Your war diary.

[Orfinn]

Fought any interesting battles recently? Lasting long enough (several weeks and days in-game) worth making a diary about? Well this is the place for you

Oh! You can use any Heroes game to make an diary about, in this case I played H3 on the AB map named Brave New World, no-allies and on normal setting.

Sry a bit off-topic but before I add my diary, man I have given up on the Brave New World map (all vs all and on normal difficulty) I have been hiding in the two towns (im green btw, have rearranged where the players starts on the map, so red and green starts in the middle island, purple starts northwest, pink in the easter swamp, teal and blue in the south-western region, tan in the south-easter part and orange high up to the north-eastern no-man land) Since I started in the lower part of the middle island, I have defeated countless invading armies without a break, it has been though, I havent been able to get off the island and invade other towns, if I had, my souther Rampart and my northern Stronghold town would have been taken over before I could say "Got your towns invading freaks!"



NOTE: Im writing this diary pretty late, tired after a long day work so I only give you folks a small example on how you can describe your own battle diary.

My (short) Diary
Summary

I have lately been invading by especially necros having crystal dragons in their arsenal and several other high lvl badass elite units . They have often invaded me from the southern shore, the orange from west and east with their infernal beast from a certain place, the blue havent dared attacked me yet with their pityful army of walking trashcans and the teal, tan have just visited me a few times as raiding parties with dungeon and tower yerks at their disposal. I defeated the red barbarian baron early ingame, since he shared my island, mr.pinky got wiped out in the early middle of the game of the others (seemed they didnt like his color choice) and since then I have been as said invaded too many times from the other A.I's which have surprised me in tactic every time. Now I cant hold this out much longer my armies get depleted for every siege attack and the money strecth too thin. My troops have gone on a serious diet thanks to short supply of food and water, so now its late at night and I will now just quit my efforts for a glorious victory, let the enemy get the spoils of war and then I will delete my save files to forget this shameful loss of honor for not withstanding the invading armies till my defeat and end.
So you who read this bear with me that the right tactic is not to underestimate your enemy not even an A.I opponent but you surely know that dont you? But it cant be said enough times, be on the offensive! Be on the defensive ONLY when your troops dwindle at your efforts for taking over the enemy, retreat to your home lands at once and build your forces up again before they stretch too thin.

Commander Orfinn

NOTE:
I guess I have been too defensive, in allied games that will help my brethren as I could support neigbor towns with my fat armada but as stand alone commander against crazy enemies wishing to wipe me out even if the setting is set for all against all, I really have no chance...
Darn forgot to note how long I have played in-game, sry folks for missing that one out, it have to be for another time

But got to go to bed now, I need to wake up 6:30 in the morning for work at 7:30. Good night to you all!

[cherko]

Another Short Diary

I've been messing with barbarians for quite a while. I started my adventure with a stronghold and plenty of combat skills. Had to solve some quests to get more towns, but each time I left my stronghold some barbarians comes out of a dragon's mouth and captures my stronghold.
I went back and retook the town. Left 8 of my best cyclopes to guard it and went quest-solving again.
The enemies came flying a blue flag and attacked me. There was a thunderbird among their ranks, but it was no match for my high-quality rock throwers! Hundreds of barbarians and powerful heroes fell in the battle, but not one cyclop!
I trained more cyclopes, and the enemy tried again with more thunderbirds and same result while I captured their towns. Rarely had an easier victory!

Guess which map I was playing?

[Orfinn]

Which map? No idea, sound like a medium or large kind of map, ok I'll take a wild guess. Is it Arrogance from SOD?

[Nucleon]

Grindan could not believe his eyes.

His advances on the Sand Sea gave him many alliances with the local nomads, but he's been away from Mundis for too long a time, and both the Necromancers and the Demoniacs have been settling to the south during this time, brought by the river.

Grindan's Barbarian allies has held the frontier, but even the powerful Karag Ali was forced to fold back before the hordes of cursed Octavia. Scouts reported frantic ennemy activity from then on, as their advances seemed pulled to a pause.

Grindan wondered at that time why. Why did they let him arrive to the Teeth' Circle with his veteran army, composed with hordes of stalwart Nomads mercenaries from freshly allied tribes, Gold Golems, mummies, a motley band of Rogues and his latest prize: a pair of towering Rust Dragons. He dashed on Octavia as soon as he arrived in range, stopping only to take some new formulae in Khandar on the way. Octavia never saw him approach.

