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On the second day, I was matched against Prince of all Rus', Kyiv, Sir Capitan. To be honest, after this match, I can't bring myself to say "Navukh" (and Navukhodonosor is just too many letters :D). You'll be Sandro now ;) (his name is Alexander, and in our game, he took the Necropolis as his faction, Sandro).
I was ready to redeem myself after the dungeon – a tossed coin landed heads up, and I went first again instead of red. But we both chose Rampart on Castle. We took all the restarts and started. No Elves, slow roads. No resources, no Hives. We got Armor and Tactics – so Kirill spent a long time running around with the basic logo, which was barely enough even with the stables. The red player was focusing on Sandro and openly threatened to overwhelm the poor Elves with an army of darkness, of which there were only 16 in our ranks by the second week! After taking both secondary towns, I realized that Kirill couldn't help me, and on day 125, I started building a Necropolis too! I bought Moandor in the tavern – after all, both secondary towns turned out to be Necropolises – only this could save the situation. I bought skeletons and went into battle. In just a few days, our ranks already numbered 250 skeletons. At this time, Valeska arrived as a scout at her native town, through the passage from which our scout had previously emerged. Sandro went through the secondary town, rightly believing that 250+ skeletons, supported by magic, would crush the Elves. I started telling Sasha that I was also building a Necropolis, but since he hadn't stood still for a single day without upgrading and hadn't been seen in the tavern, he didn't believe me. And meanwhile, a stables appeared in the Necropolis secondary town, 2 minimum-level conscripts :( and a Vampire Cloak! I had more skeletons :smile26:
The transformer still helped. In the treasure, a Teapot appeared, which was an equal exchange for my capital and the slow movement across Sandro's native territory. But it wasn't that simple. The Teapot turned out to be behind a hill, which seemed to divide two underground treasures (i.e., one cave, but with two treasures inside, separated by this inconspicuous hill). I ran to the red player's secondary dungeon town (untouched), where there were +3 Angels, and we were already ahead in terms of troops – 5 Angels each, and I had over 500 skeletons. I broke into the Necropolis and entered the other treasure, which was supposed to lead to the Teapot (there was no map of the area, so it wasn't known for sure). There was a valuable artifact +1 to morale at the entrance, but it was guarded by Black Dragons. Still, the anti-morale from the Necropolis was sometimes very inconvenient, so I decided to attack, especially since there was a mercenary camp and a theoretical passage to the Teapot further on. The battles slightly reduced the number of skeletons, but later, for this artifact near the native capital, I received a whole 15 Vampire Lords! There was no passage to the Teapot, but right on the ground lay a ticket to it – a Blue Hat, but the guards were serious – 20+ Giants. I attacked – 7 Titans :smile11: I used all my wait points and gave them to the Elves (they weren't really important anymore). The Giants, as expected, ran forward, but the skeletons without Haste couldn't reach anyone. The Angels attacked the Titans and blocked them. But then the situation became more complicated – the Giants returned in the second round to protect the Titans :smile04: In the end, -3 Angels and 150 skeletons + Elves and someone else. Behind the Giants was a Utopia, guarded by (20+ Hydras) and also guarding the Thunder Helm. Well, then it became more interesting. I took the Helm (the Hydras only scratched the skeletons once with their morale attack). But I didn't dare to go into the Utopia – I was afraid that the skeletons would be slaughtered, and I didn't have enough mana for an explosion. I retreated to the Necropolis – 1 day's journey, and I replenished my mana to 140. With DD and Flight, and advanced air, it was already faster. Here, on this turn, Sandro appears and stands on a rush for the only time in the entire game!
Moandor flies, jumps – but can't reach – he's not a logistics expert after all. And I decide to use Kirill, level 10, with expert armor. I give him all the troops (it's a pity he didn't have a book), and the battle of the weak against the main force begins (the red player had Christian – also not a complete weakling – 6-8 combat parameters). Kirill's expert armor decided the outcome. I could have saved 5 of my own horses, at the moment when it was decided whose skeletons would strike first (these 4 squares were divided by two level 1 Griffins), I calculated the moves, and due to the move before the skeletons, the red player's Marks would – my skeletons would strike first. But then the ducks let me down – instead of simply killing the Griffin, they fly back one square and open a passage for the Marks, the remnants of which become the second Griffin on the road, and my skeletons don't reach, but the opponent hits my horses, leaving only 1. In the next round, there was nothing to block with, and the same Marks passed the turn to my skeletons, which hit hard and left less than two hundred skeletons for the red player, who had to buy their way out. Kirill was also able to take the troops back. Sandro was left with 5 Angels and had to retreat. I, in turn, had a weakling in the rear, bringing reinforcements with 1 Angel, 25 combat Gnomes, and 12 Dryads. Now I can take the Utopia. But then I won't have time to take my own castle, and I might let Sandro go home. While I was pondering, we went to lunch at the "Puzataya Khata" :p
After lunch, Sandro went on business. When he returned, we continued, although it was around 8 pm, and the match was coming to an end. Sandro started talking about a draw, but he didn't know that I had the Hat of 5 and the Thunder Helm. I wanted to fight for 3rd place, as we were talking about a total of 4 rounds and we would probably finish the game online. So, I didn't take the Utopia and flew to capture my own castle, so that I could rely not only on magic (meat is also needed). And then, hiding an Angel 1 day's flight from the capital, I see that Sandro is standing on a rush again, not far from the exit of the cave. It's too far for Moandor, but I decided to try anyway and kill the Angels, and maybe even Sandro himself :smile19: But I'm just 1 square short :smile41:
In the end, I attack the weakling with a small army and don't have time to take my own castle on day 147. I had to attack on day 221 with a double production. Expert Ballistics (which I never take) broke through the gates immediately, but couldn't do anything with the ranged towers for 3 more rounds. Before that, Sandro broke through, and sent the Angels with the weakling to wander around in the rear of my town. Then Capitan offered to end the game (either a draw or finish it later online). I wanted to finish him off, so I asked for a couple more turns to check the Utopia. There wasn't enough TP for mobility, and without it, against what I thought were well-built Angels and other powerful units after 2 weeks and a treasure in the sands, with the prospect of uniting with 5 wandering Angels of the red player, there was a counterweight. We decided to flip a coin – if the Utopia gives a book of Earth, I win, if not – a draw. They gave a Titan Plate :eek:, but the agreement remained in force. And the opening showed that there were no Angels for the red player, just over 60 Marks, less than ten horses, and a hundred and a half skeletons, heading towards the poor treasure :smile05:
The game turned out to be interesting and the longest in the tournament (no one finished before 2 months). We chose Rampart, and both played as Necropolises with slow roads.
I'm especially happy with the pivotal decision to switch to Necropolis, despite the late stage of 125, which allowed me to repel the enemies and launch a counterattack. And, of course, with the friendly atmosphere, which turned out to be more important than all other ambitions.
A fighting draw! :smile54:
