MoM (red, Necropolis, Vidomina, Isra), def avstriolopitek (red, Rampart, Kyrre, Coronius), 326, 2SM4d(3).
First game (in 2011) inspired by HeroesWorld
December 21-22, 2011
Played via GameRanger. The game was finished the next day.
I started with Vidomina and Isra came second; I took her for leveling. I was in the Dungeon. Resources were normal; there were 2 external dwellings of skeletons, I couldn't take the third because evil creatures were blocking the approach. I spent all resources on building creatures. In the end, there was nothing left for hiring; I just roamed around killing everyone with skeletons, leveling up decently in 2 weeks. I broke through to the secondary hero; she turned out to be Necropolis! I was almost sure the opponent's secondary was also Rampart. I kept fighting and leveling my skeletons as best I could. They were my cannon fodder; I barely missed anyone. Money was catastrophically short; in the second Necropolis, I barely built everything except dragons and only hired there (then transported them to the respawn for upgrades) because growth was piling up at my home respawn but I lacked funds. Also near the second castle there were 2 external dwellings of zombies and 1 with ghosts, after which I went higher and took the dark knight dwelling, which gave me +1 knight growth in each castle. Since it was far to walk there, I didn't hire them every week, but I didn't slack on the other dwellings — I bought growth each week.
There were few goodies at first; I raided the naga bank around a month into the game. That stupid Isra, even with Expert Pathfinding (and later Logistics), moved very slowly, probably due to the zombies, and in the underground you can't really roam freely — you go to one edge, do something useful, and come back the same way with nothing left to take. Then everything changed abruptly; I headed to the third castle, Dungeon. 4 days' travel from it were 2 Dragon Utopias + Pandora's Boxes, and to the right it was even better; I cleared 2 banks, took the gold mine, and grabbed the underground map. It really helped me — I saw the hat that gives +6 to each skill 2 days' travel away and went for it.
When I was heading back with Isra, I noticed otherworldly movement on my land. At first I thought it was aliens, but it was avstriolopitek coming into the underground — very untimely, by the way — but he left as soon as he saw my slow-pokes roaming nearby and ran back without even taking the Ring of the Wayfarer (+1 speed). Meanwhile, I managed to reach my respawn and buy part of the army, sold all resources, and scraped together as much gold as possible for hiring.
I immediately headed back to the Utopias; meanwhile, there were skirmishes between our scouts. In the end, while I was turning onto the road to the Utopias, Kyrre arrived and captured my third castle, Dungeon. This made me pause for a second — should I turn back on him? But I didn't waver and continued to the Utopias. The first one had nothing interesting except gold, but in the second I got the Holy Boots + the Sword of Justice and 3 Folios: Earth, Water, and Air. By the way, I noticed that Kyrre's army was much smaller than I expected, which meant the secondary wasn't Rampart. :)
At the time of the battle, I had Expert skills:
Sorcery
Pathfinding
Offense
Armorer
Logistics
Earth Magic
Tactics
Wisdom.
Here:
Level 24

The gold from the Utopias was just enough to buy all troops at the respawn and the second Necropolis. The army turned out almost as strong as what Sorcia had on her hands. avstriolopitek didn't stay in Dungeon and rushed to my respawn; there I managed to move almost all newly hired troops to the second Necropolis.
While I was walking from the Utopias to Dungeon, Kyrre returned from my respawn (he saw me, that fast and cunning bastard) and charged at Isra. I didn't have time to double my mana at the Dungeon whirlpool or combine the hired growth. In short, the battle was brutal. I had 2000+ skeletons, about 50 dark knights, nearly 100 vampires :smile24:, 50 liches, and other hangers-on at 100+ each. Kyrre had 19 angels + 14 gold dragons, 150 elves, 50 unicorns, 100+ dendroids, and I think someone else too.
We immediately exchanged explosive volleys. He reduced my liches to 8, and I wiped out his elves entirely. (The explosions dealt 2700+ damage). Kyrre had about 100 mana, which ran out quickly. In the end, the skeletons did their job. The battle was interesting; after the defeat, avstriolopitek surrendered. Thanks for the game — it was fun! :smile47: