The Lion

Everything goes as planned.

Ts

~ The Witch ~

Nice tools to torture the lion were recovered today!

ts

The Lion

Everything goes as planned. We look forward to meeting the witch and her tortourus equipment. Let's see if it can beat our claws and muscles.

Ts

~ The Witch

Gnignigni...

The Lion

Witch captured an undefended tower. Annoying, but not really impressive.

Ts

~ Witch

We are trying desperately to impress this grand lion. He isn't easily impressed.

~ Witch

Progress is going as planned. Well, a little bit behind, but we are catching up. Today, a mighty Runemaster was recruited to serve in our army. He seemed reluctant but could not refuse the large sums of gold. Money corrupts everything!

Much to our surprise, the enemy balloon was sighted nearby as well. It may work out for the best.

The lion

Suprise suprise. A balloon full of evil minions. Their scout was betrayed by the attack of our faithfull area guards, and killed at once. Our birds were very stupid though, and decided to charge the tower alone. Both were shot down.

Ts

~ The Witch

The Witch was very satisfied.

The enemy watchtower was captured early on by a goblin darter, and that same heroic darter has now single-handedly defeated a zephyr bird and a Dragonfly! A medal well awarded for having enemy vision reduced to a minimum!
Furthermore, a Spy has been dropped on enemy shores and spotted Kokor and some cohorts. They were wounded, and just one stack. Then, the Elven village had been successfully taken that same day by troops led by a Spider Queen. Moreover, when the mighty Maugrim landed with his impressive invasion army, the Runemaster as well as pixie entangler were recruited!

Things couldn't get better! The war was in the pocket...

Then, an interesting opportunity lured already. One that could practically end this war already. Kokor and his troops positioned themselves within reach of Maugrim's army, hehehe.

Obviously, the Lion thinks we will fall for a simple concealment trap, but... did he know reinforcements, including a second spider queen could now join Maugrim and his Runemaster, snow Troll, spider queen, bladedancers, etc?
And how much could he have? It's unfortunate that our spy got betrayed by two snakes yesterday, but he did get a good 'true vision' peek at the composition of the enemies' army before he fell.

Maugrim was tempted. How impressive it would be to already strike so deep and hard... Victory would be due to him, and him alone!! Maugrim couldn't resist, and gambled!

He went, and did the one thing the Witch told him NOT to do! Taking things easy and NO RISKS... Obviously, these words were not meant for him, the invincible general, Maugrim thought...

And so Maugrim advanced the balloon to reach, but upon drawing nearer, an entangler uncovered what was behind it seemed more than what we had previously seen! Another entangler, and a black panther! An attack would be risky... too risky!!
The attack was blown off... and to make matters worse, it was too late to return. It seemed the entire army of the Lion was rushing to the spot! He instantly knew what it meant: he failed...

The carefully built advantage that was built up is now lost...

Perhaps they can remain alive overnight and retreat head over heels, or engage in a bloody battle! Maugrim preferred the latter, he won't be able to face his Queen now anymore, anyway. As he grabbed his legendary sword, and a grim expression appeared on his scarred face...

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-12-2009 @ 06:55 PM).]

Lion

My lord, wake up, Kokkor Hekkes reported that Maugrim, The Witches right hand, has been moving in. At the sight of our armies, however, he was so scared that he froze and didn't flee.

The lion thought, deeply. Very deep. Could it be a trap? Has he got hidden artifacts, magic or troops? A scout was sent. No artifacts. No magic. No troops. Could it be a distraction? Another scout was send. No sign of troops anywhere. The only option remained. He, Maugrim, the most skillful tactician that ever opposed him, could it? No, he though, no, I must have missed something. It can't be. How? Had he drunk to much on the night before he went to war? Had he eaten bad food and got stomach cramps? Did his troll smack him against his head and damaged his brains? The lion ordered to do what he did best. Kill.

Maugrim fought well. He brought down our entire artillery, but in the end one of our pixies got him, and he was slain without mercy. Searching the remains, Kokkor found his swords. He put it well away, as it might be useful in the future.

The lion was satisfied.

Ts

wow! I´m impressed!
that´s like a movie!!
now it´s getting interesting...
I´m almost as excited as with my own game

We want screenshots! If you know, that your opponent knows what you know, then give us please screenshots of what you know Just like Enginerd did...

Ah, and what day is it?

[This message has been edited by Charx (edited 11-13-2009 @ 07:02 AM).]

See my young apprentice... my crystal ball doesn't lie... I told you that Lord Duck would be victorious in a mighty battle over Swolte.

