Forum

pasta from Oelma aka Indra

Save passwords: Conflux - 6574, Castle - +777, and play as humans

I'll say right away that I have a negative attitude towards such cheating accusations based on speculation.

For everyone discussing - here is a recording of this game, which Homungulus uploaded to YouTube.

I decided to watch it, I think the recording gives a more comprehensive picture than saves.

I watched some of Homungulus's streams, I agree that sometimes his actions seem ambiguous to me.
For example, the final of the Champions League tournament, where Homungulus, playing as Fortress, spends 4 days with a digger to go around a block off-road to pick up gloves. When I watched that recording, that decision seemed ambiguous to me.
In another game of the same final, Homungulus showed a textbook game as Castle, which fully demonstrates his playstyle — the style he talked about in his tutorial videos and on streams.

Overall it looks like this: week 1 - building, leveling heroes, and scouting objects, forming strike stacks to take them; week 2 - collecting those objects, and not only with the main hero. And this is a perfectly adequate and logical course of action in the game.

Now about the game: in my opinion, a not very favorable setup for Homungulus, a loop-shaped road, a very difficult fight on day 111 with 49 ogres for the ring. I think Homungulus played well because of Luna, a good starting stack of Eyes, and considering the restarts used.
His actions are quite adequate, leveling Gunnar and Luna, subsequently taking the Griffin Conservatory thanks to that same Luna, which allowed him to get rolling.
The adjacent zone with the center on snow, one road cut off by a multiple block of the inner treasure zone. I think many will agree that given a start with Gunnar, it's foolish to rush to the center on the second week on 8mm6a against Conflux with that layout, so the adjacent zone with the corner treasure zone is scouted.
Considering all this, taking the Griffin Conservatory with Gunnar in the underground adjacent zone with the corner treasure zone looks like a perfectly normal move (there were angels, and getting + more angels to form the only strike stack).
Lizard's plan to rush was, in my opinion, poorly executed:
1) It should be considered that Homungulus's actions take Lizard's actions into account.
2) Lizard wrote that he had View Air, scouted the portal into the Inferno AI zone (where Homungulus had a town). With View Air, he could have seen the town was close, but the town remained untaken, and Crag Hack moved on. (Lizard wrote that at the start of week 3, Homungulus had no towns left — but on day 132, Homungulus still has Inferno under control; by that point, that infamous Dragon Utopia had already been taken).
3) Crag Hack's army isn't that scary: a couple (1-4) Firebirds, considering it's Conflux, probably 4, and a couple (1-4) Angels — Gunnar at the same time has 7 Angels. Homungulus is only on the losing end due to lower stats.
4) Gunnar with 7 Angels in the fog was indeed left vulnerable for one day, but that would have led not to a one-sided stomp but to a trade, and considering the potential fight, he could still have continued with Luna at 10 SP
5) Because Lizard doesn't take Inferno, Homungulus wins the scout hero battle and prevents Lizard from building chains.
6) Lizard doesn't go straight to the opponent's town, gets distracted by taking the Arena + the ring for +1 HP, which in my opinion looks extremely illogical.
7) Naturally, Homungulus runs his heroes off the road to avoid them getting picked off, collects available goodies, finds a Griffin Conservatory on a respawn — near which there is also a Well, Luna spends the night safely in a Sanctuary, near which there is a resource pile. She has 10 SP, meaning she can take the Griffin Conservatory 1-2.
8) Gunnar levels up, picks up an Orb giving +50% Earth damage, and during all this, the Dragon Utopia is found.
My point: Gunnar fears Crag Hack only because Crag outstats him. It's perfectly logical that while Crag Hack is busy with nonsense (spending 5 turns with all his power to take the opponent's town and running back and forth along a loop-shaped road), Homungulus cuts Crag off from chains and seeks upgrades in the zone he still has access to.
He didn't intentionally go for the Dragon Utopia, and when he found it, he turned back, waited for reinforcements, and went to take it. I disagree with Lizard's opinion that only a mini Dragon Utopia is taken. I think a double Dragon Utopia is taken in that situation without issue: Gunnar has Expert Offense and Defense and has 8 Angels.
9) I disagree that only КВ and the Helm saved him; for example, КЗ (considering the booster), stat items (+4,5,6 all), or Gladius could easily have given Homungulus the advantage.

I haven't watched the second part of the stream yet, but in Lizard's post, only Homungulus's actions up to day 132 are disputed.

Based on everything stated and the recording I watched, I consider Lizard's statement to be unsubstantiated and unfounded.