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Once Vova and I decided to check if blue really has worse luck on SM, and in general for a blue player. We agreed to play 4 games (two each as Dungeon and Rampart, red and blue). Shakti vs Ivor, without switching to other heroes. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to play 4 games in November, only three.
10.11.2010 Neverminder (Red, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) def JonnyJay (Blue, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti) 2sm4d(3) 126
111 - Sweet! Coronius has elves, with a first-day build Ivor has 18 of them. Mirlanda also showed up with three flies. Nothing special that day, ran around a bit, found a passage to a grass secondary behind upgraded gargoyles, decided to beat them on day two after upgrading archers. Freed Geon from prison. Geon + Coronius means I'll have Slow for sure. But not a priority yet.
112 - Upgrade elves, kill gargoyles, discover the secondary is native, but can't capture it due to movement. Lit up the Griffin Conservatory on the starting respawn.
113 - Mirlanda goes into a crypt, and there's a max stack there. But 18 upgraded elves can take down 5 vamps per round even against a level 1 mage. No big deal. The Griffin Conservatory turns out to be a minimum.
114 - Build dendroids and decide to go into the Griffin Conservatory. Ivor is weak, level 2, but having an angel is desirable. For speed boost and general purposes. In the conservatory, griffins get morale and keep trying to bite the elves, dendroids die quickly. Overall, I took it sloppily, but it's fine: 11 elves left, and some centaurs. But the angel is more important. Besides, the secondary is native, so there will be more elves, and plenty. So no big deal.
115-117 - Nothing interesting. Ivor only runs with a single angel and fights with it. The rest of the army is elsewhere, scouting. Kill zombies for a pandora's box, but there was magic there apparently, and I had no spell book. Went alone into a teleport on the road, there's a horde of orcs. Forget that. Ivor ended the week modestly: level 6 (3-5-1-2) with basic Pathfinding and expert starting skills. Buildings: capital 1-6 without dwarves in the Citadel, built elves in the secondary.
121 - Army with Coronius captured a Castle secondary, Ivor started the week at the stable, then broke through 19 upgraded medusas for another secondary.
122 - The secondary turned out to be Castle-aligned. Very lucky: all secondaries are grass, and even though I had Pathfinding, I still prefer them over snow or rocks. 4 taverns indicate Vova's strongest monster is Evil Eyes.
123 - Decided to exit this secondary into the treasure zone, which is on rocks. Attacked 42 Orc Chieftains fearlessly. That was an adrenaline-fueled fight. Once the orcs got morale, and it resulted in the angel having either 1 HP or 2 HP left when finishing the last orc. One more morale, and Ivor would have been done for. But I dodged it.
124-125 - Decided not to get cocky in the treasure zone, bring in unicorns, Grand Elves (35 total), and centaurs, kill some stuff, take a hive with 6 Wyverns at the cost of one unicorn because no Life Drain. On his day 125, Shakti breaks through the orcs behind the teleport and appears on my territory.
126 - Pass along the chain: 4 unicorns, 6 wyverns, an angel, 35 Grand Elves, and 39 centaurs, I myself break into one of the secondaries, pick up the army on the way back, but am one square short of reaching Shakti. However, Vova decides not to continue anyway. Thanks for the game!
11.11.2010 Neverminder (Blue, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti) def JonnyJay (Red, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) 2sm4d(3) 146
A long game; writing day by day would fill pages, so just the highlights. On the first day, I left the underground, breaking through two hordes of halberdiers. Pleasantly, I came out onto grass, not snow or swamp. The secondary turned out to be Castle-aligned; an interesting moment during capture: archers kept killing single units instead of shooting the main stack. Strange. But that makes it easier for us. Returned to my respawn, saw Alliance armor guards for 20-49 gold golems, and a dwarf cottage. The Dwarf Cottage turned out to be a maximum with an upgraded stack. Postponed it for later: not many Troglodytes, and attack was basic for a long time. Did the same with a minimum Griffin Conservatory found nearby. By the end of the first week, built 1-4,6 in the Citadel and mushroom rings; in the Castle, just put up a thousand. Saw my GO: Fairies. Decided it would be never.
