This is a game filled with good players, although Kalten, Red stands above
the crowd with a ranking of 12.  The others: Road Runner, Green (31);
Isildur, Blue (23); Sir Phoenix, Black (33) 

Kalten starts big -- building pegasi!  (You know you all wanted to).  All
warlords take a second hero.  On turn 2, Black builds griffins.  On turn
3, Blue builds heavy cavalry and then elephants on turn 4, when Green
builds minotaurs, so everybody is building some two-turn units other than
archers.  This will be a hard-fought game. 

Blue names his cities after pop-rock groups from the eighties, while Green
does almost more roleplaying with city names than in his turn reports: 

> Cities renamed as follows:
> 05 to 05 Roadrunner
> 07 to 07 will defend
> 08 to 08 all of Green
> 02 to 02 Territories
> 11 to 11 from would
> 12 to 12 be conquers.
> 13 to 13 Fight
> 17 to 17 somewhere

Though, to be fair, RoadRunner is always "running down the road wishing
for more victories" or armies, or offense, or defense, or any of a number
of things, so it's not like he never says anything.

On turn 4, Sir Phoenix (Black) offers peace to Kalten (Red).

The fighting begins on Turn 5.  A number of units exchanged, including a
Black and Green hero that both fell during a Black attack. 

>From turn 4 through turn 8 parity is the name of this game, with all
players having between 11 and 13 cities, and fairly even victories by all
sides. 

On turn 7, the Red Hero Freddy Mercury takes over the Blue city Queen
(notable for the names, not the strategic value)!  And then on turn 8, Red
sacrifices his demon in a battle to kill the last Blue hero.  Red finally
has begun to separate himself from the pack.  Blue quits after this, and
the best roleplay of the game is logged by Barry Brook, the moderator. 

Black and Green decide that Red will grow too strong if left unchecked,
and agree to ally against Red, but Black is a little concerned that the
alliance will be unfair to Red, so he suggests two turns of grace before
attacking Red, which may be the nicest thing done all tournament.
Lots of people boast about not attacking their allies, few can say the
same for their enemies!

On turn 9, Red is up to 19 cities, Green has 11 and Black has 13.  Green
agrees to wait until turn 11 to fight Red.  By turn 11, Red has 21 cities. 
Red's pegasi are being used to devastating effect at this point, fighting
in nearly every battle and crushing all comers.  Were the rest of us crazy
not to build them?  On Turn 13, Red destroys seven Green navies, including
a minotaur and an archer, at the cost of a single pegasus.  He then uses
another to kill the Green hero - his hero now has three command items! 
Then, on Turn 14, just when the reader finds himself wondering if Red will
have time to take over the map, Black kills the Red hero and takes
possession of all eight magic items!  He used the little-known (but slowly
leaking out) naval-units-plus-fliers-shell-land-units trick that caught
so many warlords unaware this round.  Now the pegasi begin to fall like
flies to the powerful hero.

In the end, the game ends much as it began - in parity.  Red had 14
cities, Green 15, and Black 17 (static blue held on to 2).  It is
interesting to imagine what would have been the result had Red known about
the infamous navy landing.  It is hard to think of another game where
such a small trick mattered so much.  Expect all three of these warlords
to be powers in League play, though some might find themselves in final
Tournament rounds as well.