Awakening of Evil

To be honest, at first, it wasn't clear what to do with the sentinels, but everything became clear during one of the dialogues in the guild. I chose assassins as the killers, and they managed it on the first try.
Without phoenixes, the difficulty of the final battle would greatly depend on how many troops were left after the battles with the warlords; I think with a full set of orcish units, it would be possible to win. I clearly lost to Laslo in the battle with the orcs; without phoenixes, I probably wouldn't have made it. After all, banning almost all control spells, including the hive, severely limits the range of possibilities in battles with such large armies.

Speaking of stat resets. After transitioning to the third stage and skipping a turn, the stats remain like this; I think it's still an exaggeration.

stats