Wlk777 (blue, Castle, Barbarian) def. Forrest (red, Rampart, Barbarian) WT
First of all, it's great that Anatoly didn't leave the Heroes community, that's really good. And when he offered to play a game, I simply couldn't refuse =). We played like this, and I spent a long time thinking about what to choose: Air (I could have immediately gone for a rush strategy) or Water (after all, Bless and other spells are very useful). I chose Water, and I think I made the right decision. My army: Archmage, Bears, Champions, Ogres, Cruisers, Thunderbirds, and an incomplete stack of Cyclops. Water, Attack, Defense. His army: Bears, Gold Goblins, Unicorns, Dryads, Ogres, Spotted Hyenas, Thunderbirds, Earth, Offense, Defense. Both players have +2 speed. Since we both haven't played in a while, we made some mistakes in the early rounds. In the first round, I almost wasted my Thunderbirds (only 1 Gold Goblin was killed, and the retaliatory strike with the Archmage didn't work because of Blind). In the second round, Anatoly made a mistake and exposed his Bears to a double retaliatory strike from the Cruisers. After that, I struggled with Dispel and Healing against Mass Shield and Mass Slow, and my resistance didn't work very well... At first, it seemed that the almost +10 advantage in level 7 would give me the victory... But no, the battle was already turning against me, and only the Archmages, who resisted twice, allowed me to achieve a victory, albeit a hard-fought one (7 Ogres against 2, with neither player having mana or other troops left). But still, it was a pleasant victory over a very strong opponent. Thanks for the game.