Voting: “Best Chronicle of 2008” Contest

One of the most unpredictable and interesting games I've ever played. I started the first day by taking the maximum crypt with Ciele, having 47 fairies, 3 air elementals, and 3 water elementals. Came out with 16 fairies, but at least I have money. The respawn is small, but there's a lot of gold. I break through to a secondary castle, there I reveal 2 beehives, take an external dwelling of archers, upgrade them, buy them out, and clear the respawn with Ciele, who is already wearing boots. Grindan tries to level Earth magic to break the guard of the beehives (g. unicorns and manticores). Took a bunch of crypts. The birds were definitely being built on week 1, BUT: I goofed and didn't notice that there were only 5 ore on 117, and I had already moved all my heroes, 15k gold. Cursing, I build psychics in the citadel. On the second week, Ciele gets Earth magic, learns Slow through a scholar from Grindan, and the mama is ready, just needs to level up. I break into the cave entrance — it turned out to be a treasure zone, a dead end, and I wandered off to refill mana (no point in fighting with no money, since at the start of week 2 I did build the birds and buy them out). While mama is walking to refill mana, scout heroes are chain-kiting for money. I wanted to take an external dwelling of monks and build them, but I see Crag breaking the guard of an adjacent secondary zone, which was right next to the ГО and less than a day's travel away. Urgently, through complex chains, splitting, and buyout, I take both beehives (6+4), but due to lack of time I messed up and couldn't transfer to the main. On the last second, I buy out in the secondary. I don't build the castle, saving money. But Crag stops not far from my castle and doesn't move further. Right then, with Ciele, I break through to the main, transfer, also taking a medusa dwelling with a scout for 30. Crag's stats are 14-2-2-2, Ciele's 2-3-5-120, I have Slow, but Earth is basic. By selling all resources down to zero, I build the castle and buy practically nothing from the week 3 growth. Crag has meat from two native castles plus 2 external dwellings of wyverns: 28 wyverns, 60 flies, and 70 basilisks. I have 5 birds, 26 Storm elementals, psychics, 10 wyverns, and minor troops. I almost wanted to surrender, but Crag is afraid to attack the castle. So I sat in the castle for a whole week, meanwhile killing each other's scouts. Crag stood near the castle the whole time in thought, looking at me and shaking his axe menacingly. I even offered Scorp to accept my victory, but still wanted to wait for the outcome and see how I'd get killed. On day 141, having bought birds, psychics, water elementals, fire elementals, and a few Storms, I run around Crag and sprint at full speed along the road to where the Dragon Utopia was (and I'm thinking: how can a mage with zero stats take it). Afraid that Crag would catch up (and he would have if he wanted to), I give the troops to pre-placed scouts. I keep one bird for myself, to be able to buy back if needed and buy out in a secondary. Meanwhile, the scouts earn a bit of money; a zero-stat Necromancer hero takes a Shield +6 for 50 monks (lost one bird :(). Next turn, Ciele breaks through 70 Ice elementals guarding the Black Market, I buy an Axe +2 there. Crag moved towards me. I break the guard of the Dragon Utopia — 90 Ice elementals, crossed myself, and dove in. Stats roughly 6-9, 8 birds, 12 psychics, 30 water elementals, 17 fire elementals, 10 wyverns, 40 pokemons, and one fairy. Turned out to be a three-stack :smile07:. Well, I thought, that's it, game over. In short, I came out of it with 1 wyvern, 4 birds, and 11 psychics. Advanced Shield and Expert Healing helped. It gave +3 all stats, +4 all stats, and the Book of Fire!!! I immediately buy an Axe +3 and Armor +1 all stats on the market. Crag falls just short of reaching my secondary. On my turn, I run into it, transfer artifacts, and wait for the attack (blue color rules, because mana will refill). Too bad I didn't screenshot the finale: it was just hilarious considering the difference in meat.
FF: Ciele 15-10-14-320 mana (how many times has Intelligence saved me), 4 birds, 11 psychics, 35 fairies, 13 Storms, 72 g. archers, 5 air elementals, and 1 wyvern :). Crag 14-2-5-20 mana, 100 basilisks, 9 g. cows, 107 gnolls, 30+30+30 flies, and 44 wyverns.
Crag on Tactics, all forward. Hoping for no Cure, I cast Berserk on the wyverns, but on the flies' turn they dispel it. Then everything piles onto my poor troops so hard the walls crack at the seams. Scorp's mistake was not killing my birds immediately. After the attack, I have a few archers left, 11 psychics, and 4 Phoenix on wait. The birds, after waiting, fly to the basilisks and kill a quarter of them. In the second round, I Blind the wyverns and hit the basilisks with birds, one bird dies from their retaliation. The wyverns are dispelled again, the basilisks flee, no one reaches the birds. In the third round, I cast Armageddon and 30 wyverns and 2 basilisks remain. The birds kill the basilisks, and I position myself so the wyverns can't reach them after Haste (which Crag had at basic). Crag casts Haste and moves to the center of the field. In the 4th round, I Blind the wyverns, then Slow, then summon 3 stacks of fire elementals (28 each), which I place around the birds in case of morale on the ducks. Later, Scorp told me I messed up by casting Armageddon after that, because I could have just killed the wyverns with the fire elementals using Blind. But I thought about it myself and abandoned that plan because I was afraid of running out of mana, and also killing 30 wyverns manually with fire elementals isn't easy. Plus I was hoping Crag wouldn't have enough gold to buy back 20 wyverns. In short, Crag buys back, and I go on the offensive towards my native castle with three birds, since the end of the week is approaching. Along the way, I meet a mage with 7 Earth elementals, who don't care about Armageddon. But I kill 4 of them with Inferno, and the remaining 3 with birds. After that, Crag himself attacks with 20 wyverns, 7 Earth elementals, 7 fire elementals, a few cows, and something else. Ciele still has the same 3 hardy Fire birds. First thing I do is Armageddon :), then Berserk on the wyverns, who kill the Earth elementals. The wyverns on Haste do manage to take down one bird. But in the next round, I Blind the wyverns, the birds with a morale swing kill the fire elementals, and finally Armageddon again :smile49:
Thanks for the most interesting game! Haven't had this much adrenaline in a long time!


