Yeah... and there are also mages with poison... that is, one mage poisons a whole group, and another, a fast unit, runs away from them... until the end of time... no, that's absurd.

Well, no one plays that way :) Mages are slow. That's why there are death knights who already have poison in their spellbook when you buy them. There are poison potions, there are artifacts like the poisoned arrow, and there's also the Serpent's Eye ring, or something like that. A hero with a certain combination of skills can gain the ability to make his weapon poisoned, and when he attacks or shoots, he poisons the enemy - then there are dizzying races for n hours, depending on the size of the poisoned group :) That's why Heroes 4 also has its own charm - there are many combinations for completing the game, many different tricks. And there are freezing potions, and ice demons, and many other things you can come up with :)

P.S. poor Alan, I don't envy him...

What's so scary about it? I wrote above what needs to be done. And if there are suspicious battles regarding the legitimacy of the playthrough or some other problem, we'll all figure it out together :) But let's not engage in sadomasochism and let's not break our keyboards and mice in these battles :)