Built-in autosave feature (for the TE version).

However, with a standard army, without a group stack, and without morale, the battles of the first week become routine. Also, there is no choice when you need to either sacrifice part of your army to defeat the neutrals earlier or wait for the next reinforcement.

A competitive approach implies a certain maximalism, within which routine is somehow poorly compatible. No matter how typical the battles are, you still need to maintain concentration, find ways to save as many troops as possible, or as much time as possible on the timer (here is a great opportunity for optimization).

In addition, since the goal is to "devour everything," you have to fight not with one hero, but with all of them, which makes the battles a little more complicated.

Also, since the goal is to "build everything and buy everything in the market on day 121," you often have to go into various dungeons with a dubious army or a dubious hero.

I won't even talk about the difficulties of organizing chains. Two games with Cobra on Jebus were, perhaps, the two most interesting first weeks in my gaming experience. Precisely because of the maximalism in the tasks - to devour everything that can be reached, to build everything that can be realistically built, to buy everything in the market on day 121, and to reach the center. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In fact, the second week of the game on Jebus is much less interesting, as there is no such extreme.

Added 29 minutes ago

On the one hand, a strong player does not want the element of randomness because it is the only chance to lose to a weaker player, but there is another side to this, that sometimes the one who is considered weaker simply plays more reliably (Qwerty has already tried to say this) and the indicator of skill is to play a little worse but not to lose. And you often play very risky, even if 90% of the time it is justified - but if you make a mistake, it's not a big deal... the practice of taking and giving autos is common.
I often see in your reports 1, 2, 3, 5 autos per game and I don't understand this! Because it contradicts the indicator of skill and professionalism.
I have never taken an auto, and I calmly endured the loss of a hero or the lack of time or the random construction of a silo instead of a market.
But winning after a loss (without an auto) is an indicator, and it doesn't matter that someone didn't succeed 3 times, and another did the opposite... this is also like the random amount of money, artifacts, and so on. The probability is a neutral indicator.

And you decided to legalize this by making it a safe and risk-free business?

Yes, don't take or give autos - it's as bad a habit as alcohol or smoking.

These are isolated cases of risky battles that are completely distorted by the tradition of taking autos. Moreover, no one controls when and why someone asks for an auto.

The practice of taking autos is more of a defensive reaction of the psyche to overstrain. Because, for the reasons mentioned, the load on the brain is quite serious. And the ability to take an auto if necessary allows you to slightly reduce concentration, especially if the game is friendly or not very important in a tournament.

So, yes, there is a certain double standard, I don't deny it.

However, people are trying not to abuse it, in particular, few people would dare to take 5 autos. For example, in the aforementioned game with Cobra, I was too embarrassed to take the 3rd auto and preferred to surrender.

And that was a mistake, because ideally there should be either an equal amount or enough of both. And if you exaggerate a little, then the strongest players at the moment are the best resource collectors.

This is a common problem, and I try to fight it. In particular, for this reason, a number of players prefer fixes, where there is less emphasis on mastering the map and more on battles with each other. And there are significantly more of these battles. Randomness (and SoD and TE) is more focused on one final battle.

And doesn't it seem that this is the most addictive element of the game... this fuss, squeezing out every butterfly and every skeleton, and it takes time.

The timer sees everything...

In the next version of TE, it is planned to give the starting time not 4000 seconds, but in portions of 1000 per week - in order to speed up the first weeks.

I'm not aware of the specific problem with the neutrals. I think it's also in the technical part. However, even if such a feature is made, it will be very difficult to convince people to use it... the strategies of battles will be turned upside down. Although maybe that would be for the better.