nik312
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We finally finished this endless game. It was played over 4 or 5 sessions. If I were asked to describe this event in one word, only "SWEAT" comes to mind. Of course, I'm to blame for this myself; no one asked me to generate an XL+U mini-nostalgia game... :D
Well yeah, I started the game straight from the Cove, and we only noticed we were playing on XL+U on day 7, but decided to continue...
From the AI towns, I managed to grab both Castle and Tower. Opponent took Swamp as their first pick... Not sure about that choice. There were no upgraded Wyverns in any of the final battles.
The first week went briskly. Bless in the guild on 111, Anabel got Logistics as her first skill, I got to the enemy's Castle relatively quickly, the AI didn't even hole up in the citadel with all the meat. Collected some crypts, dwarf cottages, black towers (no boots, alas), found a Pandora's Box with almost a hundred Golems. Turned out to be 5k exp (a damn workshop and some wood). And then on level up, Anabelator joyfully picks... Well, between Eagle Eye and Pathfinding, I had to choose Pathfinding. Right after that, Earth magic finally came... But guess which skill stubbornly leveled up first.
Nevertheless, by the end of the first week, Nix were in the Castle, there was a Pirate external dwelling, and there was enough money for a full buy. With about 50 Pirates and the beginnings of Earth magic, I decided to break into the treasure zone on 121. And then the great period of accomplishing nothing began... In the treasure zone, an immediate block of Hydras behind KO (with a block of reds visible beyond). I split my main force, ran to the Tower spawn point to recruit Giants on the second day, buy a [Ballista], and get into the next treasure zone... With expert Logistics, I had to run from the main force to the Tower, just along the road, for four full days. This time, the AI holed up in the Castle with all its meat. Thankfully, the meat wasn't much; I managed to get away with sacrificing all Nymphs and 5 Pirates. I had to run for another two days to the treasure zone (and I even saved a day by a lucky re-split at an external tavern). Immediately upon entering the treasure zone, a beautiful block of Ice [elemental] Throngs for a Pandora's Box, which I didn't risk taking without Wisdom anyway (as it turned out - rightly so). -13 Pirates. And immediately another Papal choice between Diplomacy and Scouting... Good news: found Golden Bow and 2 Giant external dwellings. Bad news: I still had 2.5 days to run to the Castle, and mana was running out. The Cove mistake: I misjudged the build days, and the Giants didn't get built.
And the third week began. Scattered parts of AotD were spotted at spawn points, but there wasn't much point in that artifact yet, and collecting them was extremely costly. Another bout of pointless running around with hints of topographical cretinism resulted in barely managing to take two Giant external dwellings, a couple of Zephyrs, and a Dragon Fly Hive (plus a couple of empty Pandora's Boxes) during the entire third week. However, I did scout three Dragon Utopias... I had nothing to take them with yet, but a stack of Giants on day 141 would open that prospect too.
And then from the fourth week, things started going well. The first Dragon Utopia (triple) yielded only Titan's Gladius and Helm of Thunder, which finally solved the mana problem. But the second (mini) was truly royal. Speaker's Hat, Pendant of -2 Morale, Badge of [Courage], and Ring of [Life]. I leveled up to expert Air magic. Near the third Dragon Utopia, I found another Speaker's Hat... Inside the (mini) Dragon Utopia, just a relatively useless Necklace of +3 All (I was still wearing the pendant for negative morale anyway). With 2 Dimension Doors and two hats (sadly, the AI players didn't get Air magic), I hopped into another treasure zone, took the Red Ball there, Titan's Cuirass, found 2 Dragon Utopias, but I had Pirates with me and felt sorry for them, so I didn't attack immediately. The next day, I rushed into the first Dragon Utopia, lost the remains of my [Behemoths] and 3 Nix, but... KZ, KV, Chaynik... Well, just my luck, as they say). As I said, I had no [Behemoths] left, and no mana either, so I grabbed a Maxi [Crossbow?] nearby and flew away from the second Dragon Utopia :smile05:. Soon after, the opponent took it. After that, it became a normal game (if you don't count AI heroes flying off with basic Town Portal to some other level of the map instead of the castle that's ten steps away).
Start of the second month.
