bolotnik
Auto-translated
I played an interesting and quite original map - Battle of world
http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=Battle+of+world
The map is original, but unfortunately, it is quite easy. It is a purely strategic map; there are no mandatory or necessary moments, although, of course, there are quests on the map.
You can play as any race and with any hero.
We play with an ally against 6 AI opponents. The map consists of islands.
We have 2 starting locations to choose from: either on the surface or in the Dungeon, and both starting locations are islands and mirror images of each other.
I want to say right away that the starting location is quite poor, which forces you to break through to other islands as quickly as possible, where there is an abundance of resources.
The AI starting locations are the same: islands with a small amount of resources, and between the starting locations is where all the best things are located.
And so, about the walkthrough:
I started on the surface - I chose Castle, and the hero - Valeiska, I gave my ally Rampart, the difficulty is Queen, 160%.
At the starting location, we have all the mines and three cities (one starting, one random, and one Tower, in which Flight and Dimension Door can appear), the AI has two identical cities and one random.
As a result, Valeiska got everything she needs and that is useful on this map, except for Logistics: Earth, Air, Defense, Attack, Tactics, Shooting, Wisdom, Leadership (there is no need for this, but heroes of the Castle almost always get it).
I completed the entire map with one hero, although it is designed for 3-4 full-fledged heroes. First, I cleared the starting location, captured all the cities and mines, and then broke through the shipyard's defenses, got on a ship, and sailed for resources.
Then I built up completely, and with the help of Flight and Dimension Door, I reached the first opponent (this happened in the middle of the 4th month). Here I was glad that the blue player starts with a Tower, and the starting hero is a Dragon (although I didn't see any Wizards with him, but he had more troops than me).
Expecting that it would only get better, I defeated the blue player and then moved on (I started gathering an army from the Tower and Castle later), and as a result, in 6 months, all the enemies on the surface were defeated, and only 3 AI opponents remained in the Dungeon.
The ally played terribly, demonstrating all the genius of artificial idiocy: he managed to give the enemy two of his three cities.
To my disappointment, only one battle with a Dragon aroused some interest, where I had to suffer losses, and then everything was very easy and a little boring.
As a result, a complete victory over all enemies on day 247. The Grail was found, all the cities were captured, except for the one that belonged to the ally.
And all this was done with only one hero.
In general, it is an original and simple map, but nevertheless, if you are not lucky with the appearance of Flight and Dimension Door, the walkthrough becomes somewhat more difficult.
Now about the features, advantages, and disadvantages of the map:
- all the passages between the player and the AI are very well and reliably protected; to break through them, you need to develop the hero well and accumulate troops, that is, a quick rush is not possible on this map, even with Flight;
- all heroes are limited to level 22, but at the same time, there are many different places to increase primary skills; in my opinion, this is a plus of this map - so that the game is played with several heroes, so that the heroes are approximately equal, and there is not one with stats of 99;
- there is an opportunity to use Super Dragons, and the Crystal Dragon lair is right at our starting location;
- in theory, we have the following opponents: a Dragon for the Tower, Adriana for Inferno, which should make these opponents quite dangerous and strong, but the AI is very slow in breaking through defenses, taking cities, and generally does not rush to play actively, so my expectations were not met;
I didn't interfere in the Dungeon, where the AI played, so the enemies were able to reach the ally only on the 6th-8th month, breaking through all the defenses calmly and confidently;
- the AI sometimes dies from neutral creatures on the map - for the red Inferno, there should be a Gelu, but later it turned out that Gelu died on neutral creatures and was available in the tavern for hiring.
