Photo report of the final game of "Novichok-2011. Winter".

Initially, I had a clear plan for the perfect demon-slaying strategy (2 weeks to build up my army and perfectly optimize the hit points, which I had calculated a long time ago; I'll soon post a demon-slaying table). The difficulty of the game lay in timely army adjustments, but the long distances constantly forced me to make not entirely correct decisions. Essentially, I was initially planning to take Rampart and Swamp, and if there was no Necropolis, that's what I would do. And then, ideally, get a level 4 unit from these castles in the Citadel. I focused on economy. When I saw the Ring, I started calculating the perfect strategy with the Ring, delaying the moment of taking it, sitting with a calculator and figuring out the numbers. :) And I was very surprised when the White creatures turned out to have 11 hit points, and I mistakenly calculated them as 9, and the un-upgraded ones as 7. I got confused in the calculations, lost the idea of cutting with spears, but hoped for a utopia. It didn't work out. I ended up in 3rd place in Rampart, hoping that the Inferno treasure would be rich for me. In general, I'll say that Sanek won deservedly, but I still didn't get lucky in any of the games, and without that, it's difficult to fight Inferno (the Red player had 3 Hydras against my one). Now I want to say words of gratitude to the organizers. :) Thank you guys for the pleasant and friendly communication and some support. Thank you from me! Now, some emotions: I still consider it a great achievement for myself, considering that I played against a person for the first time on August 31, 2010. I clearly see the weaknesses in my game, so I will continue to improve and hope to reach a new level in the future. I'm very glad that I made it to the final, even though I lost. I missed two strong newcomers - Hero of Might and Magic 3 and Nevermeinder. I also want to thank them, because I mainly started learning how to play online Heroes with them! Igor, you owe me. :) Also, a big thank you to those who supported me. In fact, support from even one person gives a great boost! In general, everything will be fine. :)

Added after 51 minutes

There wasn't any "Cherk" (a specific strategy or agreement), it was just agreed-upon castles.

Cherk was in the previous game. There, I specifically aimed for a pair of Inferno castles or Stronghold. I wanted to try out a cutting strategy. And after the defeat, I suggested repeating the battle with the same composition.