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novograd Results

Game#101
Played: 2021-03-16	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 46

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	mahimka	Necromancer	unknown	2	14	0	0		here
2	novograd	Rogue	Orcs	1	-14	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2021-03-16 13:26:23

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Welcome!

Do you have DLC and are able to host? If so please make the game at your convenience. Using the "Tournament" gameflow option should give 90% of the desired settings, you'll just need to tweak the game, starting tech, etc usually.

If you can't then let me know and can host.

Age of Wonders 3

Looking for training match to get used to competitive play. Same rules as 2019 PBEM tournament.Â Ideally looking for non-veterans since I'm a bit new.

https://www.the-battlefield.com/aow3/index.php?page=rules&tourneyid=15Â

I don't have the DLC so if other player can host that's ideal.Â

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#100
Played: 2021-03-12	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 47

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	keika	Sorcerer	Draconians	1	11	0	0		here
2	novograd	Rogue	Orcs	2	-11	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2021-03-12 14:02:15

You still have quite explosive games, finished by turn 23, even with v1.23, normal speed, and medium map...

Well done keika!

Written on 2021-03-12 13:36:17

Played on medium map, normal research, PBEM 1.30

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:

Written on 2021-03-12 13:36:17

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#99
Played: 2021-02-24	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 46

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	novograd	Theocrat	Dwarves	1	5	0	0		here
2	mahimka	Theocrat	Tigrans	2	-5	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2021-02-24 22:13:12

mahimka was also theo. so no point at all

Written on 2021-02-24 22:10:44

You see, you can still win as Dwarf Theocrat! <smiletext1>

Written on 2021-02-24 21:37:13

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#98
Played: 2021-02-24	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 46

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	novograd	Archdruid	Elves	1	5	0	0		here
2	mahimka	Theocrat	Goblins	2	-5	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2021-02-24 21:36:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#97
Played: 2021-02-24	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 45

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	novograd	Archdruid	Elves	1	2	0	0		here
2	angrynarwhal	Rogue	Humans	2	0	0	-43		here

Remark:

Written on 2021-02-26 02:54:22

Written on 2021-02-26 02:53:37

Written on 2021-02-25 02:54:33

Catwoman vs. Novograd

T14: Took out unprotected builder with scout. See Novo’s converted mammoth nearby. Clear ziggurat, taking 2 turns & losing harpoon thrower.
T15: Attempt tomb clear, fail all net throws, lose 2x civic guards & converted T2. See Novo’s main (theocrat) stack & move my main into position to greet him.
Novo’s theocrat turns south instead, so my main goes underground. Catwoman meets rogues roaming around underground and convinces many to join, planning to train them with her Corrupted Killers ability.
T18(?): Fighting with home stack, realized too late the hero is already out of CP for the turn. RIP... also lost bard & almost evolved scoundrel.
T19: Clear another ziggurat…converted T3 serpent…but then leader got swallowed, cancelling the conversion :/. Kinda wish the swallow whole text covered this mechanic.
T22: Novo attacks with T2, 3x T1. Takes assassin producing city right before I make the first assassin. Such timing. I take it back the next turn, but this set me back more than expected, especially considering the happiness penalty.
T23: Attempt forbidden sanctum with home stack…critical failure. Get it the next turn, but no good reward.
(?): See Novo's leader stack underground with a T4 & 1-2 T3 serpents. My main is on a potential collision course with him so need to be careful, especially as I know he might have a shaman/hunter stack coming in from the other direction. Split off warlord with his flying mount, (lesser) shadow stalker, converted phantasm warrior. They go to take/retake some forts and rendezvous with another t2 shadow stalker and swimming assassin. Many sunken cities on the map and Novo has already cleared a couple, so we need to get on the sunken city game asap. Have merfolk vassal and around this time also get a quest with siren reward. My leader stack is now on par with novo's leader stack in strength but could be taken out if he has any reinforcements nearby, with advanced logistics he could also hunt down my leader stack easily. After splitting, succeed in growing the army quickly.
T28-31: Nice spot for a fort/settlement south of my throne, have a stack clearing sites there. Getting desperate, decide we need to take the lost city (glutton, 5x naga matriarchs) there. Takes a few turns and significant losses in the process...so the situation is still desperate.
T32: Warlord attempts quest to take down merfolk rivals... forgotten that sirens have water concealment, so this was a tougher fight than expected: lord of the deep+3x siren+mermaid+lost mariner. Sirens go after the warlord and forget to account for one of them with ranged attack off cooldown. RIP warlord, time to surrender.

