"Mirrors"

Gave away the Color for 900 (made it cheaper, I know, but I was very afraid that the opp would actually give it away :D), bargained Shakti for 2k.

On 111 there are two native heroes in the tavern, a mini-dwarf hold and a mini-crypt, a large consulation under the Castle, Shakti grabbed the earth. With a scout at the end of the turn, I discovered the boots, frantically placed a chain to transport them. On 112, after some complex maneuvers that cost me 20 troglodytes and 5 harpies, the chain finally connected... But then I decided that my mission was over and simply forgot the boots on one of the heroes in the chain :D. On 113 I take the Rampart, the opp ran towards the stones for some reason instead of the grass, so I reached the town a day later. Until the end of the first week, I gathered various graveyards, black towers, and scouted the second direction. There wasn't much money, so only the cats were built without minions in the citadel.

On 121 I burst into the large consulation with Oil for 2 turns. The consulation turns out to be a triple, it's taken relatively normally. In max it would have been trouble of course (although I would have still finished it the next day with buying).

On 122 I take the cloak +2 speed. On 123 I split up, burst into a treasure room spotted from scouting. The opp seemed to have spotted it too, but for some reason didn't go into it, and went into the dark instead. Even though the gloves were glowing there, as well as a scroll of potential control and various hive-consulations. On 126 I check the scroll guard - control. Shakti, on stables-log-gloves-boots, manages to return on the last moves, beat the scroll, and stand ready for splitting. Double mana is being prepared at home. Aiming to burst into a similar treasure on the opp's plane.

On 131 I take the same scroll on the opp's plane. The army glows more, stats too, objects in 2 treasure rooms were fat, and I ate them both in two copies. So I go to seize castles and corner them. The process is not fast - it turns out to be only one castle per day to seize via Shakti, the lochs run too slowly. The opp meanwhile quickly runs to a far-off treasure, takes the utopia on the same day that I take his main. Stats in the tavern didn't grow. I keep pressing.

On 135, due to blunders, an important chain doesn't connect, as a result, I burst blindly after the opp into some treasure room, see a taken utopia and zephyr upon entry, as well as the opp with a decent army and stats, the last seconds of the timer are ticking, so I burst into the mansion hoping to collect money for the buy-out. The mansion turns out to be minimal... Good thing 5k dripped in during the turn transition

136 - first finale.
Gunnar 13-21-8-(52)
14 cyclops, 14 gr. gorgons, 9 angels, 2 giants, 5 scorpicore, 10 ducks, 20 gr. medusas. Golden Bow, KS.

Shakti 8-16-4-(52)
scorpicore, 16 cyclops, 7 angels, 38 ducks, 6 gr. medusas, single ducks. +3 speed

The opp immediately casts Oil... I was tilted by such audacity. Why the hell do I still not have Air?? It would have been a finale won out of nowhere. Although, maybe I leaked somewhere that I didn't have Air, whatever. Oil is cast from my side, next turn Haste on ducks. I try to sell my meat at a higher price before there's enough for the buy-out (7k). Then a shield and papal Sorrow are cast). The opp throws Explosion, shield, resurrect on angels and mana runs out. With the remains of mana I cast Oil, start rushing across the field and shooting, while hit-and-running with angels. In the end, by the time of the buy-out:

I'm left with 4 cyclops, 2 angels, and 7 ducks. The opp is left with 6 angels, 11 MGorgons, and 3 cats. Could have been worse. At least my meat in the castle isn't bought out, and the opp needs to spend time seizing back his castles. In general, we switched places. Only I already know the route to get out of the mess and have DD. And brazen overlords aren't hanging out on my plane yet.

In general, I gather everything that was previously not on tempo, burst into that treasure that saved the opp and am a bit shocked. It turns out there were 2 utopias, a zephyr, a consulation, and a library upon entry. In the utopias there are KS, KO, KSh, and a bunch of SP artifacts. With a clear conscience I leave this treasure, thinking I cleared it, 2 small unexplored patches remained in its corners, unlikely there could be anything else there... right? The next day the opp bursts into the presumably empty treasure and finds a utopia with KV in one of the unexplored patches :smile32:. As it turned out after the game - in the second unexplored patch there were 2 zephyrs and a consulation :smile32:

Be that as it may, I burst into the only treasure where by my estimates the opp hadn't been yet, find a max-utopia there with a bunch of stat artifacts. The next day I take the same utopia on another plane right from under Gunnar's nose. That's it, the army strength advantage is there, KSh is there, I go to the opp.

The opp suddenly exposes himself to me in one of the castles, which I obviously reach 0_о. Via the external tavern I spot that KSh is not equipped there, decided to pro-hit-and-run with Armageddon on such an occasion. Typical for me, I didn't calculate exactly how much Armageddon would hit with all the SP artifacts and therefore prepared for a full-fledged finale after the hit-and-run. Because of this, I hesitated to attack with the angel with all the speed artifacts and risked heavily not casting Armageddon at all. But the opp messed up and let a single harpy survive on the loch, after Armageddon 4 angels and 18 cyclops remained, who could no longer oppose me.

Thanks for an unexpectedly interesting game :)