Hive Leader

I don't know for sure, but in my opinion, even on the "hero" difficulty, the complex map is just the beginning – you have to run around very quickly, taking and capturing different castles one after another, constantly attacking neutrals and accumulating experience.
By the way, I noticed that the computer doesn't always bring its entire army with it – it leaves small garrisons in cities, which become easy prey (as do the blue heroes themselves at that moment). After about a month of game time, the forces more or less equalize, and after two months, you start to feel like d'Artagnan – you can wander around the map as if it were your own home and kick the butts of anyone whose face you don't like, and let the rest run away.
I've now played for almost three months – I've taken seven cities from the blue faction, reached the mentor, and took the last outpost and two cities with almost no losses. After taking the outpost, the blue hero sat in the cities and didn't even try to come out – it became boring.