twaryna
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18.01.2012. Group B HellLighT (Blue, Castle, Caitlin, Tyris) def Twaryna (Red, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti) 2sm4d(3) 217
The game took place in 2 sessions, with a long break, due to technical issues.
I don't remember who took how many restarts, but by the time that suited both of us, the spawn was very generous. Right next to the castle there is an observatory revealing indescribable beauty... there's an external Archer dwelling, and next to it an ANGEL portal! guarded by 10-19 Diamond Golems. On top of that, plenty of Water Mills, and as many Dwarf Cottages and Crypts piled up as tangerines for New Year :) I spread out quite well, with enough resources and gold; on top of everything else, I find an external marketplace, which became a permanent client of one of my great warriors %) But then a string of bad luck began, my opponent went left (where I thought my secondary would be) along the road and ran into 50-99 upgraded Gargoyles; with a stack of 23 gr Archers and 40 Pikemen, I was afraid to attack them, and since the roads were muddy, even just to return the army from scouting, I had to wait a couple of turns; while I had the chance, I grabbed a Scholar, which had burned me more than once with useless skills... they give Necromancy (considering that in one of the Crypts I got an amulet +5 Necromancy), it cracks me up and I even share this news with my opponent, not knowing if it's a blessing or a curse, because neither Tactics nor Attack were fully upgraded yet). At the same time, a scout hero sneaks along the right side of the road, where I expected to see the entrance to the underground, but there my opponent's secondary territory awaited me (there was a minor incident with the passage there, but as the opponent himself said, "no hard feelings").
Thanks to an excellent financial and resource situation, I build the Angel portal tick by tick to 117, but I don't have time to capture the external dwelling. Then I go to develop the far areas of my zone and adjacent territories; by the end of the second week, I finally take my Rampart secondary. Realizing the myriad of gold I'll need to buy out populations, I decide, while I have a stock of Dwarf Cottages and Water Mills, to switch to economic development; by the 3rd week, the Angel growth is 4 per week, which can't help but please me, but I got too carried away with my respawn, and when Shakti finally appeared in the tavern, I was not at all pleased that his stats were roughly twice as high as mine... In horror, I rush to the portal on the outskirts of the respawn, collecting the only minimal Griffin Conservatory along the way. By the 4th week, I end up in the treasure zone. The income from economically developed towns, reaching 6k+, makes itself known, and I purchase Archangels. With them, clearing the treasure zone posed no particular problems; having collected everything tasty (including my first 3 stat artifacts: sword +12a -2d, shield +6, cloak +2c +2z), I equal my opponent's stats and decide it's time to pay him a visit. I scout, and very timely, as my opponent, unlike me, didn't wait for the next week and went for the Griffin Conservatory. Upgrading all angels and buying half the army was all the vaunted cash flow was good for (Dragon Utopias, alas, I never saw). In level 2 magic guild (I saw no point in building further due to the lack of Wisdom at that point), they give absolute junk; my spell set leaves much to be desired — besides Slow, Shield, and Ice Bolt, I have nothing to offer, and then I remember that literally near the main hero there's a Shrine with Blindness... fortunately, I was on a speed boost with Archangels — I grab it and return. Realizing there's no hurry, I wait in the castle for an attack; my opponent slightly misjudges the road, but by 147 he attacks me in the castle.
What do we see (if I'm wrong since I'm speaking from memory, twaryna will correct me later): 12 Archangels in one stack (to this day I don't know if that was good or bad), 99 Archers, 18 Fanatics, 300+ Skeletons (so my curse came in handy after all), 120 Halberdiers, 1 Champion, and a couple of Griffins for meat. Against 160 Trogledytes, 65 Evil Eyes, 19 Scorpicores, 33 Minotaurs, and 9 Angels. Stats roughly like Shakti — 16 11 11 8 (but 240 mana) Tyris (22 12 8 7).
I look and am generally satisfied with the situation... until Chain Lightning hits for 600+ on the first target! In horror, I realize things aren't as smooth as they seemed. With a huge morale bonus, it procs only 2 times, but luckily — when needed! The dozen remaining Angels deal significant damage after waiting and fly back; during the battle (very epic in my opinion), the advantage swings back and forth; Twaryna's maneuvers, with the 5th bounce of Chain Lightning on Minotaurs canceling the Blindness cast, were worthy of respect. Right at the end of the battle, success turned to my side... my opponent retreats! (though when morale triggered, there was a chance to kill him outright :( ). Oh miracle, after the battle, for a level up, I get Expert Wisdom! A new week begins; realizing I need to act urgently, I buy 4 Archangels on the second day and take the untouched Cyclops dwelling, turns out it's the maximum, +10 all resources. I build level 3 magic guild and almost start dancing; they give ANTI-MAGIC (which, with Expert Earth, protects from everything).
