I restarted to a dubious layout: at the respawn there were several stat-boosting structures 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 second passage was quite long. A major problem turned out to be that due to the block, there was no access to ore, and hardly any gold was placed. As a result, scouting with 5 heroes showed nothing good except the Shield. On day 113 I broke into one of the portals - saw 20+ Archers on the other side and behind them another similar block, so I turned my army the other way; meanwhile, scouting showed nothing useful. On day 114, I reached the next zone via the other path, and the guard was beatable - 20+ Water Elementals, but behind them a block of 20+ Evil Eyes. In the end I turned to go fight the Archers. On day 115 I broke through the blocks, found some stone - finally built Medusas. At the same time, I saw Luna and Tamika on the opponent's side, but the enemy had fewer than 5 heroes for a long time, which was encouraging. On day 116 I captured a neutral town - Necropolis. I saw that my opponent also captured a neutral town - his native Castle. However, the very next turn, the neutral town recaptured the Castle from my opponent. I ended the week by building Manticores in the Citadel and preparing my heroes so that one small army could clear the neutral respawn, while Gunnar would split off to the town and use the Manticores to recapture the Shield.
On day 121 I defeated Gunnar, but I overestimated my capabilities and couldn't even come close to breaking through 60 Air Elementals. During the entire second week, I cleared the large Necropolis respawn, found a Dragon Utopia and 3 Griffin Conservatories: 2 of levels 3-4 and one of 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, with Gunnar at stats 6 6 2 3 and Expert Armorer, I entered a level 3-4 conservatory with an army of 1 Angel, 3 Manticores, 10 Medusas, 26 Evil Eyes, and 56 Troglodytes. The conservatory turned out to be level 3, but I couldn't take it. I surrendered.
Thank you for the game.