Posts from Favorites in battle! - 5 The Battle of Favorites! - 5

Alone, reply on ICQ or call me, or leave your number. This is getting ridiculous...
*update: found him.

Group stage statistics http://us.ua/1053064/.
General will be later.

KobRa_RR (blue, Rampart, Kyrre, Kyrre) def Alone (red, Castle, Valeska, Valeska) on JC at 127
epic game) at least for me
if I have the strength, I'll write later, I'm exhausted right now))
Twaryna, I'm following you! ))

pulling

KobRa_RR (blue, Rampart, Kyrre, Kyrre) def Alone (red, Castle, Valeska, Valeska) on JC at 127
epic game) at least for me

My most epic defeat recently.
In short, I decided to play, saw a Hive and 2 Griffin Conservatories, no external dwellings — maybe I should have generated a better layout. Let me say ahead — my opponent had 3 external Champion dwellings, one Dragon dwelling, and a couple of Dwarf dwellings — all colored in the first week.
I spread out, looked around, it became clear that the Schism was quite far — a straight long road of 1 day with no bends, and who knows how much more to go after that. On the first day, I cleared the Hive, just to boost XP, Valeska got Offense. Scouted a level 1 Griffin Conservatory, spotted another behind Thunderbirds. Captured a neutral Rampart village. Finally colored the external Griffin dwelling with Pikemen, spotted another Hive. Also scouted a third level 1 Griffin Conservatory(( I headed my main hero toward the Schism, used a Pikeman to open view and saw a blocked neutral dungeon. Nearby was an external Champion dwelling, but under it was a Pandora's Box, and all of it guarded by Cyclopes... :( Not far from the Schism were lots of money buildings, I took 3 Crypts and a 15-Dwarf dwelling. Also found a fourth Griffin Conservatory, again behind Thunderbirds.
On day 116, Valeska breaks into a secondary town and gets a spell book there, we prepare to take everything at the start of next week. Set up chains and build a Castle.
Day 121, took an Angel and 4 Monks.
Day 122, the Hive cleared at the beginning of the first week turned out to be maximum — Magogs ate all the Swordsmen. Transferred everything to Valeska, who kills the Thunderbirds and enters the Griffin Conservatory — turns out it's a level 3. In the first round, Griffins got morale and ate a few Marksmen. :mad: But I saved all my Champions and only lost a few Monks. Promising Grindan heads toward the Schism through a Stable, having learned Slow from a roadside pillar.
Day 123, Valeska breaks into the capital, from there we take a third Griffin Conservatory (level 1) and transfer everything to Grindan. He levels Earth on neutrals and clears the last Griffin Conservatory, checked with a Pikeman — level 3. We wait.
Day 124, Grindan takes 3 Angels without losses, kills the Dragon Utopia's guards — we send a Pikeman in to check — turns out to be level 2. I thought long about whether to go in: 8 Angels, 12 Monks, 6 Champions — but almost no ranged units and low stats. I ultimately decided to go check the Schism and look for power-ups there. And it was giving Wings... maybe that would have decided it.
Day 125, the Schism turned out to have 3 Rust Dragons and an alternative of Black Dragons with Efreets:mad: Frankly, unlucky with the guard, I decided to beat the Rust Dragons anyway — the others were paired and not very convenient along the road, plus it was sand. The Dragons seemed to have morale (surprisingly), they killed 5 Champions and all my archers with backup, damaged Monks, but the Angels were all intact... I broke into the treasure zone, but not much room to maneuver. Helm of Thunder behind a horde of Champions, 2 boxes behind over 20 Giants, the Orb of the Firmament... I took a box behind Nagas for 15K XP without losses. Valeska is almost ideally leveled — Offense and Defense, Earth expertise with Slow (but no mana), Logistics — only missing Tactics for the full set, and Pathfinding for the sand:p Meanwhile, the opponent's Schism is visible as untouched — quite a twist:D From the thieves, it's clear the enemy army strength is behind us — did Kobra somehow throw...
Day 126, at the opponent's Schism, I take a Chaos box behind Hydras — they give 6 regular Hydras :D Already not bad, right there another Hive with 6 Monks. Can't really run around on sand, I've brought everyone I could — including Griffins from the external dwelling and Monks — preparing to build Angels in the capital.
Day 127, and here of course everything unplanned happened. Blue appeared from the other side of the treasure zone, took the central village. Turns out Kyrre crossed off-road to the other entrance to the center, where right behind the Schism there was a Mana Vial and a Shield behind a horde of Trolls — practically free with Mass Slow available. :rolleyes: I run Valeska to meet him, transfer everything to Grindan, who kills Magogs for the Pendant of Dispassion and a Pyramid. He rides and just barely has enough moves to color the village in the center. Valeska breaks into the Pyramid to refill mana — she only has 4 points, not enough for anything. Then just a stupid situation started. The experience of playing against Artyom showed — he almost never goes for direct contact without a clear advantage, and schemes until the very end. At the CIS 2012 in Yekaterinburg, we started playing at 17:00 and finished almost at 7:00 AM with a short dinner break — I couldn't catch him on the map for 2 months, and then it was too late.
In short, scouting showed that Kyrre was a day's journey from the central village on three Dragons. There was an option to transfer the army to Pikemen and attack Kyrre — but where was the rest of the army, and how to leave Grindan and Valya unprotected in an empty village? — especially with blue Pikemen nearby with a small army. The option to kill that Pikeman and, after transferring the army, also attack Kyrre — this was ideal — but it was hard to calculate all the moves considering the sand, especially since I was distracted in real life. In short, I started making unreasonable moves. Valeska stays in the village to refill mana, Grindan nearby on speed. A Pikeman picked up the Pendant of Lightning and made the main mistake. I should have simply transferred it to Valeska... but instead I ran away to the side. :confused: In the end, that decided it (I only realized it an hour after the game ended). Kyrre, instead of being afraid, moves forward and off the road eats a box with 15 Behemoths behind 100+ Gold Golems (without losses). Then attacks Valeska and destroys her with Lightning for 260 :smile04: I saw high stats — 2-3 times higher than mine, but I couldn't have assumed there was over 100 mana. Turns out Kyrre, after breaking the Schism, broke into (or threw into) the capital to refill mana. And only after that went off-road again into the treasure zone, etc...
In short, blue's layout is great, 3 external Horn of the Abyss dwellings all in a cluster, but still I had enough compensation and played decently (except for the last day) in terms of tempo. The mistake was playing against the opponent, not against the heroes this time. I never expected Kobra to push forward this time.

