Favorites, to battle! - 6 - The Battle of Favorites! - 6

18.01.2014 shameonyou (red, Conflux, Inteus, Grindan) def. AYMAN (blue, Rampart, Kyrre) 2sm4d(3) 131

How long both my opponent and I waited for the result. We played 2 games, because the first was declared a draw and a rematch was played.

Briefly about the first game:

In this game, there was some incredible bad luck in everything imaginable.
Both my opponent and I completely used our restarts. I get Fish, a second hero with 3 Air Elementals. In the Mage Guild there is NO ranged unit... The respawn is big, decent in terms of money, and the birds should spawn well. The army is small, and I immediately go for Grindan in the main, luckily there are a couple of magic boosts. There's also an external dwelling of birds, but behind a horde of Pegasi and right in front of GO.
There are no crypts, but there is enough free loot and treasure chests/piles with guards.
I don't go into the adjacent zones yet — the guards aren't very pleasant (on the Citadel: Thieves + upgraded Harpies, in the portal: a horde of upgraded Centaurs and who knows what on the other side), considering my small army — 9 Air Elementals, about 35 Fairies (they get killed as singles in battles), Fish. I cleared a Cloak +2+2 at the end of the week, finally broke through the Centaurs. On the other side are Cerberi and swamp...
On day 117, I go to get the missing 1100 gold for the birds, naturally the chest turns out to be 1000 gold, and the garden gives gems instead of gold. In the end, I'm 100!!!!!! gold short for the birds. Such a shame :( (where is my Wraith Bank :D) On day 121, I built the birds, bought them, broke through to the swamp and the Citadel. Nothing noteworthy there, so I head towards my opponent with two birds, Air Elementals, and Fish. I have Expertise Earth, Expertise Air, 80 mana, and a 300 damage Lightning Bolt. Along the way, I found Boots of Speed. Using Air Scout, I saw the blue player near their secondary hero. The time to attack is right. I positioned myself at the elevator up and attacked Kyrre the next turn, but, alas, she is standing on a damned GREEN DRAGON (external dwelling), which completely ignores my magic. Kyrre buys peace and holds defense in the castle. On day 131, without new growth, I attack: Grindan 2 3 10 (80), 300 Lightning Bolt, Blind, 2 birds, 4 Psychos (Gogs?), about 20 Air Elementals, and as many Fish. Kyrre 3 5 5 3, 20+ Grand Elves, 5 Cavalry, 6 Dendroid Guards, GREEN DRAGON, 10 Pegasi, Citadel. The arrow tower shoots at the birds, dealing quite a lot of damage. I immediately gatecrash the gates and start blasting everything with lightning. But with my pathetic battle stats, the birds melt quickly under the tower's fire, and killing the Green Dragon with two birds and bad battle stats (if I had 4 birds, the game would have ended already, but no, I was 100 gold short :smile35:) is impossible. From this point, a simple castle kill :smile10: turned into a tedious chase until day 234! :smile35:

Realizing that I can't kill the Green Dragon, I buy peace with one bird and the remnants of my army at the Citadel, where I found a Griffin Conservatory deep in the respawn. I crawl to it with Grindan; naturally, it's a level 1, who would doubt it... Over the third and fourth week, I took the external dwelling of birds, went into the underground treasure zone and cleared a Necklace +3 +3, Shackles of War, a Hive with 26 Wyverns, Grindan got Offense, and most importantly, the entire 4th level spell in a box. I think, luck is turning. Overjoyed, I go to take a Dragon Utopia in the swamp. It's a level 2 — it gives totally crappy stuff: Red Boots, a helmet for mana (which is completely useless when I have Intelligence), and some other junk... Oh well, at least there's money. On day 211, I reach the opponent through GO and take the castle and its growth, then go to the snow treasure zone, where I break a Dragon Utopia (level 1...). It gives generously: a Crown +4 +4 and +1 Speed.... No control, no stats, no spell books of any kind. Then Kyrre, returning from ONE treasure zone with stats all around 25+, demonstrates that she also found FULL CONTROL there. Things are getting grim. Meanwhile, I find another Dragon Utopia in the snow. Again level 1 :smile35: :smile35:. It gives Spellpower armor (well, at least something) and junk. There are many Hives here, but they are all small. After finishing business in the snow, I run to take the opponent's castle again, and Kyrre simply flew back over the cliffs to her treasure zone.

