"Random" vs. "Fixed"

But lately, I've become very interested in various Tournaments on different forums, and almost everywhere they only play Tournaments with random maps.

But at the same time, there are also places for those who like to play with fixed maps. :) It's a matter of taste. Personally, I find random maps in their current form much more boring than a good fixed map; other players feel the opposite.

The imbalance of random maps is compensated by regenerating the map from scratch. Each participant is given several regenerations per game, which to some extent equalizes the chances of both sparring partners.

That's true. But sometimes it takes more than an hour of real time for restarts, which is not good. And besides, even two restarts may not help - you use them, and on the new generation, you end up with a blockade at the entrance to the Castle with troops of level 5-6. Of course, if you knew that this would happen, you would play the previous position, but it seemed bad, so you wasted a restart. :)

The downside of fixed maps is that one player has a lot of time to study the maps and plays them over and over, practicing and honing their technique. And another player barely has time to look at it in the editor before the start of the match. Hence, the conclusion: on fixed maps, the one with more free time will win.

Believe me, the same thing happens with random maps. If one player is playing on a given template for the first time, and the other has "mastered" it, the advantage will be even greater. At least with a fixed map, you can spend 5 minutes looking at it in the editor before the game (and that's enough for simple maps), but to study a random template, you need to play it, and not just once.

The seasonal Tournament "Seasons" (just as an example) cannot be called either random or fixed, although it still leans more towards fixed maps, since the maps are placed for review in advance. But at the same time, choosing a Castle in advance, without knowing which map you will be playing on, adds a "twist" and a kind of intrigue - because on some maps, certain Castles are strong, and on others - different ones.

Yes, there you need to rank the Castles by strength on each map, and then average all this. :smile21: Or use some other selection criterion, some kind of MINIMAX... :D
Imagine, they give you 8 chess positions and say "choose whether to play as white or black." You name the color, and then they pick a position for you that matches... a losing one. :rolleyes: I still don't understand why you need to choose races in advance; why not do it after the host announces the map?