"The Newbie-2015. Winter" tournament.

Huge respawn, by day 117 scouted 6 Dragon Fly Hives scattered, 2 external dwellings of psychos, secondary town swamp, before moving out on day 123 took 5 Dragon Fly Hives and upgraded part (21) in the secondary and had 12 regular ones, for birds there wasn't enough, naturally, only psychos. In the center I immediately took the chalice and wings and on day 125 attacked Tazar in the central town, stats were equal, only attack was 10 more for Crag Hack, but there was 100+ mana there, and I had 12, but I had mass haste and mass slow, armies roughly equal, I planned to break in and dismantle him, the surprise was the cloak +2 speed, in short Tazar dismantled me, with 15 Dragon Utopias Crag Hack capitulated, the opponent had shackles, but he didn't put them on. Then I started to fatten up on the neighboring respawn, also scouted 3 external dwellings of birds, so I was in no rush, gathered the Alliance, as did the opponent, incidentally. On day 212 I thought to start acting, aggressively, with growth, but there was a month of plague, I had to postpone... on day 217 came the surrender.

Thanks for the game!

We started playing the first layout. I found +3 speed in a grave on day 111, and also broke the guard of a refugee camp where I discovered an arch devil. The spread was 6 heroes, one Hive is visible and branches of a second, Tazar visits the experience stone and stops near the revealed Hive. On the second day I buy the devil, break the prison guard and free Octavia level 10 with expert logistics and attack, Tazar takes the Dragon Fly Hive and visits the stat booster. Then it's par for the course, scouting proceeds and on the next day he reaches what was spotted. With the spare gold I decide to ensure maximum flexibility of chains at the cost of building castle and hydras, no external dwellings were built except for 4 gnolls. On day 116 zero-level Corbac takes the shield +12 from 80+ evil eyes with losses of a few gold serpents. The small Dragon Fly Hives (32 wyverns) and the complete absence of cubes make me a bit sad. To somehow level up Tazar I decide to take a Dragon Utopia on day 121 which turned out to be the maximum, hero without a spellbook but with stats 0-21. Lost there 1/4 of angels, 6/35 wyverns and about 100 boys but they gave КВ and +3 all stats, Tazar got earth magic but didn't have enough exp to expert it @2k experience. ГО at 2880mp from town, I break it on day 123 (having previously taken cloak of speed, shackles, and ring of health), the kitties eat 2 monarchs. Then an unpleasant block of 20-49 sultans where I also left 4 wyverns, didn't run to the castle but turned slightly off-road where a lion shield is revealed. Day 124 I sat in that castle to replenish mana (110), in euphoria that it wasn't taken I forgot to put on the shackles. The opponent attacks but buys peace and goes to a neighboring respawn. In my understanding of Jebus Cross, respawn + center is much preferable to 2 respawns, I cleared it on the 3rd taking another 5 Dragon Utopias and a couple of Pandora's boxes, built a swamp village. Somewhere in the middle of the 3rd I was 50mp short of reaching Crag Hack (had advantage in parameters), failed for the second time, damn, how frustrating it was... really... the whole house probably heard my disappointment. At the start of the 4th panic sets in, the opponent shows more army (well, forget it, he got lucky with Dragon Fly Hives probably) and stats - the latter was beyond my understanding. I sweep all black markets, build the artifact merchant, go to the neighboring Tower respawn where I take 3 Dragon Fly Hives and a Dragon Utopia with +5 all stats (a bit later found +1 all stats on the respawn and gathered the Alliance although the opponent already had it). I don't know how to play late game, tried to somehow counter the opponent's advance but it was weak, no advantage in army or stats even though I built both swamps up to hydras/hydras of chaos. At the start of the 2nd I sweep black markets and the merchant again hoping to assemble the elixir of life... nothing useful, the opponent doesn't play tempo-wise but controls the map qualitatively, Crag Hack breaks ahead noticeably in stats. That feeling of helplessness was very oppressive, I decided not to continue.
Before this I thought that if you micromanage well, that's half the victory, not at all, this was a real example where strategic thinking (or its absence) won the game. Probably it's good that this happened, besides experience I also got acquainted with the map editor (Sam helped a bit) where during the save period I simulated all sorts of FB, developments, etc., a pretty cool thing, answered all the accumulated questions myself and those prepared for Dirty )
Congratulations to YaR on the victory, despite the result this was the most interesting/instructive game, good luck further!