HALL OF FAME – 4th stage of the BLITZ TOURNAMENT

AmberSoler

1. Valeska picks up the Book of Fire (and possibly the Shackles of War – this artifact has a dual purpose on the map, details below) and heads to the outer tavern, near which she takes +13000 gold.

2. In the city, we hire Josephine (under her is Torgrim). We leave 10 gremlins in the garrison (2 of them are planned for removing the terrain penalty when moving two heroes across snow and 8 are left as insurance, since we may need troops to clear the retaliation when taking 4x1000 gold guarded by Mighty Gorgons – two gremlins per battle). Josephine, with the rest of the troops, goes through a one-way portal to the Gorgon island, joins four Flying Serpents, and heads through another one-way portal to the Mercenary Guild.

3. Valeska hires Dessa (Moner) at the outer tavern, gives her own artifacts (Bow and Speed Boots), keeping only the book of fire. She also trades her Archer with Dessa for the cheapest unit – a Goblin. Dessa transfers all her units to Josephine, keeping only the cheapest Gremlin and the Boots. Josephine exchanges all units (except one Gremlin and one Flying Serpent needed for removing the swamp penalty) for gold, resulting in +2933 gold.

4. Dessa heads north, picking up a Scroll (Fire Elementals) and a Vial of Lifeblood along the way. We leave the Shackles of War in place – they were not needed.

Note №1. The Gift. (A small lyrical digression explaining the meaning of the first quest designed for the map).

As is known, Moner has the maximum speed among all heroes that can be hired on the first day – 1936 mp. However, according to theory, any hero who has already been in the game and is rehired has a movement allowance of 2000 mp. The only hero currently available to be used this way without violating the ban on redeeming one's own hero is Fiur, who still belongs to the blue player. Our task is to destroy him for subsequent recruitment under our banners.

Since I am not certain if an opponent flees in the absence of a castle, the Shackles of War were left on the map just in case, but they were not needed in my walkthrough – Fiur steadfastly endured the battle until the end.

So far, this point is quite transparent and largely does not fall under the "quest" category. The peculiarity of the task was that a movement allowance of 2000 mp would not be enough (!) to reach both the gold (+25000) and Armageddon's Blade in the far part of the swamp in one day. The only thing that could help Fiur is an artifact increasing movement – Speed Boots, which is exactly what we did first – passed them to him.

5. Thus, Josephine, having the Boots, heads to Fiur after exchanging units and performs this heroic mission. Losing the battle to him, she passes this important artifact to the opponent.

Note №2. Valeska's Mission.

How can we now destroy the opponent in such a way that his artifacts (which is a critical point) remain with him? The only way to do this is to win by not winning! :) In other words, we need to destroy Fiur's troops without leaving our own hero alive, so that the artifacts do not transfer back to us! For this purpose, we will need the Book of Fire Magic.

6. Valeska attacks the opponent. On the first turn, we cast Fire Elementals, who can subsequently strike the opponent, and put our only living stack – a Goblin – under attack. After its loss, even with the Elementals present, our hero has no chance of survival. Thus, in the end, only Dessa remains on the map, having finished her turn at the edge of the swamp. Josephine and Valeska have fallen, however, fulfilling their destiny's mission – creating the super-logistics hero Fiur.

7. In the city, we hire Torgrim (Kirry), who takes the artifacts (Vial and Scroll) from Dessa, one Gremlin (leaving his Centaur in exchange), and heads to the dungeon via a two-way portal. After freeing Calh, he gives him the Vial of Life. He keeps the Scroll for himself.

8. We hire Moner (Fiur), who takes two Gremlins from the garrison and follows Torgrim.

9. Torgrim speeds up at the Oasis, visits the Observation Tower in the tree, and attacks the opponent with one Gremlin – Olema easily wipes out the poor Gremlin, celebrating victory and rejoicing in a new acquisition – the Scroll that allows summoning Fire Elementals.

Note №3. Lesson in Demonology.

The second quest left on the map begins precisely with this now-familiar technique – "Alexander Matrosov." :) The hero sacrifices themselves, changing the balance of power on the map for further use to their advantage.

The essence of the solution to this quest is as follows.

We need to obtain six Demons for free passage to the second Armageddon's Blade. We have the opportunity to do this using the opponent's (now) strong army and our own Hell Hounds. However, to perform this task, we need to pick up a calculator and know the principles of demonology thoroughly.

To obtain six Demons (whose total HP equals 6*35=210 HP), we must destroy at least six units whose total health pool equals or exceeds 210 HP. Therefore, we divide 11 units into two stacks of 5 and 6 Hell Hounds and send the larger stack into battle. The opponent will definitely summon Fire Elementals, who, together with Demons, easily wipe out our six units (of course – we aren't attacking them or even taking a defensive stance – just moving from one cell to another). Then, the slightly battered enemy forces throw themselves at the remaining five units, who give them a worthy fight, not forgetting to pick up 6 Demons along the way (five Hell Hounds are more than enough for this).

