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... continued ...
10. Order of Actions
In a game with short control, there is always a risk of not having enough time to complete everything planned. Therefore, it is important to set priorities—what to do first and what to do later.
a) Buildings in castles. Usually, the turn should start with them. This is because it only takes a few seconds, but the benefit is great—it can be very unpleasant to get bogged down in a tough fight at the end of the turn, exhaust your time there, and consequently fail to place certain buildings. This is especially critical during the 1st week.
If there are not enough resources for construction at the start of the turn, but they may appear later, you should plan backup options—what to do if there isn't enough time to clear the resources. For example, playing as Castle, if the last fight is a dwarf den that will provide money for horses, you should estimate before the fight whether there will be enough time to take it. If there are doubts, place the citadel or griffins instead, and get the horses on the next turn.
b) Collecting freebies. Again, this takes little time but provides a ton of benefit, so on the first week, this is the second priority after buildings.
c) The main hero's move. In the late game, this is a higher priority action than resource gathering, especially if the game has entered the contact phase with the opponent. On the first week, the main hero can often even skip a turn, or stand by for a momentum boost near another guard post.
d) Chain management. Perhaps the lowest priority action; often, you can set them up haphazardly or not at all, intending to regroup somehow later.
If the chains have completely scattered, you can even dedicate a separate day specifically to restoring the transport network. It's not a very profitable turn, of course, but in the absence of pressing circumstances, you can easily do this once or twice per game. There is an additional bonus here—accumulating time for more important turns. Usually, such "unload" turns are made on the last day of the week—rather than spending a long and painful time breaking through tight guards on 117/127, it is sometimes more profitable to simply position the heroes so that on 121/131 you can break through everything quickly and easily with the growth boost.
The VT timer has a bug: if time runs out on the map and the player performs no actions (takes hands off the keyboard and mouse), the turn is not automatically passed; it hangs in a zero state. This allows for extra time to position heroes, calculate chains, etc. The main thing is not to enter towns and not to fight anyone (not even a quick fight), otherwise the turn will be passed immediately.
11. Checking if everything is OK
Usually at the end of the turn, when all actions are completed, players spend some more time checking if anything was forgotten, whether to buy another hero, or move a hero in a chain left or right—or simply for peace of mind.
This habit must be ruthlessly eliminated, as such actions have extremely low efficiency—they almost never bring benefit, but they burn through the timer significantly.
What's done is done; you should reflect on mistakes during the opponent's turn, not your own.
Example: if a message pops up when passing the turn saying that one of the heroes hasn't finished moving, but a visual inspection of the move-bars shows everyone has moved, it means someone has one extra cell left that isn't reflected in the move-bar. With long control, it makes sense to find this hero and try to utilize that cell, but with short control, you should pass the turn immediately, as the 5-15 seconds spent here are not recouped in any way.
12. Demonstrating Threats
If you and your opponent have established visual contact or are about to, you should reveal the threats coming from you at the last possible moment, giving the opponent no time to analyze them.
For example, if you place a hero for a momentum boost in front of a guard blocking the path to the opponent (which the opponent can see), the opponent will immediately start analyzing the situation, rebuilding plans, adjusting chains, etc. The more time that passes between the demonstration of the threat and the passing of the turn, the more time the opponent has to make the correct decision.
Therefore, such actions should be performed immediately before passing the turn. Ideally, as the very last action—reposition the hero and immediately pass the turn.
A variation on the same theme is flickering your heroes on the edge of the opponent's line of sight. This will force them to review the turn, perhaps more than once, thus wasting precious time.
Another trick is to occasionally flicker a hero in a lift/teleport that the opponent can only see from one side. This will force them to consider a possible momentum attack, a possible "bait fight" in that lift/teleport, and generally force them to think and be paranoid, which is useful in terms of spending their mental energy and time.
In general, when entering an unexplored lift/teleport, you should do this: enter and immediately hit space to fall back out. Only then move the screen and examine the opening perspectives. This is because, with short control in the contact or near-contact phase of the game, the opponent doesn't go for a smoke break during your turn; they carefully watch for possible appearance spots of your heroes, even with peripheral vision on the minimap. That is, as soon as your hero appears, they will immediately see who it is and what army they have. It is better not to give them such information.
Also, if they happen to be distracted and don't notice your hero flickering, it could backfire—either they will be too lazy to redo the turn and won't notice the threat at all, or they will do it and be forced to think about how to survive while the timer is ticking.
... to be continued ...