Thanks for the game!

GoedenDag, thank you very much for the statistics, it's very interesting!
To preserve it for history and for easy reference, I took screenshots.

2 KobRa_RR. You need to post at least the header of the game report with the Medium!

We are doing great in terms of deadlines. The next checkpoint is March 18th. By this date, we should have played 2 matches: Roman will determine with Evgeny the guaranteed second place, and in the lower bracket, KobRa_RR and twaryna will fight for a place among the prize winners.

Will only elves remain in the finals, or will the Swamp slightly "dilute" things, creep in, and absorb them?

Can someone explain what the tournament format is? A standard double-elimination system usually involves a winners' final and a losers' final, with the winners of each playing in the grand final. But judging by the bracket and Pete's posts, it seems that we're already playing in the grand final against Roma, and the losers' final is for third place. I'd like to understand this better.

but judging by the bracket and Pete's posts, it seems that the main final we are already playing with Roma, and in the losers' final, the third place is being played for...

The scheme is standard. You and Roma play the winners' final, and below is the losers' bracket. Here, the bracket is depicted a little non-standard... here, the winner of the lower bracket moves back to the upper bracket to play against the winner of your final.

The scheme is standard. You and Roma play the winners' final, and below is the losers' bracket. The bracket is depicted slightly non-standard here... the winner of the lower bracket moves back to the upper bracket to play against the winner of your final.

Consequently, does the loser in the winners' final play in the losers' final?

so, does the loser in the winners' final play in the losers' final?

of course! you should be at least third by now!

the loser in the winners' final gets 2nd place and goes to celebrate)) GL)

but judging by the bracket and Pete's posts, that's what's happening

Yes, so what's going on?

In the upper bracket, two Ramparts are fighting for a guaranteed second place in the tournament.

I'll explain: the winner of this match will definitely get either second or first place, i.e., a place no lower than second.

In the lower bracket, KobRa_RR and twaryna are fighting for a place among the prize winners.

I'll explain: the loser in this match will get nothing but experience and a disappointing 4th place; the winner of this match will be among the top three. What place he will take (and he can take any of the three prize-winning places) will be determined in the following matches. Then he will play against the loser from the upper bracket.

KobRa_RR, for the third time, I urge you to spend 3 minutes and write a report header with the Medium instead of spamming in all the topics; you are slowing down my rating calculation.

KobRa_RR (blue, Rampart, Kyrre, Kyrre) def Medium (red, Fortress, Tazar, Tazar) on 8MM6a at 144

10 03 2012

Game2 GoD(Blue, Rampart, Mephala, Mephala) def Javdet(Red, Rampart, Mephala, Clancy) h3dm1 131

Game3 GoD(Blue, Rampart, Mephala, Taz) def Javdet(Red, Rampart, Mephala, Mephala) h3dm1 134 2-1

:smile04: :smile04: :smile04: :smile04: :smile04: :smile04: :smile04:

Zhenya, I think you didn't expect such a result yourself, given the state of affairs.

