2 Vbn:
After the Feast, was Moner placed in the tavern instead of the Dragon?

No, it was the Dragon, and Moner was in another (right) slot. I bought the Feast, and the Dragon appeared in the tavern on the same day. But, as you understand, the Dragon could not be recruited again that day.

In other words, the battle map was stable, but none of the initial troop deployments in the slots provided an option with the Wizard inflicting slowness on the first turn. Is that correct?

Not quite. The Wizard could inflict slowness in the very first round, but the royal griffins, with that deployment, immediately attacked the snipers.

vbn;18867116) Kilgor takes the artifacts and troops from Gretchin, the latter is dismissed, and Kilgor destroys Haart, losing a harpy and a couple of troglodytes, then visits the Cyclops Repository and brings the Thunder of the Titan to Korbak (another 0.1 gems were lost as a result of Kilgor preferring to take 3 sulfur instead of 7 wood). After that, the Dragon is also dismissed, and Korbak, having picked up the chest and resources, attacks the spearmen and flees to the tavern.

This was the only dark spot for me in your Walkthrough, and, unfortunately, you only mentioned it in passing.:) Kilgor is good, especially with the Thunder. But among the troops, there are only 5 harpies, 4 snipers, and troglodytes. Did you also take a Wizard and generate slowness? Or how? Please describe this battle and the losses.1 Wizard, 3 snipers, 3 harpies, 34 troglodytes. I don't remember how the battle went. I've now loaded the save, and indeed, the Wizard immediately cast slowness; no need to generate it (I remembered that it was the same then). I checked: the battle can be won even without slowness (for example, with air protection). After the battle, there was a Wizard, 3 snipers, and 8 troglodytes left. More could have been saved, but there was no point, as this army could no longer be transferred to the Stronghold. I am attaching saves before and after the battle with the cyclops.