Gallery: Out of Opponents in Hero Academy, I Challenged Its Designer
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Ever since [I reviewed the turn-based strategy iOS game Hero Academy](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/hero-academy-review/), I've become hooked on it -- and great at it. I rarely lose a match, and I'm running out of serious competition. So, I figured, if anyone could put up a challenge, it would be one of the people who made the [free-to-play game](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hero-academy/id488156323?mt=8). After negotiations with the developer Robot Entertainment, I was set up in a match against Zeke Marks. He's one of the game's designers, and his coworkers at Robot consider him to be their best player. Marks and I engaged in an intense battle that lasted for the better part of a week, trading turns back and forth whenever each of us had a free moment. All the while, I took screenshots of the battle and kept notes on each turn. You can win a game of Hero Academy by killing all of your opponent's units. But you can also win by attacking and destroying their crystals, which can take a lot of damage but are stuck in pre-determined locations. Each turn, you're allotted five "action points" that allow you to move units, attack, or use items and spells. For our match, Marks decided to play as a newly added squad of characters, based on the popular Valve game Team Fortress 2. __Turn 1__ The Team Fortress crew plays far differently from the other teams in Hero Academy, largely because there are just so many of them. All nine of the classes from Team Fortress 2 are represented, with two from each. The team doesn't use equipment to enhance individual units, and their special ability is that they regain an action point when stomping on fallen foes. This makes it easy for them to overrun enemy forces with sheer numbers, and the large variety of unit types gives them tons of strategic options. I knew that this battle was going to be difficult, especially since Marks had, at that point, more experience than anyone else in the world with the Team Fortress 2 team. I decided to play things safe and break out my favorite team, the Dark Elves, who can regain health by attacking units. They work best with a particularly aggressive play style, and I planned on using their raw power to crush the Team Fortress swarm. Marks kicked things off by bringing out a Heavy unit and buffing his attack power with an Engineer. I responded in kind with a Priestess and a Necromancer, who I powered up with a sword.
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__Turn 4__ I decided to get a little aggressive early, and as a result I lost my Necromancer. Marks moved in hard with his Heavy, taking no prisoners but making sure to stomp my Necro's dead body to remove him from play. I'd wasted one of my valuable sword buffs, and Marks now had field position. Not a great start. The Spy unit can't move very quickly, but if he gets behind you he can deal incredible damage. He's also immune to ranged attacks, making him a useful unit for forcing your opponent to change their unit structure. Marks had one, and he was getting close. I brought out an Impaler and buffed her using the other sword from my tile rack, then ended the Spy's charade before it could get started.
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__Turn 7__ Marks, it seems, was using that Spy as a distraction. On the next turn he brought out a Scout, rushed forward to stomp on the downed Spy (regaining an action point), and then moved forward with his Heavy and proceeded to almost shatter my bottom crystal in a single turn. It was a brilliant move, perfectly executed. Spawning a scout doesn't cost any action points, and moving him to the Assault Boost square where the dead Spy was made it so his units would deal an extra 300 points of damage to my crystals with each attack. So, when his Heavy moved to the *other* Assault Boost square to get within range of my Crystal, he became capable of dealing around 1,000 damage with each shot. I was pissed. I'd already lost my Necromancer, and now Marks was dominating the crystal game early into the match. I was never going to manage to destroy his crystals before he got mine, so I decided to ignore the Scout and rush down with my Impaler to punish Marks' Heavy for tricking me so easily. It worked, but on the next turn Marks brought out a Soldier and knocked out my Impaler with some rockets. He didn't stomp me, though, and that proved to be a very bad idea.
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__Turn 8__ I had in my possession a Soul Harvest spell, which saps enemy health, revives your fallen units and permanently increases their health. On the previous turn, Marks brought out a Spy and arranged them in a perfect grid. I dropped the spell, doing 100 damage to two of his crystals and five of his units. My Impaler popped back up stronger than ever, and I moved her back so my Priestess could heal her. With no Medics available yet, Marks had a damaged army and a very well-equipped Impaler awaiting him on the other side of the map. For the first time, I'd pulled one over on him.
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__Turn 9__ In response, Marks casually cruised over with his Spy (whose movement had been boosted with a Sandwich) and once again knocked out my Impaler. He thought he'd gotten me for good, so it must've been a shock when I dropped yet another Soul Harvest spell, once again reviving my Impaler and giving me the chance to spear the Spy in the back. My Impaler was now even stronger than before, and I'd gotten Marks' Spy. Things were going very well.
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__Turn 12__ Just a few turns later, Marks brought out a buffed-up Demoman and completely destroyed my middle crystal. It was now clear that Marks planned on taking out my crystals as quickly as possible, and he'd sacrifice any number of units to do it. It was my fault, really, for not taking out the Scout camping on the Assault Boost square. With that tile under control, Marks's forces were cutting through my crystals with ease. I needed to act fast to prevent this from ending soon. I started by cutting up that Demoman with my now fully armored and buffed Impaler.
