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

Satyr (blue, Necro, Clavius, Clavius) def ProtosArchon (red, Stronghold, Crag Hack, Crag Hack) 8mm6a 226

There were 2 restarts left, but 2 roads failed, the Griffin Conservatory, a bit of money, and I decided to start playing. As a result, we had an insanely screwed-up generation rolled over 3 attempts.

On the first week, I killed the bot, revealing 2 hives at his respawn. The road to the center led to an exit monolith, which was already pleasing; the adjacent zone to the corner treasure zone was swamp, and the treasure zone itself was also swamp. The horses were in the Citadel; I got the Cloak +10.

On the second week, I barely took those hives and got wiped by the Griffin Conservatory on 2. No speed at all, so I only captured it on day 125. On day 126, I transferred everything except 2 angels and 2 dragons for capturing a village via chain to Nagash, who was standing at the Papal monolith entrance, and dove in without fear since there was nowhere to run anyway. I was very afraid of emerging in a vast underground respawn, but I was lucky — endless sands :smile27:. But I immediately crawled out onto Inferno ground — at least without the penalty. Meanwhile, red flags appeared from somewhere across the wasteland but didn't pressure. I revealed an underground exit there along the road and dove in with Tunara on 2 angels, hoping to run somewhere and steal the bot's castle or village, anything!

The Inferno zone turned out to be huge; only on day 133 did I reach the road, having picked up boots for Nagashik along the way and leveled up the log. Tunara wasn't killed and rushed forward somewhere along the endless road. Clavius mostly sat on packed bags. Hopelessness :smile21:

Finally, on day 134, I captured a Rampart village in the sands and moved the Papa there. By the end of the week, I took 2 hives, a neutral stack of Horned Demons, a neutral stack of Nagas, and the bot's tower. Tunara never made it anywhere, but he gathered resources and on day 137 got a Town Portal scroll. Right then, on my day 141, Crag Hack arrived at him with expert Tactics, Mass Haste, 40 dragons, and +1 speed, which together allowed him to kill Tunara and snatch the priceless scroll from his cool little hands.

I, from experience, cast Town Portal in Rampart the same turn :cool:, capturing the swamp from the computer. A Dragon Utopia was revealed in my swamps, but it was so far away that goodness gracious. I decided to check the computers' treasure zone first. Everything there was very grim; in Rampart, I got Fly, but only Nagashik, who levels up better than Clavius, could learn it — as well as Town Portal. On day 144, I took that Dragon Utopia — tier 1, Boots +2 and Shield +5. With Fly, I cleared the swamp treasure zone, also pathetic like all the treasure zones on this map, and ran Clavius to my super treasury. How to get to the second one was unclear; in the second half of the map, red dominated, and the passage there was either through Papal one-way portals or across wasteland. And I had nothing to surprise with.

On day 213, I found a tier 3 Dragon Utopia in the very corner; it gave a decent payout: Helm, Tome of Earth, and red Orb. I started pressuring red a bit. By day 226, it was mindless slugging; I even found another Dragon Utopia, but there was only gold, and finally, Crag Hack made a mistake.

My forces: 24 Liches, 8 Angels, 19 Dark Champions, 18 Dwarves, 21 Unicorns, 21 Nagas, 69 Dragons, and 3200 Skeletons. All upgraded except the Angels, +2 speed, +1 HP, stats 14 16, Orb equipped, a Brooch +3/+3 equipped instead of the speed Brooch. Tactics, Offense, Defense — all as expected.

Little Crag: 72 upgraded Orcs, 1400 Skeletons, 83 Minotaurs, 4 Angels, 22 upgraded Cyclopes, 5 Behemoths, 18 Giant Birds. +2 speed, +2 HP, stats 35 12, also has a Brooch for morale/luck, and Offense/Defense of course.

After the waits, I rushed forward, trying to shield the Skeletons from being subjected to retaliation and the attack by the imbalanced Minotaur stack. With my Minotaurs, after the wait, I crashed into the enemy ones, because after their attack on mine, nothing but tears would remain. I took out 20+, Poison applied, almost half of mine flew away, also got Poisoned, and were finished off immediately.

Next, I managed to strike twice with the Angels, who died in the second round from retaliation. Protos, with the remains of his Minotaurs, crashed into the Dark Champions and tried to block the Skeletons. But the guys broke through and killed the Dragons with plenty to spare. The opponent's Skeletons were idle in the meantime due to low speed. In the third round, they also didn't participate in the brawl, after which the opponent had all his shooters and Skeletons left, while I had 10 Nagas, 7 Dwarves, and almost all my Skeletons. The rest was a matter of technique; 9 Nagas survived, 2400 Skeletons, and 500 were raised. What decided the outcome was probably the +1 speed on my Skeletons, since the enemy ones should have dealt only slightly less damage, but they were never really able to break through.
Thank you for the game.

P.S. After the game, it turned out that I had taken 3 Dragon Utopias, Protos took one, and there was another one unclaimed on the map, but it could only be found with a map hack. I don't recall such sparse generations on 8mm6 at all.