- the starting location represents a достаточно много свободного пространства, что очень хорошо, так как не хватка ресурсов на респе, необходимость добычи ресурсов вне респа - хорошо подстегивает к активной игре;
- this is a pure strategy without RPG elements: you can choose any race, you can choose any hero, go wherever you want; you can hire a hero in the city of an ally or through the Guild (if you're lucky, it will appear in the city, if not, then it can be obtained in the Pandora's Box at the starting location, by defeating the Crystal Dragons) and start playing at the ally's starting location; you can go through sea neutrals or break through neutrals on land, or simply pass by particularly strong ones with Flight;
- what else pleases: the possibility of combining troops from different cities;
- and most importantly - the passage between the Dungeon and the surface is in one place: at our and our ally's starting location, it is guarded by 300 Archangels on both sides, otherwise, there is no non-magical way to get to the other level, which makes the game a little safer: everyone fights only with 3 AI.
In general, it turned out to be an original and interesting map, where Conflux, Castle, and Rampart feel comfortable; and this is probably one of the few XL maps on which the Necropolis will not stand out so much and have a decisive advantage (I don't think that you can complete the map faster and easier with the Necropolis than with the Castle or Rampart with Conflux).
With a 200% chance, the AI will feel more confident, but I'm still not sure about that.
CONCLUSION: 247 days, 393 points, a Golden Dragon on a difficulty of 160% (Queen).
Added after 28 minutes
And I would also like to talk about a map that I am currently finishing, but which I liked much more than any other RPG-style maps.
Longest Journey....
http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=longest+journey
There is a very ordinary plot - there was a good wizard who didn't bother anyone, but evil came, and the wizard went to war (if briefly and exaggerate the plot)...
Here, as in similar maps, the main hero gradually completes quests, kills one enemy after another, but here there is its own zest, its own elegance - everything is very beautifully drawn, all the enemies are well thought out, some battles require a non-standard approach, but the map is easier than Paragon, but like Paragon, it requires activity, speed, and ingenuity in some places.
On this map, you cannot sit in one place and accumulate troops up to thousands in a stack, as happens in Lord of War or Empire.
Indeed, if you start talking about this map, it will simply kill the interest in its walkthrough and the pleasure of revealing the author's idea in some places.
At the moment, I think that this is still the best map in its genre.
http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=Battle+of+world
The map is original, but unfortunately, it is quite easy. It is a purely strategic map; there are no mandatory or necessary moments, although, of course, there are quests on the map.
You can play as any race and with any hero.
We play with an ally against 6 AI opponents. The map consists of islands.
We have 2 starting locations to choose from: either on the surface or in the Dungeon, and both starting locations are islands and mirror images of each other.
I want to say right away that the starting location is quite poor, which forces you to break through to other islands as quickly as possible, where there is an abundance of resources.
The AI starting locations are the same: islands with a small amount of resources, and between the starting locations is where all the best things are located.
And so, about the walkthrough:
I started on the surface - I chose Castle, and the hero - Valeiska, I gave my ally Rampart, the difficulty is Queen, 160%.
At the starting location, we have all the mines and three cities (one starting, one random, and one Tower, in which Flight and Dimension Door can appear), the AI has two identical cities and one random.
As a result, Valeiska got everything she needs and that is useful on this map, except for Logistics: Earth, Air, Defense, Attack, Tactics, Shooting, Wisdom, Leadership (there is no need for this, but heroes of the Castle almost always get it).
I completed the entire map with one hero, although it is designed for 3-4 full-fledged heroes. First, I cleared the starting location, captured all the cities and mines, and then broke through the shipyard's defenses, got on a ship, and sailed for resources.
Then I built up completely, and with the help of Flight and Dimension Door, I reached the first opponent (this happened in the middle of the 4th month). Here I was glad that the blue player starts with a Tower, and the starting hero is a Dragon (although I didn't see any Wizards with him, but he had more troops than me).
Expecting that it would only get better, I defeated the blue player and then moved on (I started gathering an army from the Tower and Castle later), and as a result, in 6 months, all the enemies on the surface were defeated, and only 3 AI opponents remained in the Dungeon.
The ally played terribly, demonstrating all the genius of artificial idiocy: he managed to give the enemy two of his three cities.
