Oelm
Auto-translated
I tried playing as Castle in a single-player game, since I rarely pick it, or rarely get to play it. On an SM template at 160%. First roll - 2 external dwellings of Marksmen, but only one road to a secondary hero and into ГО + no road through the swamp. I went in there with a weak hero with a Gnoll, found an exit into a treasure zone. On 2 respawns there are 3 trees, but two are far away; on the second one I went into the swamp treasure zone, hit blocks, then came back, found another exit, the main hero was Valka, it was very tough to fight, barely took a Dragon Utopia on day 141, a mess overall, no Griffin Conservatories at all.
Second roll - here there's a block into one secondary hero with a horde of Gogs, but the other path is fine. Again, two external dwellings of Archers and 1 of Crusaders. On day 121 - Wystan starts with a minimal Griffin Conservatory, on day 124 with 9 Angels + distracted by Valka on a mine tree, maybe a mistake, maybe not, because I didn't collect money along the way. Day 126 - break the home Dragon Utopia with 9 Angels and Tier 1 units, losing an Angel, +40000. But still not enough for Archangels, have to sit in the Castle to replenish mana. On day 127 I can't reach ГО, but I break another Griffin Conservatory, so by day 131 I have 14 Angels + Book of Earth + Earth expertise, overall decent + all the army intact. I concluded that the only cool theme of Castle is the Archangels. It's also nice to quickly run around under Stables in week 2, but there are plenty of downsides too. So, without Archangels, blue Castle is roughly on the level of red Inferno, or even weaker.
Second roll - here there's a block into one secondary hero with a horde of Gogs, but the other path is fine. Again, two external dwellings of Archers and 1 of Crusaders. On day 121 - Wystan starts with a minimal Griffin Conservatory, on day 124 with 9 Angels + distracted by Valka on a mine tree, maybe a mistake, maybe not, because I didn't collect money along the way. Day 126 - break the home Dragon Utopia with 9 Angels and Tier 1 units, losing an Angel, +40000. But still not enough for Archangels, have to sit in the Castle to replenish mana. On day 127 I can't reach ГО, but I break another Griffin Conservatory, so by day 131 I have 14 Angels + Book of Earth + Earth expertise, overall decent + all the army intact. I concluded that the only cool theme of Castle is the Archangels. It's also nice to quickly run around under Stables in week 2, but there are plenty of downsides too. So, without Archangels, blue Castle is roughly on the level of red Inferno, or even weaker.