Posts from "Newcomer-2013. Winter" Auto-translated

Ah, if only everyone played this actively, I'd give prizes to everyone :)
Please reach out and let the players know how the process is going: Akmid, Lucky_George... as well as all players in group D who have 1 or fewer games... within a couple of days, replacements will begin for inactive players. I will also try to contact the guys myself, but most of those I messaged are silent.

Regarding Lucky_George. He messaged me on ICQ on weekdays, asking if I could play a tournament on the weekend. I replied that I could on Sunday after 5 PM, but he wasn't online, although I would probably have postponed the game anyway due to feeling unwell.

13.01.2013 high (red, Swamp, Tazar, Tazar) def antoshkin (blue, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) 2sm4d(3) 212

We chose all restarts. Probably about 9. Three technical ones (either no road, or the swamp castle spawning on grass...). In short, we played as luck would have it. As the post-game analysis showed, the luck was nearly equal. One road to the adjacent territory was blocked for me by 10-19 Wyvern Monarchs (artifact), and for my opponent by 20-49 Queen Medusas (also an artifact). So the first two weeks we cleared our own respawns and one secondary town (both mine and his were Inferno).

111-113: 4 heroes. No gold. There is an external dwelling of harpies behind 20-49 lizardmen. An external dwelling of gnolls. As I already said, the road in one direction is blocked by 10-19 Wyvern Monarchs, and behind them are my respawn and an ore mine. In the other direction, the passage is blocked by 50-99 Orc Chieftains guarding a Necromancer's Cloak. So there was no choice of where to go. Yog took the crypt. Broke through 3-4 more guards. Revealed the Griffin Conservatory and broke through its guard. All of this was off the road. Yog is level 3. Tazar nervously waits on the road, but eventually breaks through the lizardmen and takes the harpies. Andra with the troops didn't quite reach another crypt.
114: Tazar breaks through 10-19 Diamond Golems and bursts into the secondary Inferno town. Gold chests under guard are visible—that's pleasing. The rest are a bit behind but catching up.
115: Tazar breaks through along the road to the secondary town. He already got Tactics for the third time, which is good. Meanwhile, Yog clears the lower area and levels up to 4. He got Earth magic and stats 7-1-1-3. An external dwelling of Pit Fiends is visible.
116: Tazar broke through the guard of the external dwelling and for some reason continued further along the road. When he came to his senses, he didn't want to go back. A scouting hero lost 4 harpies at the dwelling. But he took the Pit Fiends.
117: 6 heroes. 12346 in the castle. Another external dwelling of Pit Fiends is revealed. But I didn't reach it. Tazar is 6th level, 3 Defense, 2nd Logistics, 2nd Tactics. Yog remained at 4th level.
121: Another external dwelling of Pit Fiends is taken, and a third is revealed... :) Tazar bought a spell book and ran to the Medusa dwelling. Scouting heroes gather Pit Fiends. One ran to clear the third dwelling.
122: Tazar takes the Medusa dwelling, losing 3 Pit Fiends, one wyvern, and a bunch of lizardmen against 10 crystal dragons.
123-125: Tazar and the scouts clear the respawn. Yog ran to get a spell book. Taz saw the entrance to the treasure zone and dived in.
126-127: Tazar wasted two days in the treasure zone. Less because he couldn't kill anything and more because there was nothing worth killing. Within two moves in the treasure zone, there was nothing tasty at all. Yog waits near 50-99 elementals guarding the Griffin Conservatory. Tazar passes troops along the chain and on the last move, trying to see as much of the treasure zone as possible, ends up in the castle. A plan is devised to capture two Griffin Conservatories. One is a tier-2, the other is behind the elementals.
131: I made a big mistake by attacking the elementals. I left 4 wyverns, 3 harpies, and some lizardmen there... and what's the point... I didn't proceed further to the Griffin Conservatory. The chain redirects troops to Tazar.
132: Tazar, with 20 Pit Lords and single units of Dragon Flies, takes the tier-2 Griffin Conservatory, losing the single units and 1 Pit Fiend. I get two Angels.
