Gladiator

1. There's enough gold to buy the machines. I tried it myself. You go for the bonuses, and on the second day, you can take any machines (including combat machines). Just don't take an army right away (otherwise, you'll be buying combat machines on the 4th day). And you take the army on the 4th day (there's enough gold on that day).

Check again – if you buy one skill and 3 combat machines, you'll have 48750 left on the 4th day, which won't be enough to get an army.

Added 2 minutes later
As an alternative, you can place a banned level 1 hero with these machines there – then he won't be generated in the starting zone, and it will be pointless to use him anyway since he's not leveled up.