I don't usually complain about generation, but I've never seen such a terrible roll. GO through wasteland, and out of habit I thought there would be a mutual restart, but my opponent wasn't aware of such tactics and started playing. The generation was very tough — you have to play such maps on the edge to keep up the tempo, but I played it safer, plus I misjudged the direction a couple of times. As a result, I spent the last 2 days looking for ore. Build order — 1-4 in the Citadel + creatures, in the secondary town Gremlins with an external dwelling. Roads, of course, were slow. The first two weeks I just split the army, collected resources and stacks, and converted them into gold. So, the first secondary town was Tower, the second one was, of course, Swamp. Zero prospects. On the third week, I got Naga guards, a Griffin Conservatory, a couple of artifacts; just then Tyras arrived, but the advantage in magic plus artillery decided the outcome, plus my opponent's inexperience.
To be fair, I'll say his respawn was no better either). There was an unpleasant incident with saves during the game, but we somehow got past that point. Thanks for the battle. From my side, it was an excellent example of how NOT to play!