29.10 — 03.11
Vaflya (Blue, Rampart, Kyrre, Kyrre) def Сатир (Red, Castle, Caitlin, Ignissa),
8xm12a,
144,
200%... I didn't expect it myself!
111 — Kyrre came with 3 archers, plus four more in Aëris's city. Scrounged some cash from a campfire and a pile of gold. On the road, a block made of zombie piles, no army strong enough to break it, and it's positioned so I can't even send a scout through.
112 — Stumbled upon another campfire, hire Aëris, check the stable. The block's still there, nothing decent to break through with.
113 — Plus 2 piles of gold, total 2400, no wood at all, no idea how I'll build. Still two heroes.
114 — Hire another scout hero, break through the block with Kyrre, and the guard for the Cloak of +3 Duration. Stig takes two piles of wood, I slot in the archers. Check the camp for Pikemen.
115 — Revealed a Crypt, turned out to be near-max. Aëris stumbled upon some ore, Kyrre fights the Crypt and zombies for a box with an obelisk, expert Archery. With the money I hire Sandro with archers, slowly bringing him up. I planned to upgrade archers and Centaurs, needed cash for the Citadel, but it wasn't looking promising.
116 — Scouting, another near-max Crypt, an external Pegasus dwelling, cleared a camp but didn't reveal what's there, 41 Centaurs, 14 archers, I spot an Artifact of +10 Archery, but far from the road, thinking about how to take it.
117 — Drained the Crypt, heading back to the main, upgrading archers and Centaurs, home has 1-3 in the Citadel without Dwarves. There was also an external Dwarf dwelling, but I never took them all game; if I had, there'd be about a hundred, more on that later.
121 — In the tavern, Torgrim with 3 archers and a good stack of Centaurs, camp gives Energy. These guys carried me half the game :-) Hired him, passed to Kyrre for a speed boost, she went to hit land-based units for stat boosts. Hire Tor, upgrade Centaurs, head to the Wheel, building gold for the buyout. Kyrre got Tactics! Hooray!
122 — Good turn. Everything went pretty smoothly, except Sandros was one tile short of reaching the city, but that didn't slow me down much; the chain was coming together. Built up to the Artifact +10 and passed it to Kyrre, she got the last stat boost, advanced Tactics and Logistics, I'm planning to break through a small wood pile for a Nagash with a scroll.
123 — Everything aligned, grabbed the Artifact, broke the wood, scroll had Fly, thinking about the Mage Guild, the Nagash was a min, took it and went to scout the neighboring zone — it's snow. From scouting I saw a branch to the left, wanted to go there, but decided to go against my instinct and was right about the direction; that road only led to a corner treasure zone, very rich I should say, but nothing to take it with: 2-8-2-1, 27 archers, 70 Centaurs, and 4 Energy elementals.
124 — Scout heroes gathering resources near the road, building a chain for next week for supply transport. Kyrre breaks into the subway, then a teleport and reveals a village, apparently the central mini-treasure zone, the village belonged to Green, who had the most towns at that point. He was a Necromancer.
125 — The village turned out to be a jackpot! Built up with Tavern, Mage Guild, thousand gold and market! Hire Crag from it, jump to the overview and reveal the Necro's capital. Send Kyrre there, Arena on the way. Home has Pegasi and wood, planning to slot in horses with such a windfall. Sent Torgrim for a pile of gold in the snow, preparing to build a chain to the village and supplies.
126 — Out of nowhere, Avax-Fiona appears and takes my village! Elshar with a small force from a Necropolis town ran into the Arena; the town itself is empty. Without much thought, I beat Elshar, get +2 Defense and hide in the Necropolis town. 2 thousand gold, a Reinforcement, and 1-5 in the Citadel! Another gift :-) With such a start I thought I'd burn out completely, but now I had every chance in the game. Planning to beat Sandro in the Necropolis town and do a little necromancy; thank god I had the cash. Crag couldn't reach Fiona, who had fled a bit to the edge. I took the town, hire Sorcha, the same Elshar shows up with 2000 MP. But I didn't use them. With Sorcha I beat Fiona, who had Pixies; she bought herself out, I come out of the subway, and there's Ignissa — the opponent's main hero. A minute earlier and I'd have gone in and maybe fried her, but she had a decent force, even if strong; of course there'd be no main hero, but we'd have mauled each other pretty well. I hire Elshar and sacrifice him to Ignissa, who loses 10 archers. I send Sorcha along the road. Then Torgrim reveals a Shield of +6 guarded by Diamond Golems! Kyrre already has 10 Defense; with this shield she'd look really stylish, I decide to take it, even if it costs a few days — turns out it wasn't in vain.