133: Yog on the other end, with 23 Pit Fiends, 2 Angels, and single units of upgraded Imps, takes the tier-3 Griffin Conservatory with the loss of one Pit Fiend. Troops are immediately transferred to another front. Tazar kills the Wyvern Monarchs and clears the road.
A plan is being formulated to reach the opponent through the secondary town this week. This requires a lot of gold. Everything goes into buying out Pit Fiends; there's no money to buy out native troops. There isn't a single wyvern in the army. Yog is planned to go out against the opponent. Tazar is far away and wants to clear another secondary town.
134: A Hive is revealed on my territory. I try to set up a chain to it, so Tazar can take the secondary town, a scout can take the Hive, and on day 6 deliver the army to Yog.
135: Tazar in the underground reveals a Necromancer secondary town like a pillar, and behind it is a Griffin Conservatory. Part of the treasure zone is also revealed, but I see nothing interesting. There is a Griffin Conservatory, which means the Hive plan is ruined. I won't make it in time. Yog is starting to get nervous near 20-49 Grand Elves. He urgently demands troops.
136: Tazar takes the tier-2 Griffin Conservatory. Troops (7 Angels, 22 Pit Lords, 15 upgraded Harpies, 40 upgraded Lizardmen, single Dragon Flies) are transferred across half the map (without entering the Hive) to Yog (by tavern stats, he is stronger than Ivor). According to the plan, he was supposed to scare the opponent, force him back into his castle. Who knows, my treasure zone might be bad, while he could be sitting on a goldmine waiting for growth. Don't enter the castle; wait for Tazar. If the opponent attacks, either win or inflict maximum damage. I still haven't bought out almost anything in my native town—all gold went to Pit Fiends. So the troops would be ready for later battles.
137: The plan worked. Ivor sat in the castle with his troops. The opponent's scout checked me. The main force didn't attack, meaning he's scared. I start circling his respawn. Tazar runs to help.
141-142: Ivor sat in the castle for three days. Yog slowly gets reinforcements. Tazar has already arrived and starts revealing another part of the respawn. Yog targets the opponent's scouts. I don't enter the castle. It's risky. He has Angels too, and only Angels can fly over my walls.
143: I didn't manage to kill the scouts in time. Ivor is defeated, and the troops escape via the chain to somewhere up top. A scout takes the empty castle, which contains unbought wood elves, dwarves, pegasi, and gremlins. The opponent was clearly short on gold and got tired of sitting in the castle. Oh, I forgot to mention. The Watchtower revealed a Swamp treasure zone. I captured a small piece, but upon seeing a +5 Club, I already wanted to go there. I ran to find Ivor.
144-146: The opponent's scouts are being eliminated. His last castle is taken. I roughly know which treasure zone he rushed into. Chasing his scout opened the road to the Swamp treasure zone, and right at the entrance, there's an external dwelling of Hydras. Taz left Ivor alone and ran into the swamp.
147: Ivor popped out near my Necromancer secondary town. My scout killed his scout and fled into the darkness. Taz took the Hive. He stood near another one. A Dragon Utopia is revealed.
211: I give up the Necromancer secondary town and watch Ivor's moves. He headed into the treasure zone I had revealed.
212: Killed 8 upgraded Bears. Stood near a Pandora's Box and an external dwelling of Hydras. Next turn, I want to take the Dragon Utopia. But on the blue player's turn, word comes of surrender due to lack of prospects for continuation.
The Dragon Utopia, verified after the game, was taken almost without losses and gave a Book of Earth, a Shield +4 to everything, and an Armor +3 to spell power. Naturally, 30k gold to buy out troops that have been idling in the castle for a week. Pit Fiends made the whole game happen. Thanks to them.

Thanks for the game!

Ah, if everyone played this actively, I would give prizes to everyone :)
Please contact the following players and let them know how the process is going: Akmid, Lucky_George...

