Shackles of War prevented me from messing with you!!!
Confirmed. A very painful defeat. I spawned at the top. On turn 115, I took the secondary Barbarian town. On turn 116, I attack a Gnome hut with 69 Troglodytes, 3 Pit Fiends, 10 Evil Eyes — 30 of them, they give 7500. End of week 1: 1-6 in Stronghold, 5 heroes. My opponent's native secondary taken on turn 144. He took another Inferno secondary in the metro, cleared an external dwelling of upgraded Elves behind a hundred Elves with a Pandora's Box giving XP, and an external Minotaur dwelling with a witch. He ran to the treasure zone on the third hoping for reinforcements after taking a Medusa dwelling with the same witch — 12 Beasts and 4 Medusas. And here was the first mistake: in the Medusa dwelling, I either overlooked it or misread it — it turned out
Moderated: PROFANITY in message
to be 10 of them with an upgraded stack. Lost the witch with the army. No money. Still took one Tree there for 4 Dwarves and cleared 2 Necromancer external Dragon dwellings, and got 15000 gold behind a herd of Unicorns. On the 4th, I see in the same treasure zone Kiril running out, and the witch had scouted a bunch of Dwarf stacks there, but I stole 2 more there, then crashed into another treasure zone and started gathering Dwarves there. Looked for Armageddon, didn't find it. Cracked a Dragon Utopia there, got the Tome of Air, cleared a Sphere of Air behind a hundred Sharpshooters in the same place. Calculated, ran up to the swamp treasure zone, and Kiril was after me with decent meat. Took another Dragon Utopia there and a couple of Dwarf stacks. During all this time, I had to give up the capital and the Inferno secondary. I couldn't attack — Kiril had too much meat. In the end, a Chain Lightning for 1000 damage and a Thunderbolt for 680 suppressed. And here was the fatal mistake: instead of doubling my mana with 18 knowledge, I decided to attack with 30 mana, hoping to soften them up, and buy myself out if necessary. I thought there was a Dragon Utopia up there in the swamp treasure zone that I hadn't had time to uncover on the map. Shakti's stats were higher: 47 Wyverns, 38 Evil Eyes, 24 Medusas, 28 Beasts, 15 non-upgraded Cats, 12 upgraded Efreeti against Kyrre's 62 Grand Elves, 22 non-upgraded Dwarves, 313 Centaurs, 40 Dwarves, 18 Genies, 40 Pegasi. Shakti had Expert Earth and Air. Kyrre had Water. I throw Chain Lightning — no Grand Elves, others get nicked. In response, I get Mass Bless; Kyrre has a Cloak +2 speed, everyone forward. Then he casts Berserk on the Beasts standing next to the Dwarves. I fly thanks to the Efreeti's speed. Well, then the Centaurs with resurrection do their thing in the end. And he had 70 mana. And that's how I give away my victory thanks to the wonderful artifact, the Shackles of War. Thank you for the most interesting game, sir but4er!
