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So, my 10-day vacation, or 8000 km, has come to an end. :smile20: Novosibirsk-Moscow-Zhukovsky-Lytkarino-Tomilino-Bykovo-Michurinsk-Podolsk-Pushkin-Moscow-Novosibirsk, overall it turned into a whole tour of the Moscow suburbs and nighttime Moscow! :smile54: I'm already sitting at work and remembering how awesome it was! (Shnurov would have put it differently, but I sense moderation here :D)
So, here are my memories:
It all started with a send-off at Catch's place. Actually, from that moment on, you could consider the vacation a success! We saw ourselves off with Derbent 5-star brandy, chased with cold beer and various snacks! We played warm-up games of 2 simultaneous games each, one of them naturally being the beloved Heroes 2 ;-)! We stocked up on some souvenirs, and closer to the evening of the next day, we jumped into ... the sauna! :confused:
Pfft... I mean, onto train No. 67 "Abakan-Moscow":D. It immediately became clear that the moves weren't thought through: only enough cold beer for a couple of hours in such a steam room, and no one thought to bring birch brooms... :(
Nothing to be done, so we had to, amidst such "delights," compare the honesty of the PockerStars Random Number Generator and train No. 67. It turned out the bourgeois folks from PS aren't such cunning comrades after all ;-) By the end of the trip, I was torn between wanting to file a complaint against that very RNG of the Abakan-Moscow train with the gambling committee!!! :D But overall, the preparation for the eminent Moscow sharks was successful! ;-)
We arrived at Yaroslavsky Station on schedule. According to the forecasts of those meeting us, there were supposed to be as many as 3 delegations from all corners of Mosco-city... but it turned out only Vova aka Yama-Darma managed to break through his affairs, problems, and the famous Moscow traffic jams to meet the sun-tired Siberian brigade! Not only did he meet us, he delivered us finally to a shower cabin after 50 hours of continuous slag elimination ;-)) fed us, gave us drinks, and put us to bed... well, everything according to science after a good banya! For that, he has my deep respect and thanks! A good-natured soul! And listening to his endless stories about Heroes, you could lie down at night as if listening to fairy tales and fall into a deep sleep!!! :D
The next day was planned for sightseeing in the Capital! To be honest, that concerned me the least in this entire trip, but to be in Moscow and not see Red Square would have been impolite on our part! ;)
So again the heat, blazing sun, and we're scurrying around the scorching capital. After a couple of hours, it started to frankly annoy me, some Arbat streets, Poklonnaya Hills... forget that!!! There was only one thing on my mind - cold beer and air conditioning! And that was exactly what we had planned for the evening at "Drova" - the gathering of the Phoenix clan! :smile12:
...I survived. :smile34: By the end of the day, in a deplorable state, Dustik's sunburnt little body was delivered to the specified address, where all the Firebirds eventually flocked, in search of the fiery water! :p
Very glad to have met everyone! I was really looking forward to it! I wanted to taste the famous buffet and ice-cold vodka in the wonderful company of like-minded people, but unfortunately, I only had enough strength to replenish my body's dehydration with beer after all those hellish days! Forgive me, I just can't stand the sun and heat at all! Come visit us in frosty Siberia, we'll warm up properly! ;-)
The gathering at "Drova" stretched on! Artyom aka Stinger, who met us at Red Square and subsequently dropped by the company for about 30 min :D at Drova, ended up staying there under the friendly libations of PReDS and Van! Not only that, but spells of an unknown level were used by the Siberian team, and his "unwillingness/inability" to go to Michurinsk somehow miraculously vanished. Solidifying this fact with an arm-wrestling match against the strongest of the Siberians - Van, it was decided for sure - I'M GOING! :smile12: (main thing is that it all works out with his wife, blame the Siberians, say they set it all up)
Another wonderful person didn't disprove the name of the establishment, deciding to compete with a real Siberian guy with a truly Russian name - Vanya, in consuming a truly Russian drink! "Drova" - Muscovites chose a good place to meet the Siberians! Documentary evidence will be attached later - you'll laugh your ass off :D
Overall, it was extremely great, only one thing bothered me - that eventually this whole friendly company was supposedly moving on the last commuter trains towards the hospitable Yama-Darma's home... sorry, Vova, if we overindulged in your hospitality. It's all their fault, those people from outside the Moscow Ring Road!!! :D
It was very nice to meet in person the charismatic clan leader - Viktor (Qwerty), Vitalic (who never agreed to go to Michurinsk, no matter how much he was invited - he lost out big time, I tell you :confused: ), and especially delightful impressions were left by Dimа Oxygen's wife - the beautiful Oksana (Slonysh)! :smile26:
The rest, alas, who didn't come - it's not my fault! :p You'll have to be exiled to us in Siberia!!! :D
P.S. This was act number one, do you think this was the wildest blast...!? - you're wrong, next up is act number two! :smile19:
Added after 3 hours 33 minutes
So, up to this point, my vocabulary seemed sufficient to convey the emotions of what was happening. Next, I'm afraid I'll disappoint you - I won't be able to convey what happened at the main event - YOU HAD TO BE THERE IN PERSON! For something like this, it's WORTH sweating it out for 100 hours in a stuffy train, then 15 hours five of us in a cramped car, eating nasty instant noodles and inappropriate-for-a-normal-person poison as dry rations, going far from home and family, swapping a trip to some Turkey for a modest gathering :smile19: of Heroes players - brothers in spirit! :smile12:
The next day after "Drova," getting up as early as my alcohol-marinated organism from the previous days allowed, surprised by the fact that Dmitry aka PReDS had already vanished (poor guy, we thought - going to work after all that, and without his phone :D ), we went for a walk to grab a bite in the beautiful Moscow suburb town of Zhukovsky, where Yama-Darma lives and hosted us.
