Shnurov_hl (Academy) lost Oxygen_hl (Necropolis) — Quiet World (Expert, 8 min), 212

If you use a rasp instead of a file, this map could be turned into something great. But more on that in a bit.

From the very start, I decided to turn all chests into money to get devils as quickly as possible. I ignored my second home castle to take an orc hatchery, graveyard, eye lair, dwarf mine, and venom dwelling down below. This certainly provided a huge amount of money (which is actually what allowed me to get devils on day 6), but I overlooked the gloves held by the secondary guard. Monsieur Shnurov, however, took them on the second day. As a result, he gained a significant advantage in speed.

By the time my opponent had taken their third castle, I had only reached the second. I felt like I was falling behind miserably. I pulled myself together and started diligently running between castles.

During the game, I wondered which heroes to take into the army? For a long time, I couldn't find scouting; eventually, I found it in the military school below. My runner only started leveling up in the third week. He never actually became a "runner," but he became a seafarer (master); later I bought my own native runner (chaos) and raised him to grand master in a few days.

So, I definitely wanted an Order hero, but a runner would have been nice too. As it turned out, with open stealth and seafaring, you can't climb both of those trees. In the end, I initially planned for the finale: a tactician, a death mage, two order heroes, and a runner. But midway through the game, I wondered: what will I do against "sanks" (sand-walkers)? The following plan was born:
1. Create a fast Assassin with two speed crystals from the Dungeon. According to my calculations, he outruns devils under a tactician. The idea is that the assassin moves first, cancels the tactician, and the devils put him in the grave. All on the first turn, before the opponent recovers.
2. To prevent the devils from getting morale (otherwise they'll ruin everything by moving ahead of the assassin), we make a knight's move: take a chaos hero into the army. The morale of the assassin and devils is reset to zero, and we don't care about the Haven heroes. If the plan with the devils fails and the opponent has "sanks," order heroes won't save us.

Everything was going well; I started speeding up, all castles were taken by the third week, center mines captured, gold collected, and the grail placed in the castle (maybe I put it there on the fourth, I don't remember exactly). I went to clear the underground. Before the Dragon Utopia stood 25 KD and 23 venoms. I had to dump almost all my mana before I cleared them out. The Dragon Utopia itself was handled without problems by 6 devils with Vampiric Touch. Near the Dragon Utopia, I get a Seaman's Hut (jubilation), and inside the Dragon Utopia — Fizbin of Misfortune (pure ecstasy). From there, I steer out, pick up the devils, and run to the island without brakes.

I stop two steps from landing on the island; a squad of 6 beasts (all 2 levels higher than me) and 20 nagas pop out. And I have one grand master of order who only knows Mass slow, Blind, Berserk, and Mass Dispel; another master of order who knows all the same things but without Mass Slow; a tactician (who knows how to tremble in a corner); a runner (believe it or not, he can run — that's it); a swimmer (unoriginal, also only knows how to run); and a grand master of death who knows regular Cancellation, Terror, Sacrifice, Death Call, and other useless junk.

The first turn went like clockwork. Shnurov's tactician slammed face-first into the floor. But the opponent had no intention of surrendering. A teleport of 20 nagas followed into my rear (right to the tactician), and a battle of counts began. Shnurov tried to prevent my devils from moving, while in turn trying to strike with his "legs." I dreamed of doing everything the opposite way. Blinds, wasp swarms, berserks, hypnoses, terror, and so on were used. The parity was broken by Shnurov's nagas, cleansed by a crusader (the guy with maximum morale often moved last and cleansed everything, that little brat). My tactician and runner went to sleep together. Neither side had tacticians left. The battle ended when I managed to berserk the annoying crusader, who immediately rushed into hand-to-hand combat with the devils, which is why he died quickly. Then I killed the last order mage with the devils and put terror on the nagas.

The opponent retreated (and rightly so; they wouldn't have let him move anymore). But continuing the game seemed impossible since I sank both of his boats. Shnurov ended up trapped at the respawn. Which is very sad, as it would only have gotten more interesting from there.

Thanks for the game.

About the map:
1. Town Gate gives total control over the map. Here, it's not just a crowbar — it's a bucket of crowbars.
2. Fourth-tier skills are a roulette. Well, that's actually true for any map.
3. Instead of boats, it would be nice to have a shipyard. So that a good game doesn't cut off due to a shortage of ships.
4. Only one passage between players is still kind of bleak. It ends up like Iron.

Thanks everyone.