Game #513 Tournament game#19 | Round 3 : PBEM 2v2 team tournament 2016 #19

Hello! While checking the class/race for round 5, I see that we didn't have your class/race for round 3 in our table. Do you confirm you sent it to judges? Would you still have the PM link? (for Markymark to check it for instance)

I finished uploading the videos, you can find them on the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playl... />
The strategic map can be seen on the video from turn 57 (the last turn), together with the scores.

Here is the description of each turn:
Turn 1
Explanations of the plans for the game for Hiliadan of team Phoenix Rising: bio-Dread i.e. getting Boar Riders with Riffles, and getting a lot of gold mines.
Hiliadan cleared 1 site, a Gold Mine and launched a Shrine (to be completed in 2 turns thanks to Mana Fuel Cell).

Turn 2
Hiliadan takes some risks in a Scroll site and has to sacrifice a Prospector to save his Leader and Boar Rider (fight displayed in the video), his Leader and Boar Rider end up pretty injured after the 2 fights this turn: a Magma Forge and the Scroll site. He makes contact with his closest Dwarf Outpost and then move opposite to it, to come back right for its Quest.

Turn 3
Nothing happens for Hiliadan this turn, who move his units and cautiously do not attack a Gold Mine to let his Leader and Boar Rider heal.
rickyroo meets his closest Frostling village and wins a fight.

Turn 4
Hiliadan clears a Gold Mine and a Magma Forge, Tara, his Rogue hero levels up twice and his leader fails to level up, lacking 3 XP to get Guardian Flame... The fight at the Magma Forge is displayed in the video and interesting for the use of a Spy Drone + getting the AI to attack 2 Prospectors to avoid getting a Boar Rider killed (by abusing its damage calculation mecanism).
rickyroo unfortunately skips his turn due to the 24 hours turn timer.

Turn 5
Hiliadan finishes to clear the site for his future outpost and has a fight against a Mercenary Camp illustrating perfectly technics such as splitting, retreating and blocking (shown on the video). He moves back toward the independent outpost that will give him a quest on turn 6. Research is launched on Engineer's tech.
rickyroo clears a site and loses 1 Ice Scaper.

Turn 6
Hiliadan clears a Gold Mine and buy the favour of the nearby Dwarf Outpost which becomes its Vassal (without proposing a Quest).

Turn 7
Hiliadan clears a Fire Node, losing 1 Prospector, and a Flowrock Quarry (shown on the video), selling the items for 280 gold.
rickyroo clears the Necromantic Circle he had approached the previous turn.

Turn 8
Hiliadan clears another Flowrock Quarry (shown on the video) and start to research Dispel after completing Produce Engineers, in order to try to get Solid Engineering in his research book.
rickyroo clears a Scrolls site.

Turn 9
Hiliadan impatiently attacks Ancient Ruins that may be too difficult for his army at that point (but to which he would never return later due to their location) and indeed pays the price of his recklessness, losing his Leader (shown on the video). He changes the building order at his ungarrisoned throne: 1 Engineer (rushed), then 1 Prospector then 1 Settler.
rickyroo gets a 2nd Mammoth but loses his last Ice Scaper.

Turn 10
Hiliadan does nothing, waiting for his Leader to come back from the void... 1 Fortress is built.
rickyroo clears a Spring of Life, getting a Toadstool Fairy as a reward.

Turn 11
Hiliadan stays cautious and position himself to attack a Creation Mana Node on the next turn. He starts a Settler, while his Engineer moves toward his army and his Prospector keeps his throne, his Leader coming back on turn 12.
rickyroo clears a Great Farm.

Turn 12
Hiliadan clears a Mana Node, completes a quest from his Dwarf Vassal, gets a Crossbowman as a reward and then absorb the Vassal and launches an Observatory there, with Mana Fuel Cell cast on it. His Leader, back from the void, moves toward his army to go finish the fights forsaken after his death.
rickyroo clears a Mana Node and a Watchtower and his Leader is level 5, his Warlord level 5 too.
rrrrookie or Jonny Thunder loses his throne to independent for 1 turn and it is revealed to Phoenix Rising.

Turn 13
Hiliadan kills a group of roaming Lost Souls, gets a Frostling Sorcerer as last choice for his 2nd hero, sends his Settler to settle the Fortress he upgraded to Stone wall earlier, and moves his army closer to the Necromantic Circle from where the Lost Souls spawned.
rickyroo clears a Bandit Hideout but gets his level 2 hero and his Toadstool Fairy killed by independents from his Vassal's Quest (who went 2 hexes out of the city's domain).

Turn 14
Hiliadan clears a Scroll site then a Necromantic Circle. At level 6, he chooses True Sight and Throw Net with his Dreadnought leader, and at level 7, he chooses Lesser Charm with his Rogue hero. He starts building a Fortress west of his throne.

