Дегустация Horn of the Abyss

Opp asked if I wanted to scrawl. I thought I'd have plenty of time to play Cove later and offered my Inferno against any of the opponent's towns (expecting to scrawl on mini-Nostra, or at worst 8mm6a). In the end, I managed to scrawl mini-Nostra, and the comps were Castle, Rampart, and Dungeon (reminder - I'm playing Inferno :D ). One plan - don't meet the opponent. At all. Overwhelm with the authority of hundreds of demons :smile08: . In reality, it turned out... not quite according to plan)

On the first week, I was afraid of a trick from the generator at every step, but everything seemed perfect. An external dwelling of Gogs, Log–Earth as first skills, immediately guessed the comp - Castle, didn't make it, of course, 1 move short of the town, but the comp only managed to place a loh with 1 Griffin and didn't stick a Citadel.

I ran straight to Rampart on 114 after splitting via the external Tavern. True, the Castle's meat hero returned and I had to waste a turn with the main while the army ran to defend the town. I also didn't make it to Rampart in time, and the comp had the opportunity to hole up with all the meat in the Citadel, but instead decided to go somewhere else and just stick a Citadel in the empty town. I was totally fine with that. Turns out the comp had stuck upgraded Dendroids on the first week... 0_o

In the end, by the end of the first week, I took the two meatiest towns, built 1-6 without Pits in Castle (there was an external dwelling of Pits, decided to start demonizing on 3 initially, but in the end never got around to the external dwelling for the rest of the game).

On the second week, the plan was simple - take the visible Red Tower, use birds to grab the external dwelling of Pits behind the Cyclopes, there was some Griffin Conservatory visible too, and then - the treasure zone. But the chains were placed awkwardly and not on tempo, in the end we didn't get the Pits, gold ran out early, and one step from the treasure zone I decided to throw away my troops on a lot of Gorgons (which, at an average count of 39, turned out to be 45 with a grand stack). However, I still don't fully understand how Kalkh with Expert Archery and 62 Gogs can throw away troops on a lot of some damn Gorgons. A special, street-level skill. As a final chord in that fight, I finished off my own Fire Bird with splash damage, forgetting in time that they don't have fire immunity. In the end, I lost 4 demons and the bird, plus half a day of tempo and a ton of morale. I have no idea why I even went after them. They weren't guarding anything special, just standing off the road... Pure XP greed - hadn't gotten level-ups in a while and was asking for it.

By the end of the second week, things were already pretty bad - no money, few demons, and the only objects were one large Griffin Conservatory that I couldn't take. Expert Earth was leveled up, but Slow still wasn't found across three respawns (spoiler: found oil on the fourth week in the fifth or sixth built Guild). On 126, I cleared two Pandora's Boxes nearby along the road... One gave all Air spells, the other gave either all 4th level or all 5th level spells. Yeah, yeah, Wisdom was obviously missing.

At the beginning of the third week, the treasure zone finally yielded some Dragon Fly Hives, an external dwelling of Efreets, and a Dragon Utopia. Decided to transfer Magogs for lack of anything better, since everything around was walkable anyway.
On 135 with 60 demons and 20 dragon flies, we cracked open the first slag Dragon Utopia. Finally bought troops, brought the meat, the demon factory started rolling better. Behind the Giants 10-19, a suspicious scroll was found, which turned out to be Town Portal. Things got even better. Via TP, we grabbed all the goodies around the towns and entered the second treasure zone. The first thing we ate there... Another Town Portal scroll. Plus one Dragon Fly Hive. And that was it, that's the whole treasure zone within reach. The opponent already has Titans and great stats lit up.

I had to go to the third comp through forests, through mountains, through rivers, through fences. A hero with 3k movement points needed three days just to get from his native respawn to the Pink area. Along the way, we took the native slag Dragon Utopia. But in the Pink zone (who, reminder, is Orange's brother), we were immediately rewarded with a Dragon Utopia with the Speaker's Hat and the Sword of Justice... Well, obviously, who you have to go to for the chocolate fillings... :smile54:

With full control, things got really fun. On the 4th week, Angels were built in Castle, all the awkward Griffin Conservatories were taken, demons started slaughtering at accelerated tempos. On 146, finally learned Slow :smile41:. When there was nowhere left to run, I got cocky, peeked through DD into the treasure zone right under the opponent's nose. Didn't manage to steal much from there before the opponent arrived, but found Labetha in a prison with Expert Earth and tons of mana. That's where the second TP scroll came in handy. On 147, finally upgraded Archers.

At the beginning of the second month, I ate two Cyclops Stockpiles from under the opponent's nose in another treasure zone and was getting ready to dive through DD into Pink's treasure zone... But then the opponent decided it was time to power up in that treasure zone I had just fled from. TP-DD-hello. Via Mass Haste, I managed to grab almost all the meat on the loh and almost all the dragon flies on the main. A fight ensued. Turns out there was an Elixir, a Bow of the Sniper, 16 Titans, and Sea Wolves as filler (all under uncontrolled Expert Tactics)... Just in time I caught him :eek: . If I'd had to fight all that honestly, even 300 horned ones, 13 Archers, and 30 dragon flies might not have saved me. In combat stats, I was about 10 behind.

Out of curiosity, I checked Pink's treasure zone after the game... Within two days of the village, 38 Cyclopes, 40 Dragon Flies, and a Dragon Utopia were gathering in it.... Who. Would. Have. Doubted. It. :D :D

Thanks for the game.