C11 pit two of the tournament's major contenders (first
ranked Knight Isc and sixth-ranked Commando) in a game with
two other highly capable warlords (Overlord, 36, and White
Dragon, 38).  And quite a game it turned out to be, at least
for the first half!

Red (Commando) begins by hiring Elisa Homeater as the hero,
followed by Lord Isc for Green, General Eisenhower himself
for Overlord (apparently due to incompetance on the part of
Patton, Bradley, and MacArthur), and Basyliskus for Black
(White Dragon).

On the second turn, the players demonstrate they intend to
spare no expense.  All four hire second heroes (Hellbound,
Knight Isc, Churchill, and Pilatus), Blue builds minotaurs,
and both Red and Black hire griffins.  On Turn 3, Red would
build minotaurs also.  Green is the only one who sees fit to
play without two-turn units.

Not much happens in the beginning (Turn 3).  Elisa Homeater
"walks around aimlessly and gains no experience (7) but some
exercise", though Black has taken an early lead with 12
cities to 9 for the others.  However, on Turn 4 the tempo
picks up.  Lord Isc offers peace to Commando (Green/Red),
demonstrating his desire to pit the tournament powerful
against those less likely to make it into Round E.  At the
same time, he takes two Black cities - one defended by an
archer, two wolfriders, and light infantry!  Quite a battle
for this early in the game.  Overlord (Blue) takes a Red city,
demonstrating that he does not intend to turn belly-up to
Commando.  Then White Dragon (Black) offers peace to
Commando (Red), suggesting that the powerful Lord Isc will
eventually turn on his friend.

Lord Isc pens a quick response:

"When a weak sheep is cheeping for mercy of two hungry lions
I think they will eat this sheep... I offer to you south
part."

On turn five, things begin to go poorly for Overlord (Blue),
as Commando kills a hero and a demon.  Next turn, Black and
Green continue to trade cities, while Red takes two more
Blue cities.  Lord Isc suggests to White Dragon (Black) that
he will spare Dragon's hero at the price of two cities,
which Black rejects.  Commando decides that Lord Isc is
making too much progress against White Dragon, and offers an
alliance to Black!  Green fires back a generous proposal to
Black and also to Blue.  In this message, the refrain is
heard many times:  I AM NOT TOO GREEDY!  Blue agrees, but
Black does not, and Black takes two Green cities.  He also
takes a Blue city and apologizes but says he needs the
money.  While this new alliance structure might on the
surface appear to have major implications, in the end the
war continues to be fought East-West.

By turn 7, Green already has 20 cities!  Commando is getting
nervous, and tells White Dragon how to kill Lord Isc's
demon.  Green gets scared and offers an alliance again to
Black saying I AM NOT TOO GREEDY!  He then makes the
following quote, which might haunt him if he makes it to
Round F:

There is only one game to cheat one's alliances - the final
game.

White Dragon replies to Green's suggestion with by quoting
Lord Isc himself:

"And just one statement of Lord Isc from better times: 'we
are playing WARLORDS not Girls Toys if you forgot.'  Do me a
favour. Loose with honour. Stop crying like an old lady."

In retaliation, Lord Isc gives advice to Overlord on Turn 8.
In this part of the game, the war is furious, for a few
turns every player captures at least one enemy city per
turn, but 3 and 4 is more common.  By Turn 9, though, things
begin to go very poorly for both Blue and Black.  Red takes
Overlord's capital with just a light cavalry and a bat,
while Green kills the last of White Dragon's heroes.  Green
gives even more advice to Blue, demonstrating for the third
time this game that the "no advice" rule may not have been
as clear as intended!  In a final bit of possibly-illegal
commentary, Red points out to Black that their forces could
combine to crush one of Lord Isc's cities.

White Dragon declines, pointing out that he would need his
griffins for defense.  In the end, it wasn't to help very
much, as White Dragon fell to Lord Isc on Turn 11.  The very
next turn, Commando kills Overlord, and the two behemoths
turn to face each other.

A couple turns pass at near stalemate, and then, just as the
reader is looking forward to a strategic bloodbath, Commando
proposes a 50/50 split on turn 14!  Lord Isc accepts, and
suggests that Commando allows him to make all of the moves
so that it is certain nobody will renig.  Then Commando
moves without sending in an archive message, and Lord Isc
gets mad at the move's abiguity, saying now his price was a
split of 20/28.

Then Red makes a good move, so Green changes his proposal to
22/26.

Turn 16 Commando agrees, but still battles Lord Isc.  Lord
Isc says he's tired of fighting and proposes 24/24 after
all!  However, he takes a Red city to get 25, and then moves
a massive attack force into Red territory.  Red then makes a
counter attack to which Green replies:

"Trust me last time and you won't regret this. Believe me.
If you leave my center I will move all of my forces to
"home" STRAIGHTAWAY. 24/24 - I promise.into Red territory."

Commando says OK, and then fights a bunch of battles.

Finally the two seem to be willing to trust each other
(perhaps it was Green going a single turn without killing
anybody!).  They get so lovey-dovey that they send bats
around to sack each other's gold to ensure the best finish
possible.

A bit of a disappointing ending, but perhaps we will see
these two actually fight in Round E!