Turn 15
Hiliadan clears Ancient Ruins but has to sacrifice his Engineer to keep his Boar Rider alive. He waits for his Sorcerer hero to attack the Inn.
rickyroo finds rrrrookie with a Cherub. He finishes his Vassal's quest.
rrrrookie is moving quite close to Hiliadan's cities with a Unicorn on the surface.

Turn 16
Hiliadan clears an Inn and then moves north with his army, between a river and a lava stream... He plans to later build a Bridge with a Builder or Engineer to cross the river.
rickyroo clears 1 Great Farm and 1 Inn and gets in contact with Jonny Thunder.

Turn 17
Hiliadan attacks a Crow from Jonny Thunder which reached his domain but the attacking Spy Drone dies and leaves the Crow with 1 HP because of Shooting Stars' Lucky factor. His Leader's army continue to move North while his Builder move in parallel on the other side of the river to build a bridge to facilitate crossing.
rickyroo clears 1 Gold Mine and 1 Mana Node, kills 1 Builder from rrrrookie who was building a Fortress and find his Vassal + another (built) Fortress.

Turn 18
Hiliadan loses a Spy Drone killed by roamers. He carefully moves back his Builder to avoid him the same fate, moves his Leader's stack up to the Lost Library but do not attack it, waiting for his Prospector. He launches a Shrine at Gathel to get more mana.
rickyroo clears 2 sites.
Jonny tried to move behind Hiliadan's lines and scout his throne but is countered by Hiliadan's newly summoned Spy Drone.

Turn 19
rrrrookie boldy moves 1 turn away from Hiliadan's throne with his level 7 Arch Druid leader, 2 Queen Spiders and 1 Elite Baby Spider and try to hide in the fog of war underground.
Hiliadan spots rrrrookie and try to organize a defense by canceling all building and launching the construction of 3 Prospectors and calling back his leader's stack toward his throne (3-4 turns distance). He also clears a Lost Library and kills Jonny's Crow (losing a Spy Drone in the process).
rickyroo clear 2 sites, including a Hall of the Forefathers where he loses his level 6 Warlord hero due to a misclick (melee instead of range attack).

Turn 20
rrrrookie takes Hiliadan's throne with 2 Spiders and his Fortress with a 3rd Spider then moves his Leader to Hiliadan's throne, probably starting to raze it.
Hiliadan's Leader stack continues ot move toward his throne and will be able to reach it in 3 turns.
rickyroo loses one of his Outpost to roaming Scoundrels and moves toward Hiliadan's throne.

Turn 21
rrrrookie stays on Hiliadan's throne with his 4 units, probably to finish razing it. He kills Hiliadan's Spy Drone in the throne's domain.
Hiliadan's Leader stack is now 1 turn away from taking back the throne and killing rrrrookie if he does not move. Roads have been built to accelerate the move of his Sorcerer hero.
rickyroo takes back his Outpost lost to independents and is 2 turns away from the Cave Entrance from which rrrrookie is likely to escape. In theory he should be able to cut him off as rrrrookie also needs 2 turns to reach the Cave Entrance.

Turn 22
rickkyroo moves toward the Cave Entrance on the surface and is ready to reach it in 1 turn, faster than rrrrookie.
rrrrookie finishes to raze Hiliadan's throne, raze the Fortress he took earlier and flees toward the Cave Entrance.
Hiliadan pursues rrrrookie in case he tries to escape through the water or move back.

Turn 23
rickyroo positions himself on the Cave Entrance and finishes the blockade of the underground's bottleneck to force rrrrookie to fight if he wants to escape on the ground.
rrrrookie decides not to retreat in the water and to try his luck against rickyroo's 3 Mammoth Riders, 2 Cherubs, 1 White Witch and 1 Leader supported by 1 Spy Drone from Hiliadan who block the bottleneck to escape from Hiliadan's lands. Despite his summoning of a Warg to support his 2 Queen Spiders, 1 Baby (Elite) Spider, 1 Gryphon and his Leader, he is defeated but only 2 Mammoths and the Leader of rickyroo stands. He falls into the void. He also take the Dragon Dwelling underground as vassal.
Hiliadan splits his army in two, one stack led by his Leader, and the other by his Sorcerer. He finds rrrrookie's remaining Halfling Jester hidden underground, ready to strike him in his back.

Turn 24
Hiliadan kills 2 and charm 1 roaming Scoundrels, clears a Gold Mine and clears a resource site (getting a useless Dreadnought's Foundry).
rickyroo converts (with an Evangelist) the Jester from rrrrookie and kills a Frostling Hunter from rrrrookie.
rrrrookie gets a new Vassal (his 3rd!): the Fey Dwelling on the surface.

Turn 25
Hiliadan clears Ancient Ruins but lose 1 Engineer and 1 Prospector, and a Lost Library, charming a White Witch. He launches the building of a Settler.
rickyroo regroups his troops.