127 — Finished building the chain; they took my village back. Kyrre walked along the path and hit a teleport, from there another, and ended up near the subway next to my village. Very lucky. The Necro owner never showed. Sandro took two more turns to come and get beaten, but he was also part of the chain. I left him with +3 Duration, which I regretted later. Spotted a Wyvern impling and a Cape of +2 Speed behind a pack of griffins, really wanted to take it, but feared morale penalties; for two valuable objects there'd probably be under 20, and I could handle that army but with unacceptable losses. Kyrre camps in the subway, horses in the Citadel; next week I plan to take the village, trade, and buy out.
131 — Transfer army through the chain, kill the opponent's scout hero who took the village, bought out without horses and wood, barely had enough money, left resources for Mage Guild 2 but never built it anywhere. Run with a defense item, minus two days of tempo, but the goal was worth it. Clancy shows up, by the way, didn't bring archers but had 19 Centaurs — still nice.
132 — Retook the shield, now 17 Defense. Kyrre was constantly visible in the tavern, speed-boosted to 7 speed, had Centaurs and archers, didn't lose much speed. Beat Sandro in the Necropolis, hire him and... Galtran appears! What a streak of luck :)) Naturally, I happily hire him, Sandro goes to gather resources, Gosh goes to level up. With Reinforcement, I could necromance to my heart's content.
133 — Nothing particularly interesting happened, no fighting, just through teleports Gosh met Kyrre, dispersed the first one, planning to take the Dragon Fly Hive guarded by a horde of hellhounds, Kyrre plans to push toward Conflux, which the opponent took. Here we saved and didn't play after day 3.
134 — Reviewing the game; seems there were no serious mistakes. Gosh takes the Dragon Fly Hive, turned out to be a min, the bones I got from the hellhounds (and lost 17 Centaurs) I left in the Hive. Oh well, +4 Wyverns isn't so bad. Sent Gosh above the village to scout and level up a bit. Kyrre tried to guess the direction to Conflux and guessed wrong... But going down, she hit a brown scout hero, and he was Rampart! Another freebie; I decided to take his town and come back from there. Kyrre heads to Conflux. Money-wise it was fine, I had more than the opponent, so he couldn't afford birds — that was reassuring. Captured Jager from jail with 0-0-7-3, a good defender, but no shooters. Need to find some.
135 — Kyrre killed Olema, who bought herself out; along the way grabbed a min-Dwarf Cottage; Jager scouted the Rampart, which was empty — that was good. Also noticed in the tavern how much defense the AI had; turned out 4 (!) stat boosts, one on the road and 3 near the town. Spotted a box guarded by Thunderbirds, planned to take it and build a chain from the town next week. Also slowly building from the main, where wood and horses were gathering dust. Gosh necromances.
136 — Sneaky Green takes my Necropolis from me, came out of nowhere from the dark, and I hadn't even left a single unit there. Not that it would've helped; there were many shooters and a Citadel. In a Castle I might've fought back. Take the Rampart, which has 1-6 in the Castle with a Capitol! I suspected this was the finish line. Sent a scout hero from the town to scout — the AI wasn't even nearby. Could easily bring in troops; Kyrre went through the stat boosts, 3-21-3-3 :smile08:
137 — Before this turn, I see Purple coming out of the underground where Gosh was heading. He was only three tiles from me, but didn't attack. And on Red's turn, Purple dies! And Gosh is right there. Got a bit scared, but decided to risk it and ended up taking a Castle at the end of the week; there's a Fort there. Gosh has expert Armorer, about 70 skeletons, nowhere much to fight. Could've taken a scout hero, but for some reason didn't, because I didn't have first strike and didn't want to run into basic shooters and get countered. Built all chains properly, preparing for a big buyout, 20 thousand gold, income 8350. :-) Kyrre took the box, 10k experience, gains three levels with Earth magic. And the most interesting thing — I forgot to enter the Rampart after retaking it, and it had Slow and Haste, which I didn't have.
