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1/2 playoff
Necropolis wins against Academy 1m3w6d
The game unfolded on several fronts. I really wanted the first final between our players in the World Championship to take place. There were different scenarios for the matchups of nationalities in the decisive games of previous years: Russia vs. France, France vs. Sweden, twice Brazil vs. Portugal, Portugal vs. France. It has never happened before that two players from the same country would reach the final. There is still a chance for Zeziuk, after defeating Schnurov, to make the final a Russian-Belarusian one, but in any case, this is ALREADY OUR VICTORY IN 2013! At the same time, I was fighting for the first time against a top veteran, ToHa Gustn. He won titles in the Vesuvia tournaments at the height of the four-player era, when I was just learning to level up more than two heroes in my army. For me, this was an opportunity to experience for the first time the strategy of a player from that time. And that's why I'm not surprised how I failed to anticipate his actions, both on the adventure map and on the battlefield. In addition, the Brazilian Gustn, returning to the four-player scene after a 6-year break, managed to win gold in the World Championship twice in a row. After defeating the one-time champion Jel, defeating the only two-time champion to date was a separate task for me.
The game itself was my first hit & run at the official level. The result of the card draw was predictable; it wasn't difficult for me to discard 4 of Gustn's other cards, and I really wanted to play in the familiar Ironman style. I tried to decide on my race before the start of the game, but I couldn't come to a specific decision. All cities, in my opinion, ultimately have roughly equal chances there. All that remained was to choose randomly and remove the aggressive Chaos and Nature from my opponent. He chose Order, and that's how we started.
Immediately, I planned to quickly attack Gustn with 6 heroes and early-built Devils. From the first day, the idea of joining a prisoner to my army and creating a Tactician-Noble out of him in order to save money on buying a hero took root in my mind. The idea worked. The prisoner was captured. The city was defended. The prisoner became a Commander. A runner was quickly leveled up. Everything was going well in the first week. The second week began with a very difficult breakthrough of the speed crystal behind the Crusaders and Ballistas with my young heroes and the only Devil. A battle for the defense of the Devil dwelling took place unexpectedly, where, for some reason, David's sling didn't work, and my Devil, hitting weakly, as if without it, disappeared. The loss of a level 4 monster on an outer dwelling became a familiar thing for me, but after buying two new Pikemen, I moved to the castle to prepare to destroy the bridge. These two days became a slowing-down moment: my runner was battered by Crusaders - with his grave in the army, I lost the bonus from the Master Runner skill; and then, after being resurrected in the castle, he began to study only scouting and the promising Ninja 42 learned the Grand Master of Running skill at the age of 55 at level 124. It would have been nothing, but it was these delays that prevented me from blocking Gustn's path to his upper teleport home. I was short by 1 day and ten steps. The opponent dove behind the gate right in front of my nose. I failed to snatch the Mind Shield from him in his lands first. The race for immunity to mind magic was lost. I couldn't significantly outpace him in clearing the area. I had to fight him prepared.
Before the battle, I couldn't figure out how Gustn managed to clear his entire territory with only two Sorceresses. Was it that his heroes had enough mana to fight monsters of level 3 and 4? Only upon closer examination with scouting before the final, I was surprised to see a Combat Mage Master with the Grand Master of Melee skill in his ranks. I was also surprised because Schnurov advised me to follow exactly that path of development. I really wanted to follow Schnurov, but there wasn't enough experience on all 6 heroes to create a tank out of a Ninja. Another surprise was the large number of Djinns. That is, Djinns and 2 Sorceresses in Gustn's final army. And yet, the most fatal event for me was the teleport of Djinns into my ranks. There, they could kill heroes in pairs with his melee attacker, a very lucky corpse, taking lives from my well-resistant heroes. In short, all I had left to do from the first battle was to run away. The second battle was inconclusive for both sides. We spent a very long time teleporting his Djinns back and forth. As a result, we both survived and took a time-out for a couple of real days. The time for the third and final battle has come.
