Was not a really good start, quite empty resp, very few ok places for forts, only one ground way, didn’t find UG entrance near. Bad starting army - only crushers, no hatchlings and so no evolves, found outpost neighbour late and got just another crusher as a quest reward. Expensive apprentices, produced only two of them for 200 gold each.
So the only idea I had was to build a floating stack with my leader, phantasms and apprentices and rush/harras novo to stop his expansion.
In the middle of the game the situation became more or less ok. I vassalized naga dwelling and got two guardians, took a dungeon, a couple of high level sites and with units bought from the inn opened two more ways to explore. Mana income still was an issue and I was able to support very few summons. I decided to play roulette and summoned a fantastic creature and it was a watcher.
My stacks were in the middle of the map on turn 18 when I noticed a built road. It was Novo’s secondary stack with bards and some converted units. To minimize losses, I decided to attack only with one medaled stack with 100% spirit protection. It was 6 vs 8 battle, but from stacks position it was clear that 2 units will attack alone and die.
It was a chance for me to raze Novo’s potentially undefended cities and so I went to do that. Chasing his retreating units, I took inn on the way and with new units killed a few more his units. In the next few turns I razed fort and empty city and was ready to attack his throne.
At the same time with leader stack and second hero stacks I was clearing sites to earn gold to maintain my army.
With the second necromant hero I got level 9 and started ghoulify units. I was quite lucky and with inflict curse and despair I was able to convert a few very good t3 units. I wanted to try to take the wizard tower, but then noticed that some sites were cleared on the near island and next turn the wizard tower was taken as well. I didn’t see his stack except for one fey, but it was obvious for me that it is a very strong floating/swimming stack. This stack could make a lot of trouble for me and counter attack my cities and so I even started selling my cities and was thinking about plundering them in the next couple of turns. It didn’t happen though, because Novo made a big mistake and for some reason his stack attacked and killed some of my minor units (but lost fey however) when I tried to regroup and pull back, but doing that he gave me an opportunity to counter attack him.
On the same turn I captured his throne with secondary stack and 2 more stacks were in 1 turn to assist.
Overall I am not really happy with my game, because I underestimated defender strength a few times and played very risky battles on edge. Probably it helped me to win this game due to faster exploration, but potentially could hurt a lot as well.
Written by Hiliadan
You still have quite explosive games, finished by turn 23, even with v1.23, normal speed, and medium map...
Well done keika!
Was not a really good start, quite empty resp, very few ok places for forts, only one ground way, didn’t find UG entrance near.
Bad starting army - only crushers, no hatchlings and so no evolves, found outpost neighbour late and got just another crusher as a quest reward.
Expensive apprentices, produced only two of them for 200 gold each.
So the only idea I had was to build a floating stack with my leader, phantasms and apprentices and rush/harras novo to stop his expansion.
In the middle of the game the situation became more or less ok. I vassalized naga dwelling and got two guardians, took a dungeon, a couple of high level sites and with units bought from the inn opened two more ways to explore.
Mana income still was an issue and I was able to support very few summons. I decided to play roulette and summoned a fantastic creature and it was a watcher.
My stacks were in the middle of the map on turn 18 when I noticed a built road. It was Novo’s secondary stack with bards and some converted units.
To minimize losses, I decided to attack only with one medaled stack with 100% spirit protection. It was 6 vs 8 battle, but from stacks position it was clear that 2 units will attack alone and die.
It was a chance for me to raze Novo’s potentially undefended cities and so I went to do that.
Chasing his retreating units, I took inn on the way and with new units killed a few more his units.
In the next few turns I razed fort and empty city and was ready to attack his throne.
At the same time with leader stack and second hero stacks I was clearing sites to earn gold to maintain my army.
With the second necromant hero I got level 9 and started ghoulify units. I was quite lucky and with inflict curse and despair I was able to convert a few very good t3 units.
I wanted to try to take the wizard tower, but then noticed that some sites were cleared on the near island and next turn the wizard tower was taken as well.
I didn’t see his stack except for one fey, but it was obvious for me that it is a very strong floating/swimming stack.
This stack could make a lot of trouble for me and counter attack my cities and so I even started selling my cities and was thinking about plundering them in the next couple of turns.
It didn’t happen though, because Novo made a big mistake and for some reason his stack attacked and killed some of my minor units (but lost fey however) when I tried to regroup and pull back, but doing that he gave me an opportunity to counter attack him.
On the same turn I captured his throne with secondary stack and 2 more stacks were in 1 turn to assist.
Overall I am not really happy with my game, because I underestimated defender strength a few times and played very risky battles on edge. Probably it helped me to win this game due to faster exploration, but potentially could hurt a lot as well.
Knowledge score:
Military score:
Army in the end: