CIS-13 in Minsk – it’s winter!!!

Why get yourself into a mess and then start rambling about things you don't understand?

You do this constantly, everyone is used to it :) After you talked about the weakness of the Barbarians (especially in comparison to the Tower), your competence was called into question.

I suggest justifying the imbalance of the Castles with an example.

Swamp and Necromancer are significantly ahead, there's a roughly equal middle group, and Tower is weak. The only thing that somehow balances the strength of the Castles is trade. But this isn't balance, it's nonsense. You could also add trade to SOD and it would be balanced :D

It's obvious that on XL maps, War of the Chosen is stronger, better, and more skillfully designed. Everything else is just empty talk.

Heroes isn't just XL. And saying it's skillfully designed is an exaggeration. It would be more accurate to say: it's better than in SOD, but still far from ideal.

Added 12 minutes ago

I won't write like the previous guru, speaking on behalf of everyone, but IMO - what repels me from SOD:

I'm only writing my IMO. I don't care what anyone plays, considering I don't play.

The inability to rebuild the Guildhall on large maps.

Yes.

There's no chess timer.

Yes, but it's a matter of time.

There's no quick combat.

It already exists.

Earth magic dominates. If you have it, you're in a good position; if not, you might have big problems.

In War of the Chosen, magic isn't really needed. Except for the final battle. And even then, Water will do, taken with 2 Damage Dealers. Water is the strongest magic for the final battle, and with Damage Dealers, it's a must-have.

Necromancy (IMO - it's just a boring grind of neutrals - it's anti-heroes).

It's a matter of taste. Many people enjoy not having to deal with skeletons. In War of the Chosen, it's Demonology.

Cheat artifact - red orb (which ruins the intrigue in 70% of final battles). Cheat artifacts - cloak and medal.

Medal - yes! Orb and cloak, probably yes, but it's debatable.

Cheat artifact - boots that give 600 mana points.

It's not that important.

Logistics units walking across half the map with a full set of artifacts at level 20+.

Brogkhild with Explorer says hello. A level 20 Logistics unit gives +600 mana, just like Explorer. Only Logistics has Logistics as a bonus, while in War of the Chosen, it's 4000 mana and a specialty bonus. They add the necessary skills and are on horseback (like Earth in SOD).

I won't deliberately write about the advantages of War of the Chosen that were created specifically for this version (such as mirror templates).

Mirror templates are cool. But for some reason, people don't like them, and they like Jebus :)