Дегустация Horn of the Abyss

6-8 is WT quantities, while in HotA the quantities are SOD-like - 4-6.

Well, that's essentially what I wrote about.

Added after 44 minutes

That's +20 Troglodytes. A bit much ...

OK, agreed, +20 is a lot, let it be 23-33 Troglodytes in a stack (this is not trolling), is +12 too much or too little? What determines this criterion?

- Dungeon is held in place while the others move forward, apparently such is the party policy, and this despite the fact that it shouldn't be a top-5 castle. Dungeon's whole gimmick was (is and will be) in the Troglodyte stack (which was killed in WT by making Lora the main starter, with Harpies that don't get return shots + have the option to block shooter stacks and deal damage - again, simplification of the game, but this is a tangent and not relevant to the matter, I'm just giving an example, don't throw cookies at me), which by itself is very weak in the late game (slow ground units with average speed, a stack that is hard to replenish, etc.) helped shape the early game, and on the second, third, etc. weeks a completely different game began, without the involvement of Trogs (with exceptions of course, and I've had games with 500+ Trogs). This is the feature I'm trying to defend. Let me give an example, in SOD there can be 170+ Trogs, in HotA never; in SOD there can be 44 Trogs from the start, in HotA never. Reduced variance, you'll say; removed a piece of gameplay, I'll say. All problems would be solved by increasing the Troglodyte stack, at least to the standard SOD levels.
I'll repeat the question: why doesn't Conflux then get 2-4 Air Elementals, at least on Monere or Pasice.

In my humble opinion, you're being disingenuous about whether the castles described in previous posts were strengthened or weakened.
About the Swamp: there are more new objects, yes, I don't argue; is it unpleasant to drag them across the land? Yes, I won't argue; and when was it pleasant to drag non-native meat across Swamp land? And how does increasing the Gnolls help with this? At the start you have your native army, which makes the game in the first week. Or does increasing the Gnolls make the army move faster through the Swamp in week 3, when it's already truly more diverse?
And about Conflux, we had 4 apple pies, 1 was taken away, in return they gave three cherry pies, yeeeah... need to think and figure out if this is a plus or not.
I'll say nothing about Necro, here indeed the markers are just different, diametrically opposite views and approaches to the issue.

About playtime.
I played about 10 +-1 games, totaling about 50 replays of 111. Not many, but not critically few either. Dungeon has become weaker - for me it's obvious (as for someone who has played more games for Dungeon than for all others combined, and this considering my until recently heavy gaming schedule - in other words, a lot). And the difference is there for me; this isn't being held in place, this is being sunk in the swamp.