Giant (pun intended) problems with Gems were discovered, but I managed to solve them more or less, and the Titans finally got built. Finally finished collecting AotD. By the end of the week, Crag Hack arrived with powerful stats and tons of meat. My timer had already run out, my brain was melting, so I decided to take a strategic time-out (more commonly known as Papal procrastination). Redd suggested I play one more turn if I was going to attack, but I wasn't planning to attack at that point, and I told the Admiral as much. It seemed to me that a +30+ battle stat advantage under Crag Hack with expert Tactics was still better than AotD+Power of the Dragon Father... The calculator during the break explained to me that I had never been so wrong). So, at the start of the continuation, I quickly grab Bracers, a Necklace for morale/luck, collect the rest of the meat, finish the Elixir, and treacherously, without declaring war, I attack.
FB #1:
Crag Hack 40 31 X X, Red Ball, expert Tactics, +3 Speed.
8 Angels, 53 Wyverns, 10 [Simple?] Bears, 165 Demons, 92 Cyclopes
vs
Anabel 24 14 X X, AotD, Bracers, expert Archery, Angelic Arrows, Elixir
35 Titans, 4 Angels, 70 Sea Wolves, 31 Wyverns, 15 Nix Warriors, 76 Cyclopes, Ballista
The opponent, of course, recognizes the situation from the stats, moves everything forward with Tactics, hoping for lucky Morale rolls. But no lucky Morale happened, while I was getting lucky both on Morale and negative Luck and aimed shots. Not that it really decided anything there, but the feeling lingered (the Admiral took my sincere sympathy as BM :( ). Redd's entire army fell in 3 rounds, I lost the Angels and Wyverns. I wasn't particularly saving the army, thinking it would all end now... yeah... it will end... right now.
Opponent doesn't surrender, I'm stunned. In the tavern, there are Elder Behemoths, their army strength higher than the AI that built Black Dragons. Still stunned and wondering what's happening, I run at full speed to take all castles from the opponent. Along the way, I maximally control all AI heroes through the Bracers. And now the XL+U mini-nostalgia becomes painfully noticeable. Even with 3900 movement points and 2 Dimension Doors, running from one castle to another was absolutely unrealistic in most cases. I spent an average of a day and a half on each castle. Only external taverns sometimes saved me. I fully understand that while I'm busy with this running around, the opponent is building up, but I fairly assume that out-building 35 Titans with +6 per week, having lost all artifacts, is not realistic, so I ignore everything on the road and diligently capture the castles.
I won't retell everything from here on; there was a lot of running around and mind games with control. Eventually, I pinned the opponent on their last respawn point (orange treasure zone). Unfortunately, I blundered and didn't take the castle with a well-leveled hero. On the turn change, Miriam attacks me with 36 Elder Behemoths 0_o. Not enough to truly impress 40 Titans, but enough to kill the hero with the Chaynik, Boots, Gloves, and Speaker's Hat :smile05:. I couldn't reach the castle in one turn by any means (or so it seemed to me), so I decided to just pin the opponent on their patch of land and crush them with growth advantages. Pinning them was very difficult, they had many good heroes with control. Their growth there also turned out to be wild due to many unclaimed external dwellings. In the end, when Moner managed to get from the pinned castle to another key castle in one turn, I realized I had to stop and try to catch them. I managed to catch them when Moner brazenly jumped into my Dungeon's treasure zone hoping I couldn't reach them. I did. The calculator not long before had informed me again that stats are rubbish, and AotD is many times more profitable than this Alliance of yours. And why the hell did I collect and run around for it...
FB #2:
Moner 38 34 X X
45 Elder Behemoths, 58 Cyclopes, 56 Wyverns, 15 Thunderbirds, 6 Angels
vs
Anabel 30 17 X X
91 Cyclops Kings, 18 Master Genies, 2 Strategic Firebirds, 100+ Sea Wolves, 2x18 Nix Warriors (opponent left 11 in the main), 55 Titans.
I was constantly afraid I was forgetting something, checked parameters for the possibility of IFotO (Ogre's Club), didn't see it, checked Tactics and speed artifacts – didn't see it, insured against Morale with the Spirit of [Oppression] just in case. As it turned out – I was indeed forgetting something. The opponent had a Cloak of Silence, which would have cut almost all my AotD bonuses. But luckily for me, they didn't have time to equip it on that turn. Then again, maybe it would have worked out even with it, but it would have been much harder. As it was – after the Titan and Cyclops shot, the opponent surrendered.
