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

ekzekutor (blue, Dungeon, Lethos) defeated TwoEP (red, Dwarves, Sveyya). 2-2-4
Without shackles, it's difficult to fight Lethos (with a magic power of 48). A few Hydras and Erin (level 18). In the last battle, Lethos took 9 Dark Horrors, which was enough because the opponent didn't deploy his entire army, and he didn't have enough money for a ransom (he bought shackles but didn't deliver them). Thanks for the game.

moz (red, mages, Order) defeated Twoer (blue, humans, Academy) 1-4-1

A strange game. On the first day, the tavern gave me a Dugal, which was a pleasant surprise. Initially, I decided to go for Chaos and Light. I was hoping for defense, and it didn't let me down – I got a Mother. On the second week, Titans with a Castle appeared, and I managed to get a set of boots and spent time changing equipment. On the third week, I finished building the Maggild and all the troops. On 1-4-1, I already bought 5 Titans, and the Castle had Resurrection and Shock (green boots included). On 1-3-7, our paths crossed; I already had BDP, Light, Education, and Chaos. But the opponent decided to surrender, probably sensing that things were getting serious. Thank you for the game.

Adv (Dwarves, Gelmar, Red) defeated Leolopus (Humans, Rutger, Blue) 2-4-4
Very difficult start... in the 1st adjacent zone and mines - desert, in the 2nd adjacent zone - swamp, was pleased that the Log finally gave me level by 15-16.
By week 5 I broke through the center, picked up Traveler's Boots at the entrance, found Resurrection in a pyramid... and things picked up after that...
Found 3 artifact shops, where over a couple of weeks I managed to snag the "Staff of the Netherworld" and "Ring of Speed 20%"... from the center I got into the treasure zone,
wandered around there until I met Rutger with a horde of Inquisitors...
Portaled back to the castle and went to break through the GO... Rutger didn't want to go there from his side for some reason...
There I found another 3 artifact shops and bought the remaining parts for the "Cloak of the Deathly Shadow" set.
Leveled up to 30 and went to visit Rutger... fortunately, trained Knights and Inquisitors were already waiting for me there.
Simultaneously, I was leveling Sveya and Inga... came to my opponent's home with a herd :)
Rutger came out of the castle, attacked Sveya with Fire Elementals, and she managed to cast Armageddon once on the field...
Then he went after Gelmar, and here's the final battle...http://ifolder.ru/14323445, my opponent didn't have the patience to see it through to the end... but I understand him,
The terrain, and I must say luck, was not on his side...
Gelmar level 30, 18-20-17-18 (typical for a Dwarf - neither here nor there)
3 Races - completed, greatest
3 Light - Righteous Wrath, Storm Wind, Protective Gift
3 Luck - Soldier's Luck, Dwarven Luck
3 Attack - BB, Tactics + Hird
3 Defense - BDP
3 Log - Pathfinding + Surprise Attack
Thanks Leo for the game! ;)
P.S. Dwarven Luck combined with 10% boots sometimes works wonders :)

Kolobokk (Mages, Razazek) defeated Hero (Orcs, Hagresh) - 2-2-3

I've never seen such a start; my main hero reached level 5 on the first day.
The Mage was level 29 against the Orc's level 26. The Mage crushed the Orc with his army. He only managed to cast a slow spell and a charm on one stack. He didn't even get to the other spells. The army performed very well, and the combination of Gremlins, Titans, and Mages with the Archer's Blade was devastating. He also had almost all of the Dark magic spells of level 3 (collected by Nazir and taught to Rosie using the skill from Sorcery) to heal Super Golems, but it didn't come to that.

Thanks for the game; against a Mage, you definitely need to take Anti-Magic.

BOLIVAR (red, elves, Ilyfina) defeated SylarOff (blue, mages, Ora) 2-3-2.