Turn 26
Hiliadan loses his whole stack by the Icemage Sorcerer, butchered by 1 roaming  Reanimator with 4 Lost Souls... His Leader's stack clears a Haunted Boneyard. He spots a Warg of rrrrookie approaching his lands.
rickyroo moves north to build a Fortress and spots that rrrrookie just got the Archon Dwelling under his control.
rrrrookie acquire the 3rd of his Dwelling, out of 4 in total.

Turn 27
Hiliadan clears an Arcane Catalyst and charm a Baby Shock Serpent.
rrrrookie moves his Warg right below the Evangelist rickyroo moved to intercept it. He reveals the AD hero Shane, level 7, by attacking one unit sent as a scout by rickyroo. His troops seem to be near the Archon Dwelling.
rickyroo moves 1 Evangelist above the future location of the Warg, coordinating with his ally Hiliadan.

Turn 28
rickyroo moves recklessly toward the Archon Dwelling, kills the Dire Bear of rrrrookie and scan the area with his True Sight White Witch.
rrrrookie comes out of nowhere and butchers the split army of rickyroo (who had retreated from a fight where he converted 1 unit, preventing him from moving and re-organizing his stacks to avoid the split). He takes almost no loss and makes rickyroo pay dearly for his recklessness (moving close to an area under the control of another player without perfect scouting and splitting his own troops).
Jonny Thunder destroys the Fortress of Hiliadan west (that he had already rebuilt once), after it was left empty for just 1 turn.
Hiliadan rebuilts the Fortress once again after killing the Crow that stayed on the Fortress' previous location. He clears a Crystal Tree and a Magma Forge and starts moving back toward the Cave Entrance near Ghatel to intercept rrrrookie. He also spots an army of Jonny moving underground toward him (but still very far away).

Turn 29
Hiliadan moves back toward the Cave Entrance, to get there more or less at the same time as rrrrookie. He launches the building of Barracks at Ghatel to get 1 Axeman ready for the fight. 1 Settler rebuilds his throne.

Turn 30
rrrrookie embarks in two separate groups and enters the domain of the northernmost city of rickyroo, revealing himself, but concealing a King Shock Serpent in water. He positions himself at strike range of the city and sends a Halfling Adventurer recruited at an Inn (together with an Orc Shock Trooper) on land to scout his enemies' positions.
Hiliadan spots the Halfling and kills it with his White Witch, losing a Spy Drone on the fight (but decreasing rrrrookie's CP). He positions his army below the Cave Entrance, hidden below ground and ready to emerge and strike rrrrookie after he lands.
Jonny Thunder continues his journey underground toward Hiliadan's lands.

Turn 31
rrrrookie attacks the city of rickyroo and then conceals himself in the city's outskirt thanks to Velvet's Urban Concealment.
Hiliadan sends a Spy Drone to check the city and locates rrrrookie, who positioned himself perfectly to get attacked by team Phoenyx Rising as they will be able to attack the central hex of the city and fight 4 vs 1 while Jonny Thunder won't be able to engage Hiliadan while his armies wait for the support of rickyroo (who plays after Jonny Thunder and before rrrrookie). Hiliadan kills a Crow and position himself to launch the siege on the city now controlled by rrrrookie. Hiliadan reaches Racial Governance 2 for Dwarves and chooses the Economic boost (reaching about +200 gold/turn). He starts the building of the War Hall.

Turn 32
rickyroo moves his armies as planned and engages rrrrookie's forces, who get defeated but takes 1 Evangelist, 2 Crusaders, several Ice Scapers, 2 Spy Drones and 2 Prospectors with them to the grave. The siege fight is bugged and the AI seems to be blocked by some invisible obstacle on the map. rickyroo gets the Nightmare mount of rrrrookie as well as all his items.
Hiliadan is proposed a new hero: Rhialto the Shocking, level 4 Sorcerer for 250 gold but has only 210 so he decides to clear a Magma Forge in the domain of rickyroo, defended by 2 Fire Elemnental. He brings only his Leader, Tara and a White Witch (for the Frozen Flame) to the party and forget about the Sprint of Fire Elemental. Trying to save his White Witch from certain death, he loses focus and gets his Leader killed... After the defeat of rrrrookie, the chances of victory of team Phoenyx Rising falls back again.

Turn 33
Hiliadan moves back underground with Tara and her accompanying units, kill the roaming Scoundrels, Charming one Human Scoundrel during the fight, and then heading north to clear the Bandit Hideout and check if there is a good site to settle. The rest of Hiliadan's army stays defensively at his throne as his Leader is still in the void. He builds a Rider's Hall and a 2nd Dwarf Forge Priest.
rickyroo is proposed a level 4 Orc Rogue as a new hero and sends the Nightmare mount from rickyroo's fallen Velvet to his ally.
Jonny Thunder kills the units of the quest proposed to Hiliadan at the Giant Dwelling, revealing his location.

