The retreat was significant: both chose all their rests + on my side there was a restart along one road in ГО + rest upon meeting. As a result, the middle roads were given up; it's just a huge respawn, but the only interesting things on it are crypts and an external dwelling of spears. I chose Pasis for mains and didn't actually miss out: at lvl 4 he grabbed earth, and from the prison on the respawn I pulled out Arlash with a ballista, which eventually helped a lot in breaking through blocks. The roads are very winding, so I only reached the secondary (which turned out to be native) by week 2, but with stats around 11 11. On week 1, horses were at home in the fort. At the secondary, I immediately hit a block of 120 fire-shooters behind a +6 shield and a scroll. I killed them, losing 1 horse through stupidity + some spears and the ballista. At the secondary, I also found a cloak +2 to speed and ribs behind an horde of pits. I leveled up with Pasis, made back money, took a medusa dwelling, a ring +1 hp; meanwhile, I smashed 2 losers against the pits (there's GS). At 127, I killed the pits without losses and broke back into mains to replenish mana (the ГМ has slow, expert earth). On week 3, I fought my way to the dungeon-secondary (the guard was 80+ gogs, so I didn't risk it earlier); there are 2 nagash dwellings, I took them and thereby significantly improved my economic situation. I cleared the prison with papal Aeris with exp. scouting + a spyglass had been cleared previously. From the dungeon-secondary, there are 2 exits to treasure zones; in one (underground), I immediately used Aeris to spot a +4 all shield and a couple of uliks; the other treasure zone on the surface is native! Feeling inspired, I went straight underground, took the shield and ulik at 8 vivs (didn't go for the second ulik behind wizards). Then I started clearing the native treasure zone, which turned out to be quite tasty. Right at the entrance, I finished leveling air (yes, Pasis leveled up great, they gave air in the end, although at first they pushed leadership and wisdom through the schoolboy, and I had already started to worry) and broke through 50-99 archmages, behind whom was a box for the full lvl 5! I also spotted КЗ behind 5-9 archangels. All of week 3-4 I hung out in the treasure zone (it turned out to be huge). But unfortunately, without Dragon Utopia. However, 4 angel external dwellings were taken, 1 horse one, handcuffs, a flask +2 hp, 3 hives, a library, and, essentially, КЗ. Further with full control it was just a matter of technique: I doubled the mana, went into the underground treasure zone where there was an ulik behind wizards, took it, next move I took Dragon Utopia, they gave complete garbage; nearby were boots and Pandora's box with 30 ghosts. All this time I monitored the opponent with views since he also had a double, but he sat in his own underground treasure and no strong growth of stats was observed until week 4 when he took Dragon Utopia with parameters. After the same-old Dragon Utopia, on the next move I did ДД to another; near it was a box with 15 power leeches, and next to the utopia a basin with 50-99 monarchs, 5+ hydras, 100+ gr. lizards and ones. I snatched the utopia from under his nose, but didn't decide to attack; there was a strong advantage in magic (impla at 2k+), but I feared КШ, and it turned out I feared for a reason. I flew home, shopped, upgraded everything that wasn't upgraded; meanwhile, the opponent ran ahead just so it would be more convenient for me to attack. On my turn, I covered him with handcuffs. In FB the ducks looked menacing, but other than them the opponent had nothing special; I had to endure 1 round when flies removed the counter-attack, blocked markovs, ducks crashed into my ducks, and lizards lost morale and halved my shooters. And then champs blocked the lizards, I piled everyone onto the monarchs and ГГ.
Thanks for the game!
Spring 2014