We each took 2 restarts. On the third try, I spotted Mulykh in the tavern, big luck. I immediately decided not to expose him, otherwise my opponent would definitely take a restart. I bought him, but put the army on Ivor so Mulykh wouldn't be visible in the tavern, and the opponent didn't take a restart. We continued, and with the Pope's move on the next turn, I of course made Mulykh with +2 speed in battle. Although as the opponent later admitted, he did spot Mulykh in the tavern for a couple of seconds but decided not to take a restart because he had 35 archers at the start. I scouted an external dwelling of unicorns, Centaurs, and a couple of crypts. The only downside was the slow road. On the next day, I saw two more dwarf cottages. So there won't be a shortage of money :)
The slow road branches off to a snowy secondary area, the passage is guarded by a few witches and upgraded medusas, and a portal guarded by many fire elementals. Along the way, I spotted a Griffin Conservatory off the road. I decided to ignore the snowy secondary altogether and use my forces to take the Griffin Conservatory and break through the portal. Well, I don't like snow :) you can get stuck there :) for a measly 500 gold. On turn 115, I saw a prison guarded by 50 upgraded wood elves. I didn't dare attack right away with Mulykh; I decided to do it after the Griffin Conservatory.
During the first week, I didn't really attack anyone; I just cleared the respawn, collected whatever gold I could, and built horses in the castle. I left the Griffin Conservatory and the portal for the second week. Unfortunately, I messed up the external dwelling of unicorns and didn't take it; Mulykh didn't get there in time :)
At the start of week 2, I finally broke the wood elves from the prison and recruited Deemar. Mulykh has expert Leadership, Logistics, primary skills and Earth magic, so that's good. On turn 122, I finally took the external dwelling of horses — late, but "better late than never" — and hung around near the two dwarf cottages. I still haven't taken the Griffin Conservatory yet.
On turn 124, the opponent's main hero suddenly popped out of the portal; his army was average, nothing serious. My Mulykh, on the move, was positioned not too far away and could reach him in one turn. I quickly finished off the nearby dwarf cottage, bought everything I could in the castle, and attacked the Nagle :)
FB: The opponent had Valeska with stats 6-8-3-1 (37 elite archers, 5 Champions, 14 Swordsmen, 20 Pikemen, and 20 Gobs). I had Mulykh with stats 7-7-1-2 (27 Grand Elves, 4 horses, 8 Silver Pegasi, 9 wood elves, 12 Dendroid Guards, and 55 Centaurs. No spell book; I didn't buy it). In the end, I attacked: in the battle, thanks to speed, there were no particular problems. The elves quickly took out the opponent's archers, and then I just had a bit more troops, so he surrendered. The opponent's rush didn't work out. Thanks for the game ;)
Group C
RaiseTheDead(blue, Rampart, Ivor) draw Rockmachine(red, Castle, Valeska) 2SM4d(3) 211.
On turn 111, I spotted two roads to secondary areas and decided not to take the last restart. The situation seemed difficult until I found a level 1 Griffin Conservatory along the road. I took it immediately. Then I realized that roads actually lead to all three secondary areas. That certainly was pleasing. I went down into the underground, and there was a Dragon Shield guarded by a horde of Earth Elementals, plus an external dwelling of dragons guarded by a stack of Mighty Gorgons. For now, I decided not to go anywhere and take the secondary area first. The secondary turned out to be a Dungeon. The fodder was wasted in the Griffin Conservatory, so I didn't go for the Mighty Gorgons or the external dragon dwelling. But I did go for the horde of crap (50-something of them). The 13 upgraded archers dealt with them well. On turn 117, I remembered that building horses requires 10 gems, but I only had 4. A heap of gems near the castle hadn't been taken, and no one could reach it. The three gardens that scout heroes reached gave 500 gold each. I somehow managed the gem shortage.
On the second week, I started collecting dwarf cottages and crypts along the road to the Necropolis secondary area. The passage guard was triple: you had to fight a horde of Lizardmen, a batch of Orcs, and a horde of Akladbrak Men. Initially, at the secondary, I found a Dragon Fly Hive with 6 Wyverns, then a Griffin Conservatory and Gauntlets not far from it. I rushed Ivor straight to the Griffin Conservatory, but it was Troglodyte-guarded. I lost the scout hero there, and the Griffin Conservatory turned out to be level 2. Just what I needed. Then I split my main army and went to the Griffin Conservatory under the GO along rough terrain. The Griffin Conservatory was either level 3 or 4. I went in anyway. It was level 3. I was scared due to the lack of Slow in the level 3 guilds. But with Mass Shield and Stone Skin, the Angels and horses held up just fine.
On the third week, I visited the treasure zone in the underground. Along the way, I took another level 1 Griffin Conservatory, broke through the passage to the opponent's respawn. I saw a boosted Valeska on horses, getting ready to take a Griffin Conservatory. Unfortunately, no one could reach her. Along the way, I scouted the opponent's army: 7 horses, about 60 archers, and various fodder. I had 7 Angels, 9 horses, and about 20 Wyverns. The treasure zone turned out to be unappetizing, so sensing an advantage, I split my main army for home, finally finished learning Slow, and went to take the GO. I pushed back the opponent's main hero.
Then followed a chase lasting a week. As a result, I pinned down Valeska and killed her without much trouble.
Thanks for the game!
Draw due to the following Pope's moves:
1) I passed the turn forgetting to build horses on the first week.
2) While splitting the main army, the retreat prompt didn't appear, and out of habit I pressed Enter.
3) During cleanup in the castle, I dismissed 6 horses.
I confirm. During the game, I gave my opponent 3 auto-complete turns, during which he offered me the win, but I decided to play normally and give him a chance. His reasons for the auto-completes were too silly (deleting the main hero, or the horses, or something else). I naively thought that with such mistakes, there shouldn't be any problems, especially since by turn 115 Valeska already had 12 Attack, which I was very happy about — and I paid for it. On week 4, he came to my base with 7 Angels against my 2 (unlucky, had 2 minimum-level Griffin Conservatories) and magic. A 450-damage archer shot, and he immediately killed my 2 Angels with it (as I later checked, the opponent had taken a super Dragon Utopia a couple of days before, so his magic was around 30).
In the end, we settled on a draw. The opponent because he played carelessly at times, and I because I can't deny the opponent's very strong level of play, aside from his mistakes, RaiseTheDead. The guys who watched the stream were in shock at his army, so his level of play is very respectable. Beware.
Added after 4 minutes
As of now, I've played all 4 games in the group. I was late with the last report, so I only officially finished the group now. I also played one game with Numwan, since I had two wins in the group, but unfortunately I died to his 300 Skeletons. As a result, in our group, only one person has 2 games left to finish, and then all our games are played, and we'll be waiting for the other groups
