Gruumsh

ts

Worse kick off than in testplay.
Good luck to both of us and let's have fun

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-11-2010 @ 01:10 AM).]

Pssst, Oleg! I know you have a tough opponent but I'm rooting for you!

Thanks, Travis!!!
Good luck to you, too. By the way, you are the only one who I could spot that I would not switch with without hesistation.
So, let's meet in the finals, LOL! ;-)

Of course Oleg pounded me in the testgame, so I'm not sure he needs any help!

Oh in that case, make him work hard for it

Furio, day 1

We took care of aboveground business, and we took care of belowground business. A couple minor losses.

Gruumsh

Of big riots, only few succeed. Our chances just sunk when our eager preacher known as Slaver was gravely wounded in fight with troops who simply ignored being Taunted
Spiits are not on our sde. Yet we have got nothing to lose but our shackles, so the struggle continues.

ts

LOL, I was able to survive and even start gaining an edge in the testplay.
When I was doing my best against H6 who took it more lightly and I had much more luck on my first turns, before Gruumsh position in the map was downplayed once again

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-11-2010 @ 01:08 AM).]

Furio, day 2

Still making progress, but casualties have been significant. We'll see how much they slow us down.

****************

For what it's worth, my combats went much better in test play. And I was definitely not taking it easy in the test game! In fact, being pushed so hard by you made me examine every inch of this map. I don't think I have ever prepared as much for a game as I have for this one.

Gruumsh

A day of very smooth fights. Tomorrow will deal with Djhinies in ruins. If only our Slaver was alive, suh units could prove priceless...

ts

Who could know it would be so worthy to me to do worse in the testplay

Furio, day 3

Still making progress, but the unlucky loss of a Paladin isn't helping.

Gruumsh

Crap, my Lurker managed only to scratch Furio's Zephyr riding a Sloop. Also I see that Furio was the first to reach the Northlings
Darn, I need some intelligence to understand if he is developing his capitol or gathers all he can to rush me. Or both

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-13-2010 @ 04:42 AM).]

Furio, day 4

So Gruumsh has revealed himself. We could afford to lose the Sloop and Zephyr, but we got lucky for now.

Elsewhere, taking a structure led to a significant loss, but we soldier on.

Furio, day 5

Income is positive, and it should stay that way for awhile, even with Gruumsh's access to our borders.

Gruumsh, two days log

Furio may need not that Sloop, but we sunk it just for good measures. Our heroine who took a long romantic walk in woods with Spy came back safely - Furio's Snow Concealment division seems to be on such urgent mission that they did not even spend a day to finish ths couple off.
...
Due to foolish hastiness had to sucrifice two lvl1 to keep area guards away of more imporant units, when will I learn?
...
Port of Hopes End became ours but an important unit was pelted with projectiles in the first round, and then an Ape got very unlucky, too.
...
My guts tell me Furio pulls all forces into a single iron fst.
...
An interesting choice of spells shows in my research book

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-16-2010 @ 04:11 AM).]

Furio, day 6

Lots of gold! We'll be putting it to good use.

Gruumsh

Trying Furio's bounds. Took some structures and Frostlings' outpost.

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-17-2010 @ 04:58 AM).]

Furio, day 7

We retook some structures and destroyed one of Gruumsh's raiding parties.

Gruumsh

At least we made Furio reveal some of his forces location.
Lvl2 scout lost to area guards. I was sure I ordered him to stop a bit away And today performance of my headuarters staff was not better
On top of that, 4 indie lvl1 units managed to kill me 2 valuable ones and injured 2 lvl2. What kind of luck is that...

ts

Did I mention that the taunt bug happened to me again a couple of days ago, only second time in my practice?

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-17-2010 @ 05:34 AM).]

Sorry, I'm having a busy weekend and won't be able to play until Sunday or Monday. Will play ASAP.

Furio, day 8

According to my defense minister, we know where Gruumsh's forces are. They're in the area around the King's Seat and east, west, south and north somewhat.

Gruumsh

Killed a nosy Z-Bird and carelessly lost a Z-Bird, too. Threw two Archon guards off watchtower in SW corner and I am not sure if I like the view - all the indies guards are intact and I still lack intelligence regarding Furio's forces deployment.
Made quite a few mistakes and may pay for that sooner than later. And today's Lucky Champ award goes to double-enchanted Troll who got killed in battle with two lesser creatures who just refused to miss

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-21-2010 @ 07:49 AM).]

I'm getting the blue screen of death, so I'm not sure how quickly I'll be up and running again. Maybe the end of the week, maybe longer?

I think I'll be able to play today or tomorrow, but will generate a restart.

Furio, day 9

A couple nice acquisitions today: one hero, one key item.

**************

Apologies for the restart, as explained above.

Gruumsh

Taking over SW corner, again. Gaining a better intel, yet many questions unaswered.
Overall it was a fine day until I pushed my luck really hard with wounded half-elite Pixie. RIP, lil' green fellow.

ts

Furio, day 10

Gruumsh kindly cleared out the jungle for us, and as a reward we destroyed the Shade he had hired. Surely even a lowlife like Gruumsh doesn't want to associate with that kind of riff-raff.

Gruumsh

Grim news as both Furio and indies killed some of my friends. That Shade will be remembered, because any riff-raff bringing to our side resourses pile deserves citizenship of honor. It's a pity we coudn't use this one to sell and rebuild the tower like 3 of the previous 4, but whatever.

