The Free Artist's Corner (for fan game reports)

I've decided to post this shameful game that happened about 5 days ago anyway. As a lesson to others, so to speak.

It's called: How I threw a winning position to LeBron, or Stupidity and Lack of Willpower.

LeBron (Tower, Iona, Grechkin) def KostyaN (Castle, Valya, Ivor/Valya), 131, Jebus Cross WT-supposedly full, but due to my blunder without experience and classes (and a bank with tax)...

Diman wanted to play Tower no matter what, I agreed, forcing (with difficulty!) the red color with a red-rush on him, which he never used - although he very well could have during the game. In the end, no one paid anyone.

After restarts I think I took 1: I spread out well with the 8th, grabbed a couple of crypts for 10 and 5, but fought in them rather poorly, ending up with 10 Pikemen (not counting Marksmen of course), and besides an External dwelling of Archers and a tree behind Monarchs, I noticed nothing else. LeBronych, it seems, managed without restarts. So off we went.

Day One. Seven heroes running around, among them the most capable - Ivor. Very decent surroundings explored content-wise: 2 Griffin Conservatories, 3 Trees (one convenient - near the road and behind simple Griffins), an external dwelling of Horses and Monks, several useful artifacts, a Library by the road, and a bunch of other stuff (like Boxes, Crypts, etc.). Taking a restart would be stupid.I'm looking at his now - in principle also quite good :smile08:, even though he has 5 heroes for now: 1 external dwelling each of Hoods and Giants, 2 Mages, a Griffin Conservatory by the road, and decent stat artifacts (among them a Potion for... 5-9 Bone Dragons:eek: ).

Day Two. Bought Vokial (now I have a Ballista and a War Machine from Orrin!). External dwelling of Griffins - there are 10 of them already, not bad. Level 4 papa with basic Water Magic. Another 2 Trees explored, one of which is along the road and behind Harpy Hags!:smile01: The only bad thing is that it's hard to scout the Guarded Object early because there's a block of Necro Horses for a Prison, an artifact, and resources. With LeBron it's already becoming clear that actually - it's so-so: the external dwelling of Giants with piles of junk turns out to be behind Red Cats, little gold; the Griffin Conservatory turned out to be a double, there are a few Boxes, but behind guards unpleasant for Tower like 20-49 Thunderbirds...

Day Three. Terrible tunnel vision, went to take the external dwelling of Horses with Ivor, the guard - easy peasy - Ogre Mages, but this walking experience in the amount of 40-odd clubs in 7 stacks gave me such [********], that forget it:smile48: ; they stubbornly refused to hit the Ballista and the Cart due to a stupid formation with Archers on top, not bottom, wiped out all the meatshields except for 4 Swordsmen and 1 Pikeman, I felt sorry for the 10 Griffins to death - there was no one to take into the Hives! and such a shock it was for me that I almost gave up on taking the dwelling and even took a couple of steps away with my main, but luckily I pulled myself together afterwards... Ivor is level 7 though. And the sixth Tree has already been scouted, behind some wood. With Dima, Grechkin picked up Archery, and Iona - Fire Magic, the Guarded Object is laughable - up to 50 Queens, there is the only Tree found so far behind Gorgons and a convenient secondary at the Guarded Object itself (well, my mega-layout must be compensated to him at least somehow!).

Day Four. Pulling my "willpower" into a fist:D I turn around and dive into the dwelling, dueling the Swordsmen - here a new smiley should be put - BIG-LOL!:smile40: - because the Quick kills these unfortunate 6 Horses in 2 hits!:rolleyes: Mood sharply rises, I start scheming some chains already... 7th and 8th Trees explored - that's a lot even for Jebus, though:cool: !

Day Five. Taking the Monk dwelling with Valya behind 30 White Griffins (she's level 5 with Air Magic and Tactics now), sending the scout hero to take the 1st Village, positioning Ivor before the 1st Hive. Gold on the eve of "Angel Day" is 13k, but the external market on the road under the Castle - warms the soul like good cognac:) . Looks like Dima's situation is improving: there are 2 more Griffin Conservatories (1 is also a double), as well as 1 more Gremlin dwelling, 2 Djinn dwellings and 2 Dragon Utopias (I have 1). But all this is 90% extremely inconveniently placed...

