Generally, I don't write after the first mission, but I encountered a number of oddities and decided to write about them. Technically, the mission worked normally; I passed it on the second try (Hero difficulty, of course). The Lich successfully captured the allied city and fled. But the other orange heroes (except those attacking the ally) behaved strangely. The first sea elf druid doesn't attack the city at all. Instead, he first runs around me, then runs to a village and takes its garrison. He returns, but still doesn't attack; he just harasses me until I kill him in the open field. While he's doing this, a dark elf arrives, in my opinion, the most dangerous enemy of all. He attacks normally, the only one who does. We destroy the catapult, and that's it. Next is the knight. The weakest enemy. He doesn't go to the city; he just stands on the shore and waits for me to leave or kill him. The last two are the same. As a result, I just ignored the orc and the gnome and ran to recapture the allied city, hoping to win. This worked, and they survived with the city under their control. I took ore as a starting bonus, so the blockade wasn't a critical problem for me.
That's how it went. I'm continuing to play. I hope the author responds to comments. So far, I really like it, except that sometimes in the jungle, you can't see any neutral creatures or what they're guarding. And the small areas of navigable sea are really well done.
P.S. I initially lost to the dark elf because I hadn't quite figured out the mission's gameplay yet.