141 — This is insane: week of wood! :D
Gosh gets killed; they took along an Angel and 20 ducks. The towers shot at who knows what, and I handled the battle poorly, could've removed the Angel. But the opponent got lucky too: after hitting the skeleton stack, the Angel managed to get morale, hit the same stack again, and evade the counterstrike. Now there was no chance to kill the Angel, and the first shooter hit a duck for no reason. I decided I couldn't handle the Angel, but that was a mistake. Ufretin shows up; I don't hire him; along comes Alamar. Perfect timing for when I need to school the butter! First bought out completely in the main, finally broke through and killed Fiona — she was tough — take the central village and start trading. Still didn't have enough for a full buyout. Hire Alamarich in the second Rampart, buy out, transfer everything to Kyrre, now I have butter. Run into the subway next to the village, keeping the opponent out. Planning to take Conflux. In the town, Jager has 70 Troglodytes and a few Harpies; no money, but Brown is nowhere in sight.
142 — Red is doing who-knows-what; Yanova finally appears: 9-9-3-1, a severely beaten two-week army and 4 ducks. It'll be tough to defend, but Jager also got a shooter from schooling; with 7 SP he should hold out. Kyrre comes out of the subway to take a Hive guarded by a horde of gr. Pegasi; turned out to be under a hundred, but handled it without losses thanks to butter. There was also a scroll there, presumably the fifth, but the Hive (which gives eight ducks, by the way) was in snow, so I decided not to waste movement and returned. Did some stuff with scout heroes, nothing interesting.
143 — Yanova attacks and kills! She broke through the walls very luckily and got through; there really was too much army there; even the 16 Dwarves I hired didn't save it. But the AI is still an idiot; left the town unguarded. Right under Kyrre's nose, Crag ran by with an army that had been delivered to him through the chain. I didn't know where he went, but Crag stopped on the road. While taking a break, a funny idea came to mind; I just had to wait for my turn. And it worked! Greenie, who had visited two stat boosters for experience the day before and mastered Earth magic, sped up with Energy elementals (! Energy elementals made the game!), gets beaten by Crag; with scout heroes I take the Rampart and hire Greenie there. Now definitely no one will retake the Rampart. :-)
Kyrre heads left on the road, sees a stable, visits it obviously, runs a bit further and sees the infamous Conflux. Completely unguarded, even though there was something to guard it with. And Satir had plenty of money after the Dragon Utopia. In the tavern, it showed 13-8-6-3 against my 4-21-5-3, but the strongest monster was no longer an Angel, but unupgraded horses. Funny — I didn't check the chain, but Crag was definitely carrying horses; how they didn't end up in a stable, I don't know. :-) I take Conflux and am 20 MP short of entering! Can't speed up or replenish magic. Pass the turn.
144 — Yanova attacks, gives up the Shield +2 and Mace +4, and I didn't have the War Boots all game; thinking about how to bring them after the battle. But then in the snow behind Conflux, I see Ignissa fighting a horde of ogres. Her army has 50-99 archers and 20-99 ducks, nothing much else. Also in the snow lies a pair of Boots. The opponent passed through; there was Pathfinding, and he stops next to the teleport to the central treasure zone (judging by the guard). I speed up on gr. wood, total 2750 movement, considering the stable. Turns out the opponent detached the archers and was planning to take the Dragon Utopia; he was just one step short of taking it. But either way, it was a max, and he'd either take heavy losses or stay there. In the end, Kyrre reaches it on the last step! The opponent has no Tactics; I have skill superiority, bigger army, and 60 archers with Tactics are ready to volley 29 ducks; I have exactly enough mana for one butter spell. GG
A very interesting, intriguing, and contact-heavy game, I enjoyed it :-)
Thanks again for the game, Satir!
Attaching the VODs:
http://ru.twitch.tv/wundervaflya/b/337336280http://ru.twitch.tv/wundervaflya/b/337354479http://ru.twitch.tv/wundervaflya/b/337823220