Day Six. Took the Tree with Ramp, bought a fat army there, blundered by leaving Vokial with artifacts and War Machines in the Castle (so I could transfer them:smile32:) - and realized it already during the battle:D . The 1st Tree is naturally a level 4 - how much free stuff can one get?!:smile09: The chain moves like a snail - at best, I just can't stand these slowpokes anymore:mad:; found an external dwelling of Archers far away.

Day Seven. Ivor, having opened the mini-Griffin Conservatory and the pre-mini-Hive, becomes corrupted with that damned Ballistics:smile29: :smile48:. Now all hope rests on little Valya and maybe even littler Charna level 3, but with Pathfinding (who got, as a result of maneuvers, 40 Halberdiers from a Crate)... "Daddy" runs to the Stables and the 2 Hives nearby in a corner of the respawn (there was a Dragon Utopia there too, but in the end I never got around to it:smile17: ). The scout hero eats a level 200 Imp dwelling. Dima, though, takes his level 7 dwelling:eek: (well done!), scouts a couple more simpler dwellings and a Hive in such thickets - that it's unthinkable to even consider dragging Wyverns through the snow from there, builds levels 1-4, 6-7 in the Citadel (I have 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 in mine).

Day Eight. Ivor slightly rehabilitates himself, catching Tactics at level 10, only reaches the Hive behind the wood, Wyverns become 14 - from 3 Trees:confused: . Valka is positioned so that tomorrow she can eat a Crate behind a horde of Marksmen and a Griffin Conservatory with a Tree behind a horde of Eyes in the deep grass. At home - Stables. The Guarded Object hasn't even been explored yet and it's unknown when this miracle will happen at all:mad: :smile48: Yeah, this is how noobs play:p . The opponent, however, continues to be blessed by RNG, breaks a double-Griffin Conservatory, splits his army into 3 (!) parts: 2 Angels, 5 Giants, and all the rest (including 170 Crusaders and 18 Monks) and catches up with Grechkin in level to Ivor-the-fool, although he was level 4-5 for a long time... Takes the Potion immediately, of course.

Day Nine. Ivor hits the Sharpshooters for the 4th Tree, the scout hero eats it (finally at level 8!:) ), and our corrupted Ranger makes unnecessary movements in front of the Dragon Utopia (in the head of noob-KostyaN, various idiotic dilemmas flash: to take/not to take etc. - as a result, due to natural cowardice, he decides not to take it, but to fight its guard with the main army, buy a spell book and GO towards the Guarded Object; after which it SUDDENLY turns out that along the road to the main army, if walking on foot, there is a hut with Logistics - explored 2 days ago:D - and it would be a sin for such a slowpoke not to acquire such a valuable skill - this all takes a significant chunk of the timer:smile33: ), as a result, the "main" hits these Silver Pegasi guarding the Dragon Utopia and starts moving on his own to get the book through the hut, meanwhile another noob-mistake occurs: I don't think to take the village next to the Dragon Utopia with the scouts (although in theory there weren't really enough moves for that maneuver...), and it's not only close to the Utopia, but it's also a Swamp (Monarchs, dammit:smile08: !); instead, Valya works well this day: gains experience for Marksmen, hits the Eyes, and manages to take a Griffin Conservatory for 2 Angels without having enough moves to reach the Hive (while getting Tactics and Defense!).

Day Ten."Daddy" keeps running. Valya too because there's no one else to fight, both near the Castle, and Charna takes a somewhat askew stack of Naga from a Grail, giving up a few Pikemen and 1 or even 2 Wyverns:o :(, 29 of them in the end (for some reason took Economics at level 5 - she could have been a helper, especially since she already caught Offense...). Everything is not slow, but very slow, I feel like spitting and surrendering every turn:mad:. I feel that I simply won't reach several Trees in time without losing tempo. LeBron, meanwhile, takes a weak Dragon Utopia (only a Helm of Mana useful) without losses, except for 3 Naga, builds Titans, sits in the village near the Guarded Object replenishing 110 mana - everything fits together nicely, although not very fast either:rolleyes: ...

Day Eleven. I make 5 Archangels (for the first time without a Dragon Utopia!), and run almost simultaneously with my two "parents" along the path to the Guarded Object, kill those Necro Horses, as well as some Efreeti for a Medal +3 Morale/Luck, and with the scout hero a horde of Witches for a Sword +3 (1st stats:) ) and a Sack of +750; found another (9th or 10th:smile11: !) Tree right there along the road; Valya gets Offense!:smile25: both are leveled up on Archangels - at least something positive:) ... Dima goes to the center with 3 Titans (didn't have enough gold for 2 more anyway) and sees that it's native for me - this probably makes him very happy:smile01: !

Day Twelve. I hit a Tree (minimal). Then I send both "big shots" through a paid +1 Defense guard along the road, and the question arises: who should hit the Guarded Object full of Titans (one of the most unpleasant on my memory:( ). From the Prison (behind those Necro Horses) I release Brissa level 10 with Mass Haste, advanced Earth Magic, and 50 mana, but completely useless in combat of course - so she's out immediately... In the end, I decide to act with the mama hero, since she has advanced Defense. I choose units for battle very stupidly (for some reason I was sure that without Marksmen - no way, better to have them than Archangels and Wyverns:smile04: - as a result, I end up with 33 of them after the battle, but the Archangels are alive, and exactly 30 Wyverns remain (I gave away 7 Monks - had to sacrifice someone...) - in short, taking Marksmen against Titans was some kind of fairy-tale stupidity!:smile33: . Then, in principle, I manage to scurry around the entrance to the center pretty well: with Ivor, 9 Archangels for a Black Sphere and a Prison with a level 10 Erdammon with Expert Logistics and Tactics, basic Offense and Pathfinding in exchange for a Ballista and junk; with Valya, a Tome of Earth Magic in the sands behind a horde of Dendroid Soldiers; and with Ivor again, Armor +10 and 25 Griffins for 40+ Champions, the latter immediately getting Earth Magic! Valya is level 14 with basic Wisdom, Ivor - level 12. LeBronych manages to take, it seems, only 1 more junk Dragon Utopia (with trash and duplicates), his Grechkin grows to level 15.

Day Thirteen. Contact happened! During Dima's turn, he kills 1 or 2 of my scout heroes with his scout hero with a bow on 7 Wolves; I meet him with Brissa with Butterflies and Pikemen, 1 Champion, then with her I capture the central, now red Castle, stand to guard it, and Valya (killed by that red bow-scout) is resurrected there and sent into the enemy rear somehow stupidly, seeing his papa hero there with Titans and 5-9 Angels (I also kill 1 or 2 on the way)... Ivor breaks all records of slowness, managing to take only 1 mini-Tree and a couple of majors (Bracers and +2 HP) for a stack of Naga, but the Sand does its dirty work, and my head isn't thinking straight due to the time pressure, and here comes contact:o . My two heroes in the rear spot 2 Dragon Utopias further down the path, and a few more tasty things - the plan is to devour this corner ideally in one day, if they don't "receive" me today...:rolleyes:

Day Fourteen. On 500 seconds, I miraculously manage to take with Erdammon first a Shield of the All for Hydras, then a Prison with Adele level 20 (Expert Wisdom, Diplomacy, Logistics, Tactics, Fire Magic, Intelligence with 160 mana!) and a max-Griffin Conservatory for 5 or 6 Rust Dragons, and give everything to the papa hero - now the only one, because I messed up with Valya, even though she retreated at night from one of the reds with Angels, but I ultimately forgot to resurrect her:smile35: . The Ranger took a Sword +6 and a Dragon Utopia, I think a level 2 (mediocre quality), for a group of Hydras, remaining for some reason with 3 stacks and Marksmen in the reserve:smile48: .

Day Fifteen. Day of shame:smile17: . I completely fell apart and didn't realize that I needed to recall my army in the 1st round from Grechkin (forgot about the Dragon Utopia I had already taken:D) and also fought at a C-minus level - with 20+ Wyverns already paid to "TP" home to the Tavern, but I wrote gg and surrendered, even though 4 Trees and a Dragon Utopia were at home, and I had Earth Magic and teleport scrolls. If I had recalled immediately, everything would have gone a completely different way, despite the lost center and 9 Titans at Dima's - I had 11 Archangels and up to 50 upgraded Wyverns (Swamp Village, 4 Trees, Dragon Utopia). In short, there was still a heck of a lot of game left, and surrendering while making such stupid mistakes was the last thing to do:( !

Thank you, it was very instructive!..