All the Siberians really liked its quiet streets, green lawns, unhurried pace, and the numerous tree canopies hanging overhead. If there's any point in living near the Capital, it's definitely in the Moscow suburbs - we thought.
Overall, capital city life didn't surprise me at all, nor did it make me happy - life in stuffy traffic jams, from work to work - that's terrible! My native Novosibirsk is better, at least here you wait your legal hour in traffic in the worst case and you're free... and more often than not, you get away with just 30 minutes, and you can still push your way onto the metro during rush hour - there's no constant chaos... okay, I got sidetracked.
After a tasty lunch at the canteen of the Meteor stadium, where, by the way, in a couple of days the games were: "The Znamensky Brothers Memorial," we headed home to pack our suitcases and move directly to the science city of Michurinsk for an alcohol-poker fest :D yes, yes, that's right, does anyone still think people go to Michurinsk to play Heroes :confused: Not us! ;)
Countless moves were made thanks to the famous Moscow traffic jams, and finally, we met somewhere "around half past six," i.e., at the beginning of ten in the evening :D with Dima Oxygen and his faithful warhorse - a Lada 9 of Russian assembly; maybe the meeting happened somewhere in Lytkarino, or maybe already in Tomilino, who the hell knows :D the main thing is that the intended goal, 400 km long, in Michurinsk, was already within sight, and what's more, we were glad that the journey would be without the hellish heat, because back in those days they didn't know how to install air conditioners in Soviet cars at all. :eek:
The road to Michurinsk went without incident. The first 200 km passed to 3 songs by Shnur, which turned out to be the only ones in Dima's car. We learned them word for word, so that later in the reports we could describe the event with the most fitting words! ;-) The second half of the road passed to children's songs, which did nothing to dampen our cheerful fighting spirit! :rolleyes:
In Michurinsk (a city so huge that they'll happily take you from one end of the city to the other for fifty rubles :)) dawn is breaking, and here our spaceship approaches the outskirts! Do you think any of our guys is asleep!? Damn! Yeah, they're already smashed! That "Chuvashila mangazain, look how he's grown" aka Doberman :D had already fed the locals, because he arrived yesterday evening! (This was the first and last time anyone seriously slept) :-)) Only one person seems not to be sleeping, Erik aka Vam Rad aka Nagan-4, waiting for the distant guests from Siberia!
We met! Haven't seen Eric since Saint Petersburg-2005, so I was very glad to meet this interesting and pleasant person to talk with again!
The entire delegation was hospitably housed at Vam Rad's home, where sleeping places were already prepared. But no one was planning to sleep... :smile32: it's 3 hours before the tournament starts, you'd think to go get some sleep after the heavy journey, but no:smile04: you have to drink immediately for the reunion, and of course play guitar at 5 in the morning, specifically to inform the neighbors that for the next 3 days, sleeping will be strictly on command!!! That's the whole point!!! :D Truth be told, I didn't know my "Battery" would get such a lively response from the masses and be such a hit - I haven't held a guitar properly since practically school, good thing Oksy was nearby - he's excellent with the instrument!