Written on 2021-02-24 21:34:57

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#96 \| Warlords Guild Game
Played: 2021-02-24	Amount of Humans: 4
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 61

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	novograd	Warlord	Frostlings	1	11	0	0		here
2	DrLight	Warlord	Tigrans	2	8	0	-20		here
3	gladis	Warlord	Goblins	3	-7	0	-40		here
4	MARKYMARK	Warlord	Orcs	4	-13	0	-60		here

Remark:

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#95 \| 2vs2 another
Played: 2020-12-21	Amount of Humans: 4
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 63

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	novograd	Archdruid	Elves	2	7	0	0		here
1	gladis	Warlord	Orcs	2	16	0	0		here
2	DreadReapr	Rogue	Humans	1	-13	0	-30		here
2	Skuns453Lirik902	Rogue	Tigrans	1	-10	0	-30		here

Remark:

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#94
Played: 2020-11-30	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 47

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	keika	Rogue	Elves	2	11	0	0		here
2	novograd	Warlord	Frostlings	1	-11	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2020-12-01 13:24:49

Written on 2020-11-30 21:26:43

Congratz!

https://age-of-wonders-3.fandom.com/wiki/Template:Guild_of_Shadow_Thieves seems pretty clear to me that it's 5% of the caster's income. What didn't work in your opinion?

Written on 2020-11-30 20:13:10

Played on medium map, balance mode 1.3 beta.

Got the rogue second hero and picked him. Leveled up both heroes to level 7 early to convert as many units as I can to split the army. Evolved 4 storm sisters at turn 10 or so and with all converted units decided to open multiple fronts at the same time.
Each stack had a storm sister to stun and conversion ability (from bard or leader/hero) and could clear even strong sites successfully.

Playing vs warlord, I thought that I have to attack my opponent as fast as I can, having more army early and try to raze some cities and slow him down. In late game it would be hard to stay in game versus mass cheap 40MP monster hunters.

After researching bards I was thinking, should I rush stalkers or search strategic spells and focus on them, but another lost library made the choice for me - after getting some strategic skill, treasure raiding skill has appeared in the book and corpse looting skill just right after it.

It was really useful, with both spells active I got a lot of gold from 5 different sweep teams in the middle of the game.

I was slowly but surely moving to Novo's cities and gathered almost 3 stacks of good units. I scouted his main stack presence and also found a secondary stack leading by hero. Both armies were quite far from the cities and I decided to join my leader's and second hero forces and attack the cities.

Initially I considered it as an option to sneak with my swimming/floating leader’s stack, capture the throne and cast scorched earth, but then I abandoned this plan, because it was risky. My army was much slower than his MH and irregulars in the arctic and I didn’t know how much army he had there.

I have found his vassal and moved 3 my main stacks closer to it and attacked. Surprisingly it was very easy battle and I didn’t lose anything:

At the same time I was trying to catch his secondary stack with my secondary stacks. I was tracing his stack for a long time and finally was able to set up a trap.
He went underground, cleared a few sites and I was sure that he will take the column of champions next turn.
He had halfling nightwatch recon there and it could reveal my trap and so I decided to make a simple trick and surprisingly it worked perfectly.
I placed my crows in a bit of a different direction not so far from the nightwatch, but in his vision range to distract him.
So my trap worked and I attacked his secondary stack on the same turn as I captured his vassal.
Actually I was not sure who caught whom, but luck was on my side and AI didn’t screw the battle.

Novo surrendered on the next turn and I didn’t even see his main army.

Knowledge score:

Military score:

P.S.

I tried to use the “Guild of Shadow Thieves” spell and casted it twice on vassal and Novo’s city, but it looks like it was not that effective. It also works in a strange way giving 5% income calculated from my own total income, not the affected city income which is weird to be honest.

Also I can say that clearing sites with trash units is quite challenging, but at the same time rewarding. And also it is very painful and tedious to manage HP and fight with deadly wounded units. I started to value every single unit, don’t send them as “scouts” to be killed by independents and even boar could be very helpful in battles.

