The first stage of the tournament "named after Van Kanigem"

Well, you couldn't get the boat close enough to the Warlock's gates back then. But you did land, albeit not on the swamp, but above the Warlock's Fortress.

That's exactly where I landed. If I had landed at the gates, I would have captured a couple more artifacts from the Barbarian to increase the Sorceress's skills. But seeing that I couldn't reach the Barbarian Castle in one turn, I had to take out the Cyclops near the portal. And I used a very nice chest for experience! :)

And I landed right near the gates of his Fortress. The turn ended. The next turn began, and I killed everyone.

That's fantastic!!! 8-o

Yes! :) And I've already explained why I was so lucky. First, the Warlock's Fortress already had a magic portal. I had accumulated minerals to build a fourth-level magic building, considering that the computer built a Tower up to level 3 (and that's what I had). And I used this in the Barbarian Fortress.

And I had to scrape together building materials, hire Tajiks, and manually build a Tower at the Warlock's. :)

Plus, a Sorceress with three knowledge points and good speed, as she is bought with only Fairies, escaped to my territory beforehand. So, after capturing the Warlock, I bought this Sorceress there.

And my Sorceress also spent some time in her native village, attended a party, went mushroom picking and chest hunting, then pretended to be the coolest pirate and made her way to the enemy on her own!

The Walkthrough is limited by the speed of wood accumulation in this game :) I made the landing near my sawmill, but I didn't take the boots :(

And I took the boots, and the sawmill, and Kazan, and I took the wood from the Dwarves near the gem mine (I also took it). :)
So, I had enough wood for a couple more ships and a small raft.
And the Walkthrough was limited by the availability of beer and my wife. :) As soon as the beer ran out or my wife started nagging, the Walkthrough was quickly backed up and postponed. :)