Note №4. Health Vial.

This was left for possible use if anyone wished to save the Hell Hounds for subsequent exchange for gold (490*11=5390 gold). In that case, one could sacrifice small units from the initial set by significantly increasing their HP pool. The Vial affects weak units much more effectively than strong ones. 24 Gremlins would be enough (24*9 HP = 216 HP), which could bring an additional 5390 – 2500 (hero hire) – 504 (loss on Gremlins) = 2465 gold.

10. Using the tactic proposed above, Calh obtains 6 Demons and returns to the Oasis to replenish his movement allowance. After that, he exchanges the Demons for one Gremlin with Moner, dismisses the remaining Hell Hounds, and passes all artifacts (the Shackles of War that Olema had, the Scroll, and the Vial) to Moner. Then, he goes for the gold, collecting it all (+7000). The turn is completely finished.

11. Moner opens the passage guard; the remaining single Gremlin allows him to pick up AA without penalty, gold (+15000), join Arch and jump through a one-way portal to Gorgon island.

12. In the city, we hire Kirry (Gunnar), who takes all accumulated units from the garrison, approaches Dessa, leaves her a Fairy instead of a Centaur (Fairy is the cheapest unit), takes the Serpent and returns to the castle, stopping one step away from it.

13. We hire Fiur (Olema). Kirry passes him the Serpent (in exchange for the Fairy) and heads through a one-way portal for the Admiral's Hat, after which she joins the Dragon and goes to Gorgon island via a two-way portal. Subsequently, Kirry will spend the rest of her turn moving within this two-way portal, performing dispatch functions and preventing other heroes from spending precious move points on transferring troops and artifacts.

14. Our main logistics hero Fiur collects all gold in the swamp in one turn and picks up AA, spending his last move points on it.

15. We hire Olema (Astral), leave her in the garrison for now, and immediately hire Astral, who, having only advanced wisdom among his skills, is able to guaranteed learn expert Pathfinding by level five; this is successfully achieved by consulting the scholar and previously exchanging artifacts obtained from Moner for experience. Dessa and Moner are dismissed.

16. Astral, having the two strongest units in reserve (Arch taken from Moner, Dragon from Kirry), collects all gold guarded by Gorgons (+4000) without much difficulty, not forgetting to speed up at the Oasis after each battle. (The Oasis was also visited before the first battle). Just in case, considering the Deadly Breath of Gorgons, 8 Gremlins were kept with Kirry for insurance, but it turned out they weren't needed.

17. After passing all units to Kirry (except one Gremlin), Astral collects all gold in the swamp and also completes the quest for +50000.

18. Olema reaches the Oasis near the Shipyard through a network of portals, receives the Dragon and Hat from Kirry, fights the Gold Golems, speeds up at the Oasis once more, and gets into the previously summoned boat.

Note №5. The Miracle Hat.

There is one undocumented point regarding the Admiral's Hat. If you do not open the "hero window" before boarding the boat, the logistics bonus provided by the Oasis vanishes and is not converted into sea move points. Therefore, be sure to admire the Admiral's Hat on Olema and boldly step into the boat. As a result – we see three coveted pluses to the left of the hero portrait. This turn will be enough for us to complete both quests on the neighboring island and return. A bit more than 50 mp remains in reserve.

19. After completing both quests on the neighboring island, Olema disembarks and passes the Dragon, Hat, and Legion Statue to Kirry. Olema is dismissed.

Note №6. Summoning the Boat.

If necessary, two options were provided on the map to acquire a second boat. Either build it at the shipyard (- 16000 gold) or, more reasonably, summon it with any hero after allowing them to obtain advanced water magic. We take basic water skill from the Scholar and pump up advanced right there at the Altar using the nearby Shackles of War. This is the second purpose of this artifact. The ideal option for this is Jem. She doesn't even need to level up advanced water, as she has basic; thus, the Scholar gives her advanced immediately.

20. We hire Gunnar (Sylvia), who heads to the boat, receives the Dragon and Admiral's Hat along the way, speeds up at the Oasis, and goes through the nearest whirlpool to the Abandoned Ship (+2000), then to the second one (+5000). The turn is finished here (I couldn't think of an economically justified way to return the Dragon for exchange into gold).

21. Kirry, using the rest of her turn, reaches the Mercenary Guild, where she exchanges all remaining units for gold (+3801 gold).

Thus,

- +146 000 gold collected on the map,
- exchanging troops for gold brought us 2933+3801=6734 gold
- +7000 gold found at sea
- one quest cost - 51000, the second brought +50000 gold
- 9 heroes had to be hired, which cost - 22500

The final result is – 132 234.