Are you suggesting that the defense should be so strong that even an experienced player would have trouble getting out of the starting area? The maps that VDV posts for tournaments, especially those with surprises, are dynamic. In a long, tedious battle with a large but slow defense, we can quickly level up our hero using automatons. But according to your idea, we would have to build up and accumulate troops just to level up the hero so that he can get out of the starting area and acquire the appropriate magic. As a result, instead of one problem (tedious, long battles - but there's a solution with automatons), we'll get another (building up + accumulating troops for leveling up and acquiring skills and magic - but there's no way to speed that up).