One for all, and all for one!

03.11.12 R55Max (blue, random, swamp, Voy, Gervulf) def BA/IEHOK (red, random, Necropolis, Claudius) spider, 227.

Slow roads.
- Archers aren't built; I place flies and spread out with 8 heroes to reach them, there is a lizard external dwelling. In the folders, there is only one decent hero — think it was Mephala, the rest are just incredible trash, but here heroes disappear before passing the turn, brutal. Reds are loading up, I spread out as well, but now there isn't a single worthwhile hero in the main group at all (Voy, Adele, Alagar, Verdish, Fafner, Gird, Tiva, Gervulf), Theodore and Jaegar are in the tavern. Out of this trash, I assign the role of "folder" to Gervulf with defense.

While spreading out, I bump into 20-49 lizards, so I turn back.

- 112 - Building lizards, scouting. On my respawn along one of the roads, a medusa dwelling behind some zombies and snails behind rags were spotted; Gird and Alagar are breaking through the mud on the other road with 18 lizards and 35 gnolls. There is a stable and a consulate near the road. Deep in the respawn, Verdish finds an external dwelling of "vasyas" (basilisks) behind 50-99 goblins. After turning back, Gervulf runs after them on a snake.

- 113 - Tiva scouts past the snails to find a dwarf dwelling and the entrance to the underground beyond it.
Basilisks are being built; the army is transferred from Gird to Verdish deep into the respawn to break through the goblins behind the basilisks' external dwelling, then Verdish breaks through that same mud, opening a path across the wilderness located behind the dwelling. Gervulf, in turn, goes along the road via the stable and checks the consulate — it's a trong with gs, Gird is not far behind.

- 114 - Money is a huge struggle. After buying out the basilisks, a prefecture is placed in the home town. Along the way, Gervulf and Gird take the necro village; they stand by a two-way path, guarded by zombies and skeletons on one side, dwarves on the other. Voy and Verdish approach them across the wilderness with the main army. In one turn, they move away from the necro village; a passage to a grassy treasure zone behind 50+ magma elementals is visible.

- 115 - An observatory is spotted on the way toward the necro village; through it, an angel external dwelling is seen in the grassy treasure zone — so it's Castle... wyverns are being built but not bought out. The "losers" (noobs) carefully clear the respawn, taking every single pile of everything there is, though basically nothing is left)). Crypt. Armies meet, a teleport is broken through, the 2nd necro village is taken; a useless Mage Guild is built there (except maybe for a book for Gervulf). What a nuisance — opponent is Necropolis, necro everywhere. Ger catches Earth at 3rd upgrade.

- 116 - Ger +1 knowledge, expert artillery (no ballistae). From the 2nd necro village, I spot another observatory; I see red flags moving toward the 3rd necro village, which I was heading for. I return to my 2nd village because I don't want a repeat encounter. In the worst case, on turn 121 with buyouts, I'll shoot down skeletons easily. With my observatory, I spotted their observatory; I don't know if they saw me, as the observatories are almost at the limits of visibility, and I tried to spot them quickly and run away. There is hope that after taking this village, the reds won't come my way but will head elsewhere, since 10+ marks block the road; maybe they'll spare the skeletons. At the front of the enemy group with a flag in hand is Claudius with 50+ skeletons.

At this moment, I decided that the resolution of the game should be soon, so I don't build anything in the home town for now; I place vampires in the 2nd necro. I have 6 gold before passing the turn.

- 117 - The opponent takes that necro village; assuming movement will come my way, I decided to prepare for a face-to-face (fb), thus splitting Gervulf and heading from the start toward the Hive, which I scouted on day 2. Money for buyouts is urgently needed; need to take the medusa dwelling and dwarf dwelling. In the necro, I place a thousand for vampires just in case (maybe there won't be an encounter and it will pay off). And most importantly — I plug hydras into the home town!! 500 coins remain, almost nowhere to get money from except the daily income of 2500 and unknown monetary buildings.

- 121 - Tazar arrives and is bought out. Ger is lvl 4; the thought occurs to switch to Tazar, but again, let's see who gets what. Voy brings "vasyas" from the external dwelling; scouts from starting positions at the leprechaun gathering spot collect their gold and position themselves comfortably; Gervulf finally reaches the medusa dwelling.

Meanwhile, Claudius carries the red flag on flyers toward me over the marks, pausing in a Temple, apparently to atone for his sins.

- 122 - Lizard upgrade (43), hydra buyout (2); pre-max medusa dwelling falls, mini hive and medium dwarf dwelling. Gervulf is lvl 7, advanced Earth, expert Defense, and artillery. For now, I keep Ger as the "folder," but Tazar is in mind, heading toward the conflict zone.

