Havr(Order) def Shnurov(Life) 1-0
Sprites, nagas, a few mages(went only as an addition to golems and nagas, about 90 in total), halflings, dwarves, a tactician, and a Mage Guild with Hypnotize. My opponent had angels, monks, ballistas, squires with peasants, and a tactician with a Life Mage Guild priest, the tactician wearing a robe. After the oil from the sprites, the opponent's priest removed it for some reason. This freed up my hypnotist's hands. Hypnotizing the angels, who then killed the priest, decided everything.
Havr(Nature) def Shnurov(Chaos) 2-0
Nature came up a couple of times in a row, and a reasonable one at that, with only 6 stacks of troops, meaning I only had to drop one. Decent for Nature. First matchup, against Death, Shnurov restarted. I had a Chaos book there. And in the second matchup, I blundered - I bought a Chaos mage... But in this matchup I actually needed a priest - the Academy had sledges. Oh well, lost a bit of gold, turned the Chaos mage into a tactician, bought a Ranger for the priest. Excellent artifact rolls: rings of permanence, speed, health, warlord's(worth 2K), a cloak with 70 resistance. Troops were wolves, leprechauns, satyrs, unicorns, and phoenixes. My opponent had a Chaos mage, a tactician with Expert Nature, 3 magi, efreet, medusas, and thieves with orcs. I immediately sent the phoenixes flying and removed immunity from the tactician, blocking his retreat into the corner. And then I went into sledges. The opponent couldn't remove the tactician in a way that prevented my phoenixes from reaching him on the 2nd turn. Game over.
Havr(Life) def Shnurov(Order) 3-0
I had a tactician and a priest with sledges. I raised resistance for both, to Master for the priest, to Advanced for the tactician. Plus the priest was already a Paladin, and the tactician got a cuirass against Death. Overall, excellent protection against the mages' poison. My troops were angels, crusaders, ballistas, squires, peasants. My opponent decided to experiment. His troops: titans, nagas, mages, and halflings. But the heroes were more interesting - two Mages Guilds, Life and Order. Both were leveled up in tactics, one for tactics, the other for leadership. The match was long, as both of us fled into sledges. But essentially, I trapped the opponent with my troops, and all of mine hung around his heroes, while only his titans were around mine. Plus my troops had more initiative, and from a raw power perspective, Life troops are more interesting.
Thanks to the opponent for the games!
I couldn't put up any resistance. The lineups weren't the worst each time, but something happened to my mindset. The Nature restart happened on my side, for example, even when I had a robe. I couldn't level up the way I wanted.
In short, a well-deserved victory, we await the grand final :)
Added after 3 hours 40 minutes
Watched the grand final. Fabulous.
Standing ovation to both