Three from the chest - Sugar
Second game
16.12.2012 BorzoiD (red,random,Dungeon,Arlash) def Hermit (blue,random,Rampart,Mephala) 212 6lm10 SOD

On the first week I took the Minotaur dwelling, killed the comp's swamp. Money was tight, had to build a Citadel in the swamp so it wouldn't be taken back, and because of that I didn't build Minotaurs at home. At the start of the second week, troops are scarce; I took an Angel dwelling and started looking for my comp's Castle to try and build Angels. Then unexpectedly Mephalka shows up with a very serious army for that point and wreaks havoc in the ranks of my army. I lose myself in the alleys; Mephala, fortunately, didn't bother chasing and killing me and ran off somewhere, and she was one and a half moves away from my main:). Taking advantage of the breather, I start shaking down Hives and Griffin Conservatories, of which there were a fair number on two spawns:). Having gathered a decent treasury, I head off to find the opponent and, meeting no resistance, reach his main. We ran around for a few more days; the good stuff included finding a Pandora's Box with Earth, didn't see a Dragon Utopia until the end of the game. Meanwhile, Mephala stumbled upon a treasure zone, where she was given control and stats, and as a result she flies in and takes the dwelling back.
At the end of the month, the first serious battle: I have a bigger treasury, but there's the impenetrable Mephala, stats twice as high, and an Implosion. I escape with one Troglodyte:), the opponent is left with about 200 Skeletons and a few Dendroid Soldiers. Having bought the growth, we had a few more minor scuffles with Dendroids; everything points to me being done for, but then Hermit simply throws the game, making two fatal mistakes, putting a Necromancer with the Cloak of the Undead King in a position to be killed, and the next day a Dendroid with all the mama artifacts. Having seized all this loot, I attack him in the castle and, without starting the battle, the opponent leaves the game.
GG, thanks for the game!

Alas, it's all true :(
On the first week, I couldn't build Pegasi and Unicorns :( But I captured an external dwelling of Dendroid Soldiers and 1-3, 5 in the castle with Vaults. Also Tant and Xyusha arrived; naturally, I decided to make Mephala the main hero, although the traitor Kiryushka came right on day 121. No towns or villages are visible at all. The opponent is ahead in number of towns and heroes :( I scouted two Griffin Conservatories in the medium-deep j, both turned out to be minimal and I took them at the start of the second week. Unsuccessfully trying to find comps and villages, I finally find one, but run into the opponent. There was only one Tavern, but without building Unicorns and Pegasi, it seemed my army was much weaker, though Tant and Xyusha had Expert Necromancy and had amassed a few Skeletons. Anyway, I captured an external Angel dwelling, scouted a bit of the road with Kiryushka, and then the opponent promptly sent her and the same Angel to the Tavern in the first round... to his own Tavern! But at least he didn't let me buy her back. It seemed I had no chance going against the opponent with Mephala without a spell book, so I went the other way, captured an Inferno village... Meanwhile, the opponent, with a huge army for me, went for my capital. I gave it up without a fight, of course, but the hidden Dendroids tried to fight his Dendroids and break the chain, and I must say, not without success. Things were very bad, but, strangely enough, the situation started to improve. Mephala and Xy entered a treasure zone; I tried to send Tant there too, with the Vampire's Cowl, but due to teleporting to different parts of the map, I couldn't do that. Then I finally plugged the unnecessary exit from the teleport, I think with the same Tant, and sent a couple more scouts into the Treasury. Tant, although he couldn't go amass Skeletons in the treasure zone together with Mephala and Xy, helped break the opponent's chain. The situation started to straighten out. We recaptured the Dead Man's Boots, and Xyusha amassed Skeletons nicely on small guards, while Mephala broke through serious ones. I found a Dragon Utopia and took it. Then a Pandora's Box with all of the fourth level. Tant finally joined the heroes operating in the Treasury and, with the Vampire's Cowl, also made Skeletons, though it was hard for him. I took Boots of Speed, a village, and another Dragon Utopia. That gave me a Hat. That gave me Red Boots, Gauntlets, the Cloak of the Undead King. Mephala teleported to Inferno and, although she didn't know Logistics, but boosted on Angels and Pegasi with one DD, managed to reach the capital in one turn, recapture it, and even sit there with her last movement point, naturally after boosting. The opponent apparently didn't expect this, nor did I, and so from all the growth he only bought Elves, probably to defend against any hidden scouts. I bought the growth. Then a very serious battle. The opponent had a much larger army, but I hit his troops with Implosion and resurrected my Dendroid Soldiers and Skeletons. Here I must say I made a very big first mistake, attacking Arlash in Boots of Speed without changing Mephala into the Red Boots. Although Resistance worked very conveniently once. It was the last round. I could have killed Arlash with Armageddon, but then I'd have been left with only a couple dozen Skeletons myself. If I'd been wearing the Red Boots, I'd definitely have used Armageddon! In general, I would have killed Arlash, but would have lost several times more troops than him in the last round. I tried both to kill him and not lose troops, using Chain Lightning, but it didn't go as planned and the opponent's Troglodyte survived, and he escaped with it :( :( :( In general, I should have used Armageddon and put on the Cloak at night. He wouldn't have killed that couple dozen Skeletons in the first round with level 1-2 magic... Mephala didn't reach the village; Xy was behind her. Arlash did hire some troops and, with a Ballista, sent Mephala with a few Skeletons and no magic to the Tavern, but right behind Mephala, with a full mana pool, came Xy. And here I made my second big mistake. For some reason, I split the army into two parts. Xyusha, with a full mana pool, on the way to the village, even with a small army, defeated Arlash and Damacon guarding the village, though the latter was a very close call. Resistance helped again; she occupied the empty village, and right then I realized I didn't have enough chain to transfer troops to Mephala in the village, got flustered, reached the Well with Mephala and her army, but didn't have enough movement points left to teleport into the village. But that's okay; Xyusha amassed a few Skeletons, she'll restore her mana (I'm blue) and, in general, can hold out. The turn timer was running out, and I overlooked that the Mage Guild hadn't been built in the village. :( That's not just stupidity, that's a disaster... I remembered that the opponent had stepped away for a smoke during my turn and, having missed part of the turn, asked to reload the file. I insistently asked to also be allowed to finish the turn and build the Guild. They didn't allow it :( :( :( They killed Xy :( took the Cloak; levels 4-5 magic became useless, as did restoring Skeletons. I tried to at least get the artifacts back by killing Kiryushka, who had one Gargoyle each, with stacks of Pegasi, but she, the dog, already knew the tactic and escaped from Ivor. I was so upset that I again failed to make a heavy, long, unexpected move, and eventually, having defeated Mephala in the village, I left all the artifacts on Ivor with a centaur. Asking to finish the turn was, of course, pointless.

Thanks for the game.

Mizrael, Bloody)Driver, I'm very sorry I couldn't win the second one either... sorry :(