Experiment with restarts. Volunteers needed!

But when GO involves off-road travel, it's not really a game in my opinion. I used to play on a portal and met Valesk on level 114 (playing as Tazik), and it was a terrible experience.

Just play in a non-standard way. If a meeting is likely, improve your flies. Immediately, 2+3 flies will block the Marks and you'll win the battle. Then, two geese and gnolls will arrive, and GG. And 20 spearmen won't be able to kill the flies right away. And you'll also have a super unit to speed things up. If there's no meeting, then 2000 gold per turn for the Pope is sufficient compensation. + you can send a scout with an archer to scout; he can take out the Marks and then retreat. Smite has made everyone accustomed to a template, automated battle; there's hardly any micro-management, and everyone tries to build as many castles as possible, fearing to lose momentum or something else (like upgrading flies or birds), which sometimes decides the outcome.