I remember selling artifacts before. There was an English Alliance, with a capital of 52,600, and all the artifacts from the backpack (even scrolls) were sold at that price. 2 million gold was enough for me until the end of the game :D

And about the Hydra. One Hydra with a Rogue won't take a max-level Hive, only a pre-max one, and you can't tell them apart from the outside. Here. And it's not that difficult to take a Hive with a Hydra and all the creatures in the Swamp. Here, troops are taken from the Hive, but there, millions appear out of thin air. There is still a difference.... But I agree that Quick Battles should be banned altogether. People should fight, not bots.

We once played against Scorp, and I played as the Swamp faction for Tazar: 2 Throne Guard creatures with upgraded stats and a hidden Hydra. I only took the hidden Hydra in the early second week, so I approached the first Throne Guard with 3 Hydras and left it alone, and I didn't attack the second one with 4 on the grass either (Tazar wasn't at zero), because we agreed not to use Quick Battles. After the game, I started testing Quick Battles out of curiosity: 2 Hydras and 20 Gnolls with detached units could easily take them, losing only one Hydra: both the Tier 3 and max-level creatures, both in the Swamp and on the grass. After AlexSpl's analysis of Quick Battles, it's somewhat incorrect to consider it a feature. But any rule introduced should have a verification mechanism, and it's very difficult to verify Quick Battles.