As promised, a detailed battle report :) .
I got lucky at the start – an infernal typist named Debil with her plasma gun was found in the tavern :smile14: . In the early stages, I fought only with Sigrif using his demonic abilities that don't require mana – infernal wave, etc., while I fed chests to Debil for experience growth.
At first, I entered the right teleporter (which leads to the caves), raided a crypt without significant losses, captured a sawmill, returned to the stables and headed southeast past the red tent to a dead end with an imp generator, a mill, and stairs up. I cleared all the garrisons there almost without losses (since Sigrif's spellcasting already allowed this) and emerged onto the surface. Up top, I captured a gold mine and a shipyard, built a boat and sent one of the auxiliary demons (there were already three by then, not counting Debil) to sail around – collecting loot. With Sigrif, I returned and went down the corridor leading northwest until I reached another exit to the surface (along the way clearing a garrison of over a hundred death knights who guarded a couple of chests and a useful artifact, the dragon cloak). I climbed up and discovered there was nothing interesting on the surface :smile50: – a tiny island with a planetarium, which once again increased Sigrif's "spellcasting". I wanted to go back slightly and peek into the western corridor (I even cleared the garrison of ents guarding the entrance), but then four purple orcs emerged from the nipple teleporter :smile19: near the southeastern surface exit; the leader rushed toward my castle, two went up, and one set off to capture the mill and imp generator. Sigrif had to abandon his explorations in the north and run back to defend (since Debil wouldn't have managed it, and even if she did, she would have been left without an army). I used Sigrif to take out the main aggressor (pocketing his loot) :smile10: , then the other two, and reclaimed the mine, mill, and generator. But one orc managed to board a ship and set off to hunt my seafaring demon, who by then had found a very useful artifact, the "Necklace of Victory". To avoid giving it to the enemy, I had to attack the nearest ship garrison, flee, and re-hire from the tavern.
At this time, castle development hit a complete deadlock :smile50: because there wasn't enough ore; to solve this problem, I sent Debil into the left teleporter (which leads not to caves but to underground galleries in the southwest of the map). Turning east at the first crossroads, Debil managed to find an ore mine, gaining a couple of level-ups along the way by fighting neutral garrisons; she achieved this with minimal losses.
On the way to the mine and back, Debil passed by the library; there was a temptation to visit it, but I clearly realized that getting in was out of the question :smile35: (the guard of black and red dragons is too much even for Sigrif). Next, I wanted Debil to turn south and see what was happening in the southern gallery, but just as she (Debil) was at the crossroads, a brown orc appeared from there (from the southern gallery) :smile13: with an army several times larger than Debil's (luckily he didn't manage to reach her); Debil had to retreat to the castle. Meanwhile, Sigrif completely cleared the area and was hatching plans to capture the red tent :smile16: , but since a week had passed, another purple orc emerged from the southeastern nipple with an army equal to two full weekly Castle harvests. I met him with Sigrif near the red tent and elemental tower and defeated him, then on the same turn had to urgently return to my castle (leaving the red tent uncaptured). Luckily, on the next turn, the brown orc almost didn't manage to reach it :smile26: . At first, I thought about leaving the castle to the enemy – there wasn't much to lose anyway as the castle was undeveloped, but when I saw that the demon doesn't capture it, but simply demolishes it :smile19: – I had to reload. I sent Debil to learn defense and placed Sigrif with a small garrison in the castle – fortunately, there was already a Stronghold (the ore arrived just in time). While the orc practiced shooting at imps, Sigrif destroyed his army with an infernal wave and took his artifacts :smile03: . Redistributing the trophies between Sigrif and Debil so that he got what increases spellcasting and she got attack, I sent Sigrif into the gallery where the brown orc came from, and Debil to the southeastern nipple (luckily her army had already grown sufficiently – over a hundred modified imps, demons, almost a hundred dog-kin, and over two dozen succubi).
With Sigrif, I reached the planetarium located slightly north of the branch leading east, when a brown elf jumped out from there (from the branch) and headed toward my castle; I had to return and finish him off (for which I received green traveler's boots). After the battle, I decided to explore this branch in more detail; as a result, I turned into it and reached the underground center of the map, where stairs lead up to another island. When I climbed onto the island, a purple ship was sailing past; since there was also a ship near the island, I loaded Sigrif and his army into it and chased the purple one. After a couple of days, I caught him at the pier (as it later turned out, this was an island with a purple base). Meanwhile, Debil fought off the purples arriving through the nipple once more :smile10: (as a result, she reached level 15) and I sent one scout (Grok the runner) into the galleries in the southeast of the map (where Sigrif hadn't reached when he was distracted by the elf). But Grok couldn't get far – at the exit from the galleries to the caves (in the southeastern corner), he almost collided with another brown orc of level 19, with a powerful army and huge stats (due to some hefty artifacts) :smile51: . Grok had to run back urgently :smile13:.