Looked at the saves, haven't seen such a funny game in a long time. Probably because the events of the summer cup with Alex passed me by. So, a brief retelling from the red player's perspective.

The start is good, an external dwelling of wyverns, a beehive, and 3 Griffin Conservatories on the respawn. As usual, we kill the native neutral (Rampart), gather money, do some scouting.

Day 122, Broghild level 6 without a spell book and without checking dives into a throne Griffin Conservatory with 15 wyverns, 30 gnolls, and 25 lizardmen. Of course, only the last losers check throne Griffin Conservatories (even if there are 2 not particularly needed scouts nearby), while real dads know that a throne is exactly 100 creatures. However, a three-stack was also manageable, though with significant losses — I tested it, 7 wyverns survived. And on the same turn, the guy dives into a lotto+throne Griffin Conservatory, also without checking and without a spell book. I think everyone has already guessed what size it was :).

The neutral, meanwhile, took back its castle; there is a chain for troop transfer to finish it off, but why bother, because real dads know that there must be a conservatory under the lift, so Broghild breaks the lift guard, goes down, takes the conservatory, and comes back up.

A one-way portal leads to the center, so we visit the native village, find 2 Dragon Utopias, a couple of conservatories, beehives, bracers, but we only manage to take the utopias — because while watching the turn, we see Valya on the border of the visible zone took a utopia and galloped into the darkness. So Brogh broke into the castle, and the troops were just a bit short of arriving.

Day 135, on her turn, Valya jumps over a rock and attacks the guy with an army. Mass Slow and only 2 angels and 10 wyverns buy back. What bad luck... today is not a backhand day ...

However, hardships build character, and real dads only welcome obstacles on the path to victory. Brogh fishes an army out of the tavern and flies on wings over the rocks... straight to the village, near which stand a utopia and a beehive. Takes them, goes down into the underground, another utopia by the road, and camps there for the night.

