Although now it is clear that more time should be devoted to scouting and testing different strategies. And it is desirable to look at things "more broadly."

This is a truth that must be learned first. I have failed in tournaments more than once by not following this rule. Yes, you need to look more broadly. For example, in the battle with the Titans, I barely managed to save all the snipers, losing 3 angels. Then I managed to save a whole angel! I calmed down and was almost about to continue. I went home, thought about it, and decided that I could change the battle strategy, trying to save both angels (and the snipers, of course). And it worked! But I could have failed, although in this case, it wouldn't have been so critical.
I remember my first tournament - Best Of The Best, where I had to break through the mages. I didn't even think that this could be done before the 2nd week. The whole point is that I made the wrong assumption about the impossibility of eliminating them earlier. Sorry for writing about this for so long, but I consider it the most important thing in offline play. I will repeat it once more. If you think that it is already impossible to do better and faster, this does not mean that it is really impossible to do better and faster. And as a rule, that's how it is. So, once again: the point is not that I could not kill the mages in the 1st week in The Best, but that I didn't even think of it. But if I had thought of it, I would have definitely coped with them.

For example, give Thunder to the water:eek: (and pass it around, from hand to hand, across the entire map)

Yes, this was the 2nd strategy. The 1st strategy, which involved bringing Thunder directly to the Stronghold, was also successful and brought 158 stones, but, as you can see, it was possible to improve it significantly by saving money on extra heroes, selling more troops in the guild, and optimizing logistics.

or deliberately structure your playthrough so that you finish by taking the barbarian castle and hand over all the troops there for gems.

I didn't bring it to perfection here; it could have been optimized a little more, and more snipers (1 gem) could have been brought to the Stronghold; most likely, it was possible to save all 3 angels (3 gems). By optimizing logistics, it was possible to get another 3 gems. Finally, by not buying a book for the first hero, but getting it for free with the help of the Thunder Titan (the book automatically appears with the hero when this artifact is worn), another 1 gem was saved.

In total, it is really possible to get another +8 gems by the 187th day. I wanted to reach 200, but as you can see, it wouldn't have worked. :)

Video files of the battles (for those who have enough traffic), screenshots, description - a little later.

P.S. From Dirty_Player: we are waiting for descriptions from the winning players, namely: vbn, DmitriyAS, invisible, to promptly summarize the final results and carry out the award ceremony.