From the start, I got Ilyfina and Vingael. Since Ving is blocked, I leveled Ilyfina. Besides, that's not a bad option (and I remembered my previous game, where I spent a ton of money on the hero I needed and almost threw the game).
Ora's start was better (I watched her development in the tavern). But later, when I got logistics for Ilyfina, the situation started to even out. One adjacent zone - dwarf halls, the second adjacent zone - grass. And then... only sand (though my opponent said he had snow around there and that probably slowed his development a bit - as far as I understood, Ora never got logistics).
Ilyfina reached level 20, got teleport, and, what else could I do, rushed into the GO. The guard was tough, there was no resurrection in town, at least I had regeneration. I restored as much as I could, but... the losses were a bit disheartening. After that it got easier - I got resurrection in the GO (though only at the third library).
I explored the GO, gained several levels. And on the second day of the third (or fourth - I don't remember exactly) week, I got a reinforcement from the castle via the chain, broke through my opponent's GO and immediately reached his town. There were few troops there, so there wasn't really a final battle - my opponent surrendered. (I was lucky that the town was close to the portal).
Thanks for the game.

I confirm, I should have taken not only Anti-Darkness but also the machines; I lost a lot of buddies, and it was a logical result...
but Gnomes with 20 Intellect are just brutal...
Thanks for the game

Added after 31 minutes
Hero_of_heroes(Sylvan, Anwen) def. BOLIVAR(Dwarves, Ingvar) 2-2-1
At the start, I had Anwen and Ossir; I decided to level Anwen so as not to depend on shooters, and as the finale showed, I did the right thing, since not a single shooter survived until then :)
The first 2 weeks were just gorgeous; by the end of the second, I had the Castle and dragons. On the first day of the 3rd week, I decided to go to the center, which turned out to be a mistake... there were 40 Alt Lords; I was only able to kill 32 and thereby lost 44 flies, 40 shooters, and 12 druids... I thought it was the end, but I didn't give up and decided to level using only dragons. I ran around the starting respawn for a week, upgraded the drags, and went to the resource zone. I spent 2 weeks there with 5 dragons and lost 1 dragon when taking the Holy Sandals. I returned home through the second adjacent zone, got Resurrection (I only found Regeneration in the Guardian's Outpost, but it helped me a lot in the finale), and went to the center. Behind the Alt Lords turned out to be Battle Mages, and I realized I would have been crushed anyway :) but with Resurrection, I passed them without losses. After walking around the center, I collected the Orcish Tome and 2 dragon artifacts, after which I went to another center. After wandering there, I decided to port home and go through the Guardian's Outpost. I got stuck in the Guardian's Outpost for a week because I really wanted to collect all the upgrades, but the Dwarf hit-and-runners hindered me a lot, and they eventually killed all my shooters... having cleared almost all of the Guardian's Outpost, on the first day I brought my troops and saw a portal to the opponent's start; a Dwarf stood next to it and attacked me, but he didn't get to move because I replaced the Holy Sandals with +1 Speed, which turned out to be the right move, as the opponent had the Necropolis Tome that reduces speed. But after the Dwarf, Ing was attacked by me (who, by the way, was level 22); she was the one who wiped out my shooters, because for some reason both she and her ballista moved even before my unicorns. After these two comrades, Ingvar came from the portal, took the level tree, and attacked me. The finale turned out to be tense, although I had a decent bunch of Ents left; here it is: Download Iskustvo_str_Hero_of_heroes_vs_Bolivar.sav
Anwen lvl 30 34-29-21-22-4-2
Expert Avenger: Enchanted Arrow, Arrow Rain
Expert Defense: Reflection, Resilience, Stone Skin
Expert Logistics: Pathfinding, War Path, Death's Tread
Expert Light: Blessing, Righteous Fury, Storm Wind
Expert Leadership: Army Assembly, Haste Aura, Sylvan Leader
Expert Attack

