I restarted into a dubious setup: at the respawn there were several stat-boosters and 1 external dwelling of Troglodytes. Near the Castle there was an immediate fork, but one passage was blocked by 50+ Air Elementals — guarding a +3 +3 Shield and a medallion, and the other passage was quite long. A big problem was that due to the block there was no access to ore, and very little gold was placed. In the end, scouting with 5 heroes showed nothing good except the Shield. On day 113 I broke into one of the portals — on the other side I saw 20+ Archers and behind them another similar block; I turned the army the other way, while scouting showed nothing useful. On day 114 I reached the next zone through the other path, and the guard was beatable — 20+ Water Elementals, but behind them was a block of 20+ Eyes. In the end, I turned around to go fight the Archers. On day 115 I broke through the blocks, found some stone — finally built Medusas. Alongside all this, I saw the enemy had Luna and Tamika, but for a long time the enemy had fewer than 5 heroes, which was encouraging. On day 116 I took a neutral town — Necropolis. I saw that the opponent also took a neutral town — their native Castle. However, on the very next turn, the neutral town recaptured the opponent's Castle. I ended the week by building Manticores in the Citadel, preparing my heroes so that one small army could clear the neutral's respawn, while Gunnar was split to the town and would take the Shield with the Manticores.
On day 121 I defeated Gunnar, but I overestimated my capabilities and couldn't even come close to breaking 60+ Air Elementals. Throughout the second week, I cleared the big Necropolis respawn, found a Dragon Utopia and 3 Griffin Conservatories: 2 were level 3-4 and one was level 1. I waited for growth to start taking the Conservatories. Meanwhile, the opponent showed Tamika's stats around 5 5 3 3, which gave at least some hope.
On day 131 I took the level 1 Conservatory, on day 132 I entered the level 3-4 Conservatory with Gunnar at stats 6 6 2 3 and Expert Armor, with an army of 1 Angel, 3 Manticores, 10 Medusas, 26 Eyes, 56 Troglodytes. The Conservatory turned out to be a level 3, but I couldn't capture it. I surrendered.
Thanks for the game.