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Thanks for the congratulations. :smile41:
It's a great pity that many were unable to take part in this wonderful tournament! A huge thank you to all of you for participating and, of course, to Kyle for the organization!
Instead of working, I spent the whole day writing the description :smile33:
When I said on the forum that the tournament is difficult, I meant its difficulty in terms of optimizing the result. That is, for me personally, the tournament turned out to be one of the longest, requiring 4 real-time days (thankfully, the New Year holidays allowed this :) ).
The first rough draft was done in 1 hour, with a result of 9 days. The second run was more thoughtful and time-consuming, resulting in 8 days. Having achieved 8 days, I began to think about the minimum possible result on this map, and the more I thought, the more it frightened me. It frightened me because the theoretical limit on the map is 6 days. Nevertheless, brushing aside the wild thought, I decided to first aim for 7, and I must say, I did it quite quickly by preventing the AI from straying too far from their home castles. After resting a bit and celebrating another New Year with relatives, I made titanic efforts to achieve a result of 6 days, but in vain; I was short by 500 gold to take all the castles on day 6. But even if I had figured out where to get the missing amount, something else became unclear: how to kill off all the rapidly multiplying AI heroes? In the end, I noted for myself that this is practically impossible!
And then came the moment when it hit me to improve secondary skills—specifically, to implement the 2nd victory criterion stipulated in the HW rules (taking into account the artifacts equipped on the hero).
Here I had to not only rack my brain over this problem but also think about how to keep the AI within reach. Thus, a result of 7 days was achieved with a sum of primary characteristics equal to 11 (previously it was 6), which made me incredibly happy! Realizing that I could improve it by another 2, I played again and finally succeeded! After another drinking session (as the holidays continued and my wife was already angry with me), I decided to sit down at this map once more, as having free time suggested that skills could be improved by another 1 by taking a chest of 1500 experience instead of money! And it was this fact that turned me into a complete maniac; I had to make titanic efforts to develop a strategy where the sum of skills equaled 15 instead of the assumed 14, and also apply a clever method that I had not used in tournaments before due to lack of necessity. Not to mention the real time spent implementing the plan...
That is, for 7 days but with improved skills, there are 4 runs: with 6, 11, 13, and 15 skills, all using different strategies ;)
Strategy
1) In the home castle, as well as in captured castles, we build and buy nothing.
2) Money is spent exclusively on buying heroes.
3) With the 3 main heroes, we take nothing extra, moving only toward the castles.
4) The "Father" must definitely take boots, a chest, destroy monsters and heroes, and take the farthest castle.
5) The "Father" must be given the "Great Scroll of Knowledge" artifact, which increases knowledge by 5 units.
6) All main breakthroughs are made using the dragon, who is passed along a chain in the first few days.
7) At the start of the day, all heroes should be accelerated by fast monsters whenever possible.
8) AI heroes must not stray too far.
After analysis, it becomes clear that a second hero can appear only in one case: if the starting hero Ariy takes 2 chests located exactly south of the starting castle, which we successfully do without any problems by wiping out a pack of ogres. The 2 chests bring a profit of +3000 gold to the treasury.
Naturally, we buy a Barbarian class hero—Atlas; this is obvious since only Barbarians lack a terrain penalty.
After him, a Warlock must appear (not a Barbarian) to accelerate other heroes using gargoyles. In this case, Rasmont was under that slot.
Atlas, leaving the entire army in the castle and with one goblin, takes 2 steps left and one up, ending up right behind the hill by the castle. He does this so that on the next day he can attack the ogres to the north who block the passage in the southern direction. The calculation was made so that Atlas would not make unnecessary moves, while Ariy would spend his entire movement allowance exactly for an exchange with him.
Turn transition:
When I said that the game version could be determined 100%, I meant the following:
- all AI heroes on turn transition in the Bukovska version 1.1 leave slow units, which are orcs 100%; in the English version 1.0 (DOS), he will take them with him!
- when attacking ogres, we see the battlefield: in the English version 1.1, there is only a stump as an obstacle; in the Bukovska version, there are 2 snags and a bush between them.
Green: Sundax takes the ore mine and heads east, spending the night by a chest.
Red: Antony takes mercury and the sawmill.
Yellow: Ergon takes the ore mine and heads south.
