It has happened! The first club tournament for Heroes of Might and Magic II!

I'll write about the final round later. I've already described the third game, and I'll give a summary of the first two matches, as they were played on the same map and followed a similar pattern. First, about my choice of maps. Since there wasn't much time to prepare for the tournament, I removed the less common maps and those where experience plays a significant role. This strategy meant sacrificing some interesting maps and sticking with the predictably simple North-South, 3waycross, and slightly less simple, The Other Side. Of the good maps, I only had time to look at Beltway, as I was familiar with it from Heroes of Might and Magic 3, so at least I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the map's layout. In the end, I chose The Other Side, where the left side is, in my opinion, significantly better, although the host partially compensates for this imbalance. Why is the left side better? 1) It allows you to collect more treasures on the first turn, which means you can break through the lower guard on the third turn and then pass the army up the chain; 2) its scouting range covers the opponent's Castle; and 3) defending it happens "along the way," while the blue player has to specifically move a couple of heroes there. What, in my opinion, is important on this map and what should be done? The map is fast-paced and involves a lot of interaction – you need to develop a mage/mages and build the second tier of the guild; building up troops is secondary, and you can easily run into resource problems, especially with gems. The key moment is who wins the battle for the top, where there are a lot of resources and free troops. Since this will happen on days 3-4, it's important to choose a race with the strongest hero army. Here, two "warrior" races clearly lead – the Barbarian and the Warlock. Then comes the Wizard, for whom Hobbits are ideal, and it's better to use Boars to scout; followed by the Sorceress, the Necromancer, and last, as is often the case, the Knight. That's why I was very surprised when Gena chose the Knight. As a result, when he came to me through the bottom on the second week, I repelled the attack even without using any offensive spells (on the second turn, the only useful spell was Blindness) and without returning the starting army – only with the reinforcements that emerged from the Castle and Pixies and Gnomes from hidden spots. After that, all that remained was to reach the opponent's city and officially secure the victory. In the second match, Misha took the second-to-last Necromancer, but he gave me the Barbarian, so he didn't even try to fight for the top. And it's practically impossible to counter 270 Goblins and a Colossus on the second week, especially when there's a hero with Light/Cold magic and double mana behind them.