Lucky_George is active and hasn't forgotten about the tournament. I apologize: due to the time difference, we scheduled our matches for Saturday mornings. I overslept twice , and on the third Saturday, I was watching a broadcast and cheering for the guys from our VK group at the Moscow championship. On the fourth Saturday, we started, we even had some rematches, but then Lucky_George started disconnecting... so we didn't finish. We also started with Anry, but something went wrong with the connection... I think everything will work out :)

13.01.2013 high (red, Swamp, Tazar, Tazar) def antoshkin (blue, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) 2sm4d(3) 212

Confirmed.

The respawn was rather sad. Apart from a fat Griffin Conservatory (3), there was nothing special to brag about. Money buildings were only a pre-build skeleton transformer and an imp transformer. Half the base was cut off by medusas. On day two, I immediately planted 1000. The passage to the secondary was guarded by a crowd of ice elementals. And on top of that, going around the block to the wood mine took 4 days. On the whole respawn, only 1 pile of crystals, so to place pegasuses, I had to plant a market in the main castle. As a result, the rocs were only built on day 7 in the fort.

But this is all a preface. I had 2 strategic throws) one on the first week, down to zero. Because there was a jam with building - pegasuses wouldn't breed, horses wouldn't build, and on the secondary, 2 dwarf cottages were visible. I decided to take the external dwelling of pegasuses behind the berserkers, and then break through the ice elementals, but I didn’t account for the fact that the HEAD of Legion was lying nearby. There turned out to be 16 berserkers. I killed half and had to retreat. But I decided to continue. For the remaining 3 days of the first week, I twiddled my thumbs because there was nothing to even collect.

On the second week, I finally broke through the ice elementals and took the Inferno secondary. There was an external dwelling of pits, but there was simply nothing to rebuild the secondary with, because the trade was down to zero to buy out troops. There was even a choice to rebuild demons or GM1. I revealed 2 Griffin Conservatories on the secondary (both 1s) far, far away. Since the 3 Griffin Conservatory had to be taken with something and I wanted something bigger, I decided to assemble a stack of pegasuses, and a head of Legion wouldn't be superfluous either, and for tradition's sake, I milked the berserkers - pulled out 1 roc )) The most epic thing was that due to the time jam, I never transferred that cursed head to the castle - you should have seen the imprint of my foot on the monitor, a pretty one) But I decided to continue - there were still 3 Griffin Conservatories.

On the third week, I only had enough time to take the Griffin Conservatories when the opp showed up at my place through the secondary. I decided to defend. Sat there for a couple of days. But I never decided to attack, because the buyout was not complete and there wasn't even enough for elves. Then I went into the treasure zone, barely farmed 22 ducks, and after unsuccessful wanderings, I accepted the obvious decision. GG.

Thanks for the game!

Lucky_George is active and hasn't forgotten about the tournament. I apologize: due to the time difference, we scheduled our matches for Saturday mornings. I overslept twice , and on the third Saturday, I was watching streams and cheering for the guys from our VK group at the Moscow championship. On the fourth Saturday, we connected, started playing, and even had some rematches, but then Lucky_George started disconnecting... so we couldn't finish. We also connected with Anry, but there were some connection issues... I think everything will work out:)

We were only able to connect with Anry using TeamViewer and a file to improve the connection.

Group D
01/15/2013 KOLONIZATOR (blue, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) def hunter98 (red, Conflux, Random, Kairie) 2sm4d(3) 223

After a crushing defeat at the hands of the forces of darkness, Ivor fled to the bastion of Seiliedh. From the inhabitants, he learned that elementalists had settled in the north and begun to expand their territories. Without hesitation, Ivor began a northern campaign...

Week 1
Very good starting position (Elven and Centaur dwellings). On the second day (22 High Elves), I break through, as it turned out later, to my native secondary castle, visit 3 stones of experience (guarded by 83 Obsidian Gargoyles), and capture the secondary castle. Nearby is a portal to the dungeon. In the second castle, I also build Elves. In the first, I build Pegasi and gather money to buy back troops.