Written on 2020-11-30 20:13:10

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#93
Played: 2020-11-17	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 47

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	keika	Dreadnought	Humans	1	11	0	0		here
2	novograd	Necromancer	Humans	2	-11	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2020-11-17 22:31:16

Finally, the return of the novo vs keika match! <smiletext0> Very interesting as always.

Congratz keika, looks like you played a solid Dreadnought which should inspire others, though I do think you misplay Cannons (maybe look at how AlX plays them, I remember he was quite good at it).

Written on 2020-11-17 22:06:38

Written on 2020-11-17 21:51:48

From the balance perspective I could say that I don’t like advanced logistics skill so much. It gives a huge advantage to one of the players and makes the game unpredictable.

Dreadnought class is still slow and you can see that from the scores, it is quite hard to expand early. Machine (golems) way is kind of playable and the golems+engineers combo is very nice.
Engineers are quite expensive and imho would be good to slightly reduce their cost.
I still haven't found a way to use cannons to get advantage. I did research cannons in this game, but never produced one.
I planned to produce flame tanks and should research them in the next two turns, they looked more promising for me in this game.

Written on 2020-11-17 21:49:38

Played on medium map, balance mode 1.3 beta.

First turns were quite hard. Sites guards were strong and without healing many of my units were seriously injured almost all time.
There were a lot of back and forth movements, I didn't get any additional units from farms/camps.
Independent's peace/vassalize cost was low and so unfortunately they gave me only archer as a reward. I was expecting to get a cavalry or priest which could help me a lot, but no luck.

In addition I scouted that I am on a separate island with one cave entrance and so I had very limited ways to explore.

Also I scouted the dungeon and wizard tower on my island and it was a bit disappointing for me, because I had no idea how to take them early with my starting army.
However then I discovered that dungeon has a halfling guard set and they were on the arctic and so had negative moral and no luck.
I thought that I had quite good chances to take if I disjunct battlefield enchantment successfully and so I did that on turn 11 with heroes, knight and 2 engineers.

The reward was storm sister and brew brothers which gave me a good opportunity to take wizard tower on next turn. I wanted to play more “dreadnought way” in this game and so I accepted dreadnought second hero, and surprisingly it was very useful in wizard tower - under force field spell my knight was immune to three damage channels and I was able to take tower without losses.

I have scouted another wizard tower on another continent and I decided to take it also, so I left engineers with the rest of the units to explore underground with 2 newly produced golems.
A bit later I splitted my UG army to explore another underground path with two more engineers and two golems.

In my starting location I found a good place for a city with flowrock quarry and crystal tree in range and two latest golems were produced with enchanted armor and flowrock machinery bonuses. I can’t say if it was really worth it or not, but it was nice to have elite golems with 90HP and 19/11 stats.

These two unit stacks with golems and engineers were quite successful during the game and cleaned many sites including dungeon, sphinx temple, lost city and ziggurat (naga set).

Meanwhile my leader stack cleared the second wizard tower, found naga dwelling, completed the quest and then captured them. It was in the middle of the map and I was thinking about sneaking into Novo’s cities and razing them.

I hesitated to pick abilities on my max leveled sorcerer hero and had a lot of points untouched. I was considering an option to take master illusionist and make a diversion, but I was not able to stay unnoticed and so abandoned this plan.

I discovered Novo’s minor city not so far and with some units bought from the inn, captured it.
At the same time I found his main stack and very unhappy to see very strong floating/swimming units with three T4 units.

I was expecting that he had a much bigger and better quality army, but still was shocked. To be honest I felt depressed and just wanted to give one big fight and then surrender, but everything turned out completely different.

With all research bonuses I got from wizard towers, sphinx temples and 90RP/turn I decided to rush advanced logistics and skip cannons because I thought they would be useless on such map.
I was very close to finishing the research when our armies met and I wanted to try to catch his main stack and succeed just in time.
Novo has placed his units far enough on the road and didn’t expect advanced logistics to be researched on turn 24.

With movement advantage I was able to bring my main stack and units bought from the inn.
(there was also one traitor - frostling white witch. Couple of turns earlier I found roaming independent which wanted to join my army for gold. Never had that before and after a lot of thinking I decided that it was Novo’s deserted unit).