Thanks for the game

dwp (Red, Demons, Alastor) defeated Lutii (Blue, Arghat, Barbarian) 311

terrible game:(. the result could have been different if the opponent had more experience.
in general, the plan was to upgrade the Commander ability and gain a decisive advantage. potential candidates were
either Marbas or Grok. but no luck.
neither Grok nor Marbas nor Deleb were available on the first week (even with level 1). There was Alastor and Grol.
I decided to try upgrading Alastor. There wasn't enough money to recruit anyone useful. There was a chance to start upgrading someone useful on the second week if Alastor didn't work out.
but in the end, I had such "luck" that on the second week, there was still no one useful.
I had plenty of money, but I didn't take any of the level 1 units.
Alastor continued to level up. But as always happens to me, it paid off.
I only got him to level 21.
On the third week, I didn't start upgrading anyone new.
I decided to try what I could get from Alastor. Besides, Arghat was falling behind badly. It was clear that she wasn't doing well either.
In the end, I somehow managed to get to level 23 and, of course, an Expert of Darkness on the fourth week. This was quite an achievement. I, without Darkness, with some random units, 30 albs, a bunch of demons and imps (about 50 each), 8 fire elementals and 4 earth elementals, accidentally (there were two guards nearby) attacked a couple of hundred ghosts and 70 wolf riders.
then I retreated to the castle and on the fifth week (after getting Darkness) I started trying to break through the Guardian.
The Guardian had no defense, just Darkness, attack, and magic, with some random units that I used when I still hoped to upgrade the Commander ability.

Guardian 1 was a challenge.
http://ifolder.ru/14317436
I managed to get through it with just Darkness.

The second Guardian was easier.
I jumped out and Arghat was right in front of me at the Guardian.
She bravely attacked, with all sorts of junk (it looked like she had two rings of warning).
but in the end, she took a lot of damage.
http://ifolder.ru/14317481
She lost some goblins and a few shamans, and bought her way out.
I immediately transferred all the meat to her. I thought I would finish her off.
but I see that Arghat didn't break through her Guardian, and there were 150 yetis there.
damn.
I couldn't take the yetis without the Power of the Pact (on the fifth week), so I couldn't jump. I turned around and went looking for treasure.
Arghat also started leveling up.
to be honest, I wanted to find a way around to the Barbarian.
but again, it didn't work out.
I got completely lost.
I found the treasure after a couple of weeks. I never found a way to the Barbarian.
but I explored most of the map. And in one of the zones I checked, Arghat jumped in and started leveling up there (she probably thought it was treasure).
but it was just the central zone.
I see that she's losing a lot of battles. And on the eighth week, I gave up looking for a way and went through the Guardian.
That's how the yetis fell!!!!
http://ifolder.ru/14317742

In the game, I didn't really lose much. There were 50 demons and maybe a hundred imps.
so I had a decent amount of meat, and since Arghat had lost some units and griffins (I was watching her), I decided to take her in the castle.
and here's the finale.
http://ifolder.ru/14317701
I was a little nervous when the subjugation didn't work on the centaurs. But in the end, everything worked out more or less. The loss of goblins in the first battle and Arghat's losses during leveling up had an impact. If she hadn't fallen behind and lost so much, I would have dragged it out longer.

Thanks for the interesting game.

Kolobokk (Orcs, Hag) defeated Vip.rus (Imps, Deleb) 2 months ago

The start was bad, so a quick game didn't work out; I had to build up my Dark faction, and I took machines with wasps.
My opponent was lucky with the weeks of Dogs; he swapped to them three times until I found an Astrologer.
Due to the large number of my opponent's units and the presence of the week of Plague, the growth was minimal, so I decided to try a trick first.
The first hit-and-run attack failed, and instead of attacking my Castle, my opponent stayed near his own. The second hit-and-run attack was successful; in 2 shots, the Ballista killed 9 Pits and 6 Imps of level 7.

After that, my opponent surrendered; thanks for the game. My opponent is a master of hit-and-run tactics – no one will deny that – and this was the second time I used such a tactic (the first time was with a Warlock).