Walkthroughs for custom maps.

I read about how to remove the artifact from him and even tested this theory myself. It worked. But Jhelu with the artifact and Jhelu without it are, as they say in one city, two very different things. Removing the artifact immediately opens up a space for creativity for a skilled player. This is what Marlo Stanfield demonstrated in his video.

Generating blindness is probably possible, but unicorns don't blind every time anyway, and here you would have to do it every round. Considering that in the early stages our small army will deal relatively little damage, there will be too many rounds. In my opinion, implementing such a strategy, if not using some tricks, will be difficult.
A more realistic way to defeat him with the red artifact in the early stages is, perhaps, to use "Bribe" ten times. But this will require too much money.

Apparently, he decided that this character was not challenging enough to defeat. If we leave speedruns aside, then this is, in general, a quite reasonable way to make the game more difficult. It's a kind of skill check for the player. An experienced pro will find a way to defeat him even in the early stages. Less experienced players will also try to remove the artifact from him, but then they will give up on it and start looking for a way to defeat him with brute force. Well, and most, I think, not finding any acceptable solution, will simply let him die after 7 days of losing his last city. So, in this action, I rather support the author.