The situation was difficult. I didn't see any obvious opportunities for victory without the Devils lost in the first battle. I kept remembering Zeziuk's and Schnurov's comments about the weak prospects of Death on this map. At that moment, it was unfolding exactly as they wrote, contrary to my theoretical plans. Zeziuk had already outlined the first final battle for me in detail. And the second battle also went according to his hypothesis. I really didn't want to give up. I repeatedly watched the Twitch replays. I tirelessly calculated. I generated. I compared on paper. And finally, the feeling of vulnerability of his strengths that never left me gave a result. I just needed to estimate the strength of my spells, the levels of his resistances, and remember that the blue helmet doesn't allow Gustn to cast Morale on his heads. And he couldn't steal my Morale with the helmet on his head either.
The last battle was decided by very unusual perks for leveling up to such a level: Ice Bolt, Summon Imps, Poison Attack, targeted Mirth from the raised corpses of Djinns. My two morale boosters had more attack than his one. All my units with morale always went first. His morale was easily lowered by casting Ice Bolt on his Djinns. All that remained was to determine the order of destroying the heroes and, knowing about the shackles on his tank, methodically destroy the Sorcerers and solve the problem of destroying the strongman. The initially frightening ring of regeneration on him turned out to be not so cool in the calculations. My poison attack of 96 and ice arrow of 211 with his 77% resistance took 70 HP per turn, and the ring of regeneration gave the hero only 48 HP per turn. The difference of 22 HP per 11 turns completely overwhelmed the tank. The duration of the poison was enough; all that remained was to fight cautiously, saving at least 33 mana for my mages at the end. The best mage, of course, had a wooden staff, but still. Saving must be economical.
I managed to pull off very difficult battles with the help of a second player. In fact, only one phrase from Schnurov in Skype, "maybe imps?", significantly eased the task of saving mana, protecting against melee attacks, and poisoning enemy heroes. My own head, after 20 game hours, was more filled with fears than with calm decisions. It was becoming practically impossible to pull off this situation on my own. Thank you for your help!
I am immensely grateful to my opponent for such an extraordinary game. Very beautiful development of Order - excellently organized transition from slow units to fast Sorceresses. Timely teleport of hard-hitting Djinns into my ranks. Top class.
I really hope that the Schnurov-Zeziuk game will take place in the next three days, and next week we will start the final with a game for third place.
P.S. Home video: first game week, second game week, third game week, the last two battles in two parts here and here.
Necropolis wins against Academy 1m3w6d
The game unfolded on several fronts. I really wanted the first final between our players in the World Championship to take place. There were different scenarios for the matchups of nationalities in the decisive games of previous years: Russia vs. France, France vs. Sweden, twice Brazil vs. Portugal, Portugal vs. France. It has never happened before that two players from the same country would reach the final. There is still a chance for Zeziuk, after defeating Schnurov, to make the final a Russian-Belarusian one, but in any case, this is ALREADY OUR VICTORY IN 2013! At the same time, I was fighting for the first time against a top veteran, ToHa Gustn. He won titles in the Vesuvia tournaments at the height of the four-player era, when I was just learning to level up more than two heroes in my army. For me, this was an opportunity to experience for the first time the strategy of a player from that time. And that's why I'm not surprised how I failed to anticipate his actions, both on the adventure map and on the battlefield. In addition, the Brazilian Gustn, returning to the four-player scene after a 6-year break, managed to win gold in the World Championship twice in a row. After defeating the one-time champion Jel, defeating the only two-time champion to date was a separate task for me.
The game itself was my first hit & run at the official level. The result of the card draw was predictable; it wasn't difficult for me to discard 4 of Gustn's other cards, and I really wanted to play in the familiar Ironman style. I tried to decide on my race before the start of the game, but I couldn't come to a specific decision. All cities, in my opinion, ultimately have roughly equal chances there. All that remained was to choose randomly and remove the aggressive Chaos and Nature from my opponent. He chose Order, and that's how we started.