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__Turn 17__ A few turns later, my efforts at whittling down Marks' forces were going surprisingly well. With my Impaler planted firmly in the center of the map, Marks was unable to advance any unit without fear of sure death. He poked forward with a few units, but I quickly picked them off. I then put more pressure on him by rushing forward with a Void Monk and wiping out his Sniper while doing damage to the rest of the team. At this point, my goal was to keep Marks at bay while picking off his remaining players one at a time. By staying in his face, I could prevent him from moving any units to an Assault Boost square or getting into position to launch a critical attack on my top crystal, which still had max health at this point.
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__Turn 20__ After a few quick turns of re-positioning units, Marks surprised me by dropping a jar of Jarate on my Impaler. The Jarate ensured that the next hit on my Impaler would do far more damage than any normal attack. It was effectively a death sentence, and it meant that I'd need to keep my Impaler as far away from enemy units as possible. On the next turn, mostly out of spite, I decided to rush forward on the next turn and kill the Demoman nearest my Impaler. I had enough space to crush the little fellow and escape unharmed, so I wasn't quite as upset about the accursed state of my precious Impaler.
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__Turn 22__ This is where things got a little weird. Marks rushed forward with his buffed-up Heavy and parked right underneath my only healthy crystal, but instead of trying to get some damage in on it, he used up all his action points to kill my Priestess. I was under the impression that Marks had already accepted that he wasn't going to beat me by taking out all my units, so it seemed like a strange move. Then again, it was my only Priestess on the board, and I only had one more in my deck, so perhaps he thought he could corner me by killing all of my healers. What was he up to?
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__Turn 26__ Over the following few turns, I killed the Demoman that had attacked my Priestess and repositioned my weakened Impaler so she'd be safe, while still maintaining a good position from whence to defend my Crystal. Marks spawned both of his Pyros and buffed them with his Engineer (I hate that guy), but I sent in an extra Impaler and yanked one of the Pyros from the map. Marks responded in kind by attacking my Impaler with his actual crystal. I honestly didn't know that this was even possible until he did it. Apparently the spiked ones can work as turrets. Who knew?
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__Turn 27__ I ran forward with my Void Monk and killed that pesky Engineer while doing some sweet damage to the other Pyro. Served him right. After observing that Marks was down to his last few men, I sent him a message via the in-game chat: "I think I got you…" "Maybe!" he wrote back. "We'll see about that!"
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__Turn 29__ I couldn't understand what Marks was up to. He spawned a Soldier, moved him to the middle of the screen, and buffed up his Pyro a little more before positioning the Pyro behind the Soldier. "Why bother with the Soldier?" I wondered. What purpose was he serving? Surely Marks was starting to feel antsy about the fact that he was down to his last few units while I still had one full-health crystal on the other side of the screen and plenty of units to spare. I decided to quickly pick off the Soldier with my Impaler, hauling him closer to my side of the action and then spawning my Wraith where the Soldier had fallen. I figured that I could use the Wraith as a meat shield for my Impaler, sacrificing him for the greater good. I was very wrong.
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__Turn 30__ Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'd completely forgotten that Team Fortress 2 units regain an action point whenever they run over dead bodies of enemies. Marks's Pyro crushed my Wraith in two measly hits, and then moved forward to destroy my Impaler in a single blow. I was shell-shocked. I knew that the Jarate would make things rough for my Impaler, but I didn't think it'd be that easy! I spawned another Void Monk and moved him between the now much more scary pyro and my precious final crystal. Then, using my last pieces of equipment, I powered up my Necromancer in the hopes that I'd be able to use him to pick off the Pyro before it was too late.
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__Turn 31__ Marks was going in for the kill. He bumped forward his Medic and rushed all the way across the map with his Engineer to finish off my bottom crystal. When Marks finished his turn, he ended it by taunting. His characters danced around with joy, and I was confused. Why celebrate now? I realized that I wouldn't be able to finish off the Pyro in a single turn, so I decided to do as much damage to him as possible while finishing off the Medic. From there it'd be easy to step on him and end the last real threat posed to my team. Victory was very close. Except for the part where I'm a giant idiot.
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__Turn 32__ I lost. Marks had some tricks up his sleeve, and those tricks burned me bad. In the previous turn, I'd pretty much ignored the Engineer. I thought that since he finished off my bottom crystal, he'd served his purpose, and so I didn't need to worry about him. I completely forgot about the fact that he was also standing on an Assault Boost square. With that on his side, all Marks had to do was stroll up to my crystal and start hosing away with his hateful little lava gun. He did 690 damage with every hit, and managed to destroy my last remaining crystal in a single turn. It was all over, and Marks messaged me to congratulate me on a game well-played. It was perfect, really. Marks played a psychological game by taunting, while at the same time moving all of his units in a way that was simultaneously aggressive and defensive. I could've focused on his Engineer, but that would've given Marks the chance to move in and bring my crystal far closer to destruction than I would've been comfortable with. Marks hoped that I'd forget about the significance of his position on the Assault Boost square, and his bet paid off. I focused my attention on the wrong part of the board, so I got spanked. I'm a little bit more humble now about my Hero Academy skills, and I make no excuses for my loss. Zeke Marks is the real deal. I totally could've had him, though.