To my disappointment, only one battle with a Dragon aroused some interest, where I had to suffer losses, and then everything was very easy and a little boring.
As a result, a complete victory over all enemies on day 247. The Grail was found, all the cities were captured, except for the one that belonged to the ally.
And all this was done with only one hero.
In general, it is an original and simple map, but nevertheless, if you are not lucky with the appearance of Flight and Dimension Door, the walkthrough becomes somewhat more difficult.
Now about the features, advantages, and disadvantages of the map:
- all the passages between the player and the AI are very well and reliably protected; to break through them, you need to develop the hero well and accumulate troops, that is, a quick rush is not possible on this map, even with Flight;
- all heroes are limited to level 22, but at the same time, there are many different places to increase primary skills; in my opinion, this is a plus of this map - so that the game is played with several heroes, so that the heroes are approximately equal, and there is not one with stats of 99;
- there is an opportunity to use Super Dragons, and the Crystal Dragon lair is right at our starting location;
- in theory, we have the following opponents: a Dragon for the Tower, Adriana for Inferno, which should make these opponents quite dangerous and strong, but the AI is very slow in breaking through defenses, taking cities, and generally does not rush to play actively, so my expectations were not met;
I didn't interfere in the Dungeon, where the AI played, so the enemies were able to reach the ally only on the 6th-8th month, breaking through all the defenses calmly and confidently;
- the AI sometimes dies from neutral creatures on the map - for the red Inferno, there should be a Gelu, but later it turned out that Gelu died on neutral creatures and was available in the tavern for hiring.
- the starting location represents a достаточно много свободного пространства, что очень хорошо, так как не хватка ресурсов на респе, необходимость добычи ресурсов вне респа - хорошо подстегивает к активной игре;
- this is a pure strategy without RPG elements: you can choose any race, you can choose any hero, go wherever you want; you can hire a hero in the city of an ally or through the Guild (if you're lucky, it will appear in the city, if not, then it can be obtained in the Pandora's Box at the starting location, by defeating the Crystal Dragons) and start playing at the ally's starting location; you can go through sea neutrals or break through neutrals on land, or simply pass by particularly strong ones with Flight;
- what else pleases: the possibility of combining troops from different cities;
- and most importantly - the passage between the Dungeon and the surface is in one place: at our and our ally's starting location, it is guarded by 300 Archangels on both sides, otherwise, there is no non-magical way to get to the other level, which makes the game a little safer: everyone fights only with 3 AI.
In general, it turned out to be an original and interesting map, where Conflux, Castle, and Rampart feel comfortable; and this is probably one of the few XL maps on which the Necropolis will not stand out so much and have a decisive advantage (I don't think that you can complete the map faster and easier with the Necropolis than with the Castle or Rampart with Conflux).
With a 200% chance, the AI will feel more confident, but I'm still not sure about that.
CONCLUSION: 247 days, 393 points, a Golden Dragon on a difficulty of 160% (Queen).
Added after 28 minutes
And I would also like to talk about a map that I am currently finishing, but which I liked much more than any other RPG-style maps.
Longest Journey....
http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=longest+journey
There is a very ordinary plot - there was a good wizard who didn't bother anyone, but evil came, and the wizard went to war (if briefly and exaggerate the plot)...
Here, as in similar maps, the main hero gradually completes quests, kills one enemy after another, but here there is its own zest, its own elegance - everything is very beautifully drawn, all the enemies are well thought out, some battles require a non-standard approach, but the map is easier than Paragon, but like Paragon, it requires activity, speed, and ingenuity in some places.
On this map, you cannot sit in one place and accumulate troops up to thousands in a stack, as happens in Lord of War or Empire.
Indeed, if you start talking about this map, it will simply kill the interest in its walkthrough and the pleasure of revealing the author's idea in some places.
At the moment, I think that this is still the best map in its genre.