In the original, it's easy to complete, but with the adapted EWA 2.2.2 mod, it's extremely difficult due to the strong neutral units.
What are the specific difficulties on this map?
Out of curiosity, I installed EWA 2.2, launched the hard version of "Gantritor" on "hero" difficulty, followed the difficult path, and by day 6, Samarkand is under our control (a less hardcore path leads east towards Ashgabat). :smile03: