Final Battle - 12

Thanks for the game!

I didn't restart because I got a dungeon hero in prison and an easy mine, along with Jeddite and a medusa dwelling. On day 114, I entered the refugee camp and got 2 phoenixes, which helped me with the early game, but my map was quite empty. My only cons were minimal, and I didn't find much of an army in the underground treasure. I scouted 2 mines there, but I didn't have the power to take them because Jeddite didn't get earth magic, and the level 10 Fafner from prison didn't get expert scholar in 3 level-ups. So, as a result, I could only take mine 131 with earth elementals. The first mine gave +5 to all stats, and the second mine gave KZ. This was a big help because my guild didn't give any control, and my opponent was already coming for me with a death dragon after I cleared the middle treasure. By this time, I scouted 2 more mines and was going for them, but my opponent accidentally (I'm guessing) found these mines while looking for my main hero. However, my topmost hero was a scout and not Gunnar, so Ciele took one of the mines, and I took the other one with a red orb in it. I took back my towns and continued demon farming, now with Elixir because I found the last part in the snow treasure, where my opponent had already captured the village but left it undefended against my Ryland. I got a death dragon on the 7th build in the dungeon. Before that, I had a chance to attack Ciele with my Jeddite. I had a lot of army compared to her, but my stats were extremely low (2 18 vs 29 30), so after a while of thinking, I didn't attack. As my opponent started getting aggressive again and taking many of my towns, I didn't have a safe town left and had to prepare for the final battle. I took 3 mines and took back my fortress to upgrade the newly gained wyverns. I made a mistake by putting Jeddite with the phoenix outside the garrison, and my opponent punished me with shackles and a skeleton army. On day 211, I checked for new artifacts in the merchant and found the last component of AOTD. Now I thought I had decent chances to win with 3 supports and AOTD + a red orb. I expected Charna to attack me, but I forgot that I could develop my Tazar fully on the altar of sacrifice, who had offense, while Gunnar did not. So, for the final battle, my stats were way lower, and I had no offense. We both had the pendant of courage, so the battle was a luck fest. I lost my retaliation-stack monarchs against morale, but my big stack of monarchs got morale, so I could eliminate my opponent's 40 monarchs. Afterwards, I could slowly wear down the 25 angels. I think 8 were remaining with the 900 skeletons vs my 180 horned demons in the end. The angels could block the way for my demons, and the skeletons slowly gained on me. I didn't get any morale in the last part when it really mattered, and my demons died in 4 hits.
Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't forgotten to develop Tazar for the final battle, but I'm sure my opponent could have done a few things differently as well, so I will not theorize about such things. I played with mistakes, but I think that is normal in such a long game.
Good luck in the playoffs.