*shakes head in disbelief* Yes, Master (I can't believe it )

hey, it´s not over yet

Argh, yes, literally from the best to the worst possible position... and that battle went horrible! Darn pixies!

Anyway, I'll have to rethink some things. It isn't over, yet!

(I'll make some screens as well, of the most amazing comeback ever! )

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-13-2009 @ 09:58 AM).]

Does it mean that Swolte lost his hero only? Or did he lose his entire stack?

Nono, two spiderqueens, Runemaster, hero, snow troll, bladedancers, entangler, balloon, etc... He lost some low level units. So, it's really really bad (for Swolte)

We interrupt this game to bring you a quick update to the BIG battle that just took place. Check out the video below and the full report in the TNS. (sure wish I could figure out the blurry stuff, sorry )

~ The Witch

The Witch was furious.

Never before have her cohorts seen her this angry, or show any emotion, for that matter. Even the yeti cowered at her mere sight. All agreed that Maugrim was better off dead. Much better...

The utter defeat to this loathsome and lazy lion was embarrassing to her. Precious troops were offered to Aslan on a plate! Now, there was no other choice but to retreat and fight another day. Drastic measures were taken to ensure that the Lion was not going to take advantage of the situation. The elven village of Beruna was therefore ordered to be burned and razed to ground, while troops regrouped for a counterstrike.

The next battle, there will be lion for dinner!

The Lion

There she was. Spotted by our scouts. The witch herself. Teeth gritting she stood near the goblin shack with her Mammoth, unable to reach it in time. There she was. Lonely and defenseless. The evil witch who razed the elven town, slaughtering the inhabitants and feeding them to her orcs and mutated spiders. There she was. Lonely. Helpless. What an tempting target. If only.

No! Said Edmund, ancient and wise king of before. No! Remember Maugrim! Never rush into battle. Who knows who's hiding in those trees and snow. There could be an whole army of bladedancers freezing their asses off for all we know!

He's a smart fellow. Edmund. And so we listened to him. Nice in comfortable in our high tower we sat. A cosy fire. Drinking. Laughing. Eating. Watching the witch in the cold. We'll wait.

Ts

~ The Witch

Today, the Lion's economy was hurt by the capture of Redhaven by a scouting Wyvern. The battle was taken to the west by Miraz, who has made excellent progress.

Still, the Witch was cursing. Some of her plans didn't work out as desired... Edmund, especially, was a thorn in her eye! If only she touch him with her cold dead touch. Her time would come.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-14-2009 @ 03:53 PM).]

The Lion

Redhaven has been captured! We heard the screams all over the place. I ordered guards to remove the troublemakers. Ofcourse Redhaven has been captured. What did they expect? A garrison of one lonely crossbowman, and they still ask why? Everything goes as planned. How could they question me?

The Witch has disappeared underground with her mammoth pet. Good. Her sight was killing my appetite. I hope she gets mad when she hears of her slain scouts. How could she think an arshin'tai would remain hidden under the leaves? They're as noisy as an hungry wild boar.

Edmund was a fool though. How could he forget the magical powers of dragonflys? If he didn't annoy the witch so much, his head would be on a stick right now. Fool!

Ts

~ The Witch

With Redhaven still in our possession, we advance swiftly!

The Lion

A swift advance. Troubling my brains. Lions are not made to think. They are made to act. We'll do what our instincts tell us. Tomorrow we'll have our revenge over the elven town.

Ts

~ The Witch: Day 9

How interesting... Aslan seems to be on the run, and has abandoned his capitol. It seems too good to be true! We are most likely running into a trap, and surely Kokor, Edmund, and his cavalry are not far to save their day!

But... we have little to lose! Risks are allowed at this stage!

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-15-2009 @ 12:50 PM).]

The Lion

Oops. He thinks, waiting for the boat to safety. Oops. Slowly the consequences are taking shape in his mind. Oops. Shouldn't have done that. The results of his actions drop in like a brick. Oops. He thinks for a last time. Slowly, he sits down on the grass at the riverside. He hadn't expect to come this far anyway. His plans, useless by the defeat of Maugrim, should have been changed. It's been nice enough. Closing his eyes, he waits for the sound death.

Ts

~ Witch: day 10

The northern front was lost. The panther, boar riders, and entanglers that had recently attacked the Witch's bladedancers and Orc assassin were moving swiftly, and captured the Orcish village today. There was no defense.

In the south, the human village of Anvard was taken by an Elven ranger. There was no fight... nothing. Anvard simply surrendered.

Near the center, the great army of Edmund and Kokor had made landfall. Their armour and mighty blades shone bright and strong in the sun. They were truly invincible and had nothing to fear... King Edmund has returned in style. Again, there was no resistance to speak of.

