in my game, i did as Sours adviced: completed the quests in Darion, the ones i COULD complete (i had no idea what i was doing at the time anyway), then i sailed off to the Islands, bought me a boat, and snuck every not-nailed-down goods i could snatch, dug up all accessible treasures, killed all enemy armies up to 'match', completed the Lucky Jim mission,was utterly beaten by the Kraken (wait till i build up some muscles, you filthy octopus!), went to Creston Mines, grabbed all the freebies there etc. By that time, my leadership and items improved, i got new units (from the Dwarven area), levelled a bit thanks to the easy quests, beefed up, went back to the Islands of Freedom and mopped the floor with everybody there, including all the pirates and all enemy armies marked up to 'strong'. Aaahh, the satisfaction