On 213, my opponent again starts sneaking toward my castle, killing monsters along the way (apparently leveling up). I scout his army — 20-49 Minotaurs and single units of Troglodytes.. realizing the Minotaurs simply can't be more than 30, in a burst of joy, I grab one stack of 4 Archangels and attack myself. My joy after casting Anti-Magic evaporates when I see he has Summon Water Elementals; only 22 at a time, but that's bad already! (Despite all this, there was a chance to kill him or force a retreat.)
As a result, I shamefully flee (buying back with 1 Archangel), taking 20 out of 24 Minotaurs to the grave with me.
I buy back in the town, where the 130 Skeletons revived from the first battle await me, along with nearly single units of Archers, Fanatics, and some meat. My opponent delivers his meat and attacks: 9 Scorpicores, 4 Minotaurs, 15 Evil Eyes, and single Troglodytes. Anti-Magic on the Skeletons and the lack of broken walls force him to flee again... mentally dreaming of when all this will end, I chase down one of my opponent's scout heroes with five Champions, spell power 3; not wanting to waste mana, I just charged forward, naively hoping his pitiful shooter wouldn't break through me — no such luck, Lightning Bolt hits for 85, leaving 16 HP (had a ring +1), I have to use the last remnants of my mana on Anti-Magic... my opponent starts taking time thinking over moves with single Skeletons, which begins to completely fray my nerves ))) (I even hurried him, for which I apologize) but everything ended well. Deciding it's worth waiting for the new week, I returned to the castle. But twaryna stubbornly didn't want to give me another Angel growth again. Running forward with almost nothing and bringing a horde of scout heroes, he approached my castle. Built level 4 magic guild; they gave Resurrection and Meteor Shower — I was pleased (though I never got to use them). Realizing that by attacking with main forces, even against single units, I'd be bathed in blood, I decided to drain his pawns myself; thus, over the course of 2 attacks, he lost 5 Harpies and was left with 2 Scorpicores. I split a squad of 10 Champions in half and place 5 single Griffins between them (because he had the first turn due to a Cloak +2 speed). After he thinned my army down to the Griffins and 5 Champions, I pause in thought; an option to try to bait the Scorpicores into a drain using Anti-Magic and Resurrection under summoned Elementals, and then flee myself (which would have made his hero disappear), but I don't go for it and try to force him to retreat with Slow (threatening that if he skips his turn, the Champions, becoming the first starting unit, would reach one squad and I'd kill the other with magic). But my opponent surprised me and simply passed (most likely the stress got to him... I myself was shaking for another 10 minutes afterwards ;)
good game, well played, thx for game!
p.s. The sweatiest game of Heroes I've ever had.
p.p.s. Look how much I wrote o_O hopefully someone reads it)
I confirm. This is the very first game I started in the tournament, so I remember the beginning vaguely. From the main points: near the castle an external dwelling, by the end of the week in the distance I found another external dwelling Manticore + a Pandora for Dendroid Soldiers; 2 Griffin Conservatories (4 and 3), a Crypt (maximum — took it on day 2, but foolishly lost quite a few Troglodytes) — in general, a good respawn, something to play from. On the 1st week, Minotaurs appeared in the Citadel. Then I coveted a Griffin Conservatory and successfully got wiped out with 20 upgraded Minotaurs in a 4-stack — underestimated my strength... My opponent let me reload, for which thanks again. The tempo was lost (several days went into preparing to take the Griffin Conservatory + it's badly positioned). In fact, I did nothing on the second week — ran from one end of the respawn to the other — to the Manticore external dwelling. Made it just in time for 127; along the way I fought for a +6 Attack sword behind Unicorns; I don't remember what the Pandora gave... On the 2nd week, 1-6 appeared in the castle. Then I jump into the underground and take my native secondary; from there into the treasury zone — there are 2 Dragon Utopias, artifacts, and a Griffin Conservatory — I take it; then I transfer meat to scouts and take 2 Griffin Conservatories on the respawn. I prepare to fight the Dragon Utopias. Both turned out to be grade 2. Useful things gave a Tome of Water Magic and a hat for 12 spell power and another for +4 knowledge and spell power... I also fought a Pandora box for all Air magic (Advanced Wisdom). Then I scouted back home and from the middle of the 4th week went to break through the Griffin Conservatory towards the enemy. On 137, he attacked with all his meat in my castle. There were 12 Archangels... Honestly — I wasn't expecting that at all. But I played decently, eventually fled leaving a bit of meat. On the 5th week — I run to hit him again — also slightly short of victory... And the last attempt by the end of the 5th week — 2 Scorpicores and Harpies — if I don't take him down, the game is lost, since with the new growth of 4 Angels I wouldn't be able to do anything... In the end, it didn't work out. Perhaps I lacked experience somewhere, I could have won... But overall I liked the game, it was tense until the very end. Thanks for the game!