nik312
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He gave up the color for 900 (I know I undersold it, but I was really afraid the opponent would give it away anyway :D ), and I haggled Shakti down to 2k.
On day 111, two native heroes in the tavern, a mini-Dwarf Cottage and a mini-crypt, a big Griffin Conservatory under the Castle, Shakti grabbed Earth. With the view spell at the end of the turn, I spotted Boots, frantically set up a chain to transport them. On day 112, after some complicated maneuvers that cost me 20 Troglodytes and 5 Harpies, the chain finally came together... But then I decided my mission was over and just plain forgot the Boots on one of the heroes in the chain :D. On day 113, I take Rampart, the opponent for some reason ran towards the rocks instead of the grass, so he reached the town a day late. For the rest of the first week, I picked up various graveyards, black towers, and scouted the second direction. Didn't have much money, so only the cats without Minotaurs got set up in the Citadel.
On day 121, I burst with Oil of Speed into the big Griffin Conservatory on 2 moves. The Griffin Conservatory turns out to be a tier 3 one, taken relatively normally. It would have been troublesome at max (though I would have picked it up the next day with Summoning anyway).
On day 122, I take the Cape +2 Speed. On day 123, I break, bursting into a treasure zone revealed by view spells. The opponent seems to have revealed it too, but for some reason didn't go into it; instead, he went into the darkness. Even though both the Peasant and a potential Control scroll and various Conservatory-hives were visible there. On day 126, I check the guard of the scroll — Control. Shakti, with Stables-Log-gauntlets-Boots, manages to return on the last moves, take the scroll and get set up to break. At home, a double mana is being prepared. We aim to break into a similar treasure zone on the opponent's plane.
On day 131, I take that same scroll on the opponent's plane. The army is larger, stats are higher too, the objects in the 2 treasure zones were hefty, and I devoured both of them in duplicate. So I go to seize castles and push him into a corner. The process isn't fast — I can only manage one castle per day through Shakti, the scout heroes run too slowly. The opponent, meanwhile, quickly runs off to a distant treasure zone, takes a Dragon Utopia on the same day I take his main. Stats in the tavern didn't increase. I keep pushing.
On day 135, due to blunders, an important chain doesn't come together, so I blindly charge after the opponent into some treasure zone, upon entering I see a taken Dragon Utopia and a Zealot, as well as the opponent with a decent army and stats, the last seconds of the timer are ticking, so I charge into a Manor hoping to gather money for a buyback. The Manor turns out to be minimal... Good thing I got 5k from the turn change
Day 136 - first final showdown.
Gunnar 13-21-8-(52)
14 Cyclopes, 14 Greater Gorgons, 9 Angels, 2 Giants, 5 Scorpicores, 10 Ducks, 20 Greater Medusae. Golden Bow, КЗ.
Shakti 8-16-4-(52)
Scorpicore, 16 Cyclopes, 7 Angels, 38 Ducks, 6 Greater Medusae, single Ducks. +3 Speed
The opponent immediately casts Oil of Speed... I got really ticked off by such audacity. Why the hell don't I have Air Magic yet?? Would have been an easily won final fight. Although, maybe I revealed somewhere that I don't have Air Magic, oh well. Oil of Speed goes up on my side, next turn Haste on the Ducks. Trying to sell my meat as dearly as possible before I can afford the buyback (7k). Then Shield and Papal Sorrow are cast. The opponent throws Explosion, Shield, Resurrection on the Angels, and runs out of mana. I use my remaining mana to cast Oil of Speed, start running around the battlefield and taking potshots, while hit-and-running with Angels. In the end, by the time of the buyback:
I'm left with 4 Cyclopes, 2 Angels, and 7 Ducks. The opponent is left with 6 Angels, 11 Mighty Gorgons, and 3 Cats. Could have been worse. At least my meat in the castle hasn't been bought out, and the opponent needs to spend time retaking his castles. In short, we swapped places. Only I now already know the route to get out of a tight spot and have Dimension Door. And there are no insolent Overlords wandering around on my plane.
Anyway, I finish everything that wasn't done on time before, burst into that treasure zone that saved the opponent, and am a bit taken aback. It turns out upon entering, there were 2 Dragon Utopias, a Zealot, a Griffin Conservatory, and a Library. The Dragon Utopias turn out to have КЗ, КО, КШ and a bunch of SP artifacts. With a clear conscience, I leave this treasure zone, thinking I've cleared it; there were 2 small unexplored patches in its corners, unlikely there could be anything else there... right? The next day, the opponent bursts into the presumably empty treasure zone and finds a Dragon Utopia with КВ in one of the unexplored patches :smile32:. As it turned out after the game — in the second unexplored patch, there were 2 Zealots and a Griffin Conservatory :smile32:
Be that as it may, I burst into the only treasure zone where, according to my calculations, the opponent hadn't been yet, and find a max Dragon Utopia with a bunch of stat artifacts there. The next day, I snatch this same Dragon Utopia from under Gunnar's nose on the other plane. That's it, the army strength advantage is mine, I have КШ, I go to the opponent.
The opponent suddenly puts himself in a position where I can easily reach him in one of the castles, even though I obviously can get to it 0_о. Using a scout hero via an external tavern, I reveal that he doesn't have КШ equipped; I decided on that occasion to pro-hit-and-run him with Armageddon. Typically for me, I didn't calculate exactly how hard Armageddon would hit with all the SP artifacts, and therefore was preparing for a proper final fight after the hit-and-run. Because of this, I held back from attacking with the Angel with all the speed artifacts and seriously risked not casting Armageddon at all. But the opponent blundered and let a single Harpy on the scout hero survive; after Armageddon, 4 Angels and 18 Cyclopes remained, which couldn't oppose me anymore.
