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The man in black tried to hide in the desert, and the gunman pursued him (c) S. King. Dark Tower
I'll start by saying that this was the sweatiest match in my short gaming experience (2-2-6!).
The sweat started with the restarts. The opponent restarted the very first deal almost automatically (while I got Gunnar and Wistan with 2 stacks in the tavern), and then persistently played for a better start on the others. After the first deal, I started getting some absolute garbage — blocks at the Castle exit, no money, and generally nothing to build upon.
Then there's one restart left and the deal doesn't look as disgusting as the previous ones. I run along the roads, check the "consult-one". It would be a sin to tempt fate and waste the last restart.
There are plenty of trees lying around — cows and ducks spawn in the first week. I placed the cows for a reason — I spotted an external dwelling, but a consult and boots guarded by 50-99 upgraded orcs were standing right next to it. I decided not to break them in the first week. In the second week, I went in with lizards under Wistan (who, by the way, leveled up quite well — caught air, offense, and later tactics). There turned out to be 99 orcs; overall, 1 duck, the lizards, and a few cows crawled out on their last HP, bleeding.
A secondary dungeon was nearby, in which a portal was immediately placed, providing 13 cows per week in combination with the external dwelling and the Castle. In the middle of the second week, the cows were upgraded, the consult-two dropped, and it was decided to barge into one of the nearby treasure zones.
One of them turned out to be literally empty. Only the swamp treasure zones remained (man, I'd love to run around the swamp with an angel right now) and, naturally, those in the snow. The swamp treasure zone was chosen; the entrance to the snowy one was controlled by a chain.
In the third week, I notice Craig diving into the snowy treasure zone. I turn my army there (barely got out of the swamp, thanks to pathfinding working), crush a lovely Wistan, and plug the entrance to the treasure zone, cutting off reinforcements. 20+ ducks and 20+ thunderbirds are glowing there. Craig briskly runs to the end of the treasure zone, managing to peek into hives and pick up some artifacts along the way. I catch up with him in the corner next to untaken sandals (apparently they didn't fit anymore). I attack — there are only 21 ducks. Apparently, the guards of some object or artifact shredded them hard.
I cast haste on the cows and pile on with dragonflies, cows, and ducks (I was a couple hundred exp short of mass haste). I take out 16 ducks, they pay off — we continue.
After these events, Craig disappears into some underground treasure zones and his stats grow before my eyes (roughly from 11-8 when we met to 22-12 by the end of the game).
I can't afford to go into uncleaned swamp and snowy treasure zones because I captured all the castles and am trying to control them, while "noobs" like the opponent with 2 dragons or 15 thunderbirds snatch one castle from the most unexpected places, constantly resetting the counter.
I want to understand exactly where Craig is roaming; I frantically look for air view for Wistan — not a single scroll, not a single shrine in the whole area. I do reconnaissance from one castle with Aeris and discover he has view in his book (where did he get it from??), but there are no scholars in the hero pool — only apprentices.
This running around lasts about 4 weeks; I'm already afraid to imagine what kind of army and stats the well-fed Craig has. Suddenly, the opponent takes the farthest citadel with two dragons, which is where I head with my army. Craig starts from there, gets crushed, and the army is redeployed to the other end of the map toward the Inferno. Well, I think, they've tricked me once again. Nagash with the whole army catches up to the scout Aeris, threatening the hope of using view even once in this game, but the cowardly elf on 7 imps manages to make his escape.
I calculate the chain. I had left Wistan beforehand near a convenient ambush spot. The chain connects with room to spare; Wistan is crushed, pops out of Inferno and covers all the power (which is about 20 ducks, 30 thunderbirds, hundreds of wolf pups) on Nagash with stats 8-3. I set up in tactics, preparing to cast mass haste, but a surrender follows.
Thanks to the opponent for a very sweaty game! Good luck further in the tournament.
Yeah, it was a cool game, and in my humble player career, also the sweatiest. I could have probably run around for another couple of turns before the last clash in the swamp treasure zone (pathfinding worked) and fought at the end with Craig using stats better than Wistan's (but the opponent had a clear advantage in army + tactics, while I had no strike magic), but without log, which Craig was never offered, Wistan would have caught me even in the previous fire on the snowy treasure zone easily. All those moves at the end with clashes were made to somehow get past the opponent into the snowy treasure zone again, as there was an untaken Dragon Utopia there, but I didn't manage it. Thanks for the game.
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