15.04.2013.
Oldboy [blue, Stronghold, Crag Hack, Inteus] def
Twaryna [red, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti], Jebus, 132
Well, I was really lucky with the draw. A couple of months ago, I first stumbled upon Twaryna's stream and started visiting regularly. Great music, a nice, somewhat heavy yet calm sense of humor. Even though I got scolded once for being too talkative in the chat, every day is different — it's a good place.
If anyone thinks I'm writing this now, after the game, to smooth things over somehow, I'll remind them of
my own post on this forum, made not only before this game of ours, but even before the draw for this tournament.
Anyway, I had a strong desire to be part of this process and play a full, interesting tournament game where both participants stream, and a multitude of viewers watch and follow the struggle between two opponents. This is my nostalgia (and, I'm sure, not just mine), a return to distant times about 10 years ago, when on weekends, 5-6 people would gather at someone's place, two would play hot-seat, and the rest would watch. And now, on streams, dozens, hundreds of people gather.
And right off the bat, I got lucky. Twaryna. True, the joy soon turned into excitement about having to play my first stream game decently. By the start of the game, that excitement was overflowing.
We restarted 5 times: me twice, Twaryna three times. On the sixth, we went. And then the facepalming began. Good thing almost no one saw the first few days.
Day 1 Week 1. I see an external dwelling of bears and an external marketplace. But there are no wolves at home. And no chests on the road. And it's unclear where to run and why as the main hero. I thought so long that in the end, in a panic on the last seconds, I ran Crag to the external dwelling of bears. But I didn't manage to build at home!!!
Day 1 Week 2. So what are we standing for? Who are we waiting for? — Crag thinks on day 2. There are no troops. Not even birds. We scatter further. And then it becomes clear that the respawn is big, there's a lot of space, but what to focus on is unclear. Crag, in shock at level 2, offers a choice — Scholar or Leadership? Got it. Something went wrong. One scout finds a book of fire. Wolves at home.
Day 1 Week 3. Another scout reaches an empty tavern town, finding along the way either in a skeleton or in a wagon a helmet +4 to knowledge. And finally Labetha, who is destined to become one of the heroes of the game, catches a glimpse of an orb of fire and on Crag's path finds a level 1 Griffin Conservatory. Birds are built. I seem to have the money to place and buy a bear tomorrow.
In the empty tavern town, the tavern is built, I look into it to buy a ninth hero as usual. And I see Inteus there. And then a short circuit happens in my head.
Book of fire, orb of fire, +4 knowledge, Crag is stumped, Inteus as the 9th hero in the tavern at about week 1.
That's how I ended up in such a life that for Barbarian, the main hero turned out to be Inteus.
He never cast Armageddon or even Berserker even once (I didn't even take the orb of fire), but he solved all the main tasks. He breached the ГО with oil, entered the center earlier. He gained control. He had a mana reserve to use that control. He snatched the Chupa Chups from under Shakti's nose using Town Portal, Fly, and Dimension Door. He drove the opponent out of the center with Implosion.
There were also many other interesting individual moves.
There was a trade on day 1 Week 6 at the external dwelling of all resources for upgrading two bears, to finally ramp up the pace. And only from this move did any action begin. For 5 days, I was essentially running in terror, realizing there was no pace, I couldn't attack anything. And I couldn't do anything. No troops, no main hero.
There was an epic fight on day 2 Week 1 with Labetha level 1 in a max-level Griffin Conservatory consisting of 14 wyverns, 1 angel, 4 ghosts against 200 griffins. Stats 2-2-5-30 (2-2 sword). Only slow and haste scrolls in the pocket. Losses: 8 wyverns. The bear escaped with 18 HP. There, in the game, when at the start it seemed like it was on the verge of a critical disaster if moral procs happened... And perhaps I would have ruined my first stream game with a disaster... But the morals didn't proc, and I managed to conduct the fight without serious mistakes. Not a single stack of griffins ever hit with full force. And that was the turning point. The game got easier after that.
You can even watch the recording of the fight in the video, starting at 5:04 (5 hours 4 minutes, it lasted about 35-40 minutes)
http://www.twitch.tv/puppen/b/390858214(I didn't watch or listen to the restream during the game, only burst into the chat about 5 times during the game to vent emotions, and later watched the particularly emotional moments in the recording :)).
There was a second native town in the center right at the exit from my respawn, where on day 2 Week 7 bears were also built.
There was a random move on day 2 Week 4 by Serena, who, realizing she was standing right on the road that Shakti was about to take, took two steps off the road towards the mountains and saw the Chupa Chups beyond the mountains. Without those two steps, who knows how everything would have turned out.
Anyway, it was a mix of logic and luck. Overall, I seemed to play poorly, but in some places, very well.
The viewers seemed to find it interesting. Especially in the max-level Griffin Conservatory.
And how could they not laugh at a Barbarian with a Fire Mage as the main hero? Especially when it became clear that he was also carrying the game.
Thanks to Twaryna for the game and even more for the streams, for the popularity of our beloved game.
Thanks to Puppen for the restream.
p.s.
yes, R55Max, I corrected the hero's name