There was practically no one generated since there are very few AI. It is essential that Green runs east for free troops—thieves (wagons). This is the first important point! Because if he doesn't run there on the first day, he will definitely send other heroes the next day and won't make it back to the castle by day 7, and we don't have an extra 2500 gold to catch him.
P.S. It made me smile that buildings are completely absent in the starting castle, thanks Kyle!
Gold 500.
Ariy spends his entire movement allowance (as planned) on an exchange with Atlas.
Atlas takes 2 steps up, one step northwest and attacks the ogres, earning 680 experience. He increases the treasury by 1500 by taking a chest. With 3000 gold in the treasury, we hire Rasmont (4 gargoyles, 9 centaurs); under him is Barbarian—Kelzen (though it's better to dig up Yog, as his starting army is larger than Kelzen's)!
Next is a very important 2nd point: Rasmont leaves the entire army in the castle and with 1 gargoyle heads WEST, taking 3 steps! Atlas moves close to Rasmont (see figure 1).
Rasmont—specifically Rasmont—performs an exchange with Atlas, swapping the gargoyle for a dragon! The remaining moves are just enough for Rasmont to easily wipe out the Elves and take a chest, thus replenishing the treasury by another 2000 gold!
The amount obtained is just enough for one more hero—a Barbarian, who becomes the previously "dug up" Kelzen (3 orcs, 23 goblins)—the FATHER!
Atlas spends his remaining movement allowance (2 diagonal steps) moving south.
Father, transferring the entire army formed from purchased heroes from the garrison and leaving only 1 gargoyle in the garrison (necessary for another hero), namely: 2 gargoyles, 45 goblins, 6 orcs, 9 centaurs, runs to exchange with Ariy (gives him 1 gargoyle, receives 1 green in return) and attacks the nomads who guard an important passage to the EAST!
This simple tactic leads to victory with losses; only 1 gargoyle, 3 orcs, and 31 goblins remain alive, which is exactly what we need. He dismisses the remaining army except for one single gargoyle.
Then he takes the chest "above," enriching the treasury by 1500 gold. I had to take money because monetary infusions from the castle on the next day would not have allowed hiring another hero, and there was no prospect of obtaining 1500 gold on day 3.
Thus, Ariy, Atlas, and Kelzen were accelerated by gargoyles by the end of day 2, while Rasmont remained with the dragon—where else could he be!
Turn transition:
The AI hires a second hero with 100% probability, which is very inconvenient for us, but what can you do.
Green: Sundax grabs a chest and moves toward the wagons. Tsabu takes the sawmill.
Red: Antony collects ore and gems. Jojosh takes the ore mine
Yellow: Ergon crystals and wood, ignoring gems for obvious reasons. Craig Hack takes the sawmill.
No one was generated!
Gold 1500.
Father, accelerated by gargoyles, runs east without stopping and spends the night 2 cells away from wolves.
Rasmont has just enough moves to exchange troops with Ariy (Dragon for gargoyle).
Atlas, knowing that nomads in a quantity of 25 have a status loyal to joining, runs toward them. He stops 1 step before attacking.
Ariy, performing the same procedure as Rasmont, receives a gargoyle instead of a dragon during the transfer with Atlas.
A satisfied Atlas easily joins the nomads and, with words of gratitude, passes the dragon back.
Having funds of 2500 gold, we hire Yog (Sandro is under him). We give him the previously left gargoyle, while his army remains in the garrison—though it can be dismissed, as it changes absolutely nothing now. We run after Father.
In the end, this strategy leads to the creation of an excellent chain for passing the dragon from the farthest hero to Father on the next day!
Turn transition:
The AI hires a third hero with 100% probability, which makes me even angrier, but there's nothing to be done! Total: 9 enemy heroes!
Green: Sundax still moves toward the wagons. Tsabu runs south and grabs a chest. A lady named Trojan also goes south, grabbing sulfur.
Red: Antony takes gems and the "Great Scroll of Knowledge" artifact! Jojosh mercury and a chest. Barok wood from the south.
Yellow: Ergon clears his territory in the north, grabs mercury and gems. Craig Hack grabs gem deposits in the south. Lord Haart grabs a chest in the east.
No one was generated!
Gold 0.