Trying to increase my chances in the battle, I spent all my sorcerer’s upgrade points and took chaos rift and thunderstorm.
I also was able to level up my leader to level 13 in the very last battle and picked force field generator ability.
On dreadnought hero I also picked the “summon siege engine” spell, but he was not able to cast it in the battle.

Video of the battle: https://drive.google.com/file...

Result of the battle was very impressive and inspiring for me and I felt that I have chances to win this game.
I thought that I could probably reach the throne with the advanced logistics bonus before his leader returned from the void, but I was quite far from the throne and roads were not straight.
Anyway I proceeded, razed three forts on my way and discovered ambush. Novo had at least two stacks of good units and it was impossible to beat them with my one stack and so I retreated.

I didn’t see any of his heroes anywhere and thought that they are exploring map corners. I was pretty sure that at least one hero went to the upper right corner, because I saw a few sites cleaned there and scouted banshee with my drone.
I was afraid that I missed it and it is going towards my cities or summoning banshees to capture my cities which I was vulnerable to, but in the end it appeared in UG.
I had my two elite secondary stacks nearby and also bought one more stack from the inn and wanted to ambush him also with movement superiority.

Novo scouted some of my units and placed his army as he thought safely from the attack, but there were haste berries not so far, I built roads with builder and engineers and also help to dig tunnels with goblin beetle to make the path shorter and attacked with outnumbered forces.

Video of the battle: https://drive.google.com/file...

It was the second serious loss for Novo. I think he still had a big army and good economy to continue the game, but he surrendered on the next turn.

Overall I think I have played a very solid game as dreadnought, but still should lose it. If Novo didn’t lose his main stack, it would be a completely different game with low chances to win.

Knowledge score:

Military score:

Written on 2020-11-17 21:49:38

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Written on 2019-07-27 23:28:04

Match has been reported, please confirm!

Age of Wonders 3

Written on 2019-07-27 20:35:48

novogradÂ joined !!

Game#92
Played: 2020-09-29	Amount of Humans: 2
Kind of Report: ffaen	Kind of game: PBEM
Game-value: 47

Result	Player	Classes	Races	Team	Points	Extra Points	Missed Points	Quitter	Rate
1	keika	Archdruid	Elves	2	12	0	0		here
2	novograd	Theocrat	Dwarves	1	-12	0	-20		here

Remark:

Written on 2020-10-01 23:00:03

AD is strong due to it's several good point.

Unlike evengelist MC snowball, AD don't have certain OP.

But long strider+25% upkeep bonus for animal and summon+serpent evolving+40movement hunter and shaman+heal from shaman has synergy.

Nerfing shaman to t2 building cause almost no difference.

Anyway I doubt balancing ability of community cause they nerfed rogue heavily at 1.29 and still don't want to buff socerror.

Geschrieben am 2020-10-01 22:40:10

Yes Keike, I meant the stage of the game when your army is "machine based". In the early stage of the game DN has some trouble dealing with reapers.

To come back to the "main" discussion. I don't see that AD is much stronger than theo but obviously these 2 classes are stronger than most of the others and the fact what makes them so strong is massive healing and conversion. On smaller maps it's not an issue but on bigger maps obviously it is. We nerved theo more than once and AD can be nerved heavily just by moving shamans to the racial t2 building. I made this proposal but atm it hasn't much support. I can't understand why because AD is the only class which get's it's racial t3 for the racial t1 building. Clearly unbalanced if you ask me...

Written on 2020-10-01 13:33:44

I'm a little bit disappointed that you fall to the novo bullshit keika. Seriously: "If it is fit to process where you reviewing new proposals, it would be good to open discussion about these changes somewhere, so it would be understandable WHAT issue you want to solve and WHY it should be solved this way. And also have an ability to change your mind (3-5%) adding some thoughts.

>And maybe we could add a MCI battle enchantment in Dungeons to avoid the Troll mind-control.
It took a year since I flagged that (most likely someone else also did it and even earlier). So now you changed your mind from "having 3 warbreeds from dungeons before turn 20 is totally ok" to "maybe we could add MCI"."

I hope you are kidding.

