[HMM I OFF TOURNAMENT] "Company"

But why didn't the 23 dragons take out all the peasants at once?

I attacked significantly earlier than you, so there were 15 "glamorous" units, and after the attack with luck, 7 remained (the seventh was on the verge of death). After the counterattack, 419 peasants survived.

I also request your consent to post this battle + description on www.handbookhmm1.narod.ru as another mini-quest.

You can post any of my battles, descriptions, or walkthroughs on any resource directly related to Heroes of Might and Magic, including www.handbookhmm1.narod.ru.

By the way, in the handbook, in the diplomacy section, the coefficient for joining is indicated as approximately 1.77. I think it is 1.75. I can confirm this with a save file. It's a small detail, but it might matter in the official game someday.

P.S. How much real time did it take to achieve the specific actions in the final battle (if it's not a secret)?

Less than an hour. The most logical thing would have been to send the berserker to attack the griffins and immediately move the riders upwards, but then I would have been without luck, and the battles could have dragged on even longer. I had to try less powerful options at first glance, one of which became the final one. A typical approach for the fifth game, but it worked in the first one.