As the map author, I am always glad that there are people who spend time describing their playthrough and the bugs they found. I always welcome that.
This balance, which almost ALWAYS writers of walkthroughs for custom maps forget about: <smile51:

It's nice when the author defends their creation.
Thank you for the comments, but I will still try to answer a bit.

1. I believe that I am writing objectively, with a touch of subjectivity.
2. AI cheating is very rare, but it happens, so it is not a fact that it will happen to everyone and often, it may be due to the game version, or something else unknown, it's like with life on Mars - science doesn't know for sure.
3. Regarding the heroes: on such a linear map, I used one hero (there is no need for more), I would use 1 hero even without Necropolis, but with them, I just had to click the button more...
Yes, it's an interesting move, but I think (IMHO) (yes, here I'm purely subjectively thinking) that closing off the space would be logical if we had enemies that run around it, i.e., additional difficulty for the player when interacting with the AI - not seeing what the AI is doing, where and when it will attack, and then also give these cities to the AI so that the AI itself does not have any interference, otherwise it is just extra interference for the game, again, some will find it interesting, some will not like it (everyone has different tastes and preferences).
4. I would like to write more detailed and separately about the balance.
Why was it decided that we, "writers," forget about the great and mighty balance, that we don't consider it???
Balance is always associated with the internal balance of the game, the playthrough of the map, but not with the skill level of the player...
Regarding "beastly grin": we are given books, but most of the spells cannot be cast in that battle, as I think, regardless of the skill level, there will be significantly fewer losses if you free the hero on the 1st day, and then transfer the troops (a strike force of dragons (can be divided into two stacks) and then only defensive units or slightly more than 1), magic is not really needed there.
I'm not sure that there will be fewer losses with magic, on the contrary, the losses will be much greater...
If the city was separate with a guard, and neutral creatures with books were separate in front of it, then it would be something more interesting, it would be some kind of quest with some kind of idea...

Thank you for responding, and still, be more tolerant of criticism of your own creations.