Turn 34
Hiliadan levels up his Rogue hero, Tara, who clears a Bandit Hideout and a Watchtower, getting the 10 points to choose Total Awareness. He keeps the rest of his troops at his throne to ward off a potential attack, as his Leader comes back from the void on turn 35.
rickyroo spots Jonny's army led by his Leader about 4 turns away from Hiliadan's throne. Team Phoenyx Rising prepares plans to fight back this 3rd wave of invasion.
rrrrookie sends Birgit, his new level 4 Theocrat hero, with a Mammoth Rider to take back the Fortress rickyroo took earlier, south of rrrrookie's domain.

Turn 35
Jonny launches a well orchestrated raid on rickyroo's Leader who was garrisoning a city alone. His 4 Elite Lesser Shadow Stalkers + 1 Lesser Air Elemental kill the reckless Leader, led by a level 10 Invisible Halfling Sorcerer. This raiding stack positions itself to be in range to strike rickyroo's throne the next turn. His troops continue to move UG toward Hiliadan's thone.
rickyroo thus pays the price of bad scouting, bad patrolling with True Sight units and bad movement of his Leader, who stayed alone in the most exposed of his city (south-west if his lands, exactly where a Crow from Jonny had been spotted a few turns earlier).
Hiliadan, left alone, sends his troops to kill the raiding stack, and then hopefully come back to fight back the invading UG army. He positions himself to be able to seize the cities of his ally immeditely after they become independent or fall in the hands of his enemies after rickyroo is eliminated.

Turn 36
Jonny defeats rickyroo by taking his Throne with 1 Lesser Air Elemental and 2 Crows, he also takes back the Frostling city captured by Hiliadan the previous turn and then conceals his army in a Forest at range of the Cave Entrance leading to Hiliadan.
Hiliadan takes the city of his former ally as planned with his White Witch and mass his armies below the Cave Entrance, preparing either to be attacked by Jonny or to catch him if he does a mistake. He continues to produce units at his 3 cities: Boar Rider, Forge Priest and Crossbowman. He migrates to Dwarf the 2 Frostling cities he controls (the one from his ally and the one captured again from Jonny) but they are likely to fall in the hand of Jonny again on the next turn.
rrrrookie somehow gets his Leader killed by independent (probably on turn 35).

Turn 37
Hiliadan destroys Jonny's stack of Elite Lesser Shadow Stalker led by Hastra the Illusionist, leaving one Air Elemental alive as he was stationed on the water. He moves back his troops toward his throne, unsure where the 2nd army of Jonny is. His leader, killed during the fight against the Lesser Shadow Stalker, goes to the void again. His 2 migrated cities (from Frostling to Dwarf) benefit from Mab's Boon and give him a lot of gold income.

Turn 38
rrrrookie loses his 2nd Frostling city to an independent stack led by a Titan Archon. His Leader comes back from the void. A stack of 1 Draconian Flyer, 1 Fire Wyvern and 1 Frost Wyvern moves at full speed toward Hiliadan's throne to take it before Hiliadan comes back from the void.
Jonny also accelerates and moves toward Hiliadan's throne, getting in the vision range of one of his Prospector with 1 Dire Bear and 1 Black Knight. His Lesser Air Elemental on the surface moves on the water toward the old thorne of rickyroo.
Hiliadan takes the old throne of rickyroo with his White Witch. He keeps 4 units to defend his throne and brings 1 stack + 1 Boar Rider in range of the future position of the 2 stacks of 2 and 3 enemy units moving toward him (with the help of the roads a Builder will build after it is completed at his throne). This stack + 1 might remain out of sight of the flying units (depending how they move). Tara and her units move back toward the throne, which they will reach 1 turn after the 2 enemy stacks spotted. A Theocrat hero (level 5) is not hired immediately to keep the 300 gold to recruit more units and build Barracks on the surface.

Turn 39
Jonny moves his Dire Bear and Black Knight to attack the throne of Hiliadan, unaware of the armies massed around the throne to defend it.
rrrrookie moves similarly and positions his Draconian Flyer and 2 Wyverns adjacent to Jonny, in a defensive position.
Hiliadan attacks the 2 enemy stacks with "Probably Victory" and defeats them but suffer heavy losses, with only 4 out of 14 surviving units. Tara is now 1 turn away from his throne and his Leader is back the next turn. He continues to build troops all over his 6 cities.

Turn 40
Jonny is sent to the void by independents.
rrrrookie takes back his 2nd city from the Archon Titan.
Hiliadan kills a lonely Ogre near his Throne and hopes it was not a tricky trap from his enemies (but he is relatively safe as Jonny is in the void + he has checked the area with True Sight + he has reinforcement concealed on a building). He launches the building of a Settler at Ghatel to settle a city with 2 potential MCU for Musketeers around turn 45 and also to achieve Monoculture and Heptatopia.

Turn 41
Jonny settles a new Halfling city, bringing its total to 3 and 1 vassal (or 4 controled cities).
Hiliadan moves toward the Giant Dwelling with 1 full stack and a stack of 4 units. He builds Siege Workshop at 2 cities to one-turn Forge Priest and reinforce the defense of his Throne/be able to 1-turn some units.