10. Order of Actions
In a game with short control, there is always a risk of not having enough time to complete everything planned. Therefore, it is important to set priorities—what to do first and what to do later.
a) Buildings in castles. Usually, the turn should start with them. This is because it only takes a few seconds, but the benefit is great—it can be very unpleasant to get bogged down in a tough fight at the end of the turn, exhaust your time there, and consequently fail to place certain buildings. This is especially critical during the 1st week.
If there are not enough resources for construction at the start of the turn, but they may appear later, you should plan backup options—what to do if there isn't enough time to clear the resources. For example, playing as Castle, if the last fight is a dwarf den that will provide money for horses, you should estimate before the fight whether there will be enough time to take it. If there are doubts, place the citadel or griffins instead, and get the horses on the next turn.
b) Collecting freebies. Again, this takes little time but provides a ton of benefit, so on the first week, this is the second priority after buildings.
c) The main hero's move. In the late game, this is a higher priority action than resource gathering, especially if the game has entered the contact phase with the opponent. On the first week, the main hero can often even skip a turn, or stand by for a momentum boost near another guard post.
d) Chain management. Perhaps the lowest priority action; often, you can set them up haphazardly or not at all, intending to regroup somehow later.
If the chains have completely scattered, you can even dedicate a separate day specifically to restoring the transport network. It's not a very profitable turn, of course, but in the absence of pressing circumstances, you can easily do this once or twice per game. There is an additional bonus here—accumulating time for more important turns. Usually, such "unload" turns are made on the last day of the week—rather than spending a long and painful time breaking through tight guards on 117/127, it is sometimes more profitable to simply position the heroes so that on 121/131 you can break through everything quickly and easily with the growth boost.
The VT timer has a bug: if time runs out on the map and the player performs no actions (takes hands off the keyboard and mouse), the turn is not automatically passed; it hangs in a zero state. This allows for extra time to position heroes, calculate chains, etc. The main thing is not to enter towns and not to fight anyone (not even a quick fight), otherwise the turn will be passed immediately.
11. Checking if everything is OK
Usually at the end of the turn, when all actions are completed, players spend some more time checking if anything was forgotten, whether to buy another hero, or move a hero in a chain left or right—or simply for peace of mind.
This habit must be ruthlessly eliminated, as such actions have extremely low efficiency—they almost never bring benefit, but they burn through the timer significantly.
What's done is done; you should reflect on mistakes during the opponent's turn, not your own.
Example: if a message pops up when passing the turn saying that one of the heroes hasn't finished moving, but a visual inspection of the move-bars shows everyone has moved, it means someone has one extra cell left that isn't reflected in the move-bar. With long control, it makes sense to find this hero and try to utilize that cell, but with short control, you should pass the turn immediately, as the 5-15 seconds spent here are not recouped in any way.
12. Demonstrating Threats
If you and your opponent have established visual contact or are about to, you should reveal the threats coming from you at the last possible moment, giving the opponent no time to analyze them.
For example, if you place a hero for a momentum boost in front of a guard blocking the path to the opponent (which the opponent can see), the opponent will immediately start analyzing the situation, rebuilding plans, adjusting chains, etc. The more time that passes between the demonstration of the threat and the passing of the turn, the more time the opponent has to make the correct decision.
Therefore, such actions should be performed immediately before passing the turn. Ideally, as the very last action—reposition the hero and immediately pass the turn.
A variation on the same theme is flickering your heroes on the edge of the opponent's line of sight. This will force them to review the turn, perhaps more than once, thus wasting precious time.
Another trick is to occasionally flicker a hero in a lift/teleport that the opponent can only see from one side. This will force them to consider a possible momentum attack, a possible "bait fight" in that lift/teleport, and generally force them to think and be paranoid, which is useful in terms of spending their mental energy and time.
In general, when entering an unexplored lift/teleport, you should do this: enter and immediately hit space to fall back out. Only then move the screen and examine the opening perspectives. This is because, with short control in the contact or near-contact phase of the game, the opponent doesn't go for a smoke break during your turn; they carefully watch for possible appearance spots of your heroes, even with peripheral vision on the minimap. That is, as soon as your hero appears, they will immediately see who it is and what army they have. It is better not to give them such information.
Also, if they happen to be distracted and don't notice your hero flickering, it could backfire—either they will be too lazy to redo the turn and won't notice the threat at all, or they will do it and be forced to think about how to survive while the timer is ticking.
... to be continued ...
