We used all restarts, hence the problems from the first turn. On the respawn there were external dwellings of bears and ogres, but no money. The road passage was blocked by three consecutive shooter stacks: eyes, gogs, and lizardmen. Birds in the citadel. 4 heroes.
I waited for the start of the second week to break out of the bag, took a secondary Conflux on day 123, then an external dwelling of monsters, built a Castle in the capital, but had nothing to build the monsters with. 5 heroes. If my opponent had even a decent respawn, he would have come and finished the game. Lucky for me, his was bad too.
On week 3, I built bears, started leveling up my hero, bred horses, took a secondary Dungeon, opened up a solid territory, saw two Dragon Utopias standing next to each other in the underground. But due to tricky passages, only one of them was potentially "mine."
Unfortunately, from the very beginning, I lost a lot of army due to a lack of earth magic. I tried to make up for lost time, again, like in the previous game, two minimal-value Hives, lost more than I gained.
Week 4. I take the fourth town – Fortress. Time to start taking Dragon Utopias, but nope, the army is thinned out.
Week 5. I wait to get finished off, surprised that it doesn't happen.
Week 6. I take the Dragon Utopia in the underground and clear the treasure zone on the lava. 2 Dragon Utopias, also quite crappy, lots of boxes, nothing good. And only in the last box do they give the entire 5th level. By this time, I had already lost the capital and Dungeon.
I recapture my capital, take the blue capital, then give it away.
Week 7, I take the Dungeon, double my mana, knock off the Shackles of War, final battle.
Gurnisson – (20,25,16, - 293 mana). 10 angels, 54 wyverns, 17 bears, 19 thunderbirds, 12 ogre magi, 18 serpents, 27 orcs. Explosion. Shackles of War.
Astral (16,24,12 – 130 mana). 9 giants, 21 wyverns, 50 royal naga, 18 master genies, 27 mages, 72 golems, 2 grizzly bears. Resist.
I was lucky that the explosion hit the naga immediately (minus 20 units), the second explosion was resisted, but by that time red was already winning.
Thanks for the game.
P.S. Oh, how tangled everything is in our group.