Written on 2020-10-01 11:10:16

Well.. no one focus on class balance.

This game wasn't ranked game but I wanted report it to show class balance.

So plz forget troll and see AD vs theo.

btw you have chance to get theo as hero and you can get theo as hero is crazy different. But some people seems to think it's same or similar.

Written on 2020-10-01 08:43:21

Those are nice tips keika (about how to take the Castle of LK). Thanks. I will try to see if I can apply some of those to my games.

Written on 2020-10-01 08:23:39

@Hiliadan

>I'll push back those old proposals for v1.32.
If it is fit to process where you reviewing new proposals, it would be good to open discussion about these changes somewhere, so it would be understandable WHAT issue you want to solve and WHY it should be solved this way. And also have an ability to change your mind (3-5%) adding some thoughts.

>And maybe we could add a MCI battle enchantment in Dungeons to avoid the Troll mind-control.
It took a year since I flagged that (most likely someone else also did it and even earlier). So now you changed your mind from "having 3 warbreeds from dungeons before turn 20 is totally ok" to "maybe we could add MCI".

@El_Lobo

>If you play DN there is no problem with inflict dead at all
I absolutely don't understand that. Why don't they have issues with invoke death?
As DN you still have living heroes, race units, units got from rewards, living class units. There are few machines in your army for long time and even with them you most likely will not attack castle them alone.

Or you are talking about the stage where you have stack of flame tanks? Then yes, not an issue at all.

Geschrieben am 2020-10-01 00:14:40

Since trolls are no longer available in farms there is no issue to fix with them. The "problem" with the castle of the lich king is not that important imo. No matter what class or race you pick you can choose a theocrat or WL as second hero. If you play tigrans you can easily get a whole stack with 80% spirit protection through a stack bonus. If you play DN there is no problem with inflict dead at all. So if you pick a class race which is vulnerable to spirit damage you should consider this when choosing your first hero.

Written on 2020-09-30 23:16:21

Ok good point, I was thinking with a 6 unit stack mindset so I didn't see you can get 2 Strong Will which is enough for 2 units.

I had suggested giving -20% Spirit Weakness battle enchantment to the Castle, which would make it more dangerous for your combo, and for Warlord.

I'll push back those old proposals for v1.32.

And maybe we could add a MCI battle enchantment in Dungeons to avoid the Troll mind-control.

Written on 2020-09-30 10:48:01

>About Castle of the Lich King, you don't fear Invoke Death from the Reapers?

I didn't expect this question from you, @Hiliadan. Answer is pretty obvious - theo has strong will skill and bestow iron heart gives 100% spirit resistance to troll, so it cannot be killed by invoke death and cannot be panicked.
With touch of faith troll has 16 resistance and get 1-2 damage from banshee (even flanked) and very little damage from reapers because of high res and posion resistance.
Well... just test it yourself and you will see.

To be honest I think castle of lich king is unbalanced.
You can take it with warlord and blood brothers. You can take it with 11 level theocrat with divine justicars and two units with strong will - you can sacrifice some units and they will be revived after the battle.
You can take it with necro with good elemental damage, undying and reanimate.
If you are lucky enough to have strong will rune close to castle, you can do it also.
Maybe some niche builds like AD + human priests.

For everything else it is just a lottery, impossible to take it without risk to lose units which often is not acceptable.
Probably you can take castle with one reaper and be ready to sacrifice some unimportant 1-2 units, but with two reapers I am not sure if it could be splitted and killed without risk. Only if you have some special items or units.

Edit:

~~Elite golem with tireless and defender. Maybe will be enough even without force field spell, but didn't test it.~~ will not work because of wail of despair <smiletext0>

Few crusaders (probably orcs) with some healing.

Written on 2020-09-30 08:04:45

Same thought, Refineus.

I don't know how people do the Castle of the Lich King. The Dread Reapers always discouraged me. Then one time in a team game I watched someone clear that site (I think it was Marky) and the Reapers didn't even use their special ability. Of course, when I tried after that, they did use it.. and I lost a T3.

Anyway, nice report. Looked like a good game.

Written on 2020-09-30 07:29:09

1 troll and a Theo hero.. For mythical sites... Wtf..

This game never cease to surprise me.