Week 2
I buy all the Elves and Centaurs. I take gloves, 2 hives (10 in total). I take 2 more artifacts (Armor +1 to all and Necklace of Swiftness), breaking through the Iron Golem horde. Then I went through the portal, took a Shield +3 and a Crown in the War Grave. By the end of the week, Ivor is level 13, Unicorns are built. The opponent's hero, Kairie, stands out.

Week 3
I buy all the Elves again (in total, there are 50+), visit the Dwarven Treasury, the Conservatory (+3), and the Medusa Lairs. The Tower is captured by scouts. I am gathering money and resources. By the end of the week, Ivor breaks through the guard to the adjacent zone (Dendroids) and thinks that in the 4th week he will make a march to the northern lands and win the campaign. By this time, he is already level 18, has the Amulet of Courage and other useful artifacts, but has no mana.

Week 4
On day 142, a grand battle took place. hunter98 severely punished me:
"... The armies were roughly equal in number. Suddenly, Firebirds fly to the archer squad and burn the unfortunate ones. Behind them, Storm Elementals and Medusas, who joined them, mercilessly shoot down our troops. We manage to deal with the terrible birds, and then we have to fight the Water Elementals, when there is practically no strength left. With a heavy heart, I gave the order to retreat..."
This was certainly a blow, but I did not give up (Ivor surpassed Kairie in parameters + the opponent also suffered large losses). With the remaining money, I bought Centaurs and Unicorns, gathered the remaining Elves from the scouts, and went first to the Conservatory (+2), and then to the portal - to clear the dungeons. By the end of the week, Ivor is level 20, has many artifacts (one of them is the Book of Water Magic), and 16,000 gold. Hope for victory has appeared.

Month 2 Week 1
Ivor continues to explore the dungeon, finds an Angel and Cavalier dwelling, a gold mine, Pandora's Boxes (mostly gold), and good artifacts. I see the opponent's main hero, who took the Dragon Utopia. I decided to take it too (for 30,000 gold, Angel Wings, Book of Earth Magic). Also, the army was replenished with 25 Wyverns.
On day 6, Kairie breaks through the guard and kills one of my scouts (almost reached the capital). Ivor quickly returns to the capital, receives reinforcements, and attacks:
"... Everyone stood up to defend their native city, even the Dendroids from the neighboring province expressed a desire to participate. Arriving at the place, the Elementals were already ready for battle and were waiting for our first strike. I ordered the archers to open fire on the Storm Elementals... They were brave guys..."
The second battle was won by me, but with great losses:
"... This time, our troops were better prepared. The best riders on pegasi gave their lives for our victory and gave the Dendroids and Wyverns the opportunity to do their job. The enemy fled, but this was not the end..."
At the end of the week, Ivor spends the night near the stables, level 22.

Month 2 Week 2
Ivor visits the stables and gathers reinforcements (by this time, 67 Dendroid soldiers have been recruited into the army). On the second day, Kairie attacks, this time using magic (in the second battle, there was a Sphere of Negation). And again, bloodshed:
"... Unexpectedly, we stumbled upon the troops of the Elementals. There were fewer of them, but their strong magic was felt. I cast the spell "Stone Skin". The Elementals slowed us down and began to bombard us. Lightning rained down on our heads with amazing accuracy. Cavaliers, Dendroids, and Wyverns avoided slowing down and rushed forward. Everyone fell, except for the Dendroids, who reached the enemy troops, pinned them to the ground, and destroyed entire squads of elementals..."
The opponent's lightning dealt more than 500 damage, but the number of Dendroids practically did not decrease; there was simply nothing to fight them with... The opponent fled, then returned with storm elementals (by that time, I also had Unicorns in my troops) and surrendered on the third day.

hunter98, thank you very much for the game! Many emotions and experiences!:smile20:

Group D
15.01.2013 KOLONIZATOR (blue, Rampart, Ivor, Ivor) def hunter98 (red, Conflux, Random, Ciele) 2sm4d(3) 223

After a crushing defeat at the hands of the forces of darkness, Ivor fled to the bastion of Seliydd. From the locals he learned that elementalists had settled in the north and begun expanding their domains. Without much thought, Ivor started the northern campaign...