Day 143, and then... a brilliant insight dawned on the little wrinkled mind of the lizard, he gives away the troops, breaks back into the village, flies to another entrance on rough terrain, and runs straight through the rocks into the darkness. And... runs right up to Edric, who is standing near a utopia and ready to receive troops next turn to take it. The latter, upon seeing the miracle, found no strength to continue with military affairs and departed for the lands of eternal idleness.

The utopia, of course, went to Brogh. But it's only in Russia that you go for the second one; over in their Tataria, the lizards are so tough that the second one is always next to the first, and you have to go for the third. Had to walk a couple of screens to the side. Result: 4 components of the Alliance.

And then Brogh, just like a criminal returning to the crime scene, returned to the place of the brutal murder of Edric. And who cares that it's in Valya's line of sight, real dads know she has no Fire, no Portal, no Scout, so you can mess around with trifles. Returned to enter the teleporter and, a couple of screens diagonally from the exit, discover a utopia — just with the Book of Water for expert Water magic. Along the way, not even glancing at a conservatory, who needs those min values :).

And then the action started... Valya, also with 2 DDs and expert scouting, jumps in Brogh's footsteps, taking freshly captured castles and villages. This continues throughout the 5th week, and in the end, having lost all bases but having caught the missing shoes for the Alliance in one of the utopias, Brogh from the center of the map jumps in a straight line towards the last neutral village. At the start of the 6th week, he takes it, buys scouts, and in 3 days collects all the goodies — clusters of beehives, conservatories, utopias, and stat boosters. One can only wonder why he didn't come here earlier.

Day 226, all the work is done, and through the lift, which I only spotted after a few minutes of searching even with the map revealed, Brogh emerges on the surface, packed to the gills. And no wonder, having smashed 15 utopias in total, and countless conservatories and beehives. And he sits down in Rampart.

Day 227, Valya, for the first time in the last month of the game, carelessly removed the red orb. Brogh shot off and with Implosion on 3 shooters proved that she shouldn't have done that. Basically, GG.

I recommend everyone who wants to enjoy a quality game by real dads to watch the saves of this game, and understand that although above Alex there are only stars, you can climb even higher than the stars.



A map very poor in experience. A meager amount of monsters and territory in general. So on this map, whoever has the stronger race, most likely wins. There's no talking about any kind of skill. True, there is a market and a fort on the hill, but that's just a silver lining... In short, the model is close to chess, although in a distorted form. And now directly about the game itself.

Our town was located to the east of the humanoid settlement. The fact that two states couldn't coexist on such a tiny territory was clear from the start. But the less disciplined and less prepared barbarians clearly didn't have the advantage. However, we had something else. Fury, anger, thirst for supremacy. Hot as flame and fast as wind, our young commanders dreamed in their sleep of the burning cities of the humans. But how to beat those professional killers, soldiers with a capital S?
But one day, unexpectedly, a solution to this problem was found.
- We are the HORDE, they themselves gave us this name, - said the clan elder. - So there must be so many of us that it's impossible to count. One of the wisest (and can you imagine the wisest among barbarians) of our shamans saw something like this in his sphere of destiny... A MONUMENT TO THE GODS OF WAR.
- What kind of crap is that, - roared the half-drunk ogres and goblins, - what other monument, we don't have a monument.
- No one knows where it is. But the legend says: "the one who erects such a monument on the central square of the town will be invincible on the battlefield, and even if he is defeated, his kin will come to replace him."
- And what's the use of that for us. We're not going to build anything...
- Shut up, all of you... we will dig, DIG, you got that, you freaks?
In short, everyone went to dig, and they dug, so to speak, from the fence until lunchtime. And this activity was starting to bore our valiant soldiers. And talks began, like, let's pressure the elder, let him dig himself. Then one young warrior, having stumbled upon a strange monolith in the mountains, dug up a small chest at its base, which contained a fragment of a map, but very old and incomprehensible. The wisest of the wise almost solved the mystery of this magical map, but then said that this piece was not enough to solve the riddle (some scholar he was).
Now everyone rushed to look for the same ancient structures that were on the mountain.
But there was one general in our army, lucky him, who decided that revealing the secret of the ancient manuscript would be harder than everyone thought. He decided to form an army and go marauding through the lands of men.
- Here is the crystal of Egress, - Gurnisson's father blessed his son on the long journey. - If things get really tough, just break it and it will save you (for some reason among the northerners it wasn't considered shameful to flee the battlefield). But only once, a broken Egress has no magical properties.
The path to the Men lay through an underground tunnel. Various types often hung out there looking for all sorts of things. Whatever floats your boat. And so our hero, somehow or other, once stumbled upon the camp of some mage from Crimea. He promised, for a certain number of rare reagents, to give the barbarian two creatures of the Fire element, of heavenly beauty. That's how Gurnisson exchanged four thousand gold and some mercury oil for two Phoenixes. What a sight — tame Firebirds! Beautiful!
In short, the son of the Horde walked and walked through the lands of the little people, when suddenly a beautiful obelisk appeared on his path. A marble column sparkled and shimmered with millions of shades. It was a completely different ancient monument, not like the one in our village. And such peace enveloped the commander that he didn't even notice the enemy army. And the loyal warriors were already carrying a chest dug up from under the column described above. Seeing how his valiant officers were being cut down like lambs, Gurnisson decided to flee, but, remembering the crystal, without thinking long, he cracked the little stone against another stone. And a fog rose, and a whirlwind swirled, and the whirlwind lifted the remains of our hero's army into the air...