Elsewhere, a large Lion called Aslan was sitting by himself on the grass near the shore. His big paws were covering his eyes as if in grief. Behind him stood a lean figure on a horse... it was Naeco. And he was carrying the same crown that Maugrim was carrying right before he died.

From the darkness of the underground, the Witch smiled confidently. She knew exactly what had happened, and what was to come...

Naeco poked the Lion in the back, as if to wake him. Then, when there was no sign of life, pushed him. Aslan turned around, finally, and let out a terrible roar whilst readying his claws. Naeco stepped back, but seemed not in fear. From behind the rocks appeared a mighty mammoth, two beetle riders, and various cavalry... The mighty king was cornered, and with all courage and strength mustered within his old body fought his last battle.

And when Miraz finally arrived at the enemy capitol with his many divisions of horsemen, northern glow, and wyvern, he carried with him the Witch's victory.

===========

Good game, LD, you had me sweating there, for a sec!

I'll send some images to Enginerd for a video analysis (hopefully). But I reckon you already knew what had happened since your mole spotted Naeco and his beetles near the Dwarven village in the underground.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-15-2009 @ 05:33 PM).]

Wow What a match!

Video editing has begun.... stay tuned!

A truly magnificent game!

Congratulations to Swolte. Well played, Lordduck, for making Swolte sweat. You guys are simply powerhouses!

Special update! The game has ended.. and Swolte pulled out the victory!!! Congratulations Swolte, it seemed like the game was lost, how did you do it, how did you pull it off?

The first few days have been difficult, actually. My troops were severely wounded from the battle at the crypt. My Troll, for example, was left with only two hitpoints even after being healed. I even refrained from taking the mine as to not lose any important units that day. Furthermore, infidels appeared in the worst position and composition. My spiders were unable to take them on, and were blocked from reaching the campsite resources. In general, I was unlucky with the quest-rewards (no strong unit, or nice item), as well as production resources (had to pick War Hall and Enchanted walls both times, ugh...). I also had no useful spells to research. Actually, for the entire game I decided it was better to not research anything and just save mana for item teleportation.

Eventually, I did get lucky with the production resource at the Goblin town, which gave me a Champions guild. This would later be very important for my strategy. A side effect of the bad luck with production resources was that I decided to sell a lot. This gave me quite some cash to fund the advance.

I had debated to go south, and exploit both recruit sites near the teleport, but in the end, I decided to do the predictable thing in an unpredictable manner: go north. Key to my opening was to have the Spy make it onto the sloop by day 2. This ensured me taking his 'lights out' early on, and also set the stage for further 'informed' strategizing. This was a strong advantage and I based the rest of my strategy on that.

Soon, the spy informed me that the 'enemy' recruitment site was untouched with no sign of Kokor, so I decided to speed up things up and go for it with Maugrim's troops. I had haste on him and a snow troll, and was able to get take recruit site on day 4 quite safely with the help of the same spy and the hasted snow troll. It did involved a semi-big battle where Maugrim had to take care of a lot of indies (as the defenders from the windmill also engaged!). It went well, and Maugrim was leveling up fast. Not far from there, the Elven village was taken. Things looked good really good, especially after the enemy zephyr and dragonfly got shot down.
Meanwhile, my northern glow was diverting to the south west, capturing gold and manapieces and keeping an eye on that area...

The next part is familiar to all, so I won't spend much time on it. In sum, I got tempted into attacking Kokor but had to call off the attack. At that moment, I knew it was lost, and I immediate started to devise a new strategy. I used the mana I saved to teleport out the Crown of Leadership that was given to Maugrim. I knew this would also leave Kokor with two useless items (as he already had a sword and a shield!). Well, at least for a while...
I also immediately focused on preparing an alternative strategy which involved getting beetles very soon. Furthermore, I knew that I wasn't able to stop Kokor after my defeat, so I decided to sell (now more crucial) things in my capitol and other villages to increase my gold flow. This attracted new heroes (Naeco), and allowed me to rush production where it was most needed as well as take advantage of recruitment sites.

Obviously, after the defeat of Maugrim, things were really not looking well. I had to take risks, as there was no way I could defeat the Kings of Old, and Kokor, carrying their own as well as my mighty items in open combat.

The master plan was to sneak past the Dwarven town using hasted Naeco (with remaining items), Beetles, mammoth, and remaining cavalry, to rush to the north-west most underground gate. From there, I should be able to surprise the Lion by popping up above ground. I was going to divert attention with Miraz who appeared in the south, and with whatever I had left in the North (Bladedancer, spiders, etc...). Everything that directed things to the underground, as well as back to his capitol was undesirable. They could take my lands, if they wanted...

