"only XL-5"

A rather poor start, and Valya with only one stack, but there were external dwellings of swordsmen and archers at the respawn, and the scout also revealed a native village in the neighboring zone, so I decided to play a fairly average setup.
On the second day, I started gathering Hive bases, also captured another player's Tower, where I began building a Mage Guild, then rushed to a super treasure zone, consumed the Hive bases there, leveled up a good mage who got Earth, Intelligence, and Air, and consumed boxes for all Air spells and all 5th level spells, but unfortunately crashed against the Shedy (Gray Beards?), miscalculating that they had 7th speed and with my super mage's morale on a fake unit they kill, and there were also Boots on him. Never managed to dig them up by the end of the game.
Went at the opponent, and unsuccessfully positioned myself against Labeta on day 132, who was very close and had 200+ mana, while I had about 20. The army there wasn't big, but I was met with Imp, summons, and Resurrection. Didn't have enough gold to buy him off. Fearing Blind on my only surviving stack of Vives, I retreat. I lose my entire army — I had almost 50 ducks and 5 angels. Easy game turns into hardcore. After that, I rebuilt Town Portal and Dimension Door, it got a bit more fun, but not much. Gurney never got Expert Wisdom until the end of the game; everything else leveled up except it. Dimension Door was only on Grindan, later Solmyr also learned it. For over a week, my towns were being taken from me, and I recaptured them again, each turn getting harder. On day 146, the opponent night-loops in my main with angels. I fly Solmyr in to hit-and-run, but Labeta turned out to be reinforced with 2 angels in one stack, I buy him off since I only had enough chain to afford one. Gurney runs in, and with Oil kills him in one round, artifacts drop and it's GG.
Thanks for the game!

Spider started playing with a good starting army and heroes, from the gold count I already assumed that Phoenixes wouldn't be built on week 1, took mines and treasure chests, rushed to the computers and villages. During scouting, it turned out no objects were found, and treasure zones are god knows where — without control, it's an obvious waste of time. I saw a Dragon Utopia in Cit's treasure zone from scouting. At home, the Mage Guild gave Resurrection and Imp, Summon Demon was in a scroll. Labbette, meanwhile, unaware of her great future, was collecting gold and resources, which were in terrible shortage. Labbette gets defeated, levels up, and goes to the Griffin Conservatory with 70 Air Elementals and Bone Dragons — max. Soon I get Town Portal from a couple of rebuilds and capture the Swamp computer; the Mage Guild gives Fly. 3-4 promising heroes and nowhere to level, but Charna did get Expert Wisdom and Earth. The opponent captures the Swamp, Town Portals or sends Gurney there with a pile of cash and small stats. Labeta was nearby, and a Fireball happened; I was afraid of getting knocked out by morale. While I had time to rest, I ran Labbeta with Fly to the Dragon Utopia — rank 2 or 3 with +12 and a Breastplate 4 4. Finally got gold for the University, bought Air for everyone, Boots and Gloves from the artifact market, and the gold vanished. The Mage Guild trolled me, not giving Dimension Door. I knew there was a Tower and control was about to appear. It was stressful that the opponent could easily capture the contested Swamp, and I could do little about it. I captured the Tower, realized there was full control there. After that turn, the back-and-forth capturing of towns began. And here my inexperience and lack of a timer showed. I didn't think through that it's much more profitable to capture the green Swamp first, since those are Serpent Flies, and without two Dimension Doors it's problematic for the opponent to recapture. Also another Swamp computer castle. In the end, I lost due to skill in the late game without a timer, having 2 heroes with 1 Dimension Door (though they appeared a few days before the loss), Charna with Dimension Door and Town Portal, and Labbeta against Gurney (as it turned out) without Dimension Door, but he could run far, and Grindan (killed once and immediately dug up :D). In the end, I left 3 towns to the opponent, stupidly positioned Labbeta due to the timer with artifacts on 2 angels :smile35:. Thanks to Caliban for the game and the great experience.