Week 1
Very good layout (Elf and Centaur dwellings). On the second day (22 Grand Elves) I break through a passage, which later turns out to lead to my native secondary castle, visit 3 experience stones (guarded by 83 Obsidian Gargoyles) and capture the secondary. There's a portal to the treasure zone nearby. In the second castle I also build Elves. In the first I build Pegasi and save money to buy out troops.

Week 2
I buy all Elves and Centaurs. Took gloves, 2 Dragon Fly Hives (10 total). I grab 2 more artifacts (Armor +1 to all stats and Necklace of Speed), breaking through a horde of Iron Golems. Then I entered the portal, took a Shield +3 and a Crown in a warrior's grave. By the end of the week Ivor is level 13, Unicorns are built. The opponent's standout hero is Ciele.

Week 3
I buy all Elves again (50+ in total), visit the Dwarf Treasury, Griffin Conservatory (+3), and Medusa Stores. Scouts capture a Tower. Money and resources are being gathered. By the end of the week Ivor breaks through the guard to an adjacent zone (Dendroids) and thinks that in week 4 he'll make a forced march to the northern lands and win the campaign. By this point he's already level 18, has a Pendant of Courage and other useful artifacts, but no mana.

Week 4
On day 142 a grand battle took place. hunter98 punished me severely:
"... The armies were roughly equal in size. Suddenly, Firebirds fly up to the archer squad and burn the unfortunate ones. Behind them, Storm Elementals and the Medusas that joined them mercilessly shoot our troops. We manage to deal with the terrible birds, and immediately have to fight Water Elementals when we have almost no strength left. With pain in my heart I ordered a retreat..."
This was certainly a blow, but I didn't give up (Ivor surpassed Ciele in stats + I suffered heavy losses). With the remaining money I bought Centaurs and Unicorns, gathered the remaining Elves from scouts, and first went to the Griffin Conservatory (+2), then to the portal - to clear out the dungeon expanses. By the end of the week Ivor is level 20, has many artifacts (one of them the Tome of Water Magic) and 16k gold. Hope for victory appeared.

Month 2 Week 1
Ivor continues exploring the dungeon, finds Angel and Cavalier dwellings, a gold mine, Pandora's Boxes (mostly gold), good artifacts. I see the opponent's main hero, who took a Dragon Utopia. Decided to take one too (for 30k gold, Angel Wings, Tome of Earth Magic). The army also gained 25 Wyverns.
On day 6 Ciele breaks through a Guardian of the Earth and kills one of my scouts (almost reached the capital). Ivor quickly returns to the capital, receives reinforcements and attacks:
"... Everyone stood up to defend the home city, even the Dendroids from the neighboring province expressed a desire to participate. Arriving at the spot, the Elementalists were already ready for battle and awaited our first strike. I ordered the archers to open fire on the Storm Elementals... They were brave fellows..."
The second battle was won by me, but with heavy losses:
"... This time our troops were better prepared. The best riders on pegasi gave their lives for our victory and allowed the Dendroids and Wyverns to do their job. The enemy fled, but this was not the end..."
At the end of the week Ivor camps near the stable, level 22.

Month 2 Week 2
Ivor visits the stable and gathers reinforcements (by this point 67 Dendroid Soldiers have been recruited into the army). On the second day Ciele attacks, this time using magic (there was a Sphere of Negation in the second battle). And again bloodshed:
"... Unexpectedly we ran into the Elementalist troops. There were fewer of them, but their powerful magic was felt. I cast the 'Stone Skin' spell. The Elementalists slowed us down and started shooting. Lightning rained down on our heads with astonishing accuracy. The Cavaliers, Dendroids, and Wyverns avoided the slow and charged forward. All fell except the Dendroids, who reached the enemy troops, rooted them in place, and destroyed entire squads of elementals..."
The opponent's lightning dealt over 500 damage, but the number of Dendroids barely decreased - there was simply nothing to hit them with... The opponent fled, then returned with Storm Elementals (by that time I also had Unicorns in my army) and surrendered on the third day.

