"Might vs. Magic"

Erdem (Red, Swamp, Tazar, Tazar) def Hermit (Blue, Necropolis, Aislin, Aislin) 2sm4d(3) 217

We started without restarts. I got a huge spawn with long, slow roads, but many caches; one road led to the Necropolis secondary town in the metro, the second far into the Guard Zone (crystals were 3 days' travel from the capital). While clearing the spawn, I broke into the underground via off-road; I thought it was a treasure zone, but it turned out to be the opponent's Inferno secondary spawn. I capture it with a scout and 2 hydras, while a second scout runs around with an angel and lizards. No exits to treasure zones are visible, except for the exit from the Necropolis secondary spawn, so I break through there. I only reached the utopia in the metro on week 4, which turned out to be a minimal one (gave the Orator's hat); nearby were a library and a level 4 chest (lucky that I boosted wisdom the day before). There is no slow-down anywhere (I never found it until the end of the game). At the end of the week, Aislin comes to visit from the underground through the Guard Zone (it takes 3 days to reach my castle), but Tazar is already prepared with full control. I attack on 211 (having bought only troops from caches) with an advantage in fighter stats, a necklace +1 to speed, and an army of 1 + 1 + 1 dragonflies, 1 + 32 wyvern monarchs, 30 mighty gorgons, 40 vasis. Aislin had nearly 200 skeletons (seems she lost them somewhere), 17 necro-horses, a pack of liches, a couple of wyverns, and some odds and ends. I cast expert earth defense, use dragonflies to remove retaliation, wyverns kill the skeletons, vasis kill 3 necro-horses. Aislin responds with Mass Slow, an explosion in round 2 (wipes 7 of my wyverns) and buys her way out. On 212, I bring up troops and go underground, but Aislin is already in the castle; attacking is dangerous as she might summon nearly a hundred erdamons and there's no money for buyout. A scout spots another Necropolis secondary town of the opponent and dies. On 213, Aislin tries to approach the Inferno secondary town; Tazar is already there via teleport, but doesn't quite reach it and spends the night there; Aislin TPs home. I jump to the stars in the snow treasure zone, take the golden bow, see the utopia, and plan to take it on the next turn. On 215, Aislin runs to the metro exit; on my turn on 216, I see she is accelerated on horses, TP to my Necropolis secondary town, refill mana at the well, DD to Aislin and attack (2 horses in each stack). Initially, I planned to kill everyone with Mass Haste, so I split the troops (16+17 wyvern monarchs, 18+19 gr. gorgons, 40+ gr. vasis, 20 dragonflies, 8 wyverns), but I see there isn't enough damage and the opponent might escape. I decide to risk it and cast Armageddon for 630 damage without resistance; I'm left with 15 wyvern monarchs, 19 gorgons, 30+ vasis (splitting the troops was a mistake). From Aislin, the earth book and its upgrades drop... The next day I take the opponent's capital by force, and surrender follows. Thanks to Vladimir for an interesting game! :)

I confirm. That's exactly how it was. We started without restarts, which was a big mistake, because the layout was something you wouldn't even dream of in a nightmare... From the start, 2 native heroes in the tavern, one of whom is Nagash, a Black Knight cache is revealed, there are suspicions of a native secondary town—looks like there are three in total. Since I hadn't played Necropolis in a long time, the joy of all this prevented me from assessing the poorest, empty underground spawn with powerful ranged blocks and guards. The guard of the knight cache is a horde of Orc Chieftains, and they block the passage to one of the secondary towns. There's nothing to be done; to break through anywhere, I have to attack the ranged blocks. And the nightmare began: the ranged units mercilessly slaughtered the skeletons and zombies. The roads are slow and very long. I barely reached the passage to the Inferno secondary town; my native one was behind many ogres. The passage guard consists of many water elementals, naturally with a gr. stack. Nothing was left of the army. By some miracle, I killed them and, at the Inferno spawn right by the city, I hit a horde of infernal troglodytes. Brissa also joined Aislin there, and with the last of her strength, broke through to the city and captured it... There, I had to build airstrips to get sulfur for liches behind the gogs; the long roads didn't allow Aislin to reach them in time, so I had to attack with a scout—and got wiped... In my grief, I even forgot to build the Stronghold. The result of the week—1, 2, 4, 5 in the fort. On the second week, at huge risk, I recovered 2 chests and took the dwarf mine 15. Built the Chegthog and hired two knights. Captured their cache, broke the passage up, and on 127 captured the native secondary town underground. No money, no development, roads are long and slow, and I'm playing a mage, meaning time is working against me. On the third, I took crypts, a medusa den in the grass, and a hive at the home town. Then I went to the treasure zone. There was a max hive, and suddenly I see the earth book behind a horde of magical elementals. I attacked them. The terrain didn't allow me to protect the liches. I made one very wrong move... Anti-morale was applied to the wyverns. Once, he didn't fly away at all because of it, and three full stacks hit both the knights and wyverns at once. I lost a lot in general, but took the book and a Pandora's box for 5000 experience, and then I made a very big mistake—I immediately teleported back to hit the Guard Zone and attack, while an earth sphere was lying right nearby. I could have noticed it with a scout if I had moved forward a bit. As a result, when I broke the Guard Zone, the explosion killed very few of Tazar's wyverns. No money. Lost a lot of time again going back to that treasure zone to take the sphere. Then I tried to fight Tazar with magic, but he turned out to have Armageddon and GG. True, he lost far more troops because of it, but the earth book with the sphere allowed him to capture my capital with magic, and I surrendered.

Thanks for the game.