It's a great pity that many were unable to take part in this wonderful tournament! A huge thank you to all of you for participating and, of course, to Kyle for the organization!
Instead of working, I spent the whole day writing the description :smile33:
9th offline tournament "The Swamp"
Introduction
When I said on the forum that the tournament is difficult, I meant its difficulty in terms of optimizing the result. That is, for me personally, the tournament turned out to be one of the longest, requiring 4 real-time days (thankfully, the New Year holidays allowed this :) ).
The first rough draft was done in 1 hour, with a result of 9 days. The second run was more thoughtful and time-consuming, resulting in 8 days. Having achieved 8 days, I began to think about the minimum possible result on this map, and the more I thought, the more it frightened me. It frightened me because the theoretical limit on the map is 6 days. Nevertheless, brushing aside the wild thought, I decided to first aim for 7, and I must say, I did it quite quickly by preventing the AI from straying too far from their home castles. After resting a bit and celebrating another New Year with relatives, I made titanic efforts to achieve a result of 6 days, but in vain; I was short by 500 gold to take all the castles on day 6. But even if I had figured out where to get the missing amount, something else became unclear: how to kill off all the rapidly multiplying AI heroes? In the end, I noted for myself that this is practically impossible!
And then came the moment when it hit me to improve secondary skills—specifically, to implement the 2nd victory criterion stipulated in the HW rules (taking into account the artifacts equipped on the hero).
Here I had to not only rack my brain over this problem but also think about how to keep the AI within reach. Thus, a result of 7 days was achieved with a sum of primary characteristics equal to 11 (previously it was 6), which made me incredibly happy! Realizing that I could improve it by another 2, I played again and finally succeeded! After another drinking session (as the holidays continued and my wife was already angry with me), I decided to sit down at this map once more, as having free time suggested that skills could be improved by another 1 by taking a chest of 1500 experience instead of money! And it was this fact that turned me into a complete maniac; I had to make titanic efforts to develop a strategy where the sum of skills equaled 15 instead of the assumed 14, and also apply a clever method that I had not used in tournaments before due to lack of necessity. Not to mention the real time spent implementing the plan...
That is, for 7 days but with improved skills, there are 4 runs: with 6, 11, 13, and 15 skills, all using different strategies ;)
Strategy
1) In the home castle, as well as in captured castles, we build and buy nothing.
2) Money is spent exclusively on buying heroes.
3) With the 3 main heroes, we take nothing extra, moving only toward the castles.
4) The "Father" must definitely take boots, a chest, destroy monsters and heroes, and take the farthest castle.
5) The "Father" must be given the "Great Scroll of Knowledge" artifact, which increases knowledge by 5 units.
6) All main breakthroughs are made using the dragon, who is passed along a chain in the first few days.
7) At the start of the day, all heroes should be accelerated by fast monsters whenever possible.
8) AI heroes must not stray too far.
Day 1
After analysis, it becomes clear that a second hero can appear only in one case: if the starting hero Ariy takes 2 chests located exactly south of the starting castle, which we successfully do without any problems by wiping out a pack of ogres. The 2 chests bring a profit of +3000 gold to the treasury.
Naturally, we buy a Barbarian class hero—Atlas; this is obvious since only Barbarians lack a terrain penalty.
After him, a Warlock must appear (not a Barbarian) to accelerate other heroes using gargoyles. In this case, Rasmont was under that slot.
Atlas, leaving the entire army in the castle and with one goblin, takes 2 steps left and one up, ending up right behind the hill by the castle. He does this so that on the next day he can attack the ogres to the north who block the passage in the southern direction. The calculation was made so that Atlas would not make unnecessary moves, while Ariy would spend his entire movement allowance exactly for an exchange with him.
Turn transition:
When I said that the game version could be determined 100%, I meant the following:
- all AI heroes on turn transition in the Bukovska version 1.1 leave slow units, which are orcs 100%; in the English version 1.0 (DOS), he will take them with him!
- when attacking ogres, we see the battlefield: in the English version 1.1, there is only a stump as an obstacle; in the Bukovska version, there are 2 snags and a bush between them.
Green: Sundax takes the ore mine and heads east, spending the night by a chest.
Red: Antony takes mercury and the sawmill.
Yellow: Ergon takes the ore mine and heads south.
