"HW rulez" mod (add-on) for HoMM3.

You say the phrase "another guessing game" with such breathlessness, as if it were some kind of sodomy with geese. Yes, another one, so what? It differs from the original by a slightly higher probability of building control. The more this is true, the fewer castles with GM5 there are on the map. With an average number of them, there is practically no difference; it only manifests with small numbers (1-3).

As for "cyclic running around being unlikely," there is a real example—perhaps not exactly on this topic, but it illustrates it: the final of CIS-13, specifically on a mirror map. Alex significantly outpaced Bayazet in troops and leveling, but Bayazet managed to find a Dragon Utopia with a blue cap in a dark corner (Alex thought a Dragon Utopia wouldn't fit there, but it was compactly pressed against the rocks), and this happened to be the only control on the map. On day 131, Alex took Bayazet's main town, and Bayazet began "playing for a draw"—jumping all over the map and reclaiming castles, sometimes with his father, and sometimes with one-hit wonders bought out in towns. Alex resisted for several days but then realized it was useless; he locked himself in his own main town and spent 3-4 days simply rebuilding the tower until he built Dimension Door, then returned and caught Bayazet.

People simply haven't tasted mirror maps in all their nuances yet, and the motivation to resist in fun games and during the group stage is low, but in serious tournaments, they will squeeze every possibility out of mirror maps, including this kind of running around "for a draw"