CTPAHHuK
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1/4 playoff
Jel (Haven) lose CTPAHHuK (Preserve) 1m3w2d
This is my best "Circus" map game in 9 years. The recorded game should be viewed as a comprehensive guide on how to play this map as Nature. There are no decisive major events or exceptionally lucky magic draws – it's a natural progression through the map. After the winter tournament with the French, the entire spring and summer, for some reason, our duels with Shnurov on "Circus" took place. We played tirelessly – in the evenings, at night, sometimes even in the morning. We rarely finished games. We often started from the beginning, got many reloads, gave up, and started again. Thanks to this, the starting strategy was refined as much as possible. In the game against Jel, my hand movements on "Circus" were already well-practiced. The micro-management in economy and troop mobility was at a very good level. Many things were done faster than I could think about them. Therefore, the time in the breaks between the first turns was entirely spent on calculations – how much experience is needed to leave the castle with a Master of Nature on the 4th day; how to equip artifacts and bottles so that on the 4th day I can take the dwelling of the Fenris with 30 wolves and 4 leprechauns, and so on. And Shnurov recommended a very important thing to me on the last Sunday. He made me play "Bizarre" non-stop. I always tried to reduce the number of continuous hours of play to maintain mental clarity. Today, endurance turned out to be very necessary – I already took 10.5 hours of non-stop play normally after 9 hours of "Bizarre."
On the 5th day, I have gloves, a lord, 2 phoenixes in the army, 2 cities, and the opponent's gold mine. The "Runner" is created from the first castle hero. It's a pity he only gets GM (Grand Master) speed at 122. But the fast start allowed me to clear the metro, take the keymaster's tent, visit the tree of knowledge, and the school of magic by this time. On the 9th day, I already had a Demonologist with GM Nature in the army. I attack on the side on the 125th day, and on the 131st day, I have 4 cities and the opponent's Chaos guard broken on his territory. Only clumsy mouse clicks prevented me from reaching the opponent's army by one step (!). He was standing nearby, ready to break his own Chaos neutrals and take his third city on the next turn. I had to stand in the passage and wait for the attack.
He has GM Life with Sanes and Davon, a Mage with a 4th-level book, a "Runner" without magic, a Tactician 555x without magic, 3+3 angels, and 22 crossbowmen. The high GM attack of the Tactician with a sling and a club made his monsters deadly to my phoenixes with low defense.
I have 1+2+1 Phoenix, a Demonologist with GM Nature, a Tactician with good tactics and attack skills, a Mage with Berserker, and a "Runner" with GM Life. Each of my heroes has a control spell: swarm of bees, song of peace, or confusion. This clearly plays against his two mages.
Jel played a magnificent final. After some hesitation with the phoenixes, I finally realized in time to block the line of sight of his Mage, thereby depriving him of the ability to teleport his crossbowmen close to my heroes. The battle is long and very difficult. In general, Jel strategically surpassed me, forcing me to defend myself half a step away from defeat. Thank you to my opponent!
The game recording is stored here.
Beginners and intermediate players can watch the game video as a guide to "Circus," not only for Nature. Experienced players will, of course, notice some non-optimal actions and the possibility of accelerating the pace of the game by at least 1 day. Top players may find it interesting to follow some of the subtleties of the game: mana management, planning magic skills for heroes, etc. In general, in my humble opinion, the game was a success, at the highest level – I recommend watching the video. Even the opponent managed to reach the final from a rather uninspiring start with good quality.
This somewhat strange victory began to take shape even when the maps were being removed. The opponent, for some reason, removed Eldoria from the map, which I was already ready to remove myself. As a result, thanks to this, the choice for the host, Jel, was between Iron and "Circus." I am traditionally confident on Iron, and on "Circus," I have learned to feel the path to victory in the last six months. In addition to this, Jel takes random, leaving me to choose Nature. And it also happens that I manage to disrupt the layout of Jel's "corpse" with a restart, immediately with two books – Nature and Life (!). I am ready to play the next layout, but looking at Jel's Life castle with a peasant dwelling, I start to expect a restart from him. To my natural happiness, Jel does not take a restart and starts by surrendering the arena, since he also has peasants against my leprechauns with acceleration. Then he starts some kind of mess, the game on his side drags on – he takes my gold only on the 9th or 10th day, i.e., 5 days later than me. Only after the game did Jel write that he was counting on a 4th-level book. The calculation did not work out; artifacts were put in the chests, which for Life means a delay in dwellings and a prolonged start. As a result, he still gets Endurance in the castles and still reduces the gap between us.
This is the chain of facts that, in my opinion, led to the victory of the red player.
Among the mistakes, I can note the loss of a Phoenix on the dwelling of the Dead, the inaction of the released griffins, with which, together with the lord, I should have taken the sawmill and the quarry from Jel, an unprepared army for capturing the garrison on the island, and not the fastest possible construction of castles, although there were enough resources – the +1250 gold from the artifacts from the 4th day of the game affected.