The fight was short, brutal. Facing Archdevils, Efreet Sultans, Pit Fiends, Minotaurs, Medusae and a rival tribe of Nomads, Grindan may have looked like the underdog, but his win was inevitable; He had the most Nomads.

A few weeks earlier, he visited a strange, emerald tower where resided an ancient master of wizardry. For a price, the sourly relique enchanted the whole of the Nomads with the capacity to hit so fast their hapless ennemies did not have the chance to retaliate. And those allied with Grindan being elite troops, they were able to use their velocity to inflict more damage, as well as to return to the point they launched their attacks. The Infernal's were routed in no time.

The next day, Grindan took the way towards Gabiltahar, last outpost of the ennemy. Its token defenders and walls did not held for long before Grindan's mastery of the Earth wizardry. He expected another crude settlement, severly restricted by the woes of war....

... Then he saw it, before the gates; The Warrior's Monument. So that was what all the ennemy's activity was all about. They clearly beaten him to that race, landing a severe blow to Grindan's self-esteem; He noded his big hairy head, sadly.

"What do we do with that, Master?" purred her Succubus Commander; "Do we move the Capital to this hell-forsaken butt of the world?"

"We sure don't" Said he. "Demolish it."

[Orfinn]

Grindan could not believe his eyes.

His advances on the Sand Sea gave him many alliances with the local nomads, but he's been away from Mundis for too long a time, and both the Necromancers and the Demoniacs have been settling to the south during this time, brought by the river.

Grindan's Barbarian allies has held the frontier, but even the powerful Karag Ali was forced to fold back before the hordes of cursed Octavia. Scouts reported frantic ennemy activity from then on, as their advances seemed pulled to a pause.

Grindan wondered at that time why. Why did they let him arrive to the Teeth' Circle with his veteran army, composed with hordes of stalwart Nomads mercenaries from freshly allied tribes, Gold Golems, mummies, a motley band of Rogues and his latest prize: a pair of towering Rust Dragons. He dashed on Octavia as soon as he arrived in range, stopping only to take some new formulae in Khandar on the way. Octavia never saw him approach.

The fight was short, brutal. Facing Archdevils, Efreet Sultans, Pit Fiends, Minotaurs, Medusae and a rival tribe of Nomads, Grindan may have looked like the underdog, but his win was inevitable; He had the most Nomads.

A few weeks earlier, he visited a strange, emerald tower where resided an ancient master of wizardry. For a price, the sourly relique enchanted the whole of the Nomads with the capacity to hit so fast their hapless ennemies did not have the chance to retaliate. And those allied with Grindan being elite troops, they were able to use their velocity to inflict more damage, as well as to return to the point they launched their attacks. The Infernal's were routed in no time.

The next day, Grindan took the way towards Gabiltahar, last outpost of the ennemy. Its token defenders and walls did not held for long before Grindan's mastery of the Earth wizardry. He expected another crude settlement, severly restricted by the woes of war....

... Then he saw it, before the gates; The Warrior's Monument. So that was what all the ennemy's activity was all about. They clearly beaten him to that race, landing a severe blow to Grindan's self-esteem; He noded his big hairy head, sadly.

"What do we do with that, Master?" purred her Succubus Commander; "Do we move the Capital to this hell-forsaken butt of the world?"

"We sure don't" Said he. "Demolish it."

That was a nice diary, does it continue?

[Nucleon]

That was a nice diary, does it continue?

Kindly, Nucleon thanks you for your appreciation of His amateur prose.

Yes, the diary continues on the Sand Sea, but after that (as well as before), things are much more mundane. To enter the town, and see the magnificent Grail building and ponder for a moment "and this is... oh no..." before realizing what happened was theatrical enough to be told, thought.

Nucleon hopes he conveyed Grindan's surprise well enough.

[cherko]

Mine was from heroes 4.

[Kristo]

Here's a short one of me getting pwned at Heroes I:

Map: Close Quarters
Difficulty: Normal
AI: 3 genius

Day 1 - chose the color Blue, got Warlock Castle in the NW corner. Falagar is my starting hero.

Day 2,3 - flag mines, pick up resources and treasure. Fought off some rogues to pick up the Minor Scroll of Knowledge.

Day 4 - Not even out of my starting area, I see a Yellow and a Red hero. Position Falagar between Yellow's hero and my castle.

Day 5 - Yellow hero sneaks by me and conquers my castle anyway. I take it back and defeat the hero, at a loss. I need some troops and none are available. Spend the 2500 gold on a Barbarian hero for his troops.

