As C18 begins, Sir Scottie, hero of Maddog (White) wakes up >from a bad dream and realizes that he's about to start a new battle. In their turn reports, Sir Scottie and Dragon Lord Gary V (Black) generally get a fair amount of rest - waking up just in time to make their moves, and then going back to sleep again. Perhaps burning the midnight oil gave the heroes of Lord Dread (Green) and Wowbagger (Blue) the small advantage that they needed to defeat their more somnambulant foes. After Sir Scottie, Bruce Leroy emerges for Lord Dread (Green). It is clear that Bruce Leroy is looking for someone, and we learn later that someone is probably the second green hero, Shogun. The two heroes have quite a history together, it seems, even to the point where they alter each other's diplomatic missives. Next comes Matlock for Blue. He arrives out of a broken TV set dropped from a Warb Bubble (whatever that is), and accepts the crown (offered to him by the people since nobody else wanted to take on the post once they heard of the three other kings arriving in Aerolandia). Last is Dragon Lord Gary V himself, who awakes to find that the stories which had been passed down for generations from father to son about a magical tournament are, in fact, true, and he is in a wondrous land of castles and swords. He learns the trade from a local archer, and when the other warlords have moved, he is ready. There are two interesting strategic choices in this game. The first is that only Lord Dread (Green) choses to take a second hero. The second is that everybody except Maddog builds griffins (he builds giants instead). Those are the only early units built that are more expensive than spiders, but this is one of only a few Round C games where the expensive flyers were so popular. And, boy, will they do some damage! Diplomacy doesn't begin until the end of turn 3, when DLGV (Black) suggests a cease fire to Wowbagger (Blue). On the next turn, DLGV begins to reconsider his offer, but soon the East-West battles start and very little North-South action occurs until much later in the game. By turn 4, Green's heroes Shogun and Bruce Leroy are clearly getting in each other's way. One begins to sense that this rivalry is not going to end well. Perhaps that is why the other players chose to eschew multiple leadership! On turn 5, the fireworks start. Lord Dread and DLGV (Green/Black) trade griffins in some early high-power skirmishing. But there is even more excitement in the south: Maddog takes advantage of an error by Wowbagger, and sacks Blue's griffin-producing city! The question, then, is whether Blue can come back from losing 1700 gp in a scenario defined by scarcity, especially when his arch-rival pocketed 850 of them. Wowbagger retakes his spoiled city on turn 6, and is mad! By turn 7 the Green heroes, Bruce Leroy and Shogun, can no longer contain their antipathy for one another. B.L. still wants to ally with Dragon Lord Gary V, but Shogun wants to fight. The two heroes battle in a nicely described bit, and B.L. is killed, aghast at the destruction all around him. In the game, Green uses a two-hero stack with a griffin and giant bat to destroy eight black navies, including the black demon. The war turns badly for Black here. The Green demon, who has spent much of his life in Canada, muses that perhaps Dragon Lord Gary V's problems were caused by S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder). He suggests that Black head south (i.e. attack Wowbagger) to cure his ills. Meanwhile, Green takes more Black land and kills off numerous navies. In the south, the last couple turns the only thing Red has said was that Lord Scottie was on a "fishing expedition". Blue responds: "While Scottie is fishing for whatever-only-he-knows-if-anybody, some things are happening far away... And He is getting company!" Despite his initial coup, things are not going so well for Red. Blue sacks Red's giant city and kills a number of Red units. Many of the recent battles between Blue and Red have been happening in the open, so Blue's heavy pikeman production is paying off. Rather than fishing, on turn 10 Maddog suggests that perhaps Red's hero has fallen asleep at the wheel. This proves to be an even more fatal mistake than choosing giants over pikemen, as Matlock kills Lord Scottie in a TV show called "Don't Sleep and Sail" with a number of subtitles. Black, who has now begun to lose hope, punctuates his turns with commentary such as: "Gary V getting a little bored of the view on his current set of mountains decides to fly over and try another." To which Shogun replies, in a very nice description of a hero-killing, "Dragon Lord Gary, you just seen ya last mountain". Meanwhile Wowbagger sacrifices his demon in a large battle. Over the next few turns the outcome of the Blue/Red war remains in doubt. Wowbagger's hero stack is marching through Red's homeland, doing significant damage, but Red is having success of his own with smaller stacks behind Blue's lines. By turn 13, Green predicts Black demise in three turns, even though Black still has eight cities remaining. Blue now begins to worry about Green's intentions, and assures Green that he has no desire to fight any except Maddog. Green is eerily silent on the issue. Lord Dread's prediction of a quick death for the remains of DLGV's armies looks shaky until turn 15, when he takes five Black cities. As predicted, on turn 16 Black falls. Wowbagger (Blue) has been growing more and more concerned about Green's failure to respond to his proposals of peace. On Turn 16, Green begins the battle with Blue. On turn 17, Shogun tells his messengers that he doesn't want to hear any more messages from other warlords, and takes his first Blue city. Blue now has 18 cities, to Green's 25, but the onslaught has begun...Blue will end with just ten - quite a drop for the last three moves. On the last turn, Lord Dread takes seven cities all in one turn. He does so much sacking that his gold reserves increase by over 2000 gp, even though he builds plenty of new units for defense. He will end the game with over 5000 gp! This was an exciting game all-around, where a couple key moves loomed huge in the final assessment. The roleplaying was generally quite short, but all the more enjoyable for that.