Expanding my Army & Beating Eastern Islands

[Dorion]

Hello, my name is Dorion and I am new to this site and game. I bought the game a few weeks ago and am having a lot of fun playing it. One thing I like is that the game is not linear. It didn’t take me long to figure out that you can’t simply clear a map then go to the next one, since difficult army’s are mixed in with weaker. I love coming back to some earlier maps and finally defeating an army that was previously way to tough.

Currently I’m level 10 warrior and am exploring the Islands of Freedoms. When I go to the Eastern islands, I’ve noticed that I’m starting to face more than just 5 or 6 stacks on a regular basis. This is providing a tough challenge for me. My questions are as follows:

1. Can my army be expanded to include more than 5 stacks on the battlefield?

2. There seems to be a shortage of knights and mounted knights. Will I eventually be able to get a horde of these guys or at least a castle that supplies a few hundred?

3. Because of the number of stacks I’m facing on the Eastern Islands, I’m sort of running into a wall. I’ve gone back to Darion to try and clear out some of the tougher scenarios to keep things moving but I find that I seem to be running into walls everywhere. Any advice on how to proceed in at this point of the game is appreciated.
Thanks for any help and advice.

Dorion