Deep Mike (red, swamp, Tazar) def Arch Stanton (blue, Barbarian, Tyraxor, Crag Hack), Balance, 1-3-6, third game
The generation was heavily in my favor, I just had to avoid making any rough mistakes. On the second day, I already took both my native town and a secondary in the grass. At home: 2 Griffin Conservatories and 2 at the secondary. At the secondary: a hut with free logistics training. Money was a bit tight, but with resource trading I built the first hydra without cows in the castle. At the start of the second week, again using resource trading, I bought 2 hydras, took the minimal Griffin Conservatory and the maximal dwarf dwelling. The next Griffin Conservatory turned out to be big, I didn't go for it; first I bought Tazar a spellbook at the secondary, fortunately I already had expert Earth, though spell power was only 1. When I returned to the big Griffin Conservatory, I had to slow each round using all my mana — there was a tier 3 with an upgraded stack. After that, I gave the army to scout heroes to take another dwarf dwelling in the corner and yet another secondary, while Tazar went on foot to the well at home and took a level-up point along the way. At the secondary, a scout hero captured gloves and an artifact +1+1 to magic. By the end of the week, I returned the army home where Tazar, having restored mana, took another tier 3 Griffin Conservatory, so by the end of the second week I had 7 angels. I went for the last Griffin Conservatory in the swamp wilds, took it on 1-3-2 with Tazar — also tier 3, so I gathered 10 angels. With Tazar, I broke into a secondary to restore mana and head to the center, where blue flashed once, and with a scout hero I took a Naga bank yielding 6 Nagas each. Closer to the end of the week, I reached the opponent; ballistics, which had been forced into my skills alongside the mostly useless Archery, came in handy. I also lacked the Attack skill, but I had 10 angels, 5 hydras, 7 Wyverns (I gradually lost 3 in sloppy fights and neutral morale), plus wasps, cows, and 40 archers. Crag was holed up in the castle; he had no angels and barely missed upgrading his bears — he said literally 1 day wasn't enough. Besides 5 bears and 13 thunderbirds, he had about 70 wolves and 170 goblins with expert Armorer, Attack, Earth, Air, and Tactics. Parameters were roughly equal. Against Crag with a shield and Stone Skin equipped, problems arose — the towers hit hard, but ballistics was very useful; in a positional fight with rare angel sorties after the walls fell, I killed Crag. The opponent overall showed good play, but after exchanging wins based on the setup, the decisive game was the 2nd one, where he messed up with the draw and restarts. 2-1.