Personally, I found that it's much harder to defeat Vlad than Koly. First, I explored the entire area, and you need to level up your creatures in the "Rael" Castle; from there, you can summon almost all the creatures from the upper left corner of the dungeon. In the second Castle, you don't necessarily need to build anything, although I personally had a lot of resources left at the end, so to avoid running back and forth, I built everything. I don't know if I was just lucky. Nicholas and Vlad didn't leave their island at all and didn't go through the portal. I calmly captured all the Necropolis Castles in the dungeon. I captured the first Castle on land, and on the way down, I captured all the artifacts using the Astral Gate. I exchanged them for Phoenixes and moved on! I exited to the surface through the portal (in the upper right corner of the dungeon - you can also jump across the river using the Astral Gate). The Phoenixes, exchanged for the red, well-developed companion from "Defense," emerged, and Vlad attacked me, giving me a good beating, wiping out half my army, including the archers. He had 4,000 archers, 52 dragons, 1,000 zombies, and 300-400 ghosts. I had about 35 Emeralds, 110 Ents, 120 horses, 200 Dancers (they were eliminated immediately), 400 archers, and 150 Druids. I didn't deploy the Phoenixes during the battle with Vlad on the battlefield. All the troops were supplied by additional heroes; Fedya ran around and killed everything himself. I didn't level up the Necropolis creatures or use their troops. After Vlad, I captured a Castle and spent a couple of days exploring the area - the arena, the dolmen of knowledge. And then Koly attacked me with 6,000 skeletons. He came directly at me, with his unpleasant green face and smoke of the same color surrounding him. I grabbed 500 Fairies (leveled up) from the red companion who arrived, and decided to fight back in the Castle - I had few troops left after Vlad. But, Elven luck and a rain of arrows at the very beginning did their job. Out of 6,000, there were immediately 4,000 left, and after a general speed boost (level up the Elves' Light Magic, level it up!), and a couple of volleys of archers, only about 500 skeletons remained alive. I didn't send anyone out of the Castle. Koly only attacked the Fairies, and after a couple of spells for all types of speed, stone skin, and retribution, I resurrected them. In general, the battle was funny. I lost 100 out of 500 Fairies and 12 Druids. Koly lost 32 dragons, 400 ghosts, 6,000 archers, 250 vampires, 40 liches (I didn't understand this at all - who takes such a ridiculous number to a decisive battle?). I defeated him in 5 minutes. I was even disappointed that it was all over so quickly.