Turn 42
Hiliadan loses his Leader again, as he gets swallowed by a Glutton in a Lost City fight (shown on the video). In theory, he could have been rescued after the Glutton is killed but the beast is lucky and also eats a Boar Rider after the Leader, meaning the latter is sent to the void... Tara remains concealed on the Lost City, ready to retreat back to the throne, while waiting for the Leader to come back.

Turn 43
Hiliadan moves back Tara and her army toward his throne to make sure he does not get a nasty surprise, as his Leader is in the void. He rushes a Settler at his throne to get Monoculture on turn 46.
Jonny moves his Lesser Air Elemental in the domain of Ushalon, the northernmost Frostling city of Hiliadan.

Turn 44
Jonny retreats his Lesser Air Elemental out of sight of his enemy.
Hiliadan moves back Tara further toward his throne, launches the building of an Arcane Item Forge (2 turns), settle his 7th city (but the Settler is under threat from Lost Souls) and gets another Settler ready to go settle his 8th on the next turn.

Turn 45
rrrrookie achieves the Eternal City Empire Quest (his throne was the first to reach Metropolis size).
Jonny brings back his Lesser Air Elemental in Ushalon's domain and recruits 1 Dwarf Axeman and 1 Goblin Marauder at the nearby Inn.
Hiliadan kills the Lesser Air Elemental with his White Witch and a Spy Drone and takes Jonny's Watchtower near the Giant Dwelling. His Leader comes back from the void and he settles his 8th city, ready to get Monoculture on turn 46. His White Witch moves toward the Watchtower of rrrrookie near the Archon Dwelling and his troops stay on the defensive, while Tara gets ready to go on the offensive with the 3 Firstborns of the Monoculture EQ + 1 Forge Priest. She receives the Flying mount from the Leader.

Turn 46
rrrrookie moves one Dread Monkey in range of a Watch Tower of Hiliadan on the surface.
Jonny Thunder retreats with his Axeman and Marauder.
Hiliadan takes the Watch Tower of the Archon Dwelling, sends Tara forward toward the Giant and Dragon Dwelling and organize his troops to defend his lands. He starts forging a Life Drain and Elemental Slayer (for Shadow Stalkers) weapon at his newly built Arcane Item Forge, and sends his Head of the Dullahan (+2 Vision Range, True Sight, Inflict Despair), the reward of the Master Smith EQ, to Tara. Tara is accompanied by the 3 First Borns from the Monoculture EQ, achieved this turn.

Turn 47
Jonny Thunder moves near the Giant Dwelling with 2 full stack led by a new Sorcerer hero (level 5), he takes back the Watch Tower. Several of his units move scattered on the surface toward Hiliadan, one, the Dwarf Axeman, kills Hiliadan's Spy Drone.
rrrrookie moves with 10 units, including 8 with Artic Concealment, led by his Leader. His 1 Hunter, 2 Shamans and Leader move extremly fast on the Artic climate and can reach two of Hiliadan's cities in one turn. Other units are two turns from the cities.
Hiliadan discovers rrrrookie with his True Sight White Witch. He sets a trap for rrrrookie, with 1 Builder and 1 Engineer ready to build roads to reach his enemy's units if they move close. His armies stay far enough to remain out of sight except if rrrrookie moves very close. He destroys the Watch Tower on the surface which gave him sight of the incoming enemies. Tara moves toward the Dragon Dwelling.

Turn 48
rrrrookie moves his army cautiously and stops above the Cave Entrance with a strong stack of 6 units. He sends one Griphon toward the other Cave Entrance.
Jonny Thunder sets a trap for Hiliadan near the Dragon Dwelling, waiting for him with more than 12 units, including an Elite Fire Giant.
Hiliadan spots the trap with Tara and her very long vision range, he turns his back and goes back toward his throne. To fight back rrrrookie, he sends a first stack of 4 Boar Riders and 2 Forge Priest against the full stack of rrrrookie holding the Cave Entrance. All die but 1 Mammoth from rrrrookie is killed and the other severily injured, while 30 CP of the Leader are drained. A second stack led by Hiliadan's Leader butcher the remaining 5 units of rrrrookie while taking 2 losses. Then Hiliadan kills the remaining 3 units of rrrrokie with the support of units from his 2 close surface cities.

Turn 49
rrrrookie retreats with a remaining Spider, after having recruited a T3 Giant Beetle at the Inn near Ushalon. His Griffon kills Hiliadan's Crossbowman near the west Cave Entrance and razes the Watch Tower.
Jonny Thunder starts to move his army that stationed at the Dragon Dwelling toward the lands of Hiliadan, while trying to stay out of sight (futile against a 9 hexes vision range unit). He builds a road from the Giant Dwelling toward Hiliadan's domain, to move his army faster.
Hiliadan sends Tara on a sneaky raid alone toward the north, through the underground. She starts her journey on a subterranean river, to move on the other side of the Dragon Dwelling and try to take it with a few Spy Drones to be cast there. She will then continue north toward rrrrookie's lands, and hopes to catch him unprepared.

