One for all and all for one 5

I chose the computer opponents: Conflux, Tower, and Rampart.
We started playing without resets, even though I saw Mephala and Gundula in the opponent's tavern. I decided to play anyway – an external dwelling of cats and a Dragon Utopia right near the castle, decent money. The only thing was, no other decent heroes except for the Miner were offered in the tavern on the first week. And the computers turned out to be very far away – the native respawn turned out to be reeeeally big.
By the second week, it became clear where I could try to dig for the Grail, but the center was on a mountain, and in the end, I was excavating the near side, which turned out to be incorrect. On the third week, Gunnar showed up in the tavern; I started leveling him just in case, which turned out to be very farsighted :).
On day 132, I took the first Dragon Utopia, but like many subsequent ones, there was nothing useful there except money. The Pandora's Box revealed the whole map, and a crazy scroll for Dimension Door was a nice touch, because magic in Tower was developing terribly.
Then, on day 136, the opponent emerged from the darkness through the central GO and took my main hero along with all the unrecruited troops – and I was only buying cats and Troglodytes :(.
My army was small: 18 Manticores, 4 Angels, and about 20 Wyverns. His was clearly larger. I started actively leveling Gunnar; after all, I needed to build up army and stats quickly. Luckily, I had a place to buy Air and Earth magic and found the second pair of Boots.
The opponent was superior in parameters, about one and a half times. Then, after a series of castle exchanges, the Miner didn't manage to Teleport out of the danger zone. I had to leave him on a Phoenix with an Armageddon spell, hoping he could escape if need be, but at the cost of his life, he revealed that Vova had prepared both the Necklace of Swiftness and the Spellbinder's Hat.
And he was immediately recruited by the opponent in the tavern!
Later, this "sleeper agent" played an important role in the match.
The first final battle happened between the Miner :) and Gunnar on day 214.
Approximately equal stats, both had Angelic Alliance and Spellbinder's Hat, but Gunnar had the Elixir of Life and Armor of the Damned with Bow of the Sharpshooter and Golden Bow (I was already leveling the hero with the final battle in the Hat in mind). 54 Wyverns against 65 upgraded Wyverns, 7 Angels against the opponent's 4 (strangely, he never built Angels), 4 Phoenixes, 5 upgraded Nagas (why did I take them?), 40+ Lizardmen, and 24 Air Elementals against 70 Medusas, 30 Evil Eyes, 30 Lizardmen, and 20+ Crusaders. Overall, even though my three main stacks missed turns, the Elixir and Armor, along with the partly endless arrows, decided the outcome of the battle, which I emerged from with 8 Wyverns and 9 Lizardmen.
Gundula was still left, but only I had the Angelic Alliance now, and despite the opponent's stat advantage, the advantage was clearly mine from then on.
The next final battle, 4 days later, was already a formality.
Thank you for the game; I haven't had such a game and such impressions in about 15 years.
A first-round game.