Help me on Stratos' fourth mission

[QBALL]

This is where you have to help Persephone by gathering 24 souls for Stratos AND destroying the wizard who seems to already have amassed an army before you even arrive.

My problem is this:

1) Stratos' units are very pathetic in comparison to the other gods'. I've played missions with the other gods, and they are quite balanced unit-wise, but I was simply appalled at how weak Stratos' units are... plus, those archers NEVER seem to be able to hit ANYTHING... they missed a manilith from 10 feet!?!

2) The enemy wizard has had two much time to prepare... he already has an army of 40+ units by the time you construct your first manilith with your meager army of seven souls, a storm giant, and two manahoars.

3) Your ally wizard is incredibly weak... she dies within 4 minutes of the mission starting because simply, she has no defenses, unlike the enemy wizard, who has had ages to prepare.

So please help me defeat this mission, because this is REALLY irritating me.... I've tried to go straight for the kill by going directly to the enemy wizard's altar, desecrating it, then lying in wait with 7 archers and my storm giant while he retreats back to his altar to stop the desecration... of course, the motherF#*$(@@ brings his goddamn army along with him, so it's impossible to kill the weasel. And THAT is my only course of action, considering that I have only 7 souls at the beginning of the mission, and that in less than 5 minutes, he's coming for my altar with his army.


Soo...


Help me [insert name here]... you're my only hope.

[Whee]

Just a hint: make sure you get the 24 souls. If you can survive long enough to do that, you've won. Take my word on it.

As for the rest, the choice at the beginning was to either have her guard or attack - I chose to have her attack. She actually did really darn well in my game. Also, I summoned up absolutely nothing so I could get to 24 souls as quickly as possible, then work on the rest of the mission, and was very happy I did.

Also, a comment on Stratos' units... They're definitely more specialized than any other god's units and admittedly they require more micromanagement than others. You've GOT to use their special abilities, especially the frostwolves' speed, to make em work. Even the ranged units are different than your normal artillery-type units and I'm still getting used to those myself. One thing worth noting, too. I think Stratos has the best spell complement in the game. Not only that, but the time delay for casting your lightning bolt spell is the smallest of any other god's level 1 offensive spell... i.e. use it a LOT.

[Auxryn]

Haven't played that one, but I would Guardian myself to a Manalith and leech sould off the baddy for a bit. That tends to work. Remember to keep the Guardians healthy and they can last a long time.
Or just do waht the other guy did.