hunter98, many thanks for the game! Lots of emotions and experience!:smile20:

After spending all the rests, I had to play somewhat poorly as usual. In the first week there was very little gold, so little that it barely sufficed for the fires in the Citadel... the pleasant things were external dwellings of air elementals and fish (which I had to fight the green orcs over, who took down quite a few air elementals). Among the heroes were Kyrre and Moneer, I made Kyrre my main. By the third week normal play began, 25 air elementals earned gold for birds, and then in the second week birds were built in the Castle. On day 126 I attacked golden golems for a shield +2, there were 40+ of them, I lost 7 fish, 5 air elementals, and single units... 2 birds carried, and I had to save them at the cost of air elementals. In the third week I took a level 3 Griffin Conservatory, sacrificing a bird and 15 air elementals (almost no magic, and the army only had 6 birds and 40 air elementals + single fairy units). Afterwards I went down into the underground, where I was met by a Dungeon and a treasure zone. The treasure zone was garbage, with only a Dragon Fly Hive and a minor one being pleasant, plus a couple of weak but useful artifacts - a flail +4 and a cape for spell duration. Then I was unlucky enough to take a Pandora's Box before clearing - it had scorpicores... 40+ of them, no oil, I lost half the army, and the Pandora's Box as always in such cases was godlike - all fire (without fire magic and wisdom...). I replenished mana and went to the first final, wanted to take a Dragon Utopia before it, but since the stables had expired I couldn't reach it, there I lost almost everything and was lucky the opponent had no mana. I saw no further prospects, nowhere particularly to run, decided to stock up on meat and take the Dragon Utopia. A few days later I learned about the opponent's double, which turned out to be deadly. In the second month I took the Dragon Utopia, sacrificing a bit of the army, and again got godlike artifacts (well, decent ones anyway) - plate armor +12, a red ball, and a necklace +3/3. I rushed to the opponent, another final where I equipped the red ball... and paid for it - without magic I was rolled, now there was truly nothing to do and I just gave myself up for zero against the opponent.
GG, thanks for the game.

In the first week there was very little money, so little that it was barely enough for the fires in the Citadel...

I played the layout, even taking into account that you lost half of the fairies somewhere, the birds are placed excellently on the first week there. Even if it were the 2nd level with the Citadel, they would have stood. Maybe you should buy fewer heroes? :confused:
And external dwellings for Conflux, except T2, T6, T7, are a waste of money IMHO, not to mention beating orcs for it.

You played the setup well, even considering you lost about half your fairies somewhere; the birds [hawks/sprites] work great in the first slot. If it had been 2nd level, even with the [Citadel] they would have stood. Maybe you should buy fewer heroes? :confused:
Also, external dwellings from Conflux, except for T2, T6, T7, are a waste of money IMHO, not to mention beating Orcs for them.

Well, if you know the setup in advance, then I too could easily find the gold for birds, but playing from one extreme to the other makes it a bit problematic to get the cash... at any rate, since you placed them — well done, I didn't manage that...

However, in group D, the situation is completely reversed; it seems that no one except JustObserver is particularly interested in this tournament, and it's already been 4 weeks!
Wishing everyone the best, love each other, and don't argue :smile36: :smile44:

I apologize to the organizers and my fellow group members. It just happened that I ended up in several tournaments at once, one of them in HoMM V (where, in desperation, I registered before the third one), and plus the New Year holidays, in which I actively participate. Yesterday, I completed the top five, and I will be playing actively.

Group B on January 16, 2013: Gasik (red, Swamp, Tazar, Dessa) def. Rockmachine (blue, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti), 2sm4d(3), 224
Week 1 - the respawn points were distributed poorly, not great, a few gnome dens and crypts, secondary resources on both sides – snow, 2 external dwellings, one with lizards, the other with basilisks, Dessa arrived on the first day and immediately started leveling up a logistics expert, took one secondary resource, and that's it for days.

