The Hero's Path

Konstantin3105, difficulty is always a tricky thing – the neutral armies are already inflated, there are many restrictions on the player's creatures, and overpowered creatures are very expensive. If you tighten the screws further, advanced players will still complete everything, but the battles will just take longer. To make it more interesting, I think it's easier to come up with something yourself – not replay battles several times when you don't like the losses, try a non-standard build, use atypical creatures, etc.

Regarding the mines – I think very few people actually take these workers there, so the large yield at the end was intended as a truly generous reward for the effort.

In general, the RPG element provides a good opportunity to compete in something.

As I've noticed, the most popular competition has become who can complete the game on the highest difficulty with the fewest losses, but there is a limit to this, and it has already been reached.