Picked red color and diamond - and bitterly regretted it. Got the most dreary setup (for me) - poor in gold/heroes/objects, first week was just wasted. Demoned a bit, took a couple of Hives, a few Griffin Conservatories, a couple of Zealots, a box for 15k gold - it got a little easier, right up until the moment I started to see the opponent's huge army power and the lack of objects on my side (took 1 Conservatory before the finale). But incidentally grabbed Shakles, КЗ, double mana from the computer, and (as the reveal showed) the absence of magic schools for Kirr turned the game in my favor.
Thanks for the game!