At the start of the second, I was afraid Laura would come, but no, dodged that. Took Troglodytes from a hero, upgraded, bought more Troglodytes and Manticores — and went for the golems, then the Dwarf Cottage. All fell normally. Then took the Griffin Conservatory. Started building up with an angel. Logistics never showed up until the end of the game, but an Angel is something. Mid-week two, broke through to another secondary via teleport, turned out to be Barbarian. From there I exited into a grass treasure zone, where a key artifact of the game was spotted — the КЗ for 10-19 Red Dragons, but when Tan captured the Barbarian castle, an external dwelling for Behemoths for 50-99 Evil Eyes appeared there. Decided to go for the Behemoths, i.e., capture the dwelling at the end of week two and build a portal: no other external dwellings were taken. And I didn't see any high-tier ones anyway. Break myself as Shakti into the Barbarian castle, need Expert Earth (at that point it was Advanced, but all other slots were expert), kill some stuff there, but not enough, enter a teleport, there's a treasure zone on dirt, see a Pandora's Box behind basilisks. Inside, conveniently, 10000 experience, gain three levels instantly, become level 14, get Wisdom and Armorer. Overall, Shakti's skills this time were very good. Just logistics never showed. And I didn't see offers of Diplomacy or Navigation. At the end of the week, return to the Behemoth dwelling, kill the Evil Eye surprisingly easily, capture the dwelling, build a portal, buy creatures everywhere.
The third week starts for Shakti at the stable, then run to the capital, get 4 Behemoths, Troglodytes. Arlash brings a ballista — too bad, too late: the skill was offered a while ago and only once. Take a mini-hive on my respawn behind a horde of ogres, then run into the underground treasure zone, where I'd been eyeing two libraries since day one, seen under the starting respawn. Right near the entrance, I'm met by a Shield +4 to All! Behind a horde of Liches, though. But they died easily, only killing 30 Troglodytes. I'm moving with 1 angel, creatures, 5 Manticores, and Troglodytes. But that's enough. The 4 Behemoths in this treasure zone solved all fights. Their damage is insane, of course. Especially tough was a half-stack of Black Knights that had to be killed in one hit. Blessed help on the Behemoths, plus the ballista and a crossbow dealing 140 damage. After visiting two libraries (stats are already impressive, especially combat stats), break myself again into the Barbarian castle, prepare to take the КЗ, then break the GO and head for the final battle. In the same underground treasure zone, conveniently found Speed Boots in a warrior's tomb.
The fourth week I start at the stable again, then beat unicorns for a hive, then the hive itself, about 130 upgraded Pegasi. Had to spend Slow costing 7 mana here; Behemoths did their thing as usual. I was only moving with an angel, 4 Behemoths, and Wyverns, because there was no morale, and if I'd also carried creatures from my own castle, there would be 4 alignments, causing major problems with freezing at the worst moments. At the end of day 141, beat the Red Dragons, which only managed to kill two Wyverns. The ballista helped a lot, of course. On day 142, take the КЗ, and it turns out I have only 10 mana left; I run around for two days, find another Griffin Conservatory — a level 2 one — very conveniently. On day 144, portal into the Dungeon, double my mana (I already had Intelligence, offered not long ago, which I gladly took since explosions need a lot of mana), end up with 350 points. Buy everything I can afford; decide not to take Behemoths this time, since I've gathered 26 Wyverns. I wasn't specifically hunting for them, just took hives along the way, but still accumulated a decent stack. On day 145, go to the GO. There turn out to be seven Fairies; they split into five stacks and get aggressive: meteor shower, ring of cold, bolts. Reduce their numbers to one, then resurrect the angels (who bravely took magical hits) and harpies. I don't care about losing some Troglodytes; mana will be needed for the final battle. On the other side, the GO is Rust Dragons. Five of them, also split into five stacks, but their damage is pathetic. I actually found it funny: one dragon killed 8 Troglodytes and 2-3 harpies. Spit on the Troglodytes, restored the harpies. Didn't reach Rampart. On his day 146, Vova attacked himself. The КЗ, of course, decided it. Immediate explosion on the Wyverns, then bold resurrection several times in a row. Main heroes of the second game attached.
12.11.2010 Neverminder (Blue, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) lose JonnyJay (Red, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti) 2sm4d(3) 133
I don't know if blue really has worse luck than red or not, but out of four generations in this game, Ivor had elves only once. Not in the last one either. And the guards on the secondaries were nasty: a pack of Archmages underground, a horde of Orc Chieftains on Inferno, and a horde of War Wizards on dirt. If it had been a grass secondary, I might have tried, but as it was, I dug in on my home territory, took two external dwellings of dendroids and two of centaurs, built 1-6 in the Citadel plus young dendroids. As a result, because I didn't take secondaries and also bought dendroids from dwellings, I fell drastically behind in tempo due to gold. The Dungeon on dirt had already been cleaned out by Shakti. Ciell, formerly in his service, flying out with 7 harpies, killed all my elves, and then during the defense of the castle — even a few unicorns. I only got Intelligence from skills. No Logistics, no Earth Magic, no Pathfinding, not even Wisdom at level six. In short, due to the hopelessness of my situation, I surrendered. We then conducted the final battle purely as an experiment: I had absolutely no chance, as he already had angels and various high-level Dungeon creatures, while I was completely outclassed. Luck was bad, and I played badly too. The outcome was predictable.
Thanks for the games! They were very exciting.
