OFB-10

I played Inferno Prye vs. the opponent's Castle Kyrre, and with weak starting forces the pressure was enormous; although I made quite a few mistakes overall, my control was generally good, and at different stages I kept the lead in either army size or stats, so even though the opponent got Fly, Jump (DD) and Town Portal before me, he kept dodging and staying away. Once I had all the movement spells, I began further restricting the opponent's room to maneuver, threatening his main town so he had no time to explore the map. In the end the opponent took a desperate gamble and gathered his whole army for an all-out assault; even though his army was strong and he wore the Recanter's Cloak (anti-magic cloak), I had a huge advantage in unit speed, main attack power and spell power, and the opponent fell dead beneath the town walls.
The course of the war was roughly:
W1: capturing the Efreet nest near the town was the core goal of this week; with weak forces, Pyre's ballista played a key role;
W2: captured two computer main towns and started developing the economy, but ran into the enemy — out of mutual wariness we each avoided the other and developed separately;
W3: started planning the attack on the utopia. After getting 3 Angels, I gathered 19 Sultans and began clearing Dragons, but the losses were heavy. After clearing 3 utopias, all the artifacts were duplicate P or D minor items — enough to make one vomit blood — but I gave all the useless ones to Dessa to sell at the Altar for experience, raising a powerful movement mage. The town had a level 5 guild, yet still no movement spell;
W4: the opponent had already revealed the Fly and DD artifacts, and I suddenly felt enormous pressure. This week I continued clearing 3 utopias, got the Sorceress's Hat and the Wings, kept running into the opponent's area to get the Shackles, and slew the enemy's secondary hero Gunar. I also rebuilt the level 4 guild five times before finally getting TP;
W5: the opponent had already upgraded to Archangels. After I got the powerful artifact ALL6, I also built and upgraded to Archangels in my village, and then Dessa started harassing the enemy, capturing his towns and threatening his main city. The enemy was forced to respond; with only Kyrre against my Pyre + Dessa, he was definitely at a disadvantage. From then on the enemy basically had no time to explore and expand, unless he abandoned his town.

W5D3: I captured the enemy's chokepoint Elemental town (no city walls built, but from it my two main heroes could radiate out across the entire enemy territory) and, relying on superior stats, garrisoned it — which in hindsight was actually a dangerous move. Since the maneuvering war had turned against him and his development capacity was clearly inferior to mine, the opponent also seized the moment to gather his full army and attack:
Opponent Kyrre (22 27 9 200) Archangels 12, Wyverns 29, Cavaliers 17, Crusaders 23, Monks 32, Marksmen 90 vs. my Pyre (39 22 34 319) Archangels 5, Firebirds 5, Sultans 34, Wyverns 6, Pit: 17, Demons: 115.
The opponent had the assembled Bow of the Elf Sharpshooter and the Recanter's Cloak; I had SP2 and the Air Orb.
The battle went roughly as follows:
Turn 1: the Sharpshooter Bow shot my Sultans down to 19; my Sultans + Firebirds + Archangels attacked his Wyverns and Monks, and blinded his Archangels (the opponent lost his chance to cast — my Firebirds mistakenly failed to chain their attack);
Turn 2: Angels + Firebirds destroyed his Crusaders, and the Firebirds' chain attack left his Marksmen at 45; after his Wyverns moved they healed the Archangels, and his Cavaliers wiped out my Archangels. I cast Haste on my whole army and destroyed his Marksmen and Wyverns; next turn I was still ahead in speed;
Turn 3: the whole army ganged up on the Cavaliers; the opponent cast Mass Slow, but my Firebirds and Demons resist magic, so the opponent was forced to gang up on my Firebirds, and I used Lightning to finish off his 6 Archangels;
Turn 4: I still had 4 decimated stacks left; he only had 3 Angels + 5 Cavaliers + 7 Monks; he moved first and blinded my Demons, but I cast Haste to guarantee I'd move first next turn and wiped out his Monks;
Turn 5: Lightning finished off the Angels, the Sultans finished off the Cavaliers, and the battle ended.

The opponent's game speed was on par with mine; he played quickly, and in the mid-game he had more time left on the timer than I did. Although in the late game he fell behind me, he is still the fastest operator I've met in Russia :smile20: