the same time. Wouldn't that be twice as good?

I try to start out lightly on my first travel to the Islands of Freedom. Joining the brotherhood and raiding the prison shouldn't be too hard. But first, I would recommend defeating Enemen (it wasn't to hard for me - I killed the necromancers, otherwise he would often raise more troops than I killed each turn- ) and collect the remaining vampires and skeleton archers in the cemetery. I would also destroy the statues to kill the Furious Paladin so that he starts selling undead troops. With skeleton archers, decaying zombies, cursed ghosts and vampires in your army, few things will be really difficult at the freedom isles especially when making a good use of sacrifice and necro call. (you might even get a problem with having too many cursed ghosts in the end ) And don't forget to marry Rina, that may be the difference between life and death later in the game.