Discussion of the Academy faction (Mages and Wizards). Tactics and their specific features.

I'll try to provide some insights on a couple of Kaspar (blue) vs. Hafiz (yellow) matchups and the map in general. If nothing too terrible happens to the Undead player, by the end of day 3, Kaspar will break through the bridge's defenses. He will often manage to destroy the guard protecting his own artifact as well. His army will consist of around 120 skeletons, zombies, ghosts, and meat from the left hero. For his first upgrades, he will prioritize Marksmanship and Machine skills. He will then focus on acquiring units for gathering and saving movement points. His tactic will be simple: kill as many monsters as possible for experience and grab at least 3 out of 4 artifacts. If he succeeds, things will look bad. Goblins and his own Machine units will clearly not be enough for a victory in open combat, and the hero's early-game units will likely fall to RD (Resurrection Domain) and the special ability in the Tent (in this case, the Undead hero will be stronger). Things will only get worse from there. In the center, monsters that raise vampires are almost always generated. The Necromancer will pay close attention to this. Either he will have 8 vampires by day 30, or there is a high probability that the mage will be captured after the potential bloodsuckers are killed. Therefore, all of the above must not be allowed to happen to Kaspar. To achieve this, you need to move into the center no later than day 4 (due to the lack of a penalty on the sand, there is a day to spare). You can try to keep up (or even overtake) Kaspar in terms of development, collect at least 2 artifacts, and not leave monster stacks for vampire raising. Alternatively, you can rush for a confrontation if your development and goblins are going well, and you have a comparable number of units to skeletons, plus a giant. The battle can go either way, depending on the same factors: development, artifacts, the amount of mana the Necromancer has (this and the number of skeletons can be reduced by early-game units like Ory and Nura, but not always), the presence of damage spells for Hafiz, etc. But the problem is also that, regardless of the winner, both rivals will very likely lose their combat effectiveness until the next growth. And who will fare better on wood and stone, and who will have 350 resources by day 8, is clear. As a conclusion: Hafiz is a strong rusher with a mobility advantage in the center, which can be exploited, but in a long series of games against equal opponents, I would bet on Kaspar, although this may be biased. In general, on the "Former Friends" map, you should go to the center as soon as you realize you can fight there; there is no question of going underground. I will leave the discussion of Leto and Vittorio to others, but Ossir, in my opinion, is not a match for Hafiz on this map.