I took 1 restart; on the second spawn I saw a decent number of chests and 4 roads + an external dwelling of Minotaurs for 20+ Eyes. There were a lot of nasty blocks, but I played on, hoping for a restart from my opponent, since theoretically there were few roads there. But he didn't restart and we played.
By the end of the first week I had built 1-5 in the Citadel + a portal with Minotaurs, Shakti with Earth magic, everything was quite decent, but money was tight.
On the second week I take a secondary Inferno hero, plan to take two more, build chains to them, but then blue flies into a neighboring secondary Castle via a portal that was supposed to lead to the treasure zone. Earth magic is not expert and I don't have nearly enough money to buy out all the Minotaurs, I hope he won't attack me, but just in case I retreat home.
The opponent locks me in the castle, there are 10+ Cavaliers and 20+ Champions, fighting in the field is suicide. He methodically kills my scout hero, while I skip turns with the main hero, full trade for the castle, and try to buy at least some fodder.

By the start of the third week I am without the external Minotaur dwelling, and reinforcements are delivered to him, I expect an assault, but for some reason the opponent drags his feet for several more days; each day I buy a little bit of fodder, build a Mage Guild with Moat, all of this just from the one scout hero collecting free resources on the secondary and trade.

In the end, the opponent attacks only on day 136. Ivor 3 6 6 3, but without a spell book:) There are 40+ Champions, 14 Cavaliers, my 6 Minotaurs from the external dwelling, 20+ Archers, and 20+ Pikemen from the secondary Castle.

I'm sitting in the Castle: 17 Minotaurs, 25 Eyes, 130 Troglodytes, a few Harpies. Shakti 5 4 2 3, 60 mana, expert Attack, Tactics, advanced Earth. I thought I would lose, but his catapult was apparently defective)) It shot everything it could, but never breached the castle gate. In the end, when some kind of gap appeared in the wall, the opponent only had Castle Pikemen and 14 Cavaliers left, which quickly crumbled against the Troglodytes and Minotaurs.

The game was clearly a losing one — there turned out to be external dwellings of Cavaliers and Elves plus piles of money — but I got lucky that my opponent didn't attack immediately on day 131 with the growth, and then his catapult just completely messed up :rolleyes:

Thanks for the game!)