Good write up. It was a fun game even though I misplayed it. I would play another similar game. 

So... my report of this game!
Sorry, there is gonna be a lot of images! I hope I didn't blow up the BF's memory quota.

I chose Goblin Theocrat for this very special game with no City Founding, heroes capped at level 7 and Very Strong Defender because Theocrat clearly seemed a good choice to me thanks to Convert (the game used the 1st balance mod from Zaskow, and mind control is not nerfed in it so Convert is at level 7 and not 9) and access to healing. I could have chosen another race but I like Goblin and I like starting UG. In the end I was the only one UG and that certainly helped me somehow.

I never produced a single unit as far as I remember: I summoned Cherubs (and later Dragons) and mind-controled units. I had taken Expander (and I was a Goblin) so I had a nice population growth and reached Metropolis first.

The first tribute I met while leaving the darkness of the underground was Blackcat Nachtklinge, the Orc Rogue. My army was clearly stronger than his and I considered he would not become a big threat so I decided not to attack immediately and instead focus my strength. We made Peace and I asked him to retreat behind the river close to my kingdom and he accepted.

On the 20tt day, the first tribute died, apparently killed by the hostile environment of the Arena. I had not met him.


One day later, another tribute more or less died (I think he quitted and his AI was quickly killed).


One of the tribute had lost his throne and I thus knew his location: I moved with full strength toward him and reached him quickly. My beloved Cherubs had spotted his leader and his army: it was no match for my troops. I split my troops in 2 groups to try to get him, as he could move faster or at least at the same speed than me. One group led by my Archdruid was a bit weaker but I did my best to reinforce it on the way, by recruiting mercenaries at an Inn.



At around the same time, a 3rd tribute died. I had not met him either.



So the Hunt had begun against Cassandra, which my people called "the False" as he was preaching a False Frostling God.
While my main army, together with my leader, was chasing him toward the North, the troops with my Archdruid moved Eastward, and a lone Troll was taking a shortcut through the Wetlands.



The Hunt ended relatively quickly, on the 29th day, when my fastest Southern troops and my Archdruid's troops gathered to launch a final assault. My troll was not fast enough to join the party. Cassandra was vanquished, with minimal losses.



Only 4 tributes remained: Blackcat, a Warlord called Finnick (Tussel), swimming in the North-Eastern waters, a Theocrat in the South-West (Gilafron) and myself. I decided to move toward Finnick as I estimated he would be the biggest threat.
On my journey toward his distant lands, I marched through lands close to Blackcat's territory. I took a Seal to test my army (and the result of the test was quite good!) but did not try to keep it. Blackcat's crow saw the unoccupied Seal and took it, which I considered as an act of aggression and I took it back. Despite my proposal to go back to peace, he decided to go against me (having signed peace with all the other tributes in the meantime) so I took all his Fortresses. At that time, it did not go further than that. My troops again split in two groups and moved toward Finnick, burning and clearing all they found on their way.

My scouts first reported me Finnick was moving North with some of his troops and I hoped for a quick fight against the rest of his army. Unfortunately, he spotted me and regrouped near a Fortress.
I waited for all my army to regroup too and then launched the assault, unsure of the result.
The battle was bravely fought on both side. My army bravely triumphed and Finnick subsequently surrendered.



One key moment of the battle happened when my Node Serpent stunned Ambor the Missionary, one of Finnick's key asset, with his ability to Dominate enemy units (thanks to an item he held).



I also would like to highlight an interesting tentative by Finnick to slow me down and demotivate my troops by converting lands into Volcanir Swamps by terraforming them.



Only three of us were left at that point.
I naturally moved toward the other Theocrat still alive. I was not sure where he was as my scouts had not spotted him for a long time. One of my army was moving underground toward the South while my leader was moving underground toward the East.
I had acquired the secret spell "Summon Obsidian Dragon" soon before that and had started building a small army of Dragon. Luck brought me three additional Obsidian Wyverns through the Pure Evil Empire Quest, just before I spotted Xia's guards with their leader, clearing some sites.

I set up a simple trap with an Eagle Rider posing as a bait (visible between the icons of the 2 cadavers in the screenshot), and my Wyverns and Dragons concealed in Wetlands and Mountains, ready to strike from a distance.



The bait worked and Xia was breathed poisoned to death by the Dragons!