I can barely look at mythical sites and here they just roll through them at the start of the game.

Written on 2020-09-29 23:41:17

Thanks for the detailed report.

About Castle of the Lich King, you don't fear Invoke Death from the Reapers? And I don't get how just 1 Troll + 1 Theo can beat 2 Reapers and 4 Banshees? You manage to let them attack only the Troll?

Written on 2020-09-29 21:43:05

First of all, I said AD would be the strongest in 1.30 even before it comes to play.

So ofcourse my best class is AD now.

I have to say keika played really good in this game.

I lost by my stupid mistake but even without it, very low chance to win as score shows.

similar military with a lot army from MC, much slower units means no chance really without critical mistake from him.

My situation wasn't bad indeed but keika expanded much faster.

What I think the best is seperating t2+t1 units only stack and theo+troll stack.

Written on 2020-09-29 21:01:31

Written on 2020-09-29 20:47:23

Some notes about balance patch.

4MP/hex on water is good nerf for AD. 9 hexes vs previous 12.

Regrowth is still OP and converting troll from farm is huge advantage (as well as almost guaranteed converted warbreed from dungeons with leader and 1-2 evangelists).

Flying and floating regeneration -12HP on water. Initially I thought that they will lose their HP on water, but it seems that regeneration could not be negative. If it is intended, it is not as bad as I initially thought.

I think this particular AD setup could be even stronger theo, so maybe we will see Novo switching his main class from theo to AD <smiletext0>

Written on 2020-09-29 20:46:43

This game has been played on medium size map and 1.30 beta balance patch.

Novo wanted to check theo strategy in new patch and also check how strong AD vs theo now.

I picked the very same specializations and race as Novo do with AD.

I basically copied Novo's strategy and tried to play similar to how he usually plays.

I managed to summon two serpents early and so I focused on evolving them. I think I got matures on turn 10 and kings on turn 14-15.
Focused on producing hunters with hurry 1 per turn in throne.

I was not really lucky with first hero I wanted to get, but picked rogue.
I skipped clearing one farm immediately near my domain to get level 7 on my rogue and I was really lucky to convert troll from it.

Quite early I splitted my army and build unit-only stack with befriended elephant, unicorn rider, 2 hunters, archer (from quest) and initiate. This stack was exploring one direction of the map far from my cities and managed to clear many treasure sites including one lost city.

Army at the end:

With leader, two serpents and 2 hunters I built stack which was exploring the opposite side of the map by water.
Cleared a lot of challenging sites quite early including hard sunken city and sanctum.

I was lucky to get second theo hero and with converted troll I build theo stack (?) with two units.

This "stack" followed the footsteps of my secondary army and cleared high lvl sites. Overall these two units managed to clean two castles of the lich king, ziggurat and wizard tower. The only risky fight was in wizard tower since there was small chance to be shocked multiple times in a row by king serpent, but troll had a lot of resistance with buffs and also fearsome, so I think it was really small chance to lose that battle.

At the same time rest of my army leading by rogue hero was clearing middle of the map and eventually went underground where I met Novo's main stacks with leader and sorcerer hero.

Clearing spring of life I got gryphon and decided to find Novo's cities underground with him.
It made great march using haste berries on his way and found undefended Novo's city.

I have captured it and casted scorched earth which I researched on the same turn with help of free research from sphinx temple and vault (had to research two techs to get it in book, but I think it worth it).

Next turn Novo made big mistake and left his throne undefended. There was martyr and evangelist in the throne, but evangelist was one hex far from central city hex (but next to martyr) and so I was able to capture throne with gryphon and spider without evangelist involved in the battle and also casted scorched earth and reinforced it.

I think he placed evangelist on that hex to be able to capture his secondary city if disjunct would be successful and didn't pay enough attention that throne could be attacked without evangelist in battle.

Anyway next turns he was not able to disjunct scorched earth and throne has been plundered.

On the same turn he attacked my secondary stacks with his main stack embarked from water and lost.

My final army at the end of the game:

Knowledge score:

Military score:

What I can say about the game... elves hunters are extremely OP. With 14 damage and 5 hexes non-penalty range on gold medal they just kill everything. One hunter can one-shot tier2 and two hunters can kill t3. With 40 MP with long strider, they are just super cheap killing machines.