I played Master's cards, and I remember very well that the neutrals are placed randomly and right from the start (I'm sure there's some algorithm for this), which seems a bit strange to me, the reasons for this are understandable.
And, for example, in this case, I restarted several times to see what the random distribution gives, and here's a stable near the castle: there's probably a difference, either it's a horde of unupgraded spearmen, or a lot of dark riders or swift riders. And once, a squad of dark riders appeared. And from a squad and from a large group, we can take the same number of vampires. And at this location, the simplest bone collectors appear - they produce twice as many vampires as the riders. In general, there's no fairness right from the start.
Okay, let's see what happens and how much patience I have)
Yes, there is a certain influence of randomness. But that makes the map more replayable)