Alone
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KobRa_RR (blue, Rampart, Kyrre, Kyrre) def Alone (red, Castle, Valeska, Valeska) on JC at 127
epic game) at least for me
My most epic defeat recently.
In short, I decided to play, saw a Hive and 2 Griffin Conservatories, no external dwellings — maybe I should have generated a better layout. Let me say ahead — my opponent had 3 external Champion dwellings, one Dragon dwelling, and a couple of Dwarf dwellings — all colored in the first week.
I spread out, looked around, it became clear that the Schism was quite far — a straight long road of 1 day with no bends, and who knows how much more to go after that. On the first day, I cleared the Hive, just to boost XP, Valeska got Offense. Scouted a level 1 Griffin Conservatory, spotted another behind Thunderbirds. Captured a neutral Rampart village. Finally colored the external Griffin dwelling with Pikemen, spotted another Hive. Also scouted a third level 1 Griffin Conservatory(( I headed my main hero toward the Schism, used a Pikeman to open view and saw a blocked neutral dungeon. Nearby was an external Champion dwelling, but under it was a Pandora's Box, and all of it guarded by Cyclopes... :( Not far from the Schism were lots of money buildings, I took 3 Crypts and a 15-Dwarf dwelling. Also found a fourth Griffin Conservatory, again behind Thunderbirds.
On day 116, Valeska breaks into a secondary town and gets a spell book there, we prepare to take everything at the start of next week. Set up chains and build a Castle.
Day 121, took an Angel and 4 Monks.
Day 122, the Hive cleared at the beginning of the first week turned out to be maximum — Magogs ate all the Swordsmen. Transferred everything to Valeska, who kills the Thunderbirds and enters the Griffin Conservatory — turns out it's a level 3. In the first round, Griffins got morale and ate a few Marksmen. :mad: But I saved all my Champions and only lost a few Monks. Promising Grindan heads toward the Schism through a Stable, having learned Slow from a roadside pillar.
Day 123, Valeska breaks into the capital, from there we take a third Griffin Conservatory (level 1) and transfer everything to Grindan. He levels Earth on neutrals and clears the last Griffin Conservatory, checked with a Pikeman — level 3. We wait.
Day 124, Grindan takes 3 Angels without losses, kills the Dragon Utopia's guards — we send a Pikeman in to check — turns out to be level 2. I thought long about whether to go in: 8 Angels, 12 Monks, 6 Champions — but almost no ranged units and low stats. I ultimately decided to go check the Schism and look for power-ups there. And it was giving Wings... maybe that would have decided it.
Day 125, the Schism turned out to have 3 Rust Dragons and an alternative of Black Dragons with Efreets:mad: Frankly, unlucky with the guard, I decided to beat the Rust Dragons anyway — the others were paired and not very convenient along the road, plus it was sand. The Dragons seemed to have morale (surprisingly), they killed 5 Champions and all my archers with backup, damaged Monks, but the Angels were all intact... I broke into the treasure zone, but not much room to maneuver. Helm of Thunder behind a horde of Champions, 2 boxes behind over 20 Giants, the Orb of the Firmament... I took a box behind Nagas for 15K XP without losses. Valeska is almost ideally leveled — Offense and Defense, Earth expertise with Slow (but no mana), Logistics — only missing Tactics for the full set, and Pathfinding for the sand:p Meanwhile, the opponent's Schism is visible as untouched — quite a twist:D From the thieves, it's clear the enemy army strength is behind us — did Kobra somehow throw...
Day 126, at the opponent's Schism, I take a Chaos box behind Hydras — they give 6 regular Hydras :D Already not bad, right there another Hive with 6 Monks. Can't really run around on sand, I've brought everyone I could — including Griffins from the external dwelling and Monks — preparing to build Angels in the capital.
Day 127, and here of course everything unplanned happened. Blue appeared from the other side of the treasure zone, took the central village. Turns out Kyrre crossed off-road to the other entrance to the center, where right behind the Schism there was a Mana Vial and a Shield behind a horde of Trolls — practically free with Mass Slow available. :rolleyes: I run Valeska to meet him, transfer everything to Grindan, who kills Magogs for the Pendant of Dispassion and a Pyramid. He rides and just barely has enough moves to color the village in the center. Valeska breaks into the Pyramid to refill mana — she only has 4 points, not enough for anything. Then just a stupid situation started. The experience of playing against Artyom showed — he almost never goes for direct contact without a clear advantage, and schemes until the very end. At the CIS 2012 in Yekaterinburg, we started playing at 17:00 and finished almost at 7:00 AM with a short dinner break — I couldn't catch him on the map for 2 months, and then it was too late.
In short, scouting showed that Kyrre was a day's journey from the central village on three Dragons. There was an option to transfer the army to Pikemen and attack Kyrre — but where was the rest of the army, and how to leave Grindan and Valya unprotected in an empty village? — especially with blue Pikemen nearby with a small army. The option to kill that Pikeman and, after transferring the army, also attack Kyrre — this was ideal — but it was hard to calculate all the moves considering the sand, especially since I was distracted in real life. In short, I started making unreasonable moves. Valeska stays in the village to refill mana, Grindan nearby on speed. A Pikeman picked up the Pendant of Lightning and made the main mistake. I should have simply transferred it to Valeska... but instead I ran away to the side. :confused: In the end, that decided it (I only realized it an hour after the game ended). Kyrre, instead of being afraid, moves forward and off the road eats a box with 15 Behemoths behind 100+ Gold Golems (without losses). Then attacks Valeska and destroys her with Lightning for 260 :smile04: I saw high stats — 2-3 times higher than mine, but I couldn't have assumed there was over 100 mana. Turns out Kyrre, after breaking the Schism, broke into (or threw into) the capital to refill mana. And only after that went off-road again into the treasure zone, etc...
In short, blue's layout is great, 3 external Horn of the Abyss dwellings all in a cluster, but still I had enough compensation and played decently (except for the last day) in terms of tempo. The mistake was playing against the opponent, not against the heroes this time. I never expected Kobra to push forward this time.
Thanks for the game!