Posts from "The Art of Strategy," a section for reports.

Gastello (Red, Fortress, Erling) win BOLIVAR (Blue, Inferno, Nimus) - 3-1-2

Alex_R (red, Dwarves, Ingvar) def ekzekutor (blue, Inferno, Deleb) 227, I think

in both cases, the winner in a pair lists themselves first – that’s a mistake.

so maybe we should write in the great and mighty language,
why do we need these "win" or "def" when we have "won," "lost," in general, that's just my opinion:)

Gastello (Red, Clans, Erling) defeated BOLIVAR (Blue, Inferno, Nimus) - 3-1-2

It was a very long game; it seems my opponent struggled with the battles, unlike the Dwarf. With a Logi, I would have won faster. In the second round, I added Draconians, and in the third, I upgraded them. The battles went on autopilot; the strategy was classic - Armageddon and Pyromancy, plus Education, Defense, Luck, and Enchantment, all of which worked perfectly. The Priests, with their Luck bonus, dealt 4k damage each. My Grand Order was simple - Unicorns and Undead. But on my opponent's side, about 200 Viziers were waiting! This is unpleasant for a mage; I lost all the Jarls, and I didn't find the Castle right away - I thought it would be difficult. But along the way, I encountered a Roach with a large growth rate, which fell with a single blast. My opponent was left without troops, but with Armageddon 1300 and Pyromancy, he wouldn't have been able to withstand even with all his army and a fully equipped Inferno Castle. We didn't finish the final battles; we didn't continue playing, and my opponent admitted defeat.
Thank you for the game!

Erling 29 (23 14 29 26)
Nimus 27 (24 11 16 24)

Leolopus (red, underworld, Jazebeth) won against Lutii (blue, underworld, Nimus) with a score of 331, starting with Alastor, in the city of Groll, on the second day in the city of Jazebeth. Overall, it was a tough game, considering there was no mentor on the map, and magic and chaos weren't very helpful, but I had to choose the lesser of three evils. I decided to focus on developing Jazebeth. I played on this map generator for the first time, so there were some surprises, but overall, Jazebeth was developed with two archers, imps, and jumpers. With a tent, it wasn't a problem. I fought with almost no major losses. On level 20, I retreated to the city, took Astral, Portal, and spells for dark and higher demons, and started leveling up with them. I made a mistake with the ogres; the ballista was effective up to level 23, and the saddest thing was that there was no vampirism anywhere. On one of the portals, I lost 4 higher demons to higher vampires, about 300 of them. I decided not to risk it anymore, teleported to the city, and went to break the Guardian of the Fortress. Luckily, I had a tunnel. I broke the Guardian of the Fortress, wandered around there, and checked out three spell shops. The vampirism problem persisted. Eventually, I realized I needed to go to my opponent and break their Guardian of the Fortress. There, 225 cave dwellers with spheres were waiting for me in 4 stacks of 56 each. They killed 50 demons, but I managed to revive everything with resurrection, thanks to buying the white book. In general, I broke the Guardian of the Fortress and rejoiced. My opponent's castle was right in front of me; the rest was just a matter of technique. My opponent didn't give up immediately; they returned to their starting city as Nimus and accepted a battle in the field, but the odds were 3 to 1 in my favor. Thanks for the game, and good luck in the future!

Hero_of_heroes (red, Academy, Razazak) defeated Lok1978 (blue, Inferno, Mabrus) 3-1-3
I haven't played Heroes since spring, and as a result, I was terribly slow almost throughout the game.
In the beginning of the second week, I left my starting area and went to the snow, where I wandered for about a week, collecting knowledge dolmens. Realizing that nothing good awaited me there, I went to another passage, which was on the other end of my starting area. There, as in almost all starting areas except for two where I had been, there was sand, which was a pleasant surprise. After wandering there for a week, I made my way to the center, captured a gold mine, and when I had little mana left, I foolishly went home for more magic, without realizing that I was only level 19. When I was already on my way back to the center, I heard rumors (or rather, Lok told me) that Mabrus was level 25. After that, I thought the game was lost, but I started playing calmly and enjoying myself.
After clearing the center a bit, I saw Mabrus and ran home (although I could have just teleported...). He killed my secondary hero, and I was a little happy because I was only 2 levels behind him.
When I got home, I took all my army except for the genies, which I had just built and hadn't even upgraded yet, created mini-artifacts, and went to attack Mabrus, but he teleported to his city. Well, nothing to do, I decided to level up for another week and go through the Gate of the Elements. I leveled up to level 27, sacrificed a lot of artifacts, and teleported home on the first day. There, I slightly modified the artifacts, giving almost all of them triple bonuses, and went to attack the Gate of the Elements. I cleared my guard without any problems, and on the next turn, I received a message from Lok that he had lost and was surrendering... It's a pity that we didn't get to the final, I would have liked to see how it would have ended.
My hero: Razazak, level 28, 17-14-33-29-0-2
Mini-artifacts (3), all
Defense (3): Resilience, Stone Skin, Impregnable
Attack (3): Ballistics, Archery
Summoning (3): up to Fire Warriors
Light (3): Righteous Fury
Knowledge (3): Eagle Eye

Thank you for the game.

lady revan (Academy, Nura) defeatedMoskovskiy_1(Inferno, Deleb) 3-1-1
I played on this map generator and on the "Hero" difficulty for the first time, and I was very surprised by the huge number of neutral creatures, which then accumulated even more.
Started with Razaz, in the tavern, Nura. I chose Nura, in my opinion, she is more promising.
Nura leveled up well, level 29, 17-18-45-39, I was also lucky with the skills, I learned:
education - magical reward, magic attraction, graduate
attack - tactics, cold steel, shooting
defense - resilience,
chaos - fire lord, ice lord, deadly cold
wizardry - mana regeneration, secret knowledge, wisdom.
I made artifacts for the creatures and went to the treasure. There I found the Sar-Iss Robe, fought it off from the Knights, noticed my opponent, but decided not to give up and not give up the treasure. The opponent ran to get an army and returned from the portal and attacked me with his entire army, and I only had Titans, Gremlins, Mages, and Gargoyles. I was very lucky with the field, so the opponent could not immediately reach the archers.
Moskovskiy_1, Thank you for the game!
here is the replay of my lucky battle.

ekzekutor (red, Necropolis, Zoltan) defeated moz (blue, Gnomes, Ingvar) 2-2-3. There were few chances against Necropolis, and the opponent's development didn't go well. On the 5th week, on the 3rd day, he already arrived at the opponent's castle.

lady revan (Orcs, Haggeesh) defeated Bradiaga (Gnomes, Inga) at the beginning of the second month.
From the start, Garuna joined, in the Haggeesh Tavern, I recruited her, and by the beginning of the 3rd week, she reached level 20. I took the travel spells in the city and went hunting for artifacts. Along the way, she reached level 24, I cleared the portal, and our areas of interest overlapped, but I decided to continue. I discovered the Ring of Broken Desire, the Spellbook, and the Tree of Silanna in that zone. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the game; my opponent surrendered because he had learned black magic but didn't have any spells, and I was near the library. But still, Bradiaga, thank you for the game, it's a pity we couldn't finish it.
Haggeesh, level 24, 27-16-12-10:
3 racial skills
education 3
war machines 3: ballista - triple ballista, tent
logistics 3: finding the way - path of war
attack 3: shooting - fire arrows, tactics