Best of HeroesWorld - final of the strongest (autumn 2009)

Wlk777 (Blue, Swamp, Vistan, Vistan) def Mizrael (Red, Castle, Cathleen, Arlach) Panic 132
Continuous non-stop luck. First of all, playing as Blue is all pluses – the best initiative, easier with rests, mana replenishment when staying overnight in a castle during an opponent's attack, no issues with redraw, maybe I forgot something =). We started without rests. I'll say right away that I made many small and not-so-small mistakes in the game; the opponent says he did too. Roads are fast, respawn is decent. Got 22 Lizards total, but they are built. Left hero has a tent, another has a ballista, 3 Flies on the second native hero, which allowed me to upgrade Lizards on day 111. On day 112, a crypt with 5 Vampires, an external dwelling of Lizards is revealed. Scout heroes scattered looking for money. I break through 19 Ogre guards for a passage to the neighboring spawn, there are stables and a teleport guarded by a horde of Magogs, who knows how many, I don't dare attack. Mistake #1 – didn't find the wood mine within 1.5 days' march from the capital until day 114, resulting in a lost building, had to build 1000 instead of Cows :(. Got Log. I was heading to a secondary necro village, but on day 115 I had to turn back to take the external dwelling of Lizards (the short path to it was behind 100+ Centaurs with a large stack) and end the week closer to the stables. I reveal another external dwelling of Lizards deep in the respawn, guarded by a horde of large Devils; tempo seemed sufficient, but on day 117 I got greedy and one hero from the chain coveted a crypt (even though Hydras were already being built in the Citadel), plus the crypt was max, and I only had 28 large Lizards, 2 Wyverns, and 4 Flies. Things got heated, but it was Mephala with Leadership, and in the first round both Wyverns and Lizards lucked out, unreal luck, I got out with a loss of 2 Flies, BUT as a result, I fell a couple of hexes short of reaching the second external dwelling of Lizards :((( . End of week 1-7 without Cows in the Citadel. On day 121 I speed up, take the secondary necro village, buy a book there. Then on day 122, after breaking through the Magogs from the teleport, Arlach appears; oh-oh, with a speed boost he could reach the almost empty capital, and half the troops there haven't been recruited yet (2 Hydras, 10 Master Greys, etc.). But I got lucky, Arlach fled after killing a scout hero. Then again luck – I take a crypt with 5 Vampires and a Pandora's Box with 5000 gold guarded by 40+ Griffins, buy almost everyone except the Gnolls, upgrade Master Greys, and head for the opponent. Another mistake – forgot to replenish mana, and didn't bring 9 Lizards from the external dwelling; in short, I rushed, should have waited a day. But I went for the opponent – he's sitting with all his might in a village, and it's not visible how many of what; eh, if I'd known there were only 14 Champions I'd have attacked boldly, considering the lack of a fort. But I didn't dare, the opponent attacked himself. Stats for attack and defense were roughly equal; the opponent had 50 Archers and quite a lot of mana, about 60. My troops – 55 large Lizards, 2 Hydras, 5 Wyverns, 10 large Master Greys, 4+4+1 large Flies. Opponent's troops – 5 Champions, about 100 Halberdiers, 9 Swordsmen, 9 Griffins, single Halberdiers. The battle went in the right direction; Lizards gradually shot everyone down, losing 5-6 per round to the ballista and Archers; the shield melted along with the opponent's attacking army. Near the end of the battle, there was a disconnect (my fault); we restored the position, after that I got lucky – lucky strikes and petrifications from Master Greys occurred (though this was all happening before the disconnect too). The opponent fled with 1 Swordsman with 2 HP =), I had 20+ Lizards and 1 Master Grey left. I bring up another 9 large Lizards, 20+ large Gnolls, pick up single flies from scout heroes, replenish mana, and attack Arlach again, who appeared with various junk like Zombies and Skeletons; Arlach flees again, killing many of my Lizards with Archers :(. I already have 5 castles (took 3 of the opponent's secondary ones), Mikhail has 1. I hire Vistan in the nearest secondary. The week ended; at the start of the next week, I hire what I can and what I can afford (3 Wyverns, 30+ Lizards, 6 Master Greys, a Hydra, and a few Flies) – Arlach attacks with the Castle's weekly growth (3 Champions, etc.). I lose many Lizards to Archers (8 left) and buy myself out with a nearly dead Hydra, also killing a fair amount of the opponent's troops. I hire Vistan in the nearest secondary and chase Arlach home with 4 single Griffins; right then, with the Hydra and small fry, I kill Adela in a secondary with all the remaining gang (4-5 Swordsmen, 30+ Halberdiers, etc.). The game is postponed; in the morning, a surrender follows. Post-mortem revealed the opponent's absolutely hopeless position – he has NO troops at all on day 133 (my Hydra is unrivaled here), his income is much lower than mine, he can't leave his own respawn, and in 4 days I can gather plenty of meat from the villages and attack with 100% chance of victory. After the game, the opponent complained that he had to play at night and made mistakes because of it; I apologize, of course, but with all due respect to him, he agreed to play himself; I don't see any fault in that, plus it was also night for me, and I was getting sleepy too. But still, I was very lucky with the draw and during the game. Thank you for the game.
P.S. I really liked the template.