Day 6 - Green hero appears, thought about attacking but turned away when he saw my defended castle. Took my ore mine instead.

Day 7 - Lured Green away with my extra hero. Green attacks and I retreat.

Day 8 - New creatures! Buy as much as I can, and walk toward Green, baiting him to come closer to the castle. He runs away instead, and I get my ore mine back.

Day 9 - Dispatched Vatawna (red) and Jojosh (green) fleed after a short fight.

Day 10 - This is getting ridiculous. Defeated Lord Kilburn (red) and Ariel (green). Hired Thundax for some more Barbarian troops.

Day 11 - Greeeeeat. Red has Cavalry now. Brushed aside some Centaurs to take a gem mine. Attack Kastore and his Cavalry. It turns out he also has the Fireball spell. I'm forced to retreat. Kastore also defeated Thundax.

Day 12 - Rehire Falagar with my last 2500 gold and hope his starting army is enough to hold off Kastore. It isn't. Ballgame.

If I had it to do over again, obviously I'd not attack Kastore on day 11. It was unfortunate that I didn't get a damaging spell in my level two Mage Guild. That made Falagar's 7 spell power all but useless. Also, I was definitely not prepared for the computer being able to get the Fireball spell. I don't know if the Genius AI gets more resources, or he picked up the spell at a shrine. My guess would be the former.

One thing I could do better is play more defensively, especially if I get Warlock again. The AI players were unwilling to attack each other, so presumably they might leave me alone as well. I'd put a higher priority on holding that gem mine (I didn't even get to Minotaurs due to lack of gems) than picking off weak heroes.

[Kalah]

Check out this thread for some vintage battles.

From that I give you my all-time fave, a battle on one of my own maps (Discoveries).:

I was facing an army of roughly 6000 pirates with my level 28 Druid (Adv.Class Warden), 200 elves, 60 griffins and change, and I started summoning water elementals to lay quicksand across the deck. The pirates moved in four stacks, and proved difficult to slow down, however.
Although I had intended to stand back and let my Precision and Dragon Strength boosted elves take care of them, I soon realised that they would cross the quicksand faster than I had anticipated. As they slew my summoned creatures with a single blow, I had to send in my live troopers.
I had cast Mass Snake Strike to boost the Griffins, and although I lost all my level one creatures, I was able to retain most of them. I summoned some more creatures to distract the pirates, but the A.I. was in super form; they didn't bother with them and came straight for my hero, killing everything that dared attack the pirate stacks directly.
The battle was decided by three factors: my elves, killing more than 500 pirates every turn, my water elementals (and the druid) casting large streams of quicksand, as well as one particular spell: Wasp Swarm. Being able to keep a whole stack out of the action at any given time (always choosing the one that was closest to us), while picking off the others with the elves, made it for me.

Map reviewer Psychobabble called engaging these pirates, quote: "INSANE!!", unquote. I was enclined to agree, but then you do have the choice of not attacking them. The battle won me huge points, and the most valuable lesson for me was that no matter how many good spells you have (I had every nature spell in the book and then some), it may still be the simple ones that save you. It all depends on how you use them.

Kalah

[ThunderTitan]

Dear diary, today we have finaly aquired the dreaded Armageddon's Blade from the devil Xeron.

Our numbers were quite overwhelming, and there would have been no question of the outcome of the coming battle, were it not for the that fool Roland and his darn Dimension Door spell.

Him and his wife where just outside of the last demon castle when he teleported in and took the castle from right under Xeron's nose.

As the bulk of our troops were with Catherine he then used another teleport to snag some stats from a couple of adventure objects that were close to the castle, and then prepared to use his Expert TP spell to retreat. But unfortunatly for him he did not have enough move points left, and was trapped.

Imagine my suprise and shock as Xeron used Dimension Door to retake his castle and then to attack and crush Roland.... This was doubled by the fact that my last Save spell was cast a whole hour before this event.

My first atempts to salvage the situation using the weaker Autosave spell proved pointless, and the situation seemed grim.

In the end I had to use the Disguise spell and two sacrificial heroes, who shall forever be remembered for their contributions to saving the world from Armageddon (or at least until the end of the world ), to slow down Xeron's advance.

As soon as Roland was ready to move I had him TP tp the fartest town I had and brought in Gelu, who, using his troops together with Catherine's and the great talents of his Sharpshooters easily crushed the misbegotten Demoniac.