Well, what can I say—my report would have been the same!!!
And now I'll talk a bit more about my mistakes!!!!
1) Zhenya scared me by saying that he got the crystal cloak!!! But he reassured me slightly that he didn't manage to build bears on the 1st week))) — this put me on alert (on my own territory, I gathered 53 precious stones + a ring that produces them); I traded the stones for wood and crystals.... after saving up some money (which wasn't hard since there was a 2nd Castle and 2 gold mines (1 random)) on the 2nd week I built hydras and bears in the side-town — and that's when I relaxed((
2) Perhaps I also lost because Zhenya simply defeated my army piece by piece—since, once they gained speed, the deserters crossed the whole map in 2 days—and I simply didn't have time to merge my army—in total, I lost 1/3 of my future army...
3) Another mistake—for some reason, I decided not to take the artifact that gave a sword—I just thought it wouldn't come to that and didn't want to waste time... well, and the artifact for the helmet too.... but Zhenya did actually take them(((((( therefore the stats became practically equal!!!! He even surpassed me in them toward the end—even though I led the whole game...

Now a bit about luck—1 having expert wisdom, I built level 5 in Inferno hoping for any (combat) spell—and was very glad that an earth elemental was granted—since Bron also had expert earth!!!!!..... but Zhenya played it sly and after summoning a 6th squad of elementals (104 each), he paid them off and attacked me a 2nd time, wearing the sphere this time=););)
2) I got very lucky that in battle, Zhenya's attacking spells failed to work 4-5 times—since I had expert resistance + a 5% necklace... although he also had 25(advanced+boots 15%) .....moreover, 2 lightnings on the snake failed in a row—he was probably tearing his hair out because of this=)););)...

And finally, I want to say—that I wouldn't have thought to be so sly and pay off the army and put on the sphere=)) if I had done that, I would have beaten him—but apparently yesterday wasn't my day—I was especially clueless at the beginning((((

Zhenya, thanks for a most interesting game=););)

Ps in the Dragon Utopia I found some very interesting artifacts—a sword +12 attack and a breastplate from the same set!!!! And most importantly, the swamp hero's attack was higher than his defense!!! I was in shock=););)