Jebus Cross - 4

Ugh.. it was all so close..
We picked all restarts, and I had to take 112, because there was a moon, but the respawn was poor; after scouting GO bleeks and efreets, I realized it was a hopeless idea.
I took another restart due to a block.
In the end, I got quite a trashy spawn: at respawn a Griffin Conservatory 1, a Dragon Fly Hive behind 19 archliches (it turned out to be a mini), I scouted two external Phoenix dwellings, one behind 10+ Wizards, the second behind a hundred magogs, an external dwelling with magogs kilometers from the castle, in a loop at the corner of the respawn (scouted via landscape with a scout hero). There are also two external dwellings of Psychic elementals — nothing to take them with (one was guarded by 10-19 nagas, the second I did take, but only after losing all my meat).
One of the roads was blocked by 40+ Ogre Shamans, behind a prison, a chain +4, resources, an obelisk; there was no question of breaking through on the first one.
On 117 I place birds, break through the liches — minus a bird, a mini Dragon Fly Hive, I take the Griffin Conservatory, give the army to Arlash (I was leveling him), 12 Wizards somehow managed to break through on autoresolve without losses, at the external dwelling they finish off the last bird, though the Angel survived.
Needless to say, the situation is terrible: GO has a hundred+ archliches, no tactics, no magic at all, Arlash is level 6..
I take the prison behind the ogres, and there is a sight for sore eyes: Gunnar level 5. At home I build a School of Magic, teach him Earth, behind a block I found another Dragon Fly Hive and it painted the second external bird dwelling, Gunnar at home also grabbed a Pandora's Box for 15k experience, getting Literacy and Armor. With an army of 12 ducks, 9 birds, 1 Angel and a Pit Fiend, I kill the liches — minus a Pit Fiend and 3 ducks. Next, 50 Cyclops Kings for a +4all shield and resources; I broke through surprisingly easily.
The opponent is already in the center with archs, retreats into the fog in the center, I follow the tracks, there's nothing else to catch; I've already fully accepted defeat, when a box in the sand appears on the path; the opponent left it behind 10-19 ghosts, it gave 15 Monarchs — that's a bit more cheerful, but the opponent runs to the central castle and sits there.. out of desperation I run there too (nowhere else to go), by army there are added upgraded hydras and regular ones, black bulls. Overall, bad times — I lose both by stats and by meat, but oh well, I didn't come all this way for nothing — I attack.
And the opponent has 0 mana.. well now, Gunnar has 44 mana, Oil + Shield + Stone Skin and a Lightning Bolt for 310 (I built GM2 at home). Battle stats are higher there, but not by much; by meat: 5 archs, 14 ducks, 15 black bulls, 4 chaos hydras, 3 regular hydras, also a couple of gnolls. I have 1 Angel, 9 birds, 2 water elementals, 2 faeries, 15 Monarchs, 3 Psychic elementals, 9 ducks. Mana ultimately wins the fight; it turned out the opponent built ducks in the castle instead of a GM, which decided the outcome of the game — with mana, Fūyr killed Gunnar easily and effortlessly, plus there was a KV involved besides all that.

Thanks for the game!