Discussion about Sylvan (Wood Elves).

How does Ilfina get an Implosion Dragon (ID) at level 10 if it's practically impossible to build regular dragons before the 3rd week, let alone upgrade them?

It's very simple. First, one hero levels up and clears the map. Let it be Ossir, Vinrael – whoever. In the third week, dragons appear with a castle (this happens even on random maps at almost any difficulty level). In the fourth week, Ilfina leaves the castle with 4 dragons, quickly levels up the necessary skills (mana is available, defense is easily achieved – since it's 10%), and in the fifth week, she gets three more dragons, already being around level 10-12, or even higher – these are the conditions I described, verified by repeatedly playing online with random map generation (RMG) on large maps with or without metro. If the map is rich or the castle has some initial buildings, dragons can appear as early as the second week, so all of this will start even earlier.

I still don't understand how an ID can have 29.4 initiative. They have a maximum of 19 initiative with speed acceleration.

This isn't even math; it's arithmetic. Expert haste is 40%. Weight is another 100%. Therefore, the initiative of the dragons, considering the constant weight, will be: 14 * 1.4 * 2 = 39.2 (I think I initially put the wrong number for the weight, some kind of mental confusion happened).

It's impossible to say definitively which upgrade is better; they are both good in their own way.

I agree. It's like damage range. Either 1-5, or 2-2, but in this case, the numbers represent tiles and only luck affects them. It depends on what you prefer and who you are playing against. It's just a matter of preference.

Yes, I almost forgot. It's not necessary to upgrade the dragons immediately, as the initial leveling will be done on relatively weak neutral creatures of level 6 or lower, and not casters. Four green dragons are more than enough for them. And then you can return to your castle and send troops in a chain, upgrading them all at once. Of course, no one starts with Emerald Dragons right away; we're not Rockefellers, after all