Thank you for an interesting and intense game. :)
Well yeah, I started the game straight from the Cove, and we only noticed we were playing on XL+U on day 7, but decided to continue...
From the AI towns, I managed to grab both Castle and Tower. Opponent took Swamp as their first pick... Not sure about that choice. There were no upgraded Wyverns in any of the final battles.
The first week went briskly. Bless in the guild on 111, Anabel got Logistics as her first skill, I got to the enemy's Castle relatively quickly, the AI didn't even hole up in the citadel with all the meat. Collected some crypts, dwarf cottages, black towers (no boots, alas), found a Pandora's Box with almost a hundred Golems. Turned out to be 5k exp (a damn workshop and some wood). And then on level up, Anabelator joyfully picks... Well, between Eagle Eye and Pathfinding, I had to choose Pathfinding. Right after that, Earth magic finally came... But guess which skill stubbornly leveled up first.
Nevertheless, by the end of the first week, Nix were in the Castle, there was a Pirate external dwelling, and there was enough money for a full buy. With about 50 Pirates and the beginnings of Earth magic, I decided to break into the treasure zone on 121. And then the great period of accomplishing nothing began... In the treasure zone, an immediate block of Hydras behind KO (with a block of reds visible beyond). I split my main force, ran to the Tower spawn point to recruit Giants on the second day, buy a [Ballista], and get into the next treasure zone... With expert Logistics, I had to run from the main force to the Tower, just along the road, for four full days. This time, the AI holed up in the Castle with all its meat. Thankfully, the meat wasn't much; I managed to get away with sacrificing all Nymphs and 5 Pirates. I had to run for another two days to the treasure zone (and I even saved a day by a lucky re-split at an external tavern). Immediately upon entering the treasure zone, a beautiful block of Ice [elemental] Throngs for a Pandora's Box, which I didn't risk taking without Wisdom anyway (as it turned out - rightly so). -13 Pirates. And immediately another Papal choice between Diplomacy and Scouting... Good news: found Golden Bow and 2 Giant external dwellings. Bad news: I still had 2.5 days to run to the Castle, and mana was running out. The Cove mistake: I misjudged the build days, and the Giants didn't get built.
And the third week began. Scattered parts of AotD were spotted at spawn points, but there wasn't much point in that artifact yet, and collecting them was extremely costly. Another bout of pointless running around with hints of topographical cretinism resulted in barely managing to take two Giant external dwellings, a couple of Zephyrs, and a Dragon Fly Hive (plus a couple of empty Pandora's Boxes) during the entire third week. However, I did scout three Dragon Utopias... I had nothing to take them with yet, but a stack of Giants on day 141 would open that prospect too.
And then from the fourth week, things started going well. The first Dragon Utopia (triple) yielded only Titan's Gladius and Helm of Thunder, which finally solved the mana problem. But the second (mini) was truly royal. Speaker's Hat, Pendant of -2 Morale, Badge of [Courage], and Ring of [Life]. I leveled up to expert Air magic. Near the third Dragon Utopia, I found another Speaker's Hat... Inside the (mini) Dragon Utopia, just a relatively useless Necklace of +3 All (I was still wearing the pendant for negative morale anyway). With 2 Dimension Doors and two hats (sadly, the AI players didn't get Air magic), I hopped into another treasure zone, took the Red Ball there, Titan's Cuirass, found 2 Dragon Utopias, but I had Pirates with me and felt sorry for them, so I didn't attack immediately. The next day, I rushed into the first Dragon Utopia, lost the remains of my [Behemoths] and 3 Nix, but... KZ, KV, Chaynik... Well, just my luck, as they say). As I said, I had no [Behemoths] left, and no mana either, so I grabbed a Maxi [Crossbow?] nearby and flew away from the second Dragon Utopia :smile05:. Soon after, the opponent took it. After that, it became a normal game (if you don't count AI heroes flying off with basic Town Portal to some other level of the map instead of the castle that's ten steps away).
Start of the second month.
