Favorites, to battle! - 7 - The Battle of Favorites! - 7

It was a very difficult game; after the first save, I even stopped streaming to fully concentrate on the game. The map had a fast-respawning area with 4 Hive units and a Swamp village. Right from the start, the random map generator showed me that it wasn't going to be easy :smile10:. In battles against neutrals, which were supposed to be easy, morale exceeded all acceptable values. I suffered losses in almost every battle, and of course, at the worst possible time. A planned rush was abruptly canceled because I only revealed a Grand Order of Titans on day 116. Since I didn't have mass magic, I had to gather resources scattered all over the map. There were terrible mistakes; chains broke. As a result, with great difficulty, I ended up with 122 5 Angels, 26 Monarchs + a decent amount of other units. I broke the Grand Order, thanks to a visited library and a couple of good artifacts – the losses were small. In the treasure map, I broke through the only available path, cleared the units, and then attacked a pack of Hydras for Pandora + Utopian. There were many of them. While I was micro-managing, they ate up all the time, and then the most unfortunate thing happened. After exiting the battle, in 4 seconds, I only managed to separate the Monarchs, but I didn't even take Pandora. Naturally, a Crag appeared, took Pandora, and then Utopian, and the stats changed from 14 12 to 29 11. There was no follow-up attack. I returned for the Utopian and, just because I could, attacked. The first fort battle: Shakti, 26 mana, 12 14 7, 24 Monarchs, 5 Angels, 8 simple Vipers, a few small Snakes, and a few Lizards, but there were 3 morale bonuses and expert resistance + boots of resistance. Crag: 29 11 5, 7 mana, 8! Gray Bears, 5 Thunderbirds, 14 Ducks + a few Ducks and +2 speed! Thanks to the morale bonuses and the opponent's passivity, who stubbornly didn't want to engage in an open exchange after I removed a Snake, I managed to kill almost everything except the Bears with minimal losses. I was lucky that the oil I cast reduced the stacks by half, and I hastened the necessary units. However, towards the end of the battle, the situation was critical. I had 2 Angels and 20 Monarchs + a couple of Lizards left, and the opponent had 8 Bears. There was no money for a truce, and my mana was depleted. Despite running faster with 11 speed, which means I could move anywhere in 2 turns, Vipers die in 2 hits, Angels, of course, in 1, and Monarchs only deal 1.5 damage to a Bear at most. I was almost resigned to defeat, and then a truce offer appeared!!!! As Protos explained, he was afraid of the morale bonuses and poison. I didn't want to miss such a gift, especially considering that 80% of the treasure map was closer to me from that point on! Due to the lack of mana and decent troops, I spent the first few days just reaching the central city and drooling over the goodies. Then I made a couple of good moves, gathered a lot of stats for the Creature of the Week, and even started taking Utopians with weak heroes. Then, as if I had been jinxed again, in 2 turns, I messed up everything. I lost troops, missed a lot of moves with my main hero, and I also got used to reading the chat, but there's nothing good to see in such moments :smile43:. So, I continued playing without streaming. The center was Inferno, and they stubbornly didn't want to give me Pandora for the treasure map. There were only 3 normal ones on the entire treasure map. I was given 3 Archdevils, but the opponent, who returned with a DD flyer after the truce and taking the Utopian, immediately ate 2 packs of upgraded Ifrits, both good and not so good. From the third week, I realized that things were bad because instead of 8 Bears, 16 returned! By this time, I had already taken a decent number of Devil lairs, and in the third lair, I had already gathered 5 = I put them in the fort. While the opponent was eating another Citadel respawn, which was conveniently located near his original respawn (which is very convenient), the attack stat exceeded 40, and an attack with a weak hero showed that it had +1 speed instead of +2. My assembled Angel alliance was crying :smile27:. But without losing hope, I came up with a cunning plan. Since the last skill of the cunning Shakti allows him to use Ballistics! In terms of stats, I was ahead. All that remained was to trap him in the city and, at the same time, make his life not too sweet with full control. I took several copies of his city, but I didn't dare to stay overnight. But then, as usual, a complete blunder happened. One of the weak heroes (this scoundrel in a Fire Imp) took all the land with Wisdom and stood in such a way that I couldn't pass through at a critical moment. Naturally, I forgot about the entire land area in the timer. I deleted it, and when I left one of the powerful weak heroes with a few small Snakes in his main city, I saw this garbage jump and take everything back with a Wave of Death. Pain, humiliation, nonsense, crap :smile35: :eek:. The growth remained there, + a teleport appeared, although only for one hero, but that was enough to launch a counterattack. On the fourth growth, I was able to gather 17 Archdevils, gave them to a well-upgraded Galtar, who performed the functions of a temporary main hero while the main one was eating stat-boosting items. The Crag was doing roughly the same. By the time of the final battle, unfortunately, I didn't have time to gather an AotD because the key city near which the shield was located was taken ;( but the main thing is that the opponent did what I wanted: he sat in the central city with a fort. There were 28 Gray Bears, 32 Monarchs, 15 Thunderbirds, 7 Angels, 80 Dogs, 24 +1 Sultans, 53 26, anti-morale, luck, Cloak of Negation +1 speed, and an elixir (which was very discouraging). Shakti: 16 Archdevils (1 was forgotten during the exchange), 70 Monarchs, 70 Great Lizards, 3-4 Snakes in each stack, 45 40, +2 speed +3 hp, CR, thanks to the speed, I immediately closed the door. Thanks to the speed advantage, I quickly reduced the stacks of flying units, despite the elixir. The advantage of 20 attack was very decisive, and the walls, accordingly, were not broken because I skipped turns with the catapult. In general, a glorious victory for the Horde, a celebration :smile03:, a feast :smile49:, and anticipation of the next opponent. Thx for an interesting game :smile02:!