This battle was a ladder game played few days ago. A typical 1on1 that turned into one very fucked up game where I was almost certain I was going to be utterly and mercilessly crushed. I used my real account by the name of MijatV and my oponnent was a guy named AznBearClaw. We were both level 10 and we were both fighting for level 11.

The server picked Gnoll Wood...

In the very beggining of the game, my dear oponnent informed me that he needed this win to get to level 11 and even politely asked for me to surrender. Then I informed him I also needed this win to get to level 11 and then I politely asked him to leave the game. Since he decided not to do that little thing for me (which is logical, since I refused to do that for him :P) we agreed that our skill should decide... and one of the hardest games I ever played truly began...

I decided to go for my usual build order (in further text: BO) which is not realy my own, I learned it from my internet buddy by the name of Paranon. This BO is designed to make a Halls of the Dead after like 1/1.30 minutes, in short: ultra fast tech to tier 2. As mentioned on the picture, my hero is summoned quite late compared to other player(s)'s heros. However, that doesn't hurt me much since once my hero is ready I already have like 7-8 ghouls and can imedinately attack stronger creeps, quickly catching up with players who started creeping long before me. Also, my base is rather well defended since my Halls of the Dead (aka: ultra-fat cannon) is completed before the enemy hero pops out of their altar... excluding ultra-fast built human altar of course :P... As you can obviously see, I got green Undead which is not realy my favourite (my favourite is yellow of course, I meen, its obvious, isn't it :))... However, with this color I realized I have an advantage, green units are hard to spot on the minimap since most of the terrain is green and blue...

My oponnent on the other hand decided to go for a fast hero... which is logical since he's night elf and his higher tech units aren't exacly the best counter for Undead forces... did I mention I always play Undead? No? Ah well :P... you can realize it from my profile anyway (now, if you're a lazy-ass and didn't bother to see my uber-noob stats I'll just mention that I never played other races on my "real" account). As you can see (unless you are a daltonist), my lovely oponnent got orange Night Elves...

After some time an annoying wisp entered my base, took a long and careful look, spotted my acolyte who started summoning an altar and went back to AznBearClaw's base to report. I didn't worry realy so I didn't bother to chase the annoying wisp away with my ghouls, certain that my halls of the dead would be ready before any attack could be launched...

As you can see on these two pics...my halls of the dead wasn't ready when AznBearClaw's DemonHunter (in further text: DH) assaulted my rising Altar. However, when the bulk of my rotting lumberjacks (actualy, I think it was 4-5 of them) assaulted the DH (BTW, DH's name is Darkterror... I wonder who gave him his name... his mom or his dad... I should make a poll for this =P) and he decided to leave altar be and picked a weaker target -MijatV's gold-mining acolytes...

However, my halls of the dead were finished (just about the time when my second acolyte fell pray to the BBBB (Burning-Blue-Blind-Boy) and it started hammering the DH as well as producing 2 acolytes to replace the killed ones. At about the same time I began summoning Fearoth the Dread Lord. Darkterror decides its the best moment for town portal. With a smile I return my ghouls to their lumberjacking duty.

In the following period we've both done some creeping, killing some easy creeps while our forces were growing (at about this time I was teching to tier 3 and necromancers + banshees, a plan never to take place in this game and my oponnent went to tier 2). As every other good player would, I dispatched one of my ghoulsies (the one named Bob after his grandfather, don't ask me how I know it, I just do) to look for AznBearClaw's base of operations... and the lovable little pest finds it with the first try... Bob was rumoured to be a very lucky ghoul... aparently, he is!

As my ghoul went into enemy base he noticed only 1 huntress, a couple moonwells and no DH around... realizing I may be catching him while his hero is not around and possibly taking out a building or two, I decided to attack... however, Darkterror wasn't too far away (he was actualy killing some poor gnolls close to his base) and he joined the hunt for Bob... What is coming is one of those battles that poems are written after...

As you can see, after escaping AznBearClaw's base with an angry DH with half health (it seems those gnolls gave good account of themselves, GO GO GNOLLS!!!) and a huntress at his tail, Bob the Ghoul randevouz-ed with Fearoth and a bulk of Bob's coleagues. And that which is called Battle of 20 hit points commenced! The second screenshot shows both armies, even names the ghouls and points out some obvious things.

At first Fearoth used his hell-borne powers to instantly put Darkterror to sleep and swarm around him in order to quickly kill him. A second huntress joined the fray and soon, Darkterror was running towards home.

Another sleep-spell was cast and once more Darkterror stood exposed for swarming...and once again he escaped! THIS TIME WITH ONLY 20 HIT POINTS LEFT!!!!!!!! The Demonhunting bastard managed to get to the moonwells and heal his blue ass, he got hammered once more however. This caused him to run to the third (and last) moonwell and heal himself only to get hammered and LOWERED TO 20 HIT POINTS ONE MORE TIME, escaping with those 20 hit points for the damned second time!!!

Where's mana when I need it god damn!!!!

