The most annoying thing is spending 2 days hunting down enemy hero scouts.

In my case, all three of my last attempts went like this:
Day 1 - Landing
Day 1 - Capturing the main castle and immediately capturing all the others (in the final version, I was 2 squares short of capturing the barbarian castle).
Day 1 - Eliminating the messengers.

By the way, if you don't clear your quarter for resources, the computer will refuse to build the 5th level of the guild.

Oh, I didn't know that! That explains why it refused to finish building the tower. I usually mine the nearest sulfur at the very end.
Just a small correction: in the first game, I think the maximum is 4 levels. Back then, they didn't know how to build skyscrapers yet. :)

Regarding the duel with Phoenixes.

We started playing with two players, but ended up with 3. VDV is now one of us too! :)

It all depends on your second player and their result. I did poorly, but I didn't have much time.

Who was first, and who was second? And why does it depend on the second player? Doesn't it depend on the first player?