There was practically no one generated since there are very few AI. It is essential that Green runs east for free troops—thieves (wagons). This is the first important point! Because if he doesn't run there on the first day, he will definitely send other heroes the next day and won't make it back to the castle by day 7, and we don't have an extra 2500 gold to catch him.
P.S. It made me smile that buildings are completely absent in the starting castle, thanks Kyle!
Gold 500.
Day 2
Ariy spends his entire movement allowance (as planned) on an exchange with Atlas.
Atlas takes 2 steps up, one step northwest and attacks the ogres, earning 680 experience. He increases the treasury by 1500 by taking a chest. With 3000 gold in the treasury, we hire Rasmont (4 gargoyles, 9 centaurs); under him is Barbarian—Kelzen (though it's better to dig up Yog, as his starting army is larger than Kelzen's)!
Next is a very important 2nd point: Rasmont leaves the entire army in the castle and with 1 gargoyle heads WEST, taking 3 steps! Atlas moves close to Rasmont (see figure 1).
Rasmont—specifically Rasmont—performs an exchange with Atlas, swapping the gargoyle for a dragon! The remaining moves are just enough for Rasmont to easily wipe out the Elves and take a chest, thus replenishing the treasury by another 2000 gold!
The amount obtained is just enough for one more hero—a Barbarian, who becomes the previously "dug up" Kelzen (3 orcs, 23 goblins)—the FATHER!
Atlas spends his remaining movement allowance (2 diagonal steps) moving south.
Father, transferring the entire army formed from purchased heroes from the garrison and leaving only 1 gargoyle in the garrison (necessary for another hero), namely: 2 gargoyles, 45 goblins, 6 orcs, 9 centaurs, runs to exchange with Ariy (gives him 1 gargoyle, receives 1 green in return) and attacks the nomads who guard an important passage to the EAST!
This simple tactic leads to victory with losses; only 1 gargoyle, 3 orcs, and 31 goblins remain alive, which is exactly what we need. He dismisses the remaining army except for one single gargoyle.
Then he takes the chest "above," enriching the treasury by 1500 gold. I had to take money because monetary infusions from the castle on the next day would not have allowed hiring another hero, and there was no prospect of obtaining 1500 gold on day 3.
Thus, Ariy, Atlas, and Kelzen were accelerated by gargoyles by the end of day 2, while Rasmont remained with the dragon—where else could he be!
Turn transition:
The AI hires a second hero with 100% probability, which is very inconvenient for us, but what can you do.
Green: Sundax grabs a chest and moves toward the wagons. Tsabu takes the sawmill.
Red: Antony collects ore and gems. Jojosh takes the ore mine
Yellow: Ergon crystals and wood, ignoring gems for obvious reasons. Craig Hack takes the sawmill.
No one was generated!
Gold 1500.
Day 3
Father, accelerated by gargoyles, runs east without stopping and spends the night 2 cells away from wolves.
Rasmont has just enough moves to exchange troops with Ariy (Dragon for gargoyle).
Atlas, knowing that nomads in a quantity of 25 have a status loyal to joining, runs toward them. He stops 1 step before attacking.
Ariy, performing the same procedure as Rasmont, receives a gargoyle instead of a dragon during the transfer with Atlas.
A satisfied Atlas easily joins the nomads and, with words of gratitude, passes the dragon back.
Having funds of 2500 gold, we hire Yog (Sandro is under him). We give him the previously left gargoyle, while his army remains in the garrison—though it can be dismissed, as it changes absolutely nothing now. We run after Father.
In the end, this strategy leads to the creation of an excellent chain for passing the dragon from the farthest hero to Father on the next day!
Turn transition:
The AI hires a third hero with 100% probability, which makes me even angrier, but there's nothing to be done! Total: 9 enemy heroes!
Green: Sundax still moves toward the wagons. Tsabu runs south and grabs a chest. A lady named Trojan also goes south, grabbing sulfur.
Red: Antony takes gems and the "Great Scroll of Knowledge" artifact! Jojosh mercury and a chest. Barok wood from the south.
Yellow: Ergon clears his territory in the north, grabs mercury and gems. Craig Hack grabs gem deposits in the south. Lord Haart grabs a chest in the east.
No one was generated!
Gold 0.