In the 2nd game, things went much better; on day 127, I rushed the Dragon Utopia, although I could have done it a day earlier. I somehow underestimated my stack of 16 cavalry with 150 HP. The Blue player only planned to take the Dragon Utopia on day 131, which meant a two-day advantage. The mistake with rushing the folder at the teleport threw me into tilt, and instead of calmly realizing the advantage in control (there was also Mephala with 2 Dimension Door casts, plus an army advantage), I decided to attack with the mage and was mercilessly beaten.

The 3rd game was the epitome of stupidity.
On day 112, I fabricated a significant deficit out of nothing; instead of breaking through to the secondary, I visited the Swan with Kyrre. And, as luck would have it, in the direction she was running, there was a scattering of treasure chests. On day 117, I somehow managed to sort things out, cleared all the wood creatures, and Kyrre with Mephala are spending the night by the stables. Both with Earth Magic. Another day is spent on fights and transporting troops to the war trails.
Then things went better; one hero collects nagas, the other picks up Griffin Conservatories/Dragon Fly Hives, which weren't small at all. And upon breaking into the treasure zone, Mephala sees a wonderful picture: Taz next to the Dragon Fly Hive and the Pandora's Box, with a clearly weaker army.
We take the opponent by the hand, but Zhenya, as luck would have it, had something to buy himself off with (later he said he was in debt all game, but just then he got coins from the naga dwelling). We receive ransom for the buyout and calmly head to the Dragon Utopia. Kyrre and company clear out the Dragon Fly Hives and the max Griffin Conservatory.
The Dragon Utopia gave a Tome of Air, Titan's Sword, and Helm of the Alabaster. I run to another revealed Utopia, but unfortunately couldn't make it in one turn. That one had a Tome of Water :smile44: Pikeman was guarding the entrance to the opponent, and a cunning plan emerged — to sit in the opponent's town and recruit Mephala there.
I bring the army and artifacts to him, estimating that I should be able to reach him, but what if the enemy army stays overnight in the town? Immediately from the teleport, it becomes clear that the army is right there, with Taz. But he is fresh from the Dragon Utopia and will obviously buy himself off; besides, I chickened out from fighting — what if my oil gets countered by his water or air?
I decide to run to the town.
And that's mistake number one. Still, I was afraid I wouldn't reach him, and I made a couple of extra moves instead of using Dimension Door. On the way, I had to encounter a scout hero, which would later decide the game. That's minus 50 movement points. And I manage to reach the castle. Mephala is standing outside. I kill her, and a glitch happens — THE REMAINS BLUE!!!!!:eek: I thought to myself back then: well, who knows, maybe a hero without an army is sitting under Mephala (though what's the point of putting a scout hero in a dungeon on day 127) — turns out, no. I'm 5 movement points short of sitting in the empty town, and the game is done:mad: . I sell everything I have for gold and prepare to get hit.
Zhenya forgives me, and after losing 6 Angels, a dozen Azure Champions, and various minor units, I manage to ransom myself.

And mistake number two. On day 132, I could easily reach the town with the might, sending Taz to the tavern on the way. But instead, for some reason, I take the opponent's Dragon Utopia with the Tome of Water. Taz got on the teleport, cutting me off from my Elves. And I, a blockhead, didn't think to give Kyrre the tome with Dimension Door.
Then came more mistakes; I mixed up the treasure zones and jumped into the one I hadn't intended to.
Well, when I started losing badly in meat count (Zhenya got a quick Town Portal, and I, as luck would have it, had no one with Fire Magic), I sat in his capital. And then the predictable course — a kamikaze with Armageddon and a finish by Taz.

Thanks for the games.

Oh yes, there was one more game that Zhenya, due to countless autocombats, played to a draw:D , and I made a mistake there too by putting myself in a bad position:D . What I remember most about it is building the Dimension Door on the 7th attempt:smile04:

BUT if I still manage, with such terrible gameplay, to make it to the final — I demand a continuation of the feast — a rematch on the mirror map))

I understand that it’s not my place to say, but why offer auto-saves in the final stages of such large tournaments? Especially not just one, but multiple. And especially since you’ve already finished second twice. I don’t remember ever refusing an opponent’s request for an auto-save, but in this case, I wouldn’t have allowed it. In my opinion, sometimes, even if it’s very rare, the result should be more important than the game itself.