Now, it was only a matter of time before Blackcat the Treacherous was to meet his fate.
I spotted him plundering Finnick's old city and quickly moved my Dragons and leader's army towards him.
Knowing the arena was mine, I took some risks in a tough fights and lost my beloved Arch Druid.



Blackcat made a mistake which helped me further to take him down: he split his troops, with one group on the water and one on the ground.
I was thus able to attack those in the water with my floating and flying troops, without his troops on the ground able to help their comrades. After two quick fights, Blackcat had lost.



The final military score shows the strength of mind control over production (Finnick had produced many units).
Just before my fight with Finnick, I lost several units in big fights (Seal, Legendary and Mythical sites), which explain the decrease of my military score.

I'm writing an account of the match (not a report, since as I said, this game is not reported for ranking)...
Not sure who was the Halfling Necromancer? jobpbem? And Gamblag was Lykus and a Human Sorcerer? AlX was Elf Dread? I put unknown to the persons I wasn't sure of their class/race.

Day 61, the last remaining tribute fell: Hiliadan the Great was the last standing and won this 1st Hunger Games!

This game is not ranked so I'll post a report here later. I also need to write a report for my games against Shadow & Flame which finished a while ago...

That was not as fun as I expected mainly because 1/ the map was too big, 2/ what I like now is to fight other players and here, the fight was pretty limited.
But still, it was interesting to test Very Strong Defenders and heroes capped at lvl 7. I don't think I'll do another game like that but that was good to try it!
My next casual game should be with the Dark Elf Dwelling!

Day 56, Xia Deathbringer eventually fell. Only 2 tributes are remaining!

Hi Gilafron and Blackcat, sorry I had no wifi at the hotel yesterday and the 4G connection was too bad so I could not upload my turn, thus I removed the turn timer and I sent the turn only today.

Turn 43 and a 5th tribute died!

To the remaining competitors, please keep in mind you're supposed to raze your city and then surrender when you are defeated.

The cannon indeed fired as the rrrrookie died. On turn 8 when the roaming units turned loose I unwittingly had my 2 stacks parked next to a spawn city. When turn 9 came back to me roamers had spawned and did a joint attack with the camp on my army which was autocombat. Only my leader survived which was good because some lost souls took my capitol as well. I reclaimed my capitol and rebuilt quickly with crusaders and martyrs but that was no match for another player.

A 3rd and 4th tributes died! 4 left in the arena!
I think it's too big, but it's Medium size... Small would probably be too small, I don't know. But as we have only 1 city, we don't have that many units and it's hard to find someone else.

Level 7 heroes is nice, it makes units really important and heroes are just equal to Elite units and not really better, I like it.

With lvl 7 restriction, this game isn't for necro😥 And yet again, theo and ad will rule...

A second tribute died! The dangers of the arena seem to be accelerating!... And yet, no Seal has been taken.

A first tribute died in the arena!

OK I found some indies nearby, which i hunted down. Under heavy torture the Lost Souls confessed and were immediatly executed.

Still it is strange that i didn't get a notification.

Mmh, I don't know but I don't think I ever saw indies raze forts.

Does anyone know if you get a message if indies razed your fort?

Reminder of the rules:
1/ forbidden to take other's city, even after they're dead (you can retake yours if it was taken by independants)
2/ if you only have your city and most of your units are dead and you have no chance of survival: just raze your city and surrender
3/ your units should leave your city (understood here as the 7 hexes of the city) as soon as possible: no hiding in your city to prevent attacks (so you can stay inside your domain but can be attacked inside). BUT, you can keep up to 6 units in your city to fight roaming independents and avoid being snipped unit by unit as your produced unit leave your city. Try to be smart about this rule: do not camp just outside your opponent's throne to kill his units and conversely, do not flee back to your throne each time you're in danger. It should be used only against independent and for newly produced units (or leader respawning).
4/ everything else allowed: alliances to kill other players, building forts, strategic spells targeting opponent's cities


So you're allowed to build forts, but not new cities (City building or whatever is called is desactivated in theory).

Can we build cities and outposts?

Hello everyone! Remember than heroes are limited to level 7 in this game! (I almost forgot it myself) So plan your abilities adequately + don't try to give XP to heroes who reached their cap.

jopbem was not able to play his turn on time. I removed the turn timer until tomorrow in case he can play, otherwise, it'll skip his turn...

The mutts have been released on the arena!