The third “New Year’s” tournament for Heroes of Might and Magic II.

Interesting, how else did people manage to complete it? My experience was somewhat different. The beginning was very similar, except I built my Castle on the third day (I had to dismiss the pikemen and archers). I had to convert 4 starting chests into gold because I didn't have enough. But on the second week, I bought all the swordsmen, spearmen, and almost all the archers. Then, like Qwerty (I think, like everyone else), I went for the Boots. And then I went through the Nomads (bottom of the map) to the Barbarians. I captured the middle Castle. Then, on the first day of the third week, I captured the right Barbarian Castle. I could have done it earlier, but I had to spend a whole day resting near the swordsmen and spearmen upgrade building (one Barbarian stood right on it at the end of his turn). After capturing the second Barbarian Castle, I equipped my hero with wolves and orcs and went north through the Medusas and Grand Elves to collect chests. Immediately after the Grand Elves, I disbanded all my troops except for the wolves, picked up the Djinns, and headed north. After entering the swamp, I turned left and went to the center, along the way defeating the Dwarves, Orcs, and Gargoyles, and taking a village (which gave me more than 1000 experience). Then I went further left and slightly below. On the last turn, I barely managed to defeat a group of Pikemen (with 2 Djinns), took (I think) 2 chests, visited the gazebo, and on the last step, I reached the Hobbits. That's it. A subsequent analysis showed that I could have increased my experience by approximately 7,000. Some of the initial chests could have been taken for experience, plus an extra day, during which I had to clear out an entire grove, would have added a very productive turn at the end of the game. Here. Share your tactics, what did you do?