In hopes he would, after all, catch Darkterror who was running as fast as his gay-legs could carry him, MijatV started chasing the bastard around the small forest near AznBearClaw's base... Too many ghouls were lost already and what was left was badly wounded so Fearoth decided to read his TP scroll and go back home. Only 4 ghouls made it with Fearoth... which wasn't realy good since all they did was wound the blasted DH... I should have focused on those moonwells or lumber-gathering wisps =P...

Both MijatV and AznBearClaw decided to go for some creeping before any further attacks. During this creeping AznBearClaw finds 3 sentry wards - something that is about to cause a lot of pain for poor MijatV... Also, Diana Windwood (anyone remembers the old song by the name of "Diane", I don't remember who sang it thou :P), Priestess of the Moon was summoned to aid AznBearClaw's army...MijatV wasn't late either since he (why the hell am I speaking of myself in third person anyway?!) also began summoning a Death Knight by the name of Lord Dethstorm.

What you see here is the planting of the sentry ward into my base. Darkterror ran in, put a SW and was sleeped by Fearoth who, together with few ghouls swarmed the dozing DH. However, just as Dreadie was about to slap the DH for being so damn gayish (you can see his raised hand on the second shot) the bastard was woken up by ghoul-frenzy-ghouls and, as always, started a sprint towards safety...

And as usual, he manages to run away... I wonder if this guy ever went to the olympics before he was blinded...

Since I had no idea about the sentry ward in my base I went for some more creeping... only to have AznBearClaw's women-warriors assault me in the middle of a battle vs gnolls who guarded a gold mine... Thankfuly, I manage to TP away thanks to Lord Dethstorm who came just in time to TP us out of there. Here I realised what my oponnent does in every battle - focus fire on my heroes... and frankly, it had me worried...

Still ignorant of the invisible eye in my base I went to attack a group of gnolls guarding a mercenary camp, just south of my base... well, AznBearClaw obviously paid attention to my base and saw me leaving it to go south... and attacked my already-weakened creeping party, again, in the middle of killing the last Gnoll. He again focused fire on my Dread Lord who quickly bitten the dust... however, he did manage to use the tome of strenght + 2 before getting his ass handed to him...

Lord Dethstorm, realizing that everything is not good, kicks his bony mount and runs back home to revive his old friend Fearoth.

In the following few minutes MijatV revives his Dread Lord and takes his creeping party out of his base. AznBearClaw gets the impression I was about to attack his base and he sends all his forces into his town... where they stand idly... since my rotten guys do some creeping on expansion mines.

In the meantime, I built a temple of the damned in my base and recruited 5 initiate necromancers... and send them to randevouz with my army... and here's some bad luck...

...and my 5 necros run into AznBearClaw's combined force... I try to save some of them by sending them back to base and I manage to get 3 of them out, but two poor damned souls get their throats split... at least they died close to home =P...

And Elves commence an attack on my very headquarters, quickly killing a single ziggurat that never made it into a spirit tower. Necromancers don't stand idly thou and they quickly run to the graveyard, summoning 6 skellies and sending them at the enemy just as another hero makes his presence on the battlefield...

Kali'naj Dethknell gets out of the altar and suddenly, AznBearClaw turns his back on my base and flees MijatV's base. It is a good moment to say that Darkterror bought himself a little toy - a Wand of Negation... In about this time, Kali'naj Dethknell meets with the creeping party and another necromancer is produced... oh and, the summoning of a new ziggurat to replace the destroyed one has began.

After some time, our armies meet at the gold mine site... the place where the second battle (the one I tp-ed out using my DK's town portal scroll... humph... you know what? A TP scroll costs 350 gold, right? Now, a hero costs 500 gold and 100 lumber... so, if we asked for a hero without a TP scroll, we would have to pay only 150 gold and 100 lumber... dunno about you but I would most certenly like to have this option =)), the one called The Battle of the Gold Mine Part I (I realy didn't know what name to give to it so I just decided to go for the most obvious one :P)...

In this great battle, 4 heros bite the dust. First one to fall is Lord Dethstorm who is swarmed from all sides and dies yelling: "FOR AZERO-um! I meant Ner'ZhuAAAARGH!"

The second to fall is Fearoth who is again focus fired on and again dies... my game also lagged hard at those few precious moments so there was no chance I could micro my heros.

The third guy to fall is Kali'naj Dethknell who even stops to hold a lecture for Darkterror (see his angry face and his hands crossed as he speaks to Darkterror who obviously listens very carefuly)... however, huntressess and dryads behind him are obviously not impressed with his speech (stupid bitches!) and they put few spears and oversized shurikens into Liche's back...

In the end of the battle, only a small group of ghouls remained as well as 4 beards who weren't all that useful since Darkterror knew how to use his Wand of Negation. In fact, he used it pretty well >=(...