— Where am I? Who's there?
— He's alive, alive...

— Father, just imagine, such...
— This is the great Egress, my son!

A council was gathered of everyone who could come. Seven pieces of the map, all columns dug up. The wise men are in shock — what to do with all this. They decided to wait for a sign from the gods.
— I have a chest here, — a confident voice came from the hall, — there's a piece of the map and a little bag of powder.
In short, they laid out the map fragments on the table (somehow, of course), sprinkled them with the powder, and just as the shaman was about to cast a spell, the pieces suddenly stuck together and a golden cross lit up in the very center.

A week later, they dragged the monument to the town. They installed it on the main square and started waiting... for something. Nothing happened, except that the town started to grow, expand, there were more and more inhabitants, the people began to get rich. A month later, having gathered a multi-million army of little green guys, Gurnisson moved to the western lands.
— Here is your crystal, young man, — the elder came out to meet the hero, — every general receives such a stone upon coming of age.
— I came of age four years ago!
— And that's what I'm saying — you came of age, take it.

Apparently the winds can spread news, or someone else... but the men were ready for war. And although they were twice as few, they didn't let them capture their town. Some kind of cart in a chain mail burst out, like a stormy river stream from behind the walls of the capital, and smashed the multi-thousand army.
Again the little stone came in handy. Again, Gurnisson was welcomed at home like a hero. Again they gave him a million warriors and into battle once more... But this time, there was no crystal of Egress. The northern tribes only gave one per person. True, the men couldn't breed so fast, so this time Gurnisson simply broke the town's walls and burst in, like the Whirlwind of Egress himself, and destroyed the human race on this land. And the orcs and goblins, ogres and monsters began to live in peace and harmony. True, bloody massacres sometimes happened, but they always ended in wild orgies, so the barbarian race only multiplied and prospered. THE END!
PS: The tactical and technical specifications can be seen in Sage's report.