Both 'diversions' worked. In the north, unnecessary risks were taken and enemy troops were indeed lured in, preventing defenses from stacking up. Miraz and his cavalry proved to be much more than a diversion, and together with the northern glow, he mustered quite the army! The wyvern that was recruited was able to take Redhaven very quickly, and hold it!

Then I had to think. At some point, I figured he must have taken prince Caspian and cavalry to:
1. Go to sea and attack my capitol (which was in the process of being sold empty).
2. Go underground.
3. Go serve as capitol defense.

I feared only #2 as those troops could foresee my master ploy. However, in retrospect, LD choose for #1, and I had nothing to fear! Meanwhile, while Kokor was getting the King of Old, I could gather an offensive position in the west!

The next day the LD must have figured that behind my Wyvern came a strong and fast army. Domain was shifted from away from his capitol! He did not want to concede his planned offense on my shores, so I figured he abandoned his capitol and ran straight to the seas in order to row a boat to safety. Little did he know that he was standing right above Naeco, 2 beetles, Mammoth and cavalry that had already moved past the Dwarven village. I could have actually voided the Lion earlier with one beetle and a horseman, but that would have been risky. And, had this assassination attempt failed, he may have fled to another place. This way, the element of surprise was on my side and there was probably a larger chance of succeeding.
Things were looking good. His capitol was practically undefended! Even if Kokor and Edmund returned from the seas, both Naeco and Miraz would be able to take them on with their combined armies.
And so, the next day was easy. A lonely Lion sitting on the grass, and his entire army on my empty lands...


We Just got this video in, our apprentice was up half the night putting it together. Wow, what a match!



So, LordDuck… what went wrong? You seemed well in control, what are your thoughts on how this all ended up? You’re now out of the tourney, what are your expectations for next year?

Swolte, What are your expectations now? Has this victory gone to your head or humbled you? Who do want to face next?

check out today’s TNS report for more news about this game.

unbelievable...!... have not yet read everthing...
ahem...is it possible to withdraw from the withdrawal from my initial poll prediction??
again: unbelievable! I´m curious what LD did here...

Nice, those videos get better and better! In quality as well as content!

Thanks!

Swolte, What are your expectations now? Has this victory gone to your head or humbled you? Who do want to face next?

I just have to keep it cool, I guess. Keep the cool... keep the cool. Well, one thing I will try very hard to keep in mind is to not take unnecessary risk. Although, LordDuck really surprised me with all those armies!

I have no preference for who to play next. It's been a while since Timelord and I have met head to head in a competitive setting. I know I can beat him, so I don't really have much fear. It can actually be a very interesting match, where I will need to reach deep in my magic hat of tricks. In the end, don't think it will matter much. I will need to be as focused with Vovy as I am with Timelord.

-----
Ps, nitpick: 2:40 suggests that Caspian's armies were seen. However, the armies seen at the lower screen were those of Miraz. At that point, I didn't know for sure where the prince was.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 11-16-2009 @ 12:07 PM).]

Quoted from TNS:

So, LordDuck… what went wrong? You seemed well in control, what are your thoughts on how this all ended up? You’re now out of the tourney, what are your expectations for next year?

What went wrong? I didn't expect to beat Swoltes armies like that at all, and went with a more defensive strategy from start. After killing Swolte I should have gone totally aggressive, or defensive, not a mix like I did. As Swolte said, I had three options.

Quoted from Swolte:

Then I had to think. At some point, I figured he must have taken prince Caspian and cavalry to:
1. Go to sea and attack my capitol (which was in the process of being sold empty).
2. Go underground.
3. Go serve as capitol defense.

Option one was clearly the aggressive move. Option two and three might have been better, but it wouldn't make use of the big victory at all. Swolte would have been able to recover, and eat away my kingdom slowly. So I choose option one, I had thought of the fact that Swolte might have something ready to storm my capital, and perhaps had sold his wizard tower already, if it was, I would lose, if it wasn't, I would probably win. My conclusion in the end was that I could either: Play defensive and lose slowly, or, play aggressive and try to end it.

I began to doubt my decision when I saw the witch near the recruitment site, and knew I screwed up when I saw the witch capture the resource for the goblin town below. I then tried to get my wizard to safety at my forces, while leaving my capital behind. If I was lucky, I would be able to void the witch, who might have sold the wizard tower?, or get the wizard tower myself. I didn't had enough movement though to get in the boat.

Anyway, the match was great fun, and the map is really nice. I hadn't thought to get this far anyway. Next year I will try again, and hopefully get to the quarter finals once more.