wowa
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It was a tough game. Almost all restarts were taken. Shakti arrived with 3 stacks. On the first day, he took the gold mine, and on the second day, an external dwelling of Minotaurs. The layout had two native towns with forts, which I couldn't capture due to blocks. On day 114, I took a Pandora's Box for 5k experience and Expert Earth magic. Alamar found Slow in a shrine. On day 116, I took another external dwelling of Minotaurs. At home, I only built a Portal and an Eye. Only 5 heroes, not enough money. On day 121, I consolidated, got 18 Minotaurs, took a small Dragon Fly Hive. On day 122, I took the Cloak of Dragon Wings and freed Ryland (level 10) from the Prison. Shakti retreated home, bought a spell book, and doubled his mana (to 100). On day 123, I took a Griffin Conservatory-three. On day 124, Shakti got Diplomacy and took the Cartographer. And then a huge letdown awaited me.
It turned out I had no exit to the super-treasure zone, and without Dimension Door there was no way to leave the respawn. On day 125, there was a decent join of 11 Efreeti, I headed towards a Dragon Utopia, next to which were several hives. The path wasn't short; I got there only on day 131, finding a Town Portal scroll along the way. All of the second week, the opponent's tavern showed the best monster — Air Elemental. I understood things were very bad there, but without Dimension Door I was helpless. On day 132, I took a Dragon Utopia-two; it gave decent rewards, but no Dimension Door. Town Portal back and another Dragon Utopia — the same thing. I headed to a third Dragon Utopia, meanwhile starting to build several Watchtowers (we're playing without the HeroesWorld rule, so no rebuilding). The third Dragon Utopia — a minimal one — gave Wings, but they didn't help; I needed Dimension Door. All of the third week, I built Watchtowers, collected scrolls and Pandora's Boxes, but no result: 3 guilds without Dimension Door, I built two more, already sold almost all artifacts. While I was searching for Dimension Door, the opponent had already ramped up and showed a stronger army; on day 141, he had a large join of Hydra-Chaos and a significant increase in stats. To join a fat stack of Minotaurs, I had to dismiss 4 Wyverns((. I took an external dwelling of Devils to join 20-49 Devils in the center. On day 142, I finally found a Dimension Door scroll somewhere in a corner of the map. A series of jumps and successful joins followed: +8 Archers and +26 Devils. In a few turns, I managed to significantly increase my army; the opponent appeared, took a castle in my treasure zone, and remained within reach. Shakti made very successful joins of Pikemen and Minotaurs, increasing the main stacks indecently. I attacked Mullich with Ryland.
My stats were slightly lower, but my army was significantly larger. Both had Alliances, the battle was under Castle walls, but I had a greater speed bonus than Mullich. The opponent tried to flee, but Shakti's stacks didn't let him. Victory. Thanks to Vova for a very interesting game.
The video is still on Twitch. I streamed only the first part (until day 141); there was no opportunity to stream the endgame. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/126806811
I didn't want to kill those stacks, so instead of rushing straight to Blue, I decided to leave the join for later — I wasn't afraid the opponent would join them because Blue had less gold at that point than I did before trading... the delay turned out to be fatal.
All the details of the Alliance were visible on the map; I started collecting them, taking supporting towns, making joins, and taking Dragon Utopias along the way, but there were no Flakes on my plane at all, only Air for a loser from prison without Earth magic, and to top it off, no one had Logistics either!
And it all started terribly — after all the restarts, I ended up in a huge Mess!!! I got a completely blocked respawn, no money, paths cut off, for a long time I couldn't even build a Blacksmith, only 4 heroes in the first week, and in the only town only Markets in the Citadel were built)))
I somehow went around through the back areas, broke through to the Lava, freed a cell there with a level 5 Labetta with Expert Earth, out of desperation I built Angels because I had nothing decent to fight with and was waiting to be killed :smile04: but the generator mocked the opponent too; during that time I managed to do something, but the total absence of Logistics and various serious guards, plus the lack of a Fort on the Hill on my plane — as a result, through joins I could only stack Firebirds — decided the game in favor of Blue!.. and to top it off, the quest Necropendant for the coat and boots turned out to be on the plane underground....
GG, thanks for the game! :)
"...the personal strengths and weaknesses of a leader are no true indication of the merits of his cause"
(с) Roger Zelazny
(с) Roger Zelazny