Erdem (Blue, Swamp, Tazar, Tazar) def Hermit (Red, Castle, Orrin, Orrin), 2SM4d(3), 232

A complex and crooked swamp respawn, where I struggled so much, misled the opponent who had broken through the Guard Post. The opponent's only strategic mistake (choosing the wrong road) allowed me to sever Orrin's connection to home, seize the initiative, and win. Thanks to Vladimir for an interesting game! :)

I confirm. It turned out to be interesting and cool. It's worth describing in detail. I'll try as best as I remember. We started playing on medium roads, each with two secondary towns. On the first, I had to go slightly off-road to bypass the archers and gogs, but then I noticed the guard at the opponent's secondary respawn — a crowd of living dead. I broke through; Orrin was already level 5 on day 114. I sent a scout there. I broke through many demons to a secondary underground town — there were many monks below, and I continued; the passage to the second secondary town was guarded by eyes... I postponed everything until the second week. In the second week, I took the minimum Conservatory, both secondaries, two Naga huts, a Medusa hut and a Gnome mine at my home, and a Beehive at the underground one. One secondary was a Stronghold, the other a Dungeon. A scout in the opponent's respawn territory found a passage to the underground treasury, took the free loot, and was eventually killed by a mage with an arrow on a snake. The mage who killed my scout headed for my respawn, and I killed him at the passage as well. At the beginning of the third week, I took a Medusa hut at Erdem's secondary respawn, Beehives, and entered the treasury. I cleared it within a week. I took Beehives there, a shield +3 to attack and defense, a gold and crystal mine, chainmail +5 to CS, a Pandora's box with 15000 gold, thanks to which I was able to build both Angels and the Capitol, a clairvoyance charm, and a book of air. I left the treasury at the beginning of the fourth week and could have probably brought in many troops and locked Tazar in the treasury via the monolith, but rushes often failed and I already had Angels and the Capitol, and there was still an unclaimed Conservatory in the underground respawn. I probably shouldn't have skipped it. I went underground, took the Conservatory, again minimum, and entered the treasury. I cleared it: captured gold and mercury mines, a club +5, and a Pandora's box that gave 15 Wizards. There was nothing else there... I doubled my mana, went up, took the maximum Cyclops hut, upgraded the Angels, and headed for the opponent. Tazar's parameters grew significantly; in terms of CS and Knowledge, he far surpassed Orrin (there were 4 Utopias in the other two treasuries). To be honest, we played for a very long time and that's when my mistakes began. I saw two roads and the opponent's capital where Tazar was stationed, and by analogy with my own respawn, I took the road that should have led to his capital, while the second should have led to the secondary. But the path turned out to go around the city and even too far; I wondered when it would finally turn toward the city. Then the stone respawn of the opponent's second secondary appeared. Seeing that Orrin had gone completely to the stone respawn, the opponent apparently bought up the growth, and Tazar rushed toward my capital to upgrade his Angels... What to do?! Without growth, with such parameters, it's unlikely I could handle Tazar...
Orrin is resting in the opponent's Stronghold. Tazar is heading full speed toward my capital... Then I finally thought to hire a scout and see if there was a passage from my secondary Stronghold to another treasury, maybe there was something left. The scout reveals the view and I see a black treasury with an unclaimed Utopia, several untouched Pandora's boxes (but blue scouts are already running around there) and a passage to it from the side of my secondary; the second passage, by all appearances, should be from the opponent's secondary. I barely managed to move the growth, and the army with the scout broke through the passage from my secondary into the treasury, while Orrin rushed into it from the opponent's secondary respawn. Tazar, with flight and DD, captures my capital, upgrades Angels, and Grindan heads toward my Dungeon. And here I made a monstrous mistake (we had probably been playing for about 11 hours), which might have led to the defeat, as I overlooked my own Dungeon, gifting it to Grindan with a dragonfly and a snake... Tazar, using DD and flight, goes to capture my Stronghold. All my attempts to capture the opponent's Capital or some secondary with scouts failed, and when Tazar captured the Stronghold, I was left without cities. Right then, I leveled up Earth, which I got as an 8th skill, to the advanced level and took a Pandora's box for the full 4th level, but well, I had already missed my Dungeon... I managed to get to the Utopia before Tazar and took it; there I got a traveler's ring, red boots, wings, and a sentry's shield... Here I made another mistake and didn't attack Tazar while he was still without growth and perhaps with incomplete mana, and he retreated far to the side; I had 4 days left and hurried to recapture my secondary Stronghold. If not for the wings, perhaps an FB wouldn't have even been needed. Well, Tazar doubled his mana in the Dungeon, the opponent bought another growth of archangels and attacked poor Orrin who had approached the Stronghold. Since the opponent attacked first, I couldn't hide the shooters and they were immediately blocked. Despite the fact that the boots deflected the first explosion, the Wizards cast slow on everyone, and I killed 3 Archangels with a Meteor Shower and the dragonfly harassing the shooters failed to kill the remaining three, my entire army still couldn't do it. Tazar was level 21 with 27 defense. And after that came an explosion with 490 mana points, resurrection, 54 Wyverns and 10 Chaos Hydras, and resistance gave me no chance.

Thanks to Erdem for the game.