Week 2 - I strengthened my army, captured the second secondary resource (snow), began building the Mage Guild, no slowness spell! And the land is already an expert; everything is ready to go into the treasure zone, but only with the slowness spell… In general, I built Mage Guilds + libraries in all secondary resources, went around all the libraries, collected all the scrolls, but there are none(((( So I wandered around all week, rebuilding and earning money....
Week 3 - I decide to take back Pandoria for 48 gold per mage, on the way to the treasure zone, I lose a lot of troops((( retreat!! In general, I waste a week gathering money for an army....

Week 4 - I gradually reinforce my army from the castle, Dessa is already preparing to rush into the underground treasure zone, I break through the treasure zone, and my stats are significantly increasing...

Weeks 5-6 - I go to another treasure zone, breaking through Dragon Utopia, improving my stats. They gave me troops in Pandoria, which helped a lot, but I also lost some of my own... Meanwhile, the opponent breaks through ГО and captures my main castle, revealing his hero. My stats are almost twice as high as his, so I replenish mana at the well and attack him:
Dessa level 21 (14-30-30-32) 320: 3 hydras, 18 upgraded wyverns, 16 upgraded bulls, 72 lizards, 70 gnolls, 6 greater black horses, and 18 greater basilisks
Shakti level 12 (14-6-10-5) 50: 8 black dragons, 18 minotaurs, and 49 harpies, 32 greater flies, 14 upgraded manticores, 32 greater medusas, 34 greater eyes, 116 troglodytes
A very interesting and long game, Kostyan, thank you for the game, good luck in future games!

Thanks for the game! It was very interesting to play. Firstly, I haven't played for such a LONG time. Secondly, it was the first time I upgraded black dragons – which is significant in itself. Thirdly, I was really counting on winning and thought I had it in the bag. In the end, when I saw your stats, I was shocked and realized that I probably wouldn't win... which is what happened:smile20: :rolleyes:

Group D
16.01.2013 KOLONIZATOR (red, Inferno, Pyre, Tazar) def leosnow (blue, Fortress, Bron, Gunnar) 2sm4d(3) 123

From the beautiful and mysterious forests of Rampart, we move to the lands where rivers of lava flow — the lands of Inferno.

Week 1
Gogs are not built. I hire Gervulf and immediately see Tazar in the tavern (he becomes the main hero). With the lookout tower, I notice the respawn is small, the secondary guard is Gr. Dwarves. The secondary castle turns out to be Conflux, rich in everything (many Crypts, Treasure Vaults, 2 dwellings of earth, 2 of air, 1 of water, 1 of fire elementals + a dwelling of elves). I decide to start building up Conflux on the second week, but for now I barely buy Efreet and place them in the citadel along with Pit Lords. Tazar doesn't have much luck — on leveling up, he is offered either Eagle Eye or Ballistics. I choose the latter.

Week 2
I buy all the Efreet and transfer them to Tazar as quickly as possible. Total scouting for gold is underway. Tazar also helps — he claims treasure chests, clears Crypts. Fire and earth elementals join the army. Unexpectedly, Gunnar enters the neighboring territory, breaks through the guard, and engages Gold Golems, which defeat him:
"... The scouts reported to me that the troops of the marshlands invaded our territory, but could not withstand the attack of the Dwarven Treasury guards. Well, excellent! Now the swamp creatures will no longer bother us! We will gather legions of Infernal warriors and plunge the world into chaos..."
After this, the opponent did not continue the game and surrendered.

leosnow, thank you for the game! Too bad it ended so quickly...

I apologize to the organizers and my teammates. It turned out that I ended up participating in several tournaments at once, including one in HoMM V (where, out of desperation, I registered before the third one), and also the New Year holidays, in which I actively participate. Yesterday I finished the fifth tournament and will be playing actively.

If the report on the completed fifth tournament is confirmed, that would be great. Good luck in the novice tournament.

Due to the fact that players JustObserver and BadSBars were unable to find a mutually convenient time to play, I am scheduling the match for Saturday, January 19th, at 15:00 Moscow time. The player who does not show up will be penalized.