Turn 50
Jonny Thunder moves his army from the Giant Dwelling closer to Hiliadan's lands, building a road on his way. He is now 4 turns away from his enemy's thrones and 3 other cities.
rrrrookie adds a Dwarf First Born to garrison the Dragon Dwelling.
Hiliadan cautiously waits "The Impaler", the Life Drain & Elemental Slayer weapon he forged, with Tara (arrives on turn 51) and plans to then take the Dragon Dwelling. He clears a Tomb with his Leader and then moves as fast as he can toward his throne to defend it against Jonny. His troops are likely to arrive a bit late and might be outnumbered (especially since Jonny has 2 Fire Giants, including one at Elite rank). He will try to block Jonny at a choke point but might have a weaker army even for this strategy. His cities produce as many troops as possible to counter the incoming armies from Jonny.

Turn 51
Jonny Thunder moves his big army toward the west Cave Entrance but is not moving at full speed. He settles a 4th Halfling city.
rrrrookie moves his Griphon to scout at the Cave Entrance and ends up just near Hiliadan's troops.
Hiliadan kills the Griphon and blocks Jonny's Crow with a Spy Drone UG. He takes the Dragon Dwelling with Tara and a Spy Drone (vs a First Born and Bleak Warg), losing the Spy Drone but draining CP from rrrrookie. Tara starts to move toward the north and will receive the "Unstopable Dwarf" boots forged with Tireless on turn 53. Hiliadan builds 3 units in his 3 UG cities near his throne (except Drum which Produce Merchandise), to prepare to fight Jonny's invading army.

Turn 52
Jonny Thunder moves closer to Hiliadan's core lands. He positions himself exactly 4 hexes from the river separating him from the area where Hiliadan's throne is located, ready to build a bridge with the Builder he brought with him. He has 4 stacks of 6 units (at least), with 3 Fire Giants (including one Elite rank), 1 Shock Trooper, 1 Dwarf First Born, 1 Fire Elemental, his 2 heroes (level 7 Theocrat and level 5 Sorcerer), his level 13 Rogue Leader, etc.
Hiliadan moves back to avoid being attacked by Jonny but stays in range to counter-attack if his opponent makes any mistake. He starts moving his throne to Log Dhail (takes 3 turns), which is in theory unscouted by his enemies. This throne move should allow his Leader to participate in the final battle. He has almost 4 "welcome party" stacks ready to receive Jonny, though they are weaker than those of Jonny. His hero Tara reaches level 14 and chooses Scouting (40 MP) after clearing a Trading Post (5 units, including 2 Draconian Flyers) alone and is now 3 turns away from rrrrookie's throne.

Turn 53
Jonny Thunder takes Drum, which was undefended and moves cautiously with his 5 stacks in an unattackable defensive position.
Hiliadan screws up completely and loses Tara by doing a series of mistakes (failing to take into account that Life Drain doesn't work on Incorporeal or that Static Electricity gives Static Shield to all units; using Sprint recklessly; moving in range of ranged fire and without possibility to regain HP...) as he feels overconfident with his very strong Rogue hero. He tries to save the day by recruiting an Orc Theocrat hero, Mira, to take back the items from Tara and pursue the quest of eliminating rrrrookie. His troops move in defense of his throne to face Jonny Thunder. He starts researching Advanced Sea Faring to get access to Advanced Logistics and try to outmanoeuver Jonny on roads.

Turn 54
Jonny moves with 4 stacks (having kept 1 behind) toward Hiliadan's throne. He brought 3 Fire Giants, 1 Fire Elemental, 1 Lesser Light Elemental, 2 Ogres, many Halflings T1, his three heroes, 1 Dwarf First Born... his army is impressive and stays in group of 4 stacks.
Hiliadan tries an attack as he doubts a better opportunity will appear later, one of the 4 stacks being clearly weaker than the other, and attacking 4 vs 3 being a better idea than letting Jonny attacks him 4 vs 3 (as he would on the next turn). He suffers a big defeat but manages to kills 9 units (including 1 Fire Giant and the level 7 Theocrat).

Turn 55
Jonny takes Hiliadan's throne and moves with 21 units toward his cities of Ghatel and Rhabad. One of his Halfling city is invaded by Undead roamers.
Hiliadan retreats in Rhabad with 2 full stacks, hiding behind its wall and its choke point, meaning Jonny can attack only with one stack at a time. He moves toward rrrrookie with Mira, the Orc Theocrat hero he recruited earlier, after having cleared the Vault of Knowledge where Tara died on turn 53. Mira kills a Sphynx at a Sphynx Temple then retreat. She may finish it next turn or moves directly toward rrrrookie.

