Islands of Mystery, Chapter 2: Dragon Wisdom

Excellent sequel. I was particularly pleased that the grammar in the dialogues is better this time.

P.S. I only encountered one difficulty in the Wastes. I barely managed to defeat the demon (the third one, I think). That annoying minion spell was a pain.

Yes, the demon is the most difficult one there. The first two were killed with a single stack of gargoyles providing cover, but I had to deploy the entire army for him. I simply ignored his hypnosis (he can't control more than 1 target, and losing 1 stack won't hurt), instead, I debuffed the enemies with Mass Darkness and used other spells I needed (my build: Omniscience + Darkness + Defense, and all the bonuses from arenas and war academies also went into defense).

The Sphinx's Riddle.
It was here that I truly appreciated the beauty of mentorship, when a hero jumps from level 1 to level 21 or 22.

I had a newly hired hero for defending the city of Ora/Jora jump straight to level 27, if I remember correctly. Moreover, after a couple of reloads, I managed to choose the right path so that she would immediately reach Omniscience. After that, this woman with her unique ability cast Armageddons and other spells like a machine gun.) In general, after gaining Omniscience, most of the opponents were easily defeated with golems + Armageddon. I wanted to do the same on the last map: I went to the desert, hired elementals, hired 72 more golems, went to the fort, upgraded them, and then immediately rushed to the brown (I defeated the strongest hero in terms of troops, the turquoise one, at the exit from the desert, using only 1 stack of gremlins), but it didn't work, I had to deploy all the troops, as a result, the stack of air elementals was completely destroyed, and the golems and gremlins were cut off. I was very lucky that I found the Staff of the Underworld (-20% enemy initiative) in the dragon lair in the desert, otherwise, the brown one had medals on all his troops, it seems, for +42% initiative, and also morale often triggered. They are writing here about counterspell, but I have never seen the opponent use it in the game, although in terms of spellcasting, the AI is completely broken in 3.1.