I haven't played Heroes since spring, so I was pretty clueless throughout the game.
In the beginning of the second week, I left my starting area and ventured into the snow. I spent about a week there, collecting knowledge dolmens, and realizing that there wasn't much good to be found, I went to another passage, which was on the other end of my starting area. There, like in almost all starting areas except for two where I had been, there was sand, which was a pleasant surprise. After wandering there for a week, I made my way to the center, captured a gold mine, and when I was running low on mana, I foolishly went back home for more magic, not realizing that I was only level 19. As I was heading back to the center, I heard rumors (or rather, Lok told me) that Marbas was level 25. After that, I thought the game was lost, but I started playing more relaxed and just enjoyed myself.
After clearing out the center a bit, I saw Marbas and ran back home (I could have just teleported...). He killed my sidekick, and I was a little happy because I was only 2 levels behind him now. :)
When I got home, I took all my army except for the genies, which I had just built and hadn't even upgraded yet, created mini-artifacts, and went after Marbas, but he teleported to his city. Well, nothing to do, I decided to spend another week leveling up and then go through the Gate of the Elements. I leveled up to level 27, sacrificed a bunch of artifacts, and teleported back home on the first day. There, I re-arranged the artifacts, giving almost all of them triple bonuses, and went to attack the Gate of the Elements. I cleared my guard without any problems, and on the next turn, I received a message from Lok saying that he had lost and was surrendering... It's a shame we didn't get to the final, I would have liked to see how it would have ended.
My hero: Razazak, level 28, 17-14-33-29-0-2
Mini-artifacts (3), all
Defense (3): Resilience, Stone Skin, Impregnable
Attack (3): Ballistics, Archery
Summoning (3): up to Fire Warriors
Light (3): Righteous Fury
Knowledge (3): Eagle Eye
Thanks for the game.