So at least I know location of all Furio's heroes. I wonder how I can use that.

ts

Furio, day 11

Skirmishing continues in the southwest and across the underground river.

A plan set in motion.

ts

Furio, day 12

We push cautiously forward in the southwest and underground.

Gruumsh

Gruumsh suffered 3 unfortunate hits from Bone Horror which left him with 1HP. It were all OK if not for a Zombie standing next to both of them. Gruumsh could not live with that, literally.

ts

Damn, should have waited just another turn, more units were on the move, including Chapellan and elite trapping Spy.
I was going to unite my forces in one-two turns next to Undead area, most were Waterwalking and soon Hasted and/or Freemoving. I really had a good chance here

Gg!

Wow, that was not the way I thought it would end! I think that I was finally gaining the upper hand; today was my first with a Galley, so I think I had just cemented a real mobility advantage. But who knows how things would have gone if you had survived to do some harvesting at The King's Seat or even managed to rebuild it.

Nice game, Oleg!

[This message has been edited by Henrysix (edited 09-28-2010 @ 09:31 PM).]

Live at the scene where Henrysix won his battle over Oleg123, quite unexpected! Or, Oleg123 defeated Oleg123... Oleg123, what made you take such a big risk? And was going through the center part of a strategy that you had planned beforehand?
Henrysix, congratulations, what was your strategy, and what are your opinions on the map?

Aww man, horrible luck! Grats Henrysix, hope to see you both make it to next round.

Damn, that's hard, Oleg
Good thing is you will most definitely make it to Round 2

Congrats H6,

Actually... I can put together about 8 upsets and find some way to get Oleg into a massive tie with all kinds of people that puts him in 17th place .... but it isn't likely to happen (h6 losing, troy losing his other 2, LD losing, a few other upsets......) so yeah, Oleg should make it to the next round. I think H6 has clinched a spot though (goes off thinking about possible TNS story lines....)

Thanks for the congratulations, all!

The thing about this map is that because Gruumsh’s wiz tower is inaccessible and Gruumsh himself might be anywhere, Furio can’t really set a normal 1v1 strategy of going for the opponent’s capitol (whether by rush or by overwhelming force). There is just no way to know where the blow must be struck. Gruumsh, by contrast, certainly can use such a targeted strategy (eg Timelord’s Haste-aided digthrough stab), so this is another way that the map is asymmetric. Gruumsh can be strategically active, while Furio has to be more reactive.

However, I did have some key goals, mainly to prevent Gruumsh from getting certain early advantages. I did everything I could to get to the northeast corner before him with a turn 2 Zephyr Bird. This allowed me to grab the bear and Ice Troll first, as well as the Sloop. The Sloop is actually quite important because even though Gruumsh sank it before long, simply getting it first for myself prevented him from getting land units into my territory and harrassing me there.

My next definite goal was to gain firm control of the underground river crossing. I sent my bear and Troll there as quickly as I could, recruited everything I could in the area to make sure I couldn’t be dislodged, and got my Shipyard ASAP. I had just rushed my first Galley when the game ended. At the same time, I was sending raiders across the river to take the Goblin village, which Gruumsh had captured the turn after I got the Dwarven one. I didn’t need to hold it, I just needed to prevent him from building anything there.

Apart from those two preventive goals, which revolved around control of the water, I built my power the old fashioned way: one hero stack captured structures and items on the surface, another did the same underground. Had the game not ended when it did, I think I was about to get to the point where I had an edge in raw power; aided by my construction of Galleys, I would have neutralized Gruumsh’s mobility advantage and could wear him down, wherever he chose to hide.

Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about the map as a tourney map. I don’t mean that as a criticism. I truly don’t know how to assess the balance on a map in which one side (Furio) lacks the early offensive options that the other side has. In general, I think it’s a very fun, original, well-designed map. But the lack of options for Furio freaks me out. Or maybe it’s just playing a skilled player like Oleg that freaks me out!

Anyway, because Oleg and I played the map in a test game, and because Oleg really dominated most of that game, I ended up studying the map very, very carefully. I don’t think I have ever been as prepared for a match as I was for this one.

This brings up a related point (also relevant for the other tournament maps): how much study should a player be expected to do? How much should a tournament game resemble a blind game? If I were playing blind, there is no way I would have sent a bird so far ahead of my main stack and leap-frogged whole sections of the map just to deny my opponent key units. Nor could I have been confident that such a vulnerable scout would not run into area guards. (This may simply be the nature of tournaments; I know that tournament Scrabble has very little resemblance to the games I’m used to: there are way more 2-letter words and it becomes about gaining control or denying your opponent control of the double and triple squares.) But I do prefer playing blind to poring over the map editor every turn because I'm worried I've missed something.

Well, playing against H6 in test game led me to conclusion that Furio features a perfect defense and ANY direct/rushing attack on his capitol is futile It is funny, but I was gaining upper hand via mobility, too. In 5 turns I was planning to clear all crypts in the center (Gruumsh died in 2nd UG) and have 2 Waterwalking stacks with 2 more around assisted by 2 Transport Ships and a few Pirates. Then I would aim for the next, in decreang preference order: 3 Furio's generals in SW with inferior forces, his surface area to be turned into scorched ground, rebuiling Kings Seat, taking war to UG, defending SE. I am sure there would be a lot of upsets, but IMHO I would achieve at least 3 of these 5, starting with the generals.
On other hand I knew I cannot waste time, thus I took risks in combat... It was a nice game!

Gratz HenrySix! But i would have loved to see how all these strategies would have worked out...