The starting zone was quite disappointing, just a couple of chests and an external dwelling of birds, that's it. A bunch of one-way portals, a block from the Grand Elves' tray (which blocked the market and the teleport), the only road to the swamp; there were actually two native villages there, which helped a lot. Without them, even the external dwelling of birds would hardly have been taken. In the treasure zone, I revealed two Dragon Utopias and a "Kettle" (artifact).
Sacrificing birds, but bravely breaking through to new zones and earning back gold, after upgrading the birds I broke the Grand Elves at 117 and traded them for Bears at the Citadel.
Crag Hack leveled up perfectly, and even Learning didn't ruin the papal power-leveling: Earth, Log, Armor, Tactics — nothing else was needed.
By 124, I had collected 4 Dragon Fly Hives and a "Kettle" and destroyed two Dragon Utopias (both level-2). They dropped the Captain's winning hat, a bag of gold, +10 SP, +3 All Attributes — not amazing, but oh well, at least a ton of money. Using View Earth, I saw where the opponent was located, but there were no direct roads to him, so by jumping with horses through one-way portals, I found the right direction (killing two computers along the way), upgraded 33 Monks, then at the computer's Castle caught a not-so-impressive army on a horse — that was the end of it.

Thanks for the game!