Reports on online games and their confirmations (Winter 2009 season).

KostyaN (red, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) def Kash (blue, Castle, Valya, Valya), 2sm4d(3), 137.

We played for fun without blacklist, using the towns we picked right away (kind of like favorites:)).

After all the resets, the generation turned out to be uncommonly lousy: 10 Elves total, no external dwellings in sight, a path to the opponent's respawn spotted immediately - behind a stack of Medusa Queens and to top it all off a sawmill in the deep... hmm.. "rear" of the respawn:D ; but: a Dwarf Cottage next to the castle, a couple of tasty artifacts visible behind weak guards, and besides, I still had 113.

Right on 113 I jump into the dwarves' hut - thinking if they beat me up badly, I can still take a restart))) - turned out to be 15*5 at the cost of one white Elf (due to morale from that dinged-up left top one:) ), all the foreign backup, a couple of my own dwarves, and a few Centaurs. Ended up with 9 pointy-ears and about 35 horse-men - decided it was decent enough to continue, I had cash to burn, plus I got Earth:cool:. Over the next 2 days I grab the gloves from the 3-headed doggies and the necklace +1 speed from the devils, and thanks to the faithful Pegasi I become if not Schumacher then definitely speedy Gonzalez:D. The scout hero breaks through a weak blockade on one of the roads, and there - what a letdown - GO:( . That's it, I realized I was pinned in my own respawn until at least week 2 - the descent into the subway was no cakewalk either (for 20-49 cyclops). Ended up building standard for me: City Hall in the Citadel and +1000. The main hero went strolling through the "grass near home".

On the second week I kept effectively probing my native lands: a medallion for morale, another Dwarf Cottage identical to the first, a +2/2 sword, finally found one external dwelling - dwarves (not a respawn, but some kind of dwarf nursery - I swear:smile21: ). Only reached the sawmill on 124 (the whole start of the week in the wood column was sadly marked "4" - that bodes ill, I thought:smile35: ), but no matter - it worked out. I spotted a Pandora's Box guarded by free Griffins numbering even fewer than a minimum Griffin Conservatory guard, but I was afraid it might give level 1 magic, and Ivor - such a slacker - never bothered to learn to read, for which I took his army away and made him flee shamefully from some pot-bellied nuisance - let him hit the ABC book instead of wandering:smile42:. In short, by Sunday my "first-grader" was granted an audience with the Medusa Queens on the passage, but didn't pay them proper respect, just mindlessly shot those damned imperialists, and those I didn't shoot - I crushed with silver tracks of red Pegasi:smile14: ! But I never made it to the nest of the decaying negro regime:mad:. At home, only the Castle and dwarves were added.

On 131, Necropolis is mine. Then another Dwarf Cottage (20 per stack), a passage to a sandy area - which turned out to be a treasure zone. There's a +2/2 cloak and a max-level Imp dwelling behind a hundred iron golems. Not sure why - a Ruins external dwelling, where I left 12 Centaurs due to morale (the main thing is I never bought them back until the end of the week:D ). I scouted a Dragon Utopia and a couple of Pandora's Boxes, but mana was tight, decided not to touch them for now. I descended into the local subway and ran to the Coliseum, which I planned to visit on 141, but then Vitya reported a loss in the Naga Bank and conceded. I was doing perfectly fine, so honestly he had little chance of recovering. Easily took down the dragons with the Capitol and +2000 in the secondary town; my main hero had Expert Earth, Archery, and Logistics, Advanced Attack and Wisdom, and Basic Defense (stats 7-13-6-4, before the first Dragon Utopia:D).

Thanks for the game, Vityok!