
That's exactly what happened. I entered the map for the first time, looked at the garrison, and decided to buy an army. While I was getting the army, Brand appeared.
New here? I'm Roha — want a quick tour?

Hmm, is the entire territory cleared before reaching the castles? Maybe it's better not to rush into battle as quickly as possible, but to accumulate creatures first? Every month, caravans arrive, increasing the number of creatures. Although it will be more difficult later, it's still worth considering.
As an option... It will minimize the damage from Chaos.
It's worth a try. Ganking, as I understand it, is not a good option. It doesn't work at all against Chaos creatures.
The Imp cauldron is there, but I can't upgrade it. It was the same in the original campaign – in the 2nd mission for Zehir. Duncan and Frida capture a Castle. There were only alternative upgrades, and it wasn't possible to upgrade peasants into Cutthroats, only through a Fort. I could buy Cutthroats just like here.
So, I'm wondering – is this because of some mod, or is it supposed to be this way?
Added after 4 minutes
A two-way portal takes the hero to the other side of the Castle, i.e., bypassing the garrison. But this path will also be open to the AI.
Sooner or later, he'll break through it anyway... you can try.
it's possible that some other map is having a negative impact. (but definitely not one of mine). Or it could be a bug in the game itself. When you downloaded the game, did it come with a lot of fan-made additional maps? (are there many maps in the Maps folder?)
Perhaps the problem lies within the game itself. It might be a not-so-good version. I can't really judge, as I've never encountered this before.
It doesn't matter anyway). I went through the passage first.
He will have problems with Wolfenstein; I can post a recording of the battle. But I only completed it on the second version. The first one was too difficult for me.)
I can't seem to beat it on Veteran difficulty in the first version((
maybe I should try the second one?):)
and what difficulty did you play on? Veteran? Hero?)
I'm playing on Veteran difficulty, but it was very challenging. You need to know some tricks.
Try playing as a Barbarian; if you succeed, you can aim for something even more challenging.