We bickered. I got Dungeon, picked default Shakti. Average start. I scout the overview, there are passages to grass, to the underground, and to rocks. The closest path was to go for Barbarian, plus I had Hound in the army. There I found an external dwelling of birds, took the town, in the underground I could see Inferno-ground, decided not to go there for now. Running to the grass was too far — I gave up on it. I focused on gathering gold. By the end of the week, birds in the citadel and a portal of summoning. One bird died at 116 while taking a medusa dwelling with 40 units. That was too many petrifications.
In both towns I built town halls. Initially I decided to go for a standard T2 push, with casters and spellbreakers, but then I remembered this isn't Warcraft and returned to Heroes. I upgraded the birds, broke into the underground treasure zone, there I saw 2 relics and a cons with a hundred monks. I freed a prisoner from jail behind a horde of storm elementals. I passed the troops back along the chain, climbed onto the Inferno respawn, and fired 2 quest artifacts. At 125 I was about to take the hives and the cons when my opponent left.
Thanks for the game.