It’s not always possible to take the lead, and getting the right spells at the right time is also difficult. I usually get Utopia with Kaspar around the middle of the second week, thanks to the vampires (by that time, there’s definitely no Phoenix yet). And I even thought that was quite fast until I played against this opponent. I’ll try Zoltan; maybe he’ll help in some way. By the way, I always upgrade defense with evasion, but it doesn’t seem to help much: his units move 2-3 times, while mine only move once. There will be a game in the evening; I’ll write back later.