Slayer of the Summoner

By the way, regarding how easy it is to play against the AI... I banned myself from using Diplomats and Necromancers with their resurrection ability and necromancy itself (when I was running around with 3000 skeletons after 3 months), then I forbade you from using resurrection at all; I just didn't use it because it was already too easy. In the editor, I set up settings, removed unnecessary spells in castles, disabled useless secondary skills and heroes for the AI, disabled useless artifacts, gave the enemy all good basic skills.... basically, I went through a lot of trouble :)

Yes, you have clearly outgrown single-player mode. And your skill level as a player has plateaued.

Also, another factor that is important to me is that I can always interrupt at ANY time and step away, but waiting 2-3 minutes per turn...waiting for someone...putting them under pressure because they might call me at any time except at night...so, I guess I'll try online sometime :)

2 minutes per turn is definitely short, and you won't be able to show high-quality gameplay, but there is an opportunity to play quickly. Here, you need to make a choice between speed and quality, and how much time you are willing to spend on the game. Also, by the way, if you urgently need to leave, you can save the game and then finish it later. You can agree on 4-6 turns, but you will need a little more time for the game due to battles; time doesn't pass in those. Yes, by the way, 160% speeds up the game

I was also interested in templates; I need to install one myself, because often the standard template teleports with artifacts, and there is no balance.

The problem isn't really with the template, but with the random map generator. Balance, hehe, is a relative thing. You can practice on this Large map with Dungeon. This is a legendary "cm". (download it into the DATA folder and rename it to rmg.txt) Template for 2 players. Or this No less legendary 8mm6a. 8 players, Huge size, with Dungeon (generated with AI), monsters everywhere are strong, no water. There is also a lot of useful information located here

And regarding hiring heroes...taking ones with specializations like Mysticism...Eagle Eye...or something similar that is useless...it somehow feels offensive and I don't want to...or am I wrong?

Why torture yourself like that? It's nonsense (if we're talking about main heroes). And if you need to collect resources, what difference does it make? (On the contrary, there is even a book; they can fight with weaklings.)