Claudius continues to move forward, spots my observatory, sees a teleport one turn away from him, but doesn't see the necro village since he can't reach it yet.

- 123 - The reds split up; I chase his "loser" with my "loser," and in the end, we each go our own way. It's dangerous for dead ones to push in, and I can't catch them yet. Gervulf experts Earth; I really want an encounter, but it's unrealistic due to slow roads — distances are too great. Need to take the trong consulate.

- 124 - I press Rizzo with 3 liches, 3 vamps, and red scouts as "ones" (single units) to take this 3rd necro village.

I split my main force, take the consulate (three), stable. Sped up before splitting; shooting popped up in upgrades, I advanced it.

- 125 - I take the crypt. The army is transferred to Tazar on the other side; he, in turn, breaks through the metro and sees a strategic tavern, reaches it, where the defeated Gervulf is bought out; he reaches the info village on the last move, but doesn't have enough moves to enter.

Citadel at home. Pressing Rizzo fails; some enemy beat her up and a red scout is pushing toward my necro village again. Another red scout is seen with 2 stacks of 100-249 skeletons (he's already chipped away, damn).

- 126 - In the metro near the info there is another trong consulate and snails, where Gervulf approached (actually, for some reason he reminds me of Lieutenant Rzhevsky's face :) ).

Kira drives away the enemy red approaches, so we each stay with our own.

- 127 - Max consulate, small hive, Castle in main. It worked out very well to break a passage up from the metro and launch a scout on a snake. This was, as it turns out, a very important and most importantly successful move.

- 131-132 - This scout, move for move, takes an empty swamp Castle; there's 2000 gold and that's all, except gorgons, "vasyas" and hydras in the castle. Everything is bought out; Moner is purchased, who eventually became the second and key hero after Gervulf, obviously. Anyway, Moner takes some medium nagash-dwelling and a pre-mini hive near the captured green Castle.

Gervulf, meanwhile, split himself to visit the stable and go to the castle treasure zone. The distance along slow roads from the captured castle to the castle treasure zone was simply gigantic, so all heroes except one outcast built an army transfer chain.

- 134 - Gervulf lvl 12 entered the treasure zone — 6 10 2 8 (expert Defense, Artillery, Earth, Shooting, basic Air) and Moner lvl 8 Expert Search, Log, Weapon. Mass pulling of scouts begins. By the way, the map was very poor for artifacts.

- 135 - Moner and Gervulf split in two directions along a long mountain ridge. Gervulf reaches the boots of speed behind 50+ demons and waits. Thus, Adele, running ahead, opens the 2nd angel external dwelling (the 1st isn't taken yet) and the Dragon Utopia.

- 136 - We place basilisks in the 2nd swamp. Moner and Co take the angel dwelling and a box that experts Air and Scouting for Moner. It is passed along the chain to Gervulf. He takes the boots, pre-max hive, medusa dwelling.

- 137 - I want to place hydras in the 2nd castle, but there's no money. The choice is either take the Dragon Utopia without scouting or the 2nd angel external dwelling; I take the Dragon Utopia, there are wings and 3 all, I place hydras. From the army remain 15 wyverns, 7 angels, 40 marks, 59 lizards. Moner has a Dragon Utopia (on the opposite side of the treasure zone) and another Dragon Utopia is visible further along Gervulf's course.

- 141 - Gervulf flies and sees the 3rd angel external dwelling, takes it; he sees another Dragon Utopia nearby, flies and takes the untaken very first angel external dwelling, transfers the army (thanks to wings) to Moner, who is speeding up near the Dragon Utopia; the transport from main has arrived at the Dragon Utopia.

- 142 - Moner takes Dragon Utopia 2-3, it's trash. Only a helmet for +12 knowledge is normal. Gervulf gets everything back, frees Jem, who flies to the hive.

- 143 - Two Dragon Utopias are taken, they are just zero. The 6 all helmet was’t in them, apparently.

Then I went into another treasure zone, dug it up, found a golden bow; in the 7th Dragon Utopia they finally gave КЗ! Found a red orb somewhere earlier. Then collected visible parts of the cursed armor and then with 15 chaos hydras, 12 angels, 150+ lizards, 57 marks, 86 monarch wyverns, 20 black bulls, 55 groups of basilisks under the sphere and shackles with a golden bow, I looked for Claudius; I almost caught him several times, but he slipped away. It was a matter of time, so I surrendered. Sooner or later I would have caught him, but there was no point in dragging it out.

Thx for the game.