Turn 56
Jonny cautiously waits and do not attack Rhabad, where the choke point would mean a 2 vs 1 (2 from Hiliadan, 1 from him).
Hiliadan completely screws up again, trying to push too hard to win because of the pressure of the tournament. He attacks a Hall of the Forefather without CP and gets killed by the Ice Queen and explosive Royal Guards... He rushes a Tireless leg gear at Ushalon to send it to his leader on turn 57 (and receive it on turn 58).

Turn 57
Hiliadan does a last suicide attack and then surrenders.
Post-match analysis and scores shown on this video.

Confirmed by rickyroo222

Nice match. I forgot to mention that Ricky and Hiliadan did not clear many of the animal spwan sites on their side of the map. Once I crossed over to their side of the map there were roaming animals everywhere. I was able to befriend a lot of animals which allowed me to keep the offensive pressure into the mid game.

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Great game guys. Did you see how many times that jester got lucky in the final battle? Seems unlikely to happen so often on one unit after lucky chance was at 20 %.

I made many mistakes also, starting with losing a lot of units early on cause those halflings are so fragile. Then i was too careful with my baby stalker army and did not dare to clear lost cities and forbidden sanctums, although it wouldn´t be a problem. Only to loose them by poor placement before they could evolve to the bad guys, i was really hoping to give you a bit more trouble with them.


In the end, i was lucky that this giants gave me quest after quest and i could stock my medium army up while you where busy defending against rrrookies attack waves.

Very interested in that videos too of course.

I did some mistakes early game (e.g. got a full stack and hero killed by roamers coming from fog of war) but more important, you rushed me very early so I had to defend and rebuild, and then every time I was ready to go on the offensive, a new wave of attack came, so it was quite difficult. But the biggest mistakes were on late game, especially when I twice suicided my crazy heroes.

Do you have the save game we discussed? The devs still need it.

And please don't forget to report.

Good game guys. I again apologize for skipping ricky early in the game. I made some poor decisions on the strategic map after we eliminated ricky, and for a while it looked like it could cost us the game.

Jonny and I have been figuring that Hiliadan made a lot of mistakes early in the game. Hiliadan and Ricky never got on the offensive.

I am excited to see your videos.

I surrendered (and suicided my army to see,  terrible results...). Ushalon was my last chance with an item being forged there.
I did terrible mistakes on turn 54 and 56, which saved rrrrookie, whom I would have probably beaten or at least seriously damage as I had a lvl 14 Rogue hero with Total Awareness, First Strike, Life Drain and Tireless and some nice stats. But I was too greedy and got it killed on a site I could have done more cautiously (or not all). Then I reproduced the same mistake on turn 56 with the replacement hero, a Theocrat hero, who had cleared 3 sites alones but I was reckless again on a Hall of the Forefathers and died again.

We made many mistakes on both sides in this game but you outplayed us with the Dwelling and Jonny eventually managed to put together a strong attack, for which I was unprepared (I expected hordes of Halflings and Shadow Stalkers, not T3 and T4). Congratz! Good luck for the rest.
I'll upload the videos slowly to YouTube, many many interesting things in them!

That was a really good game and these last turns were really emotionally charged! especially when I lost my heroes... :'(

Actually it seems the fix was not successful, I just checked and it does not seem to work, I'm going to see with Zaskow.

ok i saw it in the changelog. Thats great thx a lot, very much appreciated

I could not check in the game cause of those bad mannered undead if you are wondring why i am asking

Was that update a bugfix?

Jonny, I checked and RG3 is totally bugged. None of the bonus are given. Very sorry about that but it's crazy that nobody reported it earlier. It's a bit complicated to test so I had not tested it earlier, I just did. I'm sending the save to Zaskow so that he can test the fix easily, hopefully it will be fixed quickly. However, I'm not certain he can push it to the main branch, because he usually does not keep the files from the previous versions of the mod, which means he can only update to v1.21 directly, and we don't want our game to suddenly switch to v1.21. We'll see... Sorry about the disadvantage for you...

I rechecked the replay and now it's coherent with the result. So I guess the replay I was displayed first (which is displayed in the video I did) was not correct. It's sad because it also shows that the battle could have been much more in my favour (but would still have been lost, was a "Very Likely Defeat" after all ).
I sent the turn, rrrrookie, your save files may still be useful for the devs to check what went wrong with the initial replay.

So let's continue!

If you're with your PC, you can do it now, you must in any case do it before you download the new turn as the aim is to provide the devs with a save BEFORE the fight happens so that they can reproduce it.
The save is here by default: C:\Users\[PC user name]\Documents\My Games\AoW3\Profiles\[AoW3 login user name]\PBEM
Then it's 14761.txt and the 2 similar files, with .APG and .~APG, you need to get the 3 files.