Last to die is Diana Windwood, both she and her earless tiger (yeah, take a close look at it, it has no ears >=P) got ripped apart by lumber-carrying ghouls... And Darkterror and his only remaining soldier - a sevearly wounded huntress, decide its time to make a withdrawal... now... literaly, I won this battle but, I just don't have a feeling of victory... I wonder why =P...

AznBearClaw wastes no time and decides to take his newly built ballista and a group of two huntresses, a dryad and his DH to assault MijatV's base and level his altar before Fearoth & Co could be ressurected... or should I say reanimated? Humph...

Anyway, altar falls just as Fearoth gets ressurected. He quickly rallies his ghouls and 4 necromancers and assaults AznBearClaw's small group, killing Darkterror (finaly!)... which doesn't realy meen way too much since Fearoth bites-the-blight soon enough. Surviving Night Elven warrior-women flee but their balista never makes it back home since remaining ghouls and necromancers don't want to leave it be.

Now, the situation looked quite grim for me: my altar was destroyed, all 3 of my heros dead and I lacked an expansion... plus, I was pretty sure my oponnent had an expansion of his own somewhere on the map... this was the most depressed moment of this battle... oh and, in mockery, my oponnent told me of sentry wards in my base (yeah, he put in 2 of them >:()...

At top of all this, AznBearClaw's PotM was free to continue her creeping...

During the slaughter before my base (where Faeroth got killed for the third time and where my altar was leveled) I managed to get out one of my acolytes. The hooded cultist made his way to one of the expansion mines unnoticed and began the summoning of a haunted gold mine.

Some time before that I sacrificed one of my acolytes at Sacrificial Pit to create a shade that helped me get rid of two freakin' sentry wards in my base. Now, I knew I could even surprise my oponnent with my forces and even if he put his third sentry ward into my base, it would be quite useless since I would use my shade to quickly dispose it.

Seeing that he was now left without his precious sentry wards AznBearClaw summoned a scout owl and sent it around the map... and managed to spot haunted gold mine in summoning and my shade. I used my shade to try and find out where is AznBearClaw's expansion and I was happy when I didn't see any around. Obviously, I expected that he didn't have any expos since making an expansion on an expansion area far from his main made no real sence.

Now I believed odds weren't so much in AznBearClaw's favor as I previously believed. However, since I knew Elves would soon come for my haunted gold mine I decided to stop its building and sent my acolyte back to my base... only to have him killed by AznBearClaw's creeping party (few bears, dryads, 2 heros and few hunts).

And then, I sent my forces towards the gold mine before my base to make sure he wasn't building an expo on my doorstep... only to meet his army there... and then began the battle that was to determine the winner, the fabled battle of the Gold Mine Part II.

My lich was still ressurecting and my army was formed of 4 master necromancers, a bulk of ghouls, a DK and a DL. Overall, a fine army for the situation at hand. OK! At first I tried to cast sleep at a DotC before he cast a roar...which I failed, I sleeped the bastard AFTER he cast a roar :P (you can see him dozing on the second picture...obviously, the bastard managed to turn into bear form before being put to sleep).

And...as usual, AznBearClaw focus-fired on my hero, at first my DL who managed to flee thanks to Lord Dethstorm's Death Coils. As you can see on the third picture, poor Lord Dethstorm remained focus fired instead of Fearoth. In this heroic act he yelled: "GO FORTH FEAROTH!!! LET US KILL ALL OF THESE WRETCHES!!!! WE MAY DIE BUT WE SHALL PREVAIL!!!!!" ... poor fool probably didn't realize Fearoth was already far away from battle, running as fast as his hoves could carry him... and thus, poor Lord Dethstorm died for the second time.

On his way home Fearoth met Kali'naj Dethknell (freshly revived) and the wise words of the lich made Fearoth run back into combat yelling: "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!" determined to destroy the punny elves or die trying. In the next few moments, ghouls and skeletons utterly slaughtered Darkterror, leaving the Night Elven army without the ever-so-important wands of negation. Only a single bear and Diana managed to return to their base where another battle took place...

After having awesome problems in deposing of the bear (and damned bastard had a nasty tendency to use moonwells, ugh!) MijatV's forces quickly killed the Ancient of War, then Priestess appeared, trying in vain to buy time for Darkterror to ressurect. When she thought she might have a chance, Lord Dethstorm appeared, cursing and swearing as he took his ghouls and together with the lich swarmed the sleeping priestess and killed her, this time for good!

Then, our undead heroes focused on destroying the altar before DemonHunter was ressurected. SUCCESS! The altar was destroyed a mere second before Mr.Deadterror got out! Quickly, Ancient of Lore succumbed and AznBearClaw uprooted his Tree of Eternity. As a one final gest before the Night Elves surrendered, Kali'naj Dethknell cast a frost nova among the wisps (as you can see on the screenshot, they are no longer completely orange).

And AznBearClaw said something about a Good Game...I said he was a retard (dunno why, I just fealt like saying that :P) and he surrendered! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

You can download this replay here... It is 1.04 version.

You may send me comments on ksaber666@hotmail.com