So, basically without closing an eye, most of the people headed to the club, stopping by the local pizzeria along the way, where, I must say, they feed you cheaply and pleasantly! But some had already lost their strength at this stage, and weren't destined to even make it to the club on the opening day of the tournament! :smile11:
Digressing a bit, I want to note that we chose the format of the event ourselves! No one wanted to find out who among us was actually better at playing Heroes in such heat, especially since there was very little time for that, and a huge desire to chat and hang out!!! :smile50:
So, the first round. Probably only the local guys have real strength and desire to move their pieces - it's written on the visitors' faces: "Damn, how can I get out of here quicker (to sleep, eat, drink, cure a hangover, walk around, swim - delete as appropriate :D ).
It was exactly on this principle that Stinger and I played it. Although I really wanted to play specifically with Artyom, and preferably in the first round, to actually PLAY! To set the record straight right away - get a donut and then go relax with a clear conscience! But alas, we spent time together, our condition was identical...
Dust (с, Necropolis, Galthran) def Stinger (к, Inferno, Marius), 113 ВТ, СМ-ка
So, after scribbling around somehow, Stinger says 111 -re, then immediately 113 -re, then I take 111, then we play until my 113, I don't take the restart, because everything worked out great for me and GG. Artyom's draw wasn't great either, and the executed "papal mega-move" - upgrading Demons to 1 1 2 was so harsh that Stinger couldn't handle its implementation and decided the next day... right - to sleep! :p
Further, I watched what draws the locals got, until another player came to the club - ADM. Erik sat him down to play the 2nd round, although to be honest, there was absolutely no desire to play; there was much more desire to join Stinger, who was already snoring at that time, but out of respect for the organizer and my firm intention to play the mandatory 3 (!!!) rounds, I still had to start!
Dust (с, Castle, Valeska, Das) – Dimen (к, Stronghold, Crag Hack), SoD, 8MM6
Why on earth did I agree to play this boring and long 8mm6, especially on SoD!!! And especially at this tournament!!! I still don't understand, especially being in such a coma!?? Blue Knight versus Red Barbarian - we started!
First week, I have units in Castle, scouted the Griffin Conservatory, and an external dwelling of Archers, I don't even think about restarts looking for chocolate, only one thought - how to at least start quickly and postpone... :smile15: Played the first week quite strongly, normal! But then Sanal was so tastily drinking warm vodka, and I had a piece of cold dried-up pizza left from the morning breakfast, that I simply couldn't resist joining him for a couple of shots! That was it! :smile08: :smile15: The culmination of all this mess from what I can stupidly recall now - was grabbing Scouting and Navigation for the main Valeska with a cry of "Hurray!!!", indescribable joy - what a skill, dammit!!!:D On SoD(!!!), hahaha!!! So, Das became my GG from then on. So that's how I "played" the second week, I'll never be able to explain it :smile07: :smile45: :D Thank God we saved it! :smile34: :smile48:
The next day, only the most desperate came to the club again. Dust finally got fired up with the goal of playing those 3 rounds! And even for such a purpose, I managed to sleep a whole 1.5 hours! :rolleyes: And before that, there was poker, alcohol-trash, guitar, friendly conversation, and I can't put into words the rest - you had to be there!
So, the saved game. 3rd week! I see a 2nd Griffin Conservatory, see a quest I can complete, and see 2 beehives, and I also spot a Dragon Utopia - finally! The goal is to collect all this and crack the Dragon Utopia! With the thought "just hope my opponent doesn't spot it!" Moves of various kinds, but the opponent does spot it, and then the action for the Dragon Utopia begins, culminating in the following situation:
I'm standing with all the bought-up might of Castle in the Castle, +5 Angels, +8 Wyverns, +30 Water Elementals given by the Quest (papal move :rolleyes: ) with Mass Slow(!) and I can attack Crag, who is striving to take this Dragon Utopia in a turn or two, who is slightly bigger in stats, he has lots of Wyverns, but the army of one week is not combined in the move. I hesitate for a long time, afraid of Crag's Mass Haste, thinking the template is big - we can still run around, there will be more Dragon Utopias, etc., need to go for a sure thing, get a bit more might and... I don't attack :( :( :( , giving him the Dragon Utopia! As it turned out later, there was no Mass Haste, and I would have likely won that battle quite easily with Mass Slow... but alas. If I'd known, I'd have lived in Sochi! :smile29: By that time I already had the scroll, even 2 with Fly, so the decision was quite reasonable, but considering the situation, my condition, and the allotted time for the tournament, I just needed to attack and see the Flop - Easy Call as they say :smile29:
In the Dragon Utopia, Crag got at least 12 Attack, and things got worse for me. Hope on the same Dragon Utopias (Implosion with a tower), Griffin Conservatories, before the save I luckily discovered 2 more nearby! I also strive to capture the computer's Conflux before the end of the week with built Phoenixes using Fly. In short, there was still plenty to play, because the template allows it! With a clear conscience, we saved again, because the call was heard: "Everyone to the river: shashlik, vodka, swimming - lying on the ground!" :smile44:
A small remark. I'll write about the 3rd round right away too! I wanted to play everything that was required. I don't know how Erik will look at this game, count it or not - it doesn't matter! What matters is that it happened!