I head to the last treasure zone, but it's completely empty... just a few Border Guards, behind which are bags of gold. There's no control in the boxes, my advantage is already nullified. I freed a scout hero with Earth Magic and Wisdom, and Expert Scholar, and retrained Armageddon. I go to Armageddon the blue player with meat, but they have the RECANTER'S CLOAK... Things are really bad :( I built the Mage Guild in Conflux (not the best option, but the secondary zones are Citadel and Swamp). It gave Summon Fish :smile34:

Nothing to be done... I trudge on foot through the snow treasure zone, eating up its remains. Suddenly Kyrre bursts in, taking my swamp with her movement covering half the map, and flies back to her main. The next turn, the blue player Town Portals back to the swamp and runs into the nearly-cleared snow treasure zone, where I was too. Well, here it is, I thought. Just need to catch her with the Shackles. There was no tower unit, so I figured out how to break the Necklace and drag the desired Greem (Dwarf?) to Grindan to somehow reach Kyrre. I miss by TWO!! cells, then by ONE cell... it's just infuriating, the rage is on, so we save.

Since I had an army advantage, and a 850 damage Lightning Bolt was still there, we appealed to Pit, and after lengthy discussions among 3 of us, we agreed on a rematch.



Second game :

We agreed to play with two days of restarts. My opponent used all his restarts, I didn't take any.

The starting hero is Inteus, but with 3 Air Elementals, and Brissa only has one stack. But then I scout the area and any thoughts of a restart vanish: 3 Griffin Conservatories next to each other, a Stable, 3 Crypts, lots of money. The Mage Guild has Bless, Haste, Slow, ranged unit — nice. The fifth hero is Grindan :) . I level Grindan wherever possible. In battles, I have to spend mana, as the army isn't particularly large — 30 Fairies (spent in battles), 9 Air Elementals, 5 Fire Elementals, and 20 Goblins from Dessa. By day 115, Grindan took 4 Crypts and several stat boosts. On day 116, I broke through 9 upgraded Dendroid Guards into the swamp; Brissa on birds broke through to the Citadel (deja vu :D). Day 117 — splitting Grindan to replenish mana, scout heroes cleared +1 All, captured the Citadel and swamp; at home, birds at the Citadel with gold to buy them. On day 122, I took 3 Griffin Conservatories; unfortunately, they were all level 1 with Guardian Spirits, but still, 3 Angels is also impressive. I head towards my opponent through his secondary zone. It took quite a while to reach my opponent's grass secondary zone, which for some reason wasn't captured yet. The secondary zone is Conflux. While walking, I leveled up nicely. Grindan has Expertise Armorer, Expertise Water, Expertise Earth, Expertise Wisdom. Stats: 3 3 9 10. On day 127, I broke through to AYMAN's respawn and scouted — the road network isn't great, but Kyrre is waiting for me in the castle. There are also Angels there, but it's not yet clear how many.

On day 131, I attack the blue player's main — it's a Castle town.

FB: Kyrre 5 8 3 3 (30), 4 Angels, 4 Cavalry, 9 Dendroid Guards, 22 Grand Elves, Gogs, Hell Hounds. Grindan 4 3 11 10 (72), Expertise Water, Expertise Earth, Expertise Armorer, base Offense, 5 birds, 3 Angels, 28 Air Elementals, 20 Dwarves, 6 Fish (Magi?), Fairies, Mass Bless, 300 damage Ice Bolt. I lock the opponent in the castle and kill everything with magic. Thanks for the game!