Meanwhile, Sigrif managed to capture both purple castles almost without losses, and at the same time cleared the path into the Dungeon leading (as I later found out) to the orange outpost. From the Dungeon, two orange heroes emerged one after another over a couple of turns :smile13: (an orc and a human "land-rover"), each with an army equal to two weekly harvests of creatures and a bunch of useful artifacts. Each of them immediately lunged at Sigrif and got their horns knocked off :smile10: , and most importantly – among the trophies were: the ring of Sar-Ilasa and same volumes of summoning and darkness magic :smile44: !
When taking the castles, I didn't bother converting the first one – money and resources were urgently needed, and the town hall and warehouse bring a decent income; the second castle was converted into a demonic one after capture. But the trick was :rolleyes: that before capturing the second castle, I had Debil attack the red tent with one imp and flee; as a result, after I hired her in the tavern, she didn't lose experience. In the new castles, I hired two demon apprentices; to one I gave some of the captured artifacts (including the summoning volume) and sent him to find the nipple entrance to deliver the artifacts to Debil, and the second I sent to develop the new territory – seizing mines and creature generators of the purple base. With Sigrif, I returned to the orc castle where a blue tent was located and defeated the guard of a hundred astral dragons :smile10: , for which Sigrif got a couple of level-ups, which were very welcome given the loss of experience after converting the castle :p , and meanwhile Grobok himself emerged from the Dungeon :eek: ! At first, in my naivety, I thought about staying put in the orc castle, since fighting him on the plains or in the new demonic castle would be suicide :smile35: . But after the first attempt, I realized that wasn't an option either, because he so skillfully demolishes the walls and towers of the castle with his very first shot that their defense vanishes like smoke, and considering he knows "Path of Death", the advantage is actually his. I had to flee into the Dungeon (luckily Sigrif, with his upgraded logistics and "Path of War", ran faster). Grobok first demolished the new demon castle, then chased after the demon carrying artifacts for Debil, but when Sigrif destroyed two more orange heroes he encountered in the Dungeon, each with armies of two weekly harvests, he paused :smile50: and ran back to the descent into the Dungeon :smile13: .
Meanwhile, Debil with her gun and all the artifacts was re-hired in the home demonic castle and worthily met the uninvited brown guest :smile10: , (battle attached) and took the "ring of kinship with machines" from him :cool: . By the end of another week, the chain of apprentices delivered the sent artifacts from Sigrif to her, creatures from all captured generators arrived, plus the harvest in the castle, where I finally managed to create a temple of the damned and infernal stables. Immediately after the start of the new week, Debil ran as fast as she could toward the browns, with scout Gork running slightly ahead. She destroyed the next brown not far from the southern stairs almost without losses :cool: , (luckily his stats were low and his level was low). Climbing onto the southern island, Debil, losing 3 devils, used summoning to destroy over a hundred wyverns, captured the lighthouse, got another level-up, and boarded a ship. Luckily, logic didn't fail me and I sent her in a northern direction rather than western. On the way at sea, there was another battle with that orc who besieged the castle, but this time he was already level 24 (high danger); another interesting battle occurred, which I managed to pull off using "summoning and shooting" (battle attached), followed by a successful landing on the brown base and their complete destruction :smile14: .
Sigrif, descending into the Dungeon, reached the blue gates, opened them, visited the artifact shop and "Hotabych", after which, taking out another orange hero, he successfully reached the Orange outpost with a danger level of "no chance" :eek: . Next was the hardest battle in this company, in which I failed to preserve the core of the imp army :smile05: (battle attached). He crawled to the surface with several demonesses and four devils (luckily there was a phoenix cloak behind the outpost). As it turned out, there was an orange base on top with three castles. Immediately on the surface, Sigrif was attacked by two orange heroes; as a result, the number of devils and demonesses decreased further, but on the next turn he managed to capture the almost defenseless central castle, and twenty-four hours later the western one; I didn't convert them – considering that an enraged Grobok was running through the Dungeon right behind Sigrif :smile19: , it was very important to preserve experience (after the battle at the orange outpost, Sigrif reached level 28). He made a forced march to the eastern castle and captured it, visiting the library and planetarium along the way, which raised Sigrif's spellcasting to 32 :smile03: . He managed to return to the central castle just as Gorak was "right there", but forces from the western castle had already arrived; as a result, the army Sigrif possessed for the final battle was almost as strong as Gorok's army.
As a result - Grobok was defeated by his own troops :smile34: (battle attached).
Well, that's all :)