So, like in KVN, with the words: "We're starting the 3rd round, why and for what purpose!?" :D
We sat down with PReDS at home to play our beloved HEROES 2! :smile08:
Dust (green, Necromancer, Barbarian) def PReDS (blue, Necromancer, Necromancer) Hot Spot 127 start at 160%
It turned out to be a dynamic game from my side, which can be described as "all or nothing", i.e., Dust went ALL-IN :D Having quickly cleared my entire native respawn along the chain by the 5th day, there was nothing left to do. I don't like it when there's nothing to do, but at the passage to the desert stood evil Wolves - the most unpleasant guard. I have an army, but the minimum lot that can realistically break through is about 24, and even then only if they split favorably. So, I attack. Those wolves stood in 3 stacks of 9 9 8 - bruuutal! My army was something like 9 Orcs, 40 Goblins, 26 Centaurs, and 3 Gargoyles I think, Barbarian with 5 1 1 1. The battle was lost, but I need to take out the maximum so that I can finish them off with 2 Liches along the chain later! So, 6 wolves remain, which fall to the Liches on the next turn. I take all Nomads, the gold mine - think about what to do next... Again nothing to do - only to rush the computer, and the computer there is a Sorceress, probably the most unpleasant computer you can get! She'll shoot and magic-bolt with her mana reserve so hard that it won't seem like much, especially against a slow Necromancer. :smile15:
But waiting is not our method! I absolutely don't care! I upgrade Zombies, buy out the entire army on day 1 - I bought exactly everything except 1 corpse. And then pay a visit to the Sorceress. The GG moves in front of the castle so he can reach and enter it in one turn, 2 other Warlock heroes position themselves so the Sorceress heroes scatter and don't get into the castle. The slightest wrong move and the Sorceress hero is in the castle, and you can't get him out of there for anything! But everything went well! Barely, with the loss of all the Liches (the Captain + 10 Grand Gnomes and walls shot/magic-bolted them), we take the castle. I split the GG, buy 2 Warlocks, divide the units, perform a hit-and-run on the nearest Sorceress hero, kill almost all the Grand Druids and Grand Elves, and by doing so, drain all her mana to zero. Only one Sorceress remains with a fat but low-level mob and 60 mana. With the last money, I build level 3 in her Castle (Mass Bless and Animate Dead), buy a spell book for the main Barbarian with 6 Attack and sit behind the walls after saying a prayer! All moves on a wing and a prayer!
Everyone is already watching this decisive battle, Stinger is advising, Kostya is nearby, PreDS is watching... in short, the city held! And the second Sorceress hero didn't attack, but hangs around nearby - you can buy him off if needed to get home:smile15: ! Next, Warlocks are bought, learn Lightning Bolt, and run to buy off, to meet PreDS's Necromancer, who is meanwhile already heading for my castle. I can't pass the army along the chain, and there isn't any besides a bunch of Zombies, but a couple of heroes with Lightning from the Sorceress's castle will sort things out, and if anything remains, the GG with 7 4 2 1 buys off from the Sorceress and is bought back home. After this, PreDS declares that he doesn't attack on day 7 and surrenders, and with my new growth, there's nothing left for him to do there!
Anyway, that's it, I've reported on the games! :smile29: While I was writing, it felt like I played it all over again! Phew! :) 3 rounds, just as I wanted..! ;) It's a tournament, dammit! :D
After that, we had shashlik with vodka outdoors, conversations about everything imaginable, skinny-dipping in the river... and no one recorded my jump from the bridge (( :smile08:
Towards morning (unfortunately, I went to sleep after poker), the guys got so carried away playing Durak that amazing cocktails were born :D, the mere thought of which makes you want to vomit, yet they still drank them by half a liter! And also mega-funny moves, like "Stress Vika and Stinger" :D but let the eyewitnesses tell that themselves!
This is hard to put into words! It was awesome! It doesn't matter that the shashlik was store-bought and not the tastiest, what matters is that we all gathered together, despite everything, across thousands of km we managed to meet with people just as passionate and, in a good way, crazy about this game! That there are such friends who will always welcome and host you, there are such organizers that you travel to, knowing you won't regret it for a moment, that this is the best vacation you can have here and now! That is the force that truly unites us!
P.S. Anyway, guys, we're waiting for you in Siberia!!!