Thank you for an unexpectedly interesting game :)
On day 111, two native heroes in the tavern, a mini-Dwarf Cottage and a mini-crypt, a big Griffin Conservatory under the Castle, Shakti grabbed Earth. With the view spell at the end of the turn, I spotted Boots, frantically set up a chain to transport them. On day 112, after some complicated maneuvers that cost me 20 Troglodytes and 5 Harpies, the chain finally came together... But then I decided my mission was over and just plain forgot the Boots on one of the heroes in the chain :D. On day 113, I take Rampart, the opponent for some reason ran towards the rocks instead of the grass, so he reached the town a day late. For the rest of the first week, I picked up various graveyards, black towers, and scouted the second direction. Didn't have much money, so only the cats without Minotaurs got set up in the Citadel.
On day 121, I burst with Oil of Speed into the big Griffin Conservatory on 2 moves. The Griffin Conservatory turns out to be a tier 3 one, taken relatively normally. It would have been troublesome at max (though I would have picked it up the next day with Summoning anyway).
On day 122, I take the Cape +2 Speed. On day 123, I break, bursting into a treasure zone revealed by view spells. The opponent seems to have revealed it too, but for some reason didn't go into it; instead, he went into the darkness. Even though both the Peasant and a potential Control scroll and various Conservatory-hives were visible there. On day 126, I check the guard of the scroll — Control. Shakti, with Stables-Log-gauntlets-Boots, manages to return on the last moves, take the scroll and get set up to break. At home, a double mana is being prepared. We aim to break into a similar treasure zone on the opponent's plane.
On day 131, I take that same scroll on the opponent's plane. The army is larger, stats are higher too, the objects in the 2 treasure zones were hefty, and I devoured both of them in duplicate. So I go to seize castles and push him into a corner. The process isn't fast — I can only manage one castle per day through Shakti, the scout heroes run too slowly. The opponent, meanwhile, quickly runs off to a distant treasure zone, takes a Dragon Utopia on the same day I take his main. Stats in the tavern didn't increase. I keep pushing.
On day 135, due to blunders, an important chain doesn't come together, so I blindly charge after the opponent into some treasure zone, upon entering I see a taken Dragon Utopia and a Zealot, as well as the opponent with a decent army and stats, the last seconds of the timer are ticking, so I charge into a Manor hoping to gather money for a buyback. The Manor turns out to be minimal... Good thing I got 5k from the turn change
Day 136 - first final showdown.
Gunnar 13-21-8-(52)
14 Cyclopes, 14 Greater Gorgons, 9 Angels, 2 Giants, 5 Scorpicores, 10 Ducks, 20 Greater Medusae. Golden Bow, КЗ.
Shakti 8-16-4-(52)
Scorpicore, 16 Cyclopes, 7 Angels, 38 Ducks, 6 Greater Medusae, single Ducks. +3 Speed
The opponent immediately casts Oil of Speed... I got really ticked off by such audacity. Why the hell don't I have Air Magic yet?? Would have been an easily won final fight. Although, maybe I revealed somewhere that I don't have Air Magic, oh well. Oil of Speed goes up on my side, next turn Haste on the Ducks. Trying to sell my meat as dearly as possible before I can afford the buyback (7k). Then Shield and Papal Sorrow are cast. The opponent throws Explosion, Shield, Resurrection on the Angels, and runs out of mana. I use my remaining mana to cast Oil of Speed, start running around the battlefield and taking potshots, while hit-and-running with Angels. In the end, by the time of the buyback:
I'm left with 4 Cyclopes, 2 Angels, and 7 Ducks. The opponent is left with 6 Angels, 11 Mighty Gorgons, and 3 Cats. Could have been worse. At least my meat in the castle hasn't been bought out, and the opponent needs to spend time retaking his castles. In short, we swapped places. Only I now already know the route to get out of a tight spot and have Dimension Door. And there are no insolent Overlords wandering around on my plane.
Anyway, I finish everything that wasn't done on time before, burst into that treasure zone that saved the opponent, and am a bit taken aback. It turns out upon entering, there were 2 Dragon Utopias, a Zealot, a Griffin Conservatory, and a Library. The Dragon Utopias turn out to have КЗ, КО, КШ and a bunch of SP artifacts. With a clear conscience, I leave this treasure zone, thinking I've cleared it; there were 2 small unexplored patches in its corners, unlikely there could be anything else there... right? The next day, the opponent bursts into the presumably empty treasure zone and finds a Dragon Utopia with КВ in one of the unexplored patches :smile32:. As it turned out after the game — in the second unexplored patch, there were 2 Zealots and a Griffin Conservatory :smile32:
Be that as it may, I burst into the only treasure zone where, according to my calculations, the opponent hadn't been yet, and find a max Dragon Utopia with a bunch of stat artifacts there. The next day, I snatch this same Dragon Utopia from under Gunnar's nose on the other plane. That's it, the army strength advantage is mine, I have КШ, I go to the opponent.
The opponent suddenly puts himself in a position where I can easily reach him in one of the castles, even though I obviously can get to it 0_о. Using a scout hero via an external tavern, I reveal that he doesn't have КШ equipped; I decided on that occasion to pro-hit-and-run him with Armageddon. Typically for me, I didn't calculate exactly how hard Armageddon would hit with all the SP artifacts, and therefore was preparing for a proper final fight after the hit-and-run. Because of this, I held back from attacking with the Angel with all the speed artifacts and seriously risked not casting Armageddon at all. But the opponent blundered and let a single Harpy on the scout hero survive; after Armageddon, 4 Angels and 18 Cyclopes remained, which couldn't oppose me anymore.
Thank you for an unexpectedly interesting game :)