Jel (Haven) lose CTPAHHuK (Preserve) 1m3w2d
This is my best "Circus" map game in 9 years. The recorded game should be viewed as a comprehensive guide on how to play this map as Nature. There are no decisive major events or exceptionally lucky magic draws – it's a natural progression through the map. After the winter tournament with the French, the entire spring and summer, for some reason, our duels with Shnurov on "Circus" took place. We played tirelessly – in the evenings, at night, sometimes even in the morning. We rarely finished games. We often started from the beginning, got many reloads, gave up, and started again. Thanks to this, the starting strategy was refined as much as possible. In the game against Jel, my hand movements on "Circus" were already well-practiced. The micro-management in economy and troop mobility was at a very good level. Many things were done faster than I could think about them. Therefore, the time in the breaks between the first turns was entirely spent on calculations – how much experience is needed to leave the castle with a Master of Nature on the 4th day; how to equip artifacts and bottles so that on the 4th day I can take the dwelling of the Fenris with 30 wolves and 4 leprechauns, and so on. And Shnurov recommended a very important thing to me on the last Sunday. He made me play "Bizarre" non-stop. I always tried to reduce the number of continuous hours of play to maintain mental clarity. Today, endurance turned out to be very necessary – I already took 10.5 hours of non-stop play normally after 9 hours of "Bizarre."
On the 5th day, I have gloves, a lord, 2 phoenixes in the army, 2 cities, and the opponent's gold mine. The "Runner" is created from the first castle hero. It's a pity he only gets GM (Grand Master) speed at 122. But the fast start allowed me to clear the metro, take the keymaster's tent, visit the tree of knowledge, and the school of magic by this time. On the 9th day, I already had a Demonologist with GM Nature in the army. I attack on the side on the 125th day, and on the 131st day, I have 4 cities and the opponent's Chaos guard broken on his territory. Only clumsy mouse clicks prevented me from reaching the opponent's army by one step (!). He was standing nearby, ready to break his own Chaos neutrals and take his third city on the next turn. I had to stand in the passage and wait for the attack.
He has GM Life with Sanes and Davon, a Mage with a 4th-level book, a "Runner" without magic, a Tactician 555x without magic, 3+3 angels, and 22 crossbowmen. The high GM attack of the Tactician with a sling and a club made his monsters deadly to my phoenixes with low defense.
I have 1+2+1 Phoenix, a Demonologist with GM Nature, a Tactician with good tactics and attack skills, a Mage with Berserker, and a "Runner" with GM Life. Each of my heroes has a control spell: swarm of bees, song of peace, or confusion. This clearly plays against his two mages.
Jel played a magnificent final. After some hesitation with the phoenixes, I finally realized in time to block the line of sight of his Mage, thereby depriving him of the ability to teleport his crossbowmen close to my heroes. The battle is long and very difficult. In general, Jel strategically surpassed me, forcing me to defend myself half a step away from defeat. Thank you to my opponent!
The game recording is stored here.
Beginners and intermediate players can watch the game video as a guide to "Circus," not only for Nature. Experienced players will, of course, notice some non-optimal actions and the possibility of accelerating the pace of the game by at least 1 day. Top players may find it interesting to follow some of the subtleties of the game: mana management, planning magic skills for heroes, etc. In general, in my humble opinion, the game was a success, at the highest level – I recommend watching the video. Even the opponent managed to reach the final from a rather uninspiring start with good quality.
This somewhat strange victory began to take shape even when the maps were being removed. The opponent, for some reason, removed Eldoria from the map, which I was already ready to remove myself. As a result, thanks to this, the choice for the host, Jel, was between Iron and "Circus." I am traditionally confident on Iron, and on "Circus," I have learned to feel the path to victory in the last six months. In addition to this, Jel takes random, leaving me to choose Nature. And it also happens that I manage to disrupt the layout of Jel's "corpse" with a restart, immediately with two books – Nature and Life (!). I am ready to play the next layout, but looking at Jel's Life castle with a peasant dwelling, I start to expect a restart from him. To my natural happiness, Jel does not take a restart and starts by surrendering the arena, since he also has peasants against my leprechauns with acceleration. Then he starts some kind of mess, the game on his side drags on – he takes my gold only on the 9th or 10th day, i.e., 5 days later than me. Only after the game did Jel write that he was counting on a 4th-level book. The calculation did not work out; artifacts were put in the chests, which for Life means a delay in dwellings and a prolonged start. As a result, he still gets Endurance in the castles and still reduces the gap between us.
This is the chain of facts that, in my opinion, led to the victory of the red player.
Among the mistakes, I can note the loss of a Phoenix on the dwelling of the Dead, the inaction of the released griffins, with which, together with the lord, I should have taken the sawmill and the quarry from Jel, an unprepared army for capturing the garrison on the island, and not the fastest possible construction of castles, although there were enough resources – the +1250 gold from the artifacts from the 4th day of the game affected.