Giant (pun intended) problems with Gems were discovered, but I managed to solve them more or less, and the Titans finally got built. Finally finished collecting AotD. By the end of the week, Crag Hack arrived with powerful stats and tons of meat. My timer had already run out, my brain was melting, so I decided to take a strategic time-out (more commonly known as Papal procrastination). Redd suggested I play one more turn if I was going to attack, but I wasn't planning to attack at that point, and I told the Admiral as much. It seemed to me that a +30+ battle stat advantage under Crag Hack with expert Tactics was still better than AotD+Power of the Dragon Father... The calculator during the break explained to me that I had never been so wrong). So, at the start of the continuation, I quickly grab Bracers, a Necklace for morale/luck, collect the rest of the meat, finish the Elixir, and treacherously, without declaring war, I attack.
FB #1:
Crag Hack 40 31 X X, Red Ball, expert Tactics, +3 Speed.
8 Angels, 53 Wyverns, 10 [Simple?] Bears, 165 Demons, 92 Cyclopes
vs
Anabel 24 14 X X, AotD, Bracers, expert Archery, Angelic Arrows, Elixir
35 Titans, 4 Angels, 70 Sea Wolves, 31 Wyverns, 15 Nix Warriors, 76 Cyclopes, Ballista
The opponent, of course, recognizes the situation from the stats, moves everything forward with Tactics, hoping for lucky Morale rolls. But no lucky Morale happened, while I was getting lucky both on Morale and negative Luck and aimed shots. Not that it really decided anything there, but the feeling lingered (the Admiral took my sincere sympathy as BM :( ). Redd's entire army fell in 3 rounds, I lost the Angels and Wyverns. I wasn't particularly saving the army, thinking it would all end now... yeah... it will end... right now.
Opponent doesn't surrender, I'm stunned. In the tavern, there are Elder Behemoths, their army strength higher than the AI that built Black Dragons. Still stunned and wondering what's happening, I run at full speed to take all castles from the opponent. Along the way, I maximally control all AI heroes through the Bracers. And now the XL+U mini-nostalgia becomes painfully noticeable. Even with 3900 movement points and 2 Dimension Doors, running from one castle to another was absolutely unrealistic in most cases. I spent an average of a day and a half on each castle. Only external taverns sometimes saved me. I fully understand that while I'm busy with this running around, the opponent is building up, but I fairly assume that out-building 35 Titans with +6 per week, having lost all artifacts, is not realistic, so I ignore everything on the road and diligently capture the castles.
I won't retell everything from here on; there was a lot of running around and mind games with control. Eventually, I pinned the opponent on their last respawn point (orange treasure zone). Unfortunately, I blundered and didn't take the castle with a well-leveled hero. On the turn change, Miriam attacks me with 36 Elder Behemoths 0_o. Not enough to truly impress 40 Titans, but enough to kill the hero with the Chaynik, Boots, Gloves, and Speaker's Hat :smile05:. I couldn't reach the castle in one turn by any means (or so it seemed to me), so I decided to just pin the opponent on their patch of land and crush them with growth advantages. Pinning them was very difficult, they had many good heroes with control. Their growth there also turned out to be wild due to many unclaimed external dwellings. In the end, when Moner managed to get from the pinned castle to another key castle in one turn, I realized I had to stop and try to catch them. I managed to catch them when Moner brazenly jumped into my Dungeon's treasure zone hoping I couldn't reach them. I did. The calculator not long before had informed me again that stats are rubbish, and AotD is many times more profitable than this Alliance of yours. And why the hell did I collect and run around for it...
FB #2:
Moner 38 34 X X
45 Elder Behemoths, 58 Cyclopes, 56 Wyverns, 15 Thunderbirds, 6 Angels
vs
Anabel 30 17 X X
91 Cyclops Kings, 18 Master Genies, 2 Strategic Firebirds, 100+ Sea Wolves, 2x18 Nix Warriors (opponent left 11 in the main), 55 Titans.
I was constantly afraid I was forgetting something, checked parameters for the possibility of IFotO (Ogre's Club), didn't see it, checked Tactics and speed artifacts – didn't see it, insured against Morale with the Spirit of [Oppression] just in case. As it turned out – I was indeed forgetting something. The opponent had a Cloak of Silence, which would have cut almost all my AotD bonuses. But luckily for me, they didn't have time to equip it on that turn. Then again, maybe it would have worked out even with it, but it would have been much harder. As it was – after the Titan and Cyclops shot, the opponent surrendered.
Thank you for an interesting and intense game. :)
