OFB-10

06.08.2016 herolwy (Blue, Inferno, Pyre, Pyre) def BISHOP (Red, Castle, Valeska, Kyrre) Spider 213

I was Inferno (Pyre) against an opponent playing Castle (Kyrre), and with weak starting forces the pressure was huge. I made quite a few mistakes overall, but kept control of the game: at various points I held the edge in either army or stats, and even though my opponent got Fly, Dimension Door and Town Portal before me, he kept avoiding me and staying away. Once I had all the movement spells too, I started shutting down his room to maneuver, threatening his main town so he had no time to explore, until he finally went all-in and gathered his whole army for a desperate assault. His army was strong and he had the Recanter's Cloak, but I had a big edge in unit speed, attack power and spell power, and he ended up dying under his own walls.
The course of the war, briefly:
W1: the main goal of the week was to take the Efreet nest near my town; with a small army, Pyre's ballista did the heavy lifting.
W2: I captured two AI towns and started building the economy, but bumped into the enemy; we were both wary of each other, so we backed off and each developed separately.
W3: I started planning attacks on Utopias. After getting 3 Angels, I gathered 19 Sultans and went dragon-hunting, but took sizable losses. After clearing 3 Utopias, the artifacts were all duplicate P or D pieces — made me want to tear my hair out. The useless ones I handed to Dessa to sell at the Altar for experience, building him into a powerful movement-mage; I built a level 5 guild in town and still no movement spells.
W4: the opponent had already revealed Fly and Dimension Door artifacts, and I suddenly felt huge pressure. This week I kept clearing Utopias (3 more), getting the Spellbinder's Hat and the Boots of Speed, then ran into the enemy territory and grabbed Shackles, killed the enemy secondary hero Gunar, and rebuilt a level 4 guild 5 times before finally getting Town Portal.
W5: the opponent had already upgraded to Archangels. After I picked up the strong ALL6 combo, I also built and upgraded Archangels in a village, and then Dessa began harassing the enemy, taking his towns and threatening his main one. The enemy was forced to react; with only Kyrre against my Pyre + Dessa he was clearly losing ground. From then on he basically had no time to explore or expand, unless he abandoned his town.

W5D3: I took the enemy's chokepoint Conflux town (no walls built, but from it my two main heroes could project power across his entire territory) and, relying on a strong stat advantage, garrisoned it — in hindsight, a dangerous move. With the back-and-forth turning against him and his development clearly inferior to mine, the opponent seized the moment and gathered his whole army to attack:
Opponent Kyrre (22 27 9 200): 12 Archangels, 29 Black Dragons, 17 Champions, 23 Crusaders, 32 Monks, 90 Marksmen vs my Pyre (39 22 34 319): 5 Archangels, 5 Firebirds, 34 Sultans, 6 Red Dragons, Pit: 17, Demons: 115.
Opponent had the Combo Bow (Bow of the Elfkind) and Recanter's Cloak; I had SP2 (Spell Power +2 item) and the Orb of the Firmament.
Approximate course of the battle:
1 turn: the combo bow shot my Sultans down to 19; my Sultans + Firebirds + Archangels attacked his Dragons and Monks and blinded his Archangels (opponent lost the chance to cast; I misplayed the Firebirds and missed the chaining attack).
2 turn: Angels + Firebirds wiped his Crusaders; Firebirds chained onto the Marksmen leaving 45; after his Dragons moved he healed the Archangels + his Champions killed my Archangels; my whole army got Hasted and wiped his Marksmen and Dragons, and next turn I was still ahead in speed.
3 turn: the whole army ganged up on the Champions; the opponent slowed everyone, but my Firebirds and Demons are magic-resistant, so he was forced to gang up on my Firebirds; I Lightning'd 6 of his Archangels to death.
4 turn: I still had 4 battered stacks left, he only had 3 Angels + 5 Champions + 7 Monks; he moved first and blinded my Demons, I Hasted to guarantee I move first next turn and wiped the Monks.
5 turn: Lightning killed the Angels, Sultans finished the Champions, battle over.

The opponent's game speed was about on par with mine, his play was fast, and in the mid-game he had more time left on the timer than I did; even though he fell behind me later, he's still the fastest operator I've met in Russia :smile20: