XL+U templates take up too much real-time. Apparently, that's why tournaments there drag on for aaaavery long...

It's not about the size here, but rather a lack of habit. I've already cited tournament statistics from Kingisepp somewhere — 8mm6 on Light. Average duration was 3 weeks.

Based on experience playing with sm-players on 8mm6, I'd even guess why everything takes so long for them — on sms, the main goodies are located in treasuries, meaning not along the roads. This is where the habit of running off-road for 2-3 weeks searching for something comes from.

On the other hand, XL-template players venture off-road extremely rarely — either if there's something truly tasty there or out of desperation. The main events (movement of the hero and army) happen along the roads. Situations often arise where a conserve/hive/Dragon Utopia are ignored simply because it's inconvenient to run to them.

Essentially, most of these games went roughly like this — while the opponent spent 2-3 weeks exploring the nooks and crannies of their respawn and nearby treasuries, I scouted most of the road network, wiped out computers, cleared central treasuries (which are on the roads), and then paid a visit with an uber-army and stats. If I got wrecked, having traded units, I'd bring back no smaller army a week later (from 4-5 towns, after all), while the opponent only had +1 growth.

Accordingly, if two campers meet, the game drags on for N weeks until they polish everything clean. But if there are two aggressors, everything fits into 2-3 weeks — exploring the roads quickly leads to a combat clash.

And at least 40-50% of the template isn't used. For example, you could cut half of 8mm6 and squeeze it into L+U. It would be the same thing, just with fewer delays.

If that could be done, it would have been done long ago. Alas, but that's unreal here. Because the peculiarity of the generator is that the road network (along which the entire game is built) is scattered across the map extremely unevenly; there are crowded areas (usually the center) and large off-road spaces (usually the edges of the map).

That is, the actual working space on 8mm6 is small enough that it would fit into L+U. But it's impossible to force the generator to create an L+U with a fully functional workspace using standard methods. That's why people play on XL+U, ignoring the notorious 40-50% of the map. But they are still needed — simply for the possibility of choice. If you cut the bottom part of 8mm6, you'll get a template far more pathetic than an sm.