Mizrael (Castle, Caitlin, Alkin) def Hermit (red, Fortress, Tazar, Thant) Panic 133
Used all restarts; the generated map had a starting area where half of it was behind mountains, making it difficult to navigate – there was no passage. There were only 14 archers, so I decided not to upgrade them, as I had two ballistas from the start and a hidden stash of creatures. I assigned Alkin to the town; he immediately received a dwelling. The passage to the Necropolis was guarded by a triple layer of defenses (orcs, monks, and pits), and I had to defeat them all; there was no way to bypass them. I briefly considered restarting again. I went to explore the starting area, and it turned out to be decent: a dwelling, a hidden stash of archers and creatures, and a lot of crypts. I cleared three crypts, resulting in horses and griffins in the citadel, and I claimed both hidden stashes.
121 - I checked the dwelling; it was level 3-4... still too early.
123 - 5 horses break through all the defenses; the monks started to demoralize, and one of them was killed.
124 - Necropolis; we spend the night in a crypt; a dwelling is visible.
126 - I bought a book and, after checking the dwelling, obtained 2 angels the next day; I immediately headed back home (forgetting about the Castle; it's better to maintain the tempo and save money for purchases).
131 - 3 more angels; scouting the area shows that the opponent is nearby.
132 - I upgraded the creatures (almost a hundred) and rushed forward, but I received a message that the opponent had surrendered. Thank you for the game.
That's how it was. The initial distribution seemed decent, with 23 lizards, but the starting area was quite poor, and I only found one hidden stash of gnolls. At the exit of the starting area, there was a horde of ogres, but I didn't have enough money for wyverns... I defeated them, losing all the health of my second hero and almost all of the gnolls, but not a single lizard. I captured the Necropolis, and it seemed like everything was going well, but I recklessly attacked a horde of troglodytes with Tazar and only lizards, and lost 19 out of 23 in the first week. Therefore, the result of the first week was 1-4 in the citadel, and I lost the tempo. In the second week, with a weak army, I successfully conducted several battles against strong units, but in the third week, I lost to a nearly all-psychic elementals army with an upgraded stack, breaking through the passage to the treasury, where I saw two Hives. I surrendered. Overall, I played poorly (an unforgivable mistake - the stupid loss of 19 lizards in the first week), but after losing the lizards in the first week, I enjoyed several battles in the second week with a very weak army, without wyverns.
Thank you for the game.
