Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps. Auto-translated

These 3 days spent building the Capitol and the 2 groups of units are essentially a hit-and-run tactic with 3 heroes, each using 8 mana against Chaos. If we could gather enough resources for 1-2 more hit-and-run attacks, the losses from this tactic wouldn't be so significant. Losing Gnolls isn't ideal because Zipeska will be using magic on other, more useful stacks. Besides, the Gnolls performed well in garrisons and in defending against enemy attacks.
I think the initial version without building the resource silo was better. The Capitol will still be built on day 212, but we save money, and we'll have enough wood to upgrade the Gnolls, Lizards, and Flies anyway. Upgrading the rest isn't necessary. While we're dealing with the Swamp, the Barbarians will have completely rebuilt our starting Castle and even added Hydras! The Hydras are useless, but that's beside the point. :
By the way, the screenshot shows how we managed to save Gnolls on day 133 by using Snakes as bait. However, this also creates further logistical problems – the movement point costs for support units. When there are only 2 active heroes for tasks in the Swamp (the third hero has their own tasks far away), these movement points can be critical.
PS, all this talk has motivated me – I'm going to make a little more progress in the walkthrough

I'll try not to engage enemy heroes at all, instead buying up the available army and running along the route: boots - garrison - swamp castles. The main goal is to reach the destination within 7 days without a starting castle, but I think Tazar, with an expert artifact and boots, can handle it. Otherwise, the money will either go to hiring advanced units or buying an army. The second option seems more preferable. I don't know how it will turn out, but I'll give it a try. I can also use the psionic units to further strengthen Tazar, because the idea of just overwhelming a swarm of griffons with brute force doesn't appeal to me.

Added 14 minutes ago
Removed HD+, on 221, Wistan appeared with three stacks. Thanks for the advice.

Added 26 minutes ago
Haha, after clearing the hydras on 221, I bought 106 upgraded lizards and 74 upgraded dragonflies, and the computer players ran home :) I also upgraded the wyverns. On 231, I can move towards the garrison, in theory.

I repeat, I already played carelessly and reached 311. But even at that timing, I didn't have enough sprites or lizards under Blessing to one-shot the stack of rogues on the boots. And also, I lacked tactics. So, I decided to retrieve the boots on my way back.
In general, ideally, I should have aimed for either 231 or 241.

In case anyone's interested, 'The Last Crusade v3.4' has been uploaded to the site:
http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=Hazar&type=&size=Extra+Large&difficulty=&sort=3
All other repositories (if any are available) are outdated.

Boots with 235 attack, no tactics. I'm still considering whether it's worth accepting such losses. I didn't specifically choose Gnolls so that they wouldn't all be wiped out. It's also annoying that I forgot to buy a tent.

Well, the losses are relatively small. Considering that we captured the Blue Swamp earlier, this army will be compensated for by the increase in our forces.

well, it's a relatively small loss. Considering that I captured the Blue Swamp earlier, this entire army will be compensated for by the increase in resources.

I got lucky. I ignored the swamp and regretted it – even Gondor wouldn't have seen such an army. In the second game, I decided to take it out right away.

Ethereal, is this another attempt to achieve 200%?

Added 7 minutes ago
Yesterday, I managed to defeat the Red player, reaching 336 points. I cleared out all the Gnolls in the first garrison, so after that, I was mostly fighting Wyverns :( I lost about 15 of them, if not more, to lightning attacks. The battles with Chuassec were quite challenging, with three very tense encounters. And with Chipheska, there was only one almost bloodless battle (she repeatedly tried to cast Expert Slow), but the real problem with her was catching her when she fled to the Barbarian respawn point and was left without castles. She had the key ring for the scenario with her (Tazar constantly ran past it with his snakes but never picked it up), and a useful shield as well.

Added 1 minute ago
The Red player built not just Hydras, but Chaos Hydras :)

Added 7 minutes ago
I think we can leave the Hydras and Horrors for the secondary hero, who will sit in ambush with the Imps. Ideally, after the first defeat, the Inferno player will be hesitant to leave their castles and will constantly buy them out if someone is stationed there.

Added 7 minutes ago
I'm still feeling guilty about sacrificing the Captain's Hat at the altar. It gives 60 Wyverns. But I doubt that without those 6k experience points, I can have a good start on this map.

Ethereal, another attempt to reach 200%?

Yep. I don't play for less.

At first, I almost missed it. A ring? What important quest ring is that? I don't remember having one. Did I mess up? I checked the editor – ah, it's about the art item +1 attack/defense. Indeed, it's a ring :) I was fighting on 4 vivas, around level 143 or 144. I got lucky this time:)
But with the next item, I didn't get lucky:( Damn, I thought you needed the Admiral's hat for the bib, not the Captain's. That's why I decided I could safely hand it in at the altar. Ugh, why didn't I realize that sooner...
In general, 6k experience points help, but they're not critical. I think I can replay the first couple of months. It just doesn't feel right. Perfection is achievable.
And from the point of view of pure playability, it doesn't really matter, of course. The main work is already done.
That is, the difference isn't significant, whether you have 500 vivas or 560, but these quests always help for speedruns. Just a subtle hint)
PS Damn, why do I keep getting sidetracked into the topic of speedruns?...

You're being cautious. As for me, I hesitated and ended up with 750 wins, which wasn't as fun as I'd hoped. And I didn't sell any artifacts, so I didn't have any problems in that regard.

Nah, I’m not into speedrunning, I haven’t gotten that hardcore yet.

Well, at this stage, the snakes should one-shot the stack, easy experience. I actually had a slightly smaller stack – 600 (a couple of weeks earlier) – and it cleared without any problems. In those 2 weeks, the dragonfly stack increases by more than 21% of the viv's growth.
As for the captain's hat, it was just a little mistake) Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

Are such losses against Lucifer normal (almost all damage comes from magic :mad:)? He seems completely useless. He's supposed to be a specialist in Pit Lords, has great stats, and uses Expert Fireball, which has an area of effect and resistance doesn't help against it. In the middle of the fourth month, he started actively expanding his territory and now has 4 castles, 2 of which are fully built. But is it even necessary to eliminate him? By the way, he didn't let me escape.

Green and brown are coming at me without any system. I checked, and it seems the first visitor should arrive at the beginning of the 5th month, so theoretically, there should have been time to clean up the Inferno lands. But no, during the playthrough, both decided to arrive two weeks earlier. This map will be the death of me)

Added 6 minutes later
It seems that the plan needs to be reworked. Just sitting and accumulating troops until the opportunity to break through the first Necropolis garrison appears, repelling waves of brown and green, and then moving all available troops (absolutely all) and surrendering native territories, relocating to Necropolis castles, and not touching Lucifer at all. The only question is: will there be enough money to buy everything if I don't establish control over the mines in the Inferno zones?

Added 5 minutes later
I looked at the save files from a 130% completion playthrough, and brown and green only arrive in the middle of the sixth month, that is, two months later. This is how the chosen difficulty level affects the speed at which the AI appears.