Immediately, I planned to quickly attack Gustn with 6 heroes and early-built Devils. From the first day, the idea of joining a prisoner to my army and creating a Tactician-Noble out of him in order to save money on buying a hero took root in my mind. The idea worked. The prisoner was captured. The city was defended. The prisoner became a Commander. A runner was quickly leveled up. Everything was going well in the first week. The second week began with a very difficult breakthrough of the speed crystal behind the Crusaders and Ballistas with my young heroes and the only Devil. A battle for the defense of the Devil dwelling took place unexpectedly, where, for some reason, David's sling didn't work, and my Devil, hitting weakly, as if without it, disappeared. The loss of a level 4 monster on an outer dwelling became a familiar thing for me, but after buying two new Pikemen, I moved to the castle to prepare to destroy the bridge. These two days became a slowing-down moment: my runner was battered by Crusaders - with his grave in the army, I lost the bonus from the Master Runner skill; and then, after being resurrected in the castle, he began to study only scouting and the promising Ninja 42 learned the Grand Master of Running skill at the age of 55 at level 124. It would have been nothing, but it was these delays that prevented me from blocking Gustn's path to his upper teleport home. I was short by 1 day and ten steps. The opponent dove behind the gate right in front of my nose. I failed to snatch the Mind Shield from him in his lands first. The race for immunity to mind magic was lost. I couldn't significantly outpace him in clearing the area. I had to fight him prepared.
Before the battle, I couldn't figure out how Gustn managed to clear his entire territory with only two Sorceresses. Was it that his heroes had enough mana to fight monsters of level 3 and 4? Only upon closer examination with scouting before the final, I was surprised to see a Combat Mage Master with the Grand Master of Melee skill in his ranks. I was also surprised because Schnurov advised me to follow exactly that path of development. I really wanted to follow Schnurov, but there wasn't enough experience on all 6 heroes to create a tank out of a Ninja. Another surprise was the large number of Djinns. That is, Djinns and 2 Sorceresses in Gustn's final army. And yet, the most fatal event for me was the teleport of Djinns into my ranks. There, they could kill heroes in pairs with his melee attacker, a very lucky corpse, taking lives from my well-resistant heroes. In short, all I had left to do from the first battle was to run away. The second battle was inconclusive for both sides. We spent a very long time teleporting his Djinns back and forth. As a result, we both survived and took a time-out for a couple of real days. The time for the third and final battle has come.
The situation was difficult. I didn't see any obvious opportunities for victory without the Devils lost in the first battle. I kept remembering Zeziuk's and Schnurov's comments about the weak prospects of Death on this map. At that moment, it was unfolding exactly as they wrote, contrary to my theoretical plans. Zeziuk had already outlined the first final battle for me in detail. And the second battle also went according to his hypothesis. I really didn't want to give up. I repeatedly watched the Twitch replays. I tirelessly calculated. I generated. I compared on paper. And finally, the feeling of vulnerability of his strengths that never left me gave a result. I just needed to estimate the strength of my spells, the levels of his resistances, and remember that the blue helmet doesn't allow Gustn to cast Morale on his heads. And he couldn't steal my Morale with the helmet on his head either.
The last battle was decided by very unusual perks for leveling up to such a level: Ice Bolt, Summon Imps, Poison Attack, targeted Mirth from the raised corpses of Djinns. My two morale boosters had more attack than his one. All my units with morale always went first. His morale was easily lowered by casting Ice Bolt on his Djinns. All that remained was to determine the order of destroying the heroes and, knowing about the shackles on his tank, methodically destroy the Sorcerers and solve the problem of destroying the strongman. The initially frightening ring of regeneration on him turned out to be not so cool in the calculations. My poison attack of 96 and ice arrow of 211 with his 77% resistance took 70 HP per turn, and the ring of regeneration gave the hero only 48 HP per turn. The difference of 22 HP per 11 turns completely overwhelmed the tank. The duration of the poison was enough; all that remained was to fight cautiously, saving at least 33 mana for my mages at the end. The best mage, of course, had a wooden staff, but still. Saving must be economical.
I managed to pull off very difficult battles with the help of a second player. In fact, only one phrase from Schnurov in Skype, "maybe imps?", significantly eased the task of saving mana, protecting against melee attacks, and poisoning enemy heroes. My own head, after 20 game hours, was more filled with fears than with calm decisions. It was becoming practically impossible to pull off this situation on my own. Thank you for your help!
I am immensely grateful to my opponent for such an extraordinary game. Very beautiful development of Order - excellently organized transition from slow units to fast Sorceresses. Timely teleport of hard-hitting Djinns into my ranks. Top class.
I really hope that the Schnurov-Zeziuk game will take place in the next three days, and next week we will start the final with a game for third place.
P.S. Home video: first game week, second game week, third game week, the last two battles in two parts here and here.