Okay I will as soon as I have a chance. Will the save file be easy to find?

rrrrookie, could you please put your save files somewhere so that I can then send them to the devs with explanations on how to reproduce my fight?
See http://aow.triumph.net/forums... />(remember NOT to watch the video as it has some key info still)

I think I'm going to continue the turn then, since they say my saves, which are AFTER the battle, are useless for them.

ok thx for the info
sounds very strange indeed, but remember, it´s easter so there might happen some unexpected resurgence ;-)

What do you mean by iron man here? There was no crash nor notification.
Yes the AI is acting very strangely. And it's actually the 2nd time in this game. The first time was on the fight where rrrrookie lost his 2 heroes when he took Ushalon from rickyroo. The units from rickyroo also did not attack several times and the battle replay also froze (on round 9).
We'll see what the devs say today, if they don't need the save or anything, I'll send the turn.

Also, what marcus said was unclear: you did lose many units Jonny but 1 Fire Elemental and probably 1 Fire Giant (6 HP and I had still units nearby) died in the replay but not on the result. But you did won the battle.

Strange, that means the AI is mad but no iron man?

Quick post: no you can't. As I said, the video has strategic info, it's not onlh ghe battle.

You can if you have the right link  but its not much to see, Jonny is winning the battle easy, just 2 of his units should be dead

Does that mean we can watch the video : ). The suspense is killing me

If Jonny would agree to disband 2 units, which in the video are dead or should be dead, there is no need to delay the game. My 5cent even though they count for next to nothing

So there is a video of the big battle but we can't watch it : ((.

I am fine with an extension as long as judges are consistently granting extensions for delays of this nature in all tournaments. 

I reported it to devs. Please don't look at the videos for now if you stumble upon the links, as they contain strategic info. You can watch them when our game is finished. I'm removing turn timer and sending a PM to judges to ask for extension as devs may want to investigate.

Cf the chat: www.the-battlefield.com/aow3/index.php?page=community
There was a big bug in the big battle, I'm going to report it. Not sure anything can be done for me this time but devs may want additional info so I'm probably going to pause the turn timer and wait. They're currently fixing a lot of bugs so that's the right time to report that.

Yeah, it must be bugged i think. The flowers at my city are called "flowers of solance" and the pumpkins are melons

Hilidian got a warning with proof. So you can continue. Thank you

You mean this, right?
Halfling economic RG3: Lucky Cloverfields in the domain of Halfling cities generate +10 gold, +10 mana and +100 Happines. Haste Berries in the domain of Halfling cities generate +10 production. Sunflowers in the domain of Halfling cities generate +5 mana, +5 gold, +5 production and +5 research. Pumpkins in the domain of Halfling cities generate +10 gold and +10 mana (was only the Lucky Cloverfields bonus)

Ok, I think I was not able to test it before so it might be bugged, I'll investigate later on and I report it to Zaskow. Sorry for the trouble. It's unfortunate in the probably 4 months since v1.2 was released that nobody reported this issue before.

EDIT: I sent my turn to Jonny as I received a PM from Fistandantilus which seemed to mean he had made up his mind + I had provided all elements I could (videos of just after I click "yes" for the Ironman notification and then recap video of all the turn as I do for every turn in this game). So we can continue I think and the judges will clarify if I get a warning or not + if we can get 1 extra day to finish

Btw, i took the halfling racial upgrade that should give the sunflower and melons bonus as mentioned in the change log. It did not take any effect in that turn. Is that a bug or will that just happen in the next turn?

F**k! I downloaded the turn about 20 minutes after receiving it but then had to go to lunch. When I came back, I opened it again, and the game somehow closed itself before I could see anything. That's the first time I see something like that, I don't know what happened, it didn't leave any error message. Maybe it's me who clicked on the "x" to close it while trying to click on another window (I play in windowed mode) but then I think it should have asked me to save or something.
When I tried to open it again, it gave me Ironman warning....
I haven't played anything in the turn except move a Dwarf Forge Priest to check on Jonny. I guess I'll be able to show that after I click on "Yes" to the Ironman warning.

I'm sending a message to judges and asking for an extension of time for the round for the time it takes to solve this issue. That really sucks, really not at the right time...

Aah, that sucks!... Maybe you can try with the 4G + hotspot from your phone? That's what I do when I'm on business trip with bad wifi. Uploading the save takes only a few Mo.

We have only 10 days left until end of round... :S

TSomehow I got turns done last night but my hotel wifi is awful and I cannot get connected to the pbem server. Could you drop the turn timer? I will continue to try to connect.

Actually its more trivial: I would have to play while holding the baby, which somehow normally leads to terrible results in the turns Since i already did my fair share of big mistakes in this game, i wisely dicided to wait until the baby sleeps.

Yeah, I saw you had some difficulties so I decided to help you a bit...

Jonny, you gave me hope I would be able to play again today by posting more or less at the same time as when I sent you the turn (+ rrrrookie sending me a turn on another game, showing he is available) but in the end, you dashed my hopes. That's the psychological war, right? :'( By the hair of Hiliadan the Impaler's ancestors, you'll pay for this!! I'm going to cut your moustache and add it to my beard!

Reminds me of a great song: "into the void" from black sabbath, i will turn that on at the final battle

Now Hiliadan leader is dead. When will the madness end.