Took both restarts (though if I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have stuck with the first generation).. So, the third restart, impatiently waiting for the blue flask to fill up and HERE IT IS!!! it was something — Shakti starts with 43 troglodytes and a small underground... And it would all be fine (I'd play normally!), but one day's travel from the castle is an external dwelling of dragons . I felt like banging my head against the wall , because I had no idea how to beat it... No money either, so I decide to play a completely new tactic for me: g. harpies, of which, thanks to a hero who arrived as a specialist in harpies, I had as many as 18)))) so, buying creatures 1-4 in the castle (how funny)))) I go into a portal with 34 Earth elementals on one side and 19 Dendroid soldiers on the other — and right in the fight with the trees, due to their crazy morale, I lose half of my main harpy stack , I take a white secondary and clear up piles of gold and water mills for the scouts... By the end of the first week, with terrible effort, I built cats in the citadel. On day 121, I bought out almost everything (thankfully the white secondary gave a bit of money) — I was sorely tempted to take the dragon external dwelling, but the crowd of Pit Fiends guarding it was very off-putting, so I go to take the second secondary through a crowd of g. golems, a horde of lizardmen (there were as many as 80 of them!) and a crowd of orc archers... The secondary turns out to be a native one, which significantly boosted my morale, and Shakti rushes back home... On day 127, I decide it's now or never and attack the Pit Fiends — a nightmare 5-minute battle ends with the loss of all archers and 20 (out of 40) trogs. In total, for taking the dragon external dwelling, I have 5 cats and 20 trogs left, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, and after placing single units, I manage to take it, and take it so well that I didn't lose a single cat (!).. I think, lady luck is on my side!!! I set up a portal at home and there... Gremlins I set up a portal in the secondary — there's a dragon — but I have no more money!!! Frantically searching the castles for a market — there is none — I build it in the white secondary — I trade wood, there it is, 2500 but... the turn timer runs out . So, on day 131, I have 3 black dragons and Shakti (expert Logistics from the start of week 2, by the way) flies on wings to a dwarf dwelling and a nagabank, which slightly boosts the economy, buys meat at the castle, and goes to a trio of conservatories, where he loses all the meat, leaving 3 angels, 3 black dragons, and 7 cats, I clear the treasure zone entrance and run to take the last secondary, there's a Pandora's Box for 10k experience guarded by 40 Genies, gauntlets, and a min value conservatory (but no path to the castle!). And then, out of nowhere... Brissa pops up by the secondary with Phoenixes — and it's so far to run! In desperation, I run home, but thank god, having taken the secondary, Brissa rushed up into the treasure zone)) calming down a bit, I also go into the treasure zone and there I find the true treasure of this entire game: A LITTLE RED ORB guarded by 80 g. minotaurs, and with great difficulty, again losing all the meat, I take it. Then a few beehives with 20 wyverns, just a Shield +3+3 and a Zapped Hat of the 5th magic guarded by a horde of Efreeti. On day 147, after trading everything I can on the market, I finally build dragons in the castle and on day 211 have 8 of them.. I go to a second treasure zone, there's a Dragon Utopia with the Book of Air, and more beehives and Pandora's Boxes for experience. Suddenly, Brissa pops out of the nearby treasure zone and takes the Hat of the 5th magic . Shakti goes into the last portal and emerges next to a min value utopia — it gives a Chalice +6 all stats. Brissa enters my empty capital and waits... Shakti is not going to wait and attacks the castle on the fly. So, FB: Brissa all stats slightly >10, expert in all possible elements, army: 13 Phoenixes, 1 angel, 1 Magic Dragon, 60+ Storms, 60+ Ice elementals, 22 psychics, 15 wyverns. Shakti 20-24-??-?? expert Ballistics, Tactics, Offense, and Resistance. Speed (+3) and red orb army: 12 black dragons, 1 angel, 40+ eyes, 20+ medusas, 31 wyverns, and some other minor meat. Honestly, I thought I was going on a suicide attack, but it turned out I won, and quite easily. Thanks for the game! Had a great run-around.



From day 3, 7 heroes, horses in the citadel on week 1, two external dwellings of pikemen, one of archers. On week 2, I built angels, another external dwelling of pikemen, a couple of crypts, and a couple of nagabanks. Got Earth magic for Papa pretty early, so everything went smoothly. On week 3, a Dungeon secondary, Gunnar somewhere around level 15, on the third Pandora's Box gave 40 Marksmen — on day 135, I attack the ГО (a horde of nagas and a horde of mages), and on day 137 I take the capital and 2 secondaries. The entire 4th week was spent actively searching for a Dragon Utopia and clearing the treasure zone. On day 147, Shakti storms a secondary — Necropolis — with lower stats, I had a bit more troops, managed to win.
Thanks for the game and the lesson.
I also want to give extra respect to Paladin — we played all night, and towards morning I started messing around with my scouts a couple of times, unintentionally broke the rules, of course — the violations weren't game-deciding, but nevertheless — he could have "paused and complained". Paladin didn't play "by the book" and insisted that I write the report.