Lord Ember, day 18

I see Hydras!

ts

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 09-19-2009 @ 08:58 AM).]

Lord Drake, Day 18

Darn it! Our slow hydras revealed themselves before the enemy heroes run into our trap. Tried as we may, we could not catch up with them. We pursued the fleeing heroes cautiously, making sure we do not run into a trap ourselves.

First, the birds must be brought down!

Lord Ember, day 19

Preparing.

ts

Lord Drake, Day 19

Preparing?!! On the move is more like it! Lord Ember's forces were spotted marching through the northern ice land. It's a matter of time before his army reaches our capital. Curse the independents! We were attacked in the night & had to regroup.

Our days are numbered, it appears.

Lord Ember, day 20

The Hydras are killed, but we lost Uther Pendragon, our best hero, in the battle The enemy hero is hiding over mountains.

ts

Lord Drake, Day 20

It was truly a freak accident that Pendragon got himself killed trying to slaughter our hydras! It gave me assurance that hydras are good deterrents for Lord Ember's army.

The war has turned into an economic struggle, so we deploy whatever mercenaries we have to neutralise the spies sent into our realm.

Lord Ember, day 21

The underground Slithers finally showed themselves up. Pitface caught a Snow Troll

ts

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 09-23-2009 @ 07:19 AM).]

Lord Drake, Day 21

Our underground slithers have spotted Lord Ember's tower. I believe his heroes are merely putting up a diversion marching down from the northern iceland to cover up his under-defended underground city. Either way the puny crowd will never march through the frostling-defended watchtower.

Our hero almost caught up with his spying birdie, alas!

[This message has been edited by Sapphoenix (edited 09-24-2009 @ 01:09 AM).]

Lord Ember, day 22

Killed a Slither.

ts

Lord Drake, Day 22

This fateful day we launched our feeble, defiant fight-back against Lord Ember! To put it simply, we poked his eyes out through assassination of 3 of his spies - 2 birds & a frog. The tally is hardly balanced to what casualty he did to our brethren, but this small little gesture has lifted our moods & made me happy. *dances around*

We sit & wait to see what mercenaries his nomad hero will be hiring from the shack he intends to visit. May the bladedancer put his hero out of commission.

Lord Ember, day 23

The final offensive begins! We approach the enemy capital from north and south.

ts

Lord Drake, Day 23

Being the lazy reptile myself, I decided to wait idly at my capital await for Lord Ember's forces.

PS: Although a clear victory to Pawel, to surrender now is amounting to robbing the climax from him. Storm my capital, you barbarian!

Lord Ember, day 24

Attacking with so big advantage is not fun for me, but I'll do it if you want. Tomorrow will be the last day.

ts

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 09-26-2009 @ 07:51 AM).]

In that case, I shall regain whatever dignity I have left with & quietly concede defeat before your mighty forces shred me to pieces, Pawel.

CONGRATULATIONS TO LORD EMBER aka PAWEL!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are live at the scene here where Sapphoenix did end up surrendering her forces to PawelS.

PawelS, congratulations with this victory! Did you have a preplanned strategy in this game? And when exactly did you know you had won the game.

Sapphoenix, you joined the tournament in the last minute. With three losses, are you happy you participated? And, do you think you have picked up some tricks that may win you a game or two in the future?

Well, despite my disgracefully poor performance in the tournament games, I'm happy I participated. I have undoubtedly learned a lot from competitive play than leisurely PBEM games.

For instance, I noticed everybody played very aggressively. I can almost expect a full-scale assault every time I detected an increased spying activity in my realm. I have also seen the use of units with special abilities a lot. I think I'm not wrong to say that the other players were hoarding gold to buy units from recruitment sites while I stupidly tried to train every single one from my cities - a bad move! On top of that, everyone also knows the game engine extremely well, down to the number of hexes all units have.

At least I've learned that one cannot raze the teleporter on your side & expect the enemy cannot teleport in. And solo slithers will flee from a flying unit eventhough they can spit poison!

I have learnt a lot from these tournament games but I don't know if this will win me some games in the future. It is not my nature to play aggressively, I tend to work on my defenses slowly. I think my worst behaviour in competitive game is I tend to play AoWSM like SimCity!

Thanks for the game and wish me luck in the second round

Did you have a preplanned strategy in this game?

When I first checked the map in the editor, it became obvious to me that the most important thing is to go to the underground as soon as possible, so I summoned a Zephyr Bird and sent it there, killed the Northern Glows, and started building a Pionner in the first turn to rebuild the underground city. After that, I didn't have any specific strategy, except expanding and waiting for opponent moves.

And when exactly did you know you had won the game.

When my Zephyr Bird reached the other side of the underground and managed to recruit the refugees there. Then I got the idea to rebuild the teleporter and attack the enemy capital from there.