Posts from "The Art of Strategy - III"

Tournament Regulations.
This tournament is an official rated tournament.
Tournament dates are determined based on the number of registrants, 1 week is given per 1 game.
Game Schedule.
1st game: 27.04.-06.05.2018
2nd game: 07.-13.05.2018
3rd game: 14.-20.05.2018
4th game: 21.-27.05.2018
5th game: 28.05.-03.06.2018
6th game: 04.-10.06.2018
7th game: 11.-17.06.2018
8th game: 18.-24.06.2018
9th game: 25.06.-01.07.2018
10th game: 02.-08.07.2018
11th game: 09.-15.07.2018
12th game: 16.-22.07.2018
13th game: 23.-29.07.2018
14th game: 30.07.-05.08.2018
15th game: 06.-12.08.2018
16th game: 13.-19.08.2018
17th game: 20.-26.08.2018

Please report all difficulties or delays immediately in this thread.
Tournament Dates: 27.04.2018 - 26.08.2018
Map generation is performed using IRMG version 1.7.8 or version 1.8.0.
Settings for IRMG:
1."Zones Compatibility Factor" = 1.5
2."Monster Strength Factor" = 1.0
3."Portal Connection Only" - off (meaning the button is not pressed)
3."No obstacles On Map" - off
4."Sigle Faction Guard" - Off
5."Selected Faction guard only" - off
6."Different Faction" - on
7."Disable Intant Travel" - off
8."Chaos week" - off

Game Settings:
Turn time limit – 10 minutes.
Animation speed – 5.
Quick combat – enabled.
Simultaneous turns – enabled.
Dynamic combat – disabled.
Ghost mode – disabled.
Autosave – enabled.
Game difficulty – hero

Reasons for a player to be excluded from the tournament:
- failure to comply with the regulations and rules of this tournament;
- violation of tournament deadlines without prior notification to the tournament judge;
- fact of violating prohibitions in this tournament;
- rudeness, public insult of the organizer, judge, or tournament participants.
Replacement of tournament participants for those who have dropped out is possible. The result of the dropped participant is transferred by "inheritance" to the newly joined tournament participant.

1. Games are played on the latest official version of the game. Currently – HoMM V: Tribes of the East 3.1, using the Tournament Edition mod - description thread (hereinafter, TE), download mod.

The game can be played via GameRanger, Hamachi, Tungle, Remobo, COMODO EasyVPN, and similar programs.

2. Since the game has autosave - it is recommended to save once every 3 days.

3. THE TOURNAMENT IS HELD IN A ROUND-ROBIN FORMAT. Each participant plays against everyone else once (1 game).

Player pairs are formed randomly by the judges for each game so that each player plays with every other player only once.

COLOR SELECTION
By mutual agreement of the players; otherwise, colors are determined by the judge. If one of the players is a judge, the other player has the right to request color selection from another person known to both players.

TEMPLATE SELECTION:
The template is selected randomly by the judges for each game between players for the entire tournament so that each player can sequentially play on all templates. Repeated use is permitted. However, there should be no repeats if 8 or fewer players are registered; up to 2 repeats for 9-16 players; 3 repeats for 17-24, and so on. The initial list of 8 templates (crown, letos, m3, mask, labyrinth, rainbow, spider, sun) restarts after a player has played through the entire template list.
Templates for IRMG. Template schemes.
Information about formed pairs and templates will be posted no later than 8:00 MSK time on 26.04.2018.

FACTION SELECTION:
Before the start of the tournament, after the information about formed player pairs and templates is posted, each participant sends the judges the faction they will play with against their opponent in the pair for the duration of the entire tournament. This faction information is sent via internet pager, internet messenger, SMS message, or any other method convenient for the player, but not by voice. The following requirement must be observed for the entire tournament.
When selecting a faction, there should be no:
- repeats if 8 or fewer players are registered;
- 2 repeats if 9-16 players are registered;
- 3 repeats if 17-24 players are registered, and so on.
Judges, if they are players, "simultaneously" send their factions to each other for a specific player for the entire tournament following the same procedure as other participants of this tournament until 12:00:00 MSK 26.04.2018, and then accept factions from the remaining participants until 22:59:59 MSK 26.04.2018. Players who do not send their lists are automatically dropped from the tournament.

In case your opponent does not respond to you, please report this immediately in the tournament thread. This may be used to assign a technical decision for the game.
If opponents cannot agree, by default the game should take place either Friday evening, Saturday, or Sunday. The judge must be notified of the inability to agree. He may personally appoint a convenient time for both or schedule the game for Friday evening, Saturday, or Sunday.
If:
- by the end of Friday evening (24:00 MSK time),
- on Saturday
- Sunday
the opponent has been unable to start and finish the game within the tour deadline, a technical defeat is assigned to them. After two technical defeats, the player is excluded from the tournament.
If both players are unable to play from Friday evening through Sunday, both players receive a technical defeat.
In exceptional cases (by decision of the judge), a Fixed Date and Time (FDT) may be (but not necessarily) appointed. If a player does not show up for the game within 1 hour of the appointed FDT, they are considered absent from the game and awarded a technical defeat. If both players fail to appear at the appointed FDT, they both receive a technical defeat and are excluded from the tournament.

4. The use of any bugs, undocumented features, cheat codes, as well as unofficial programs and modifications is prohibited, except for the mods specified in the tournament regulations and programs that create virtual networks.

5. In case of a connection break or game crash, the last autosave is loaded; players are required to exactly repeat all their moves up to the moment of the connection break or crash. In case of a connection break or crash on the first day of the game, heroes are randomly rolled again.

6. In battles between players, a stalemate situation may arise (where neither player can win). In this situation, the attacking side must retreat or surrender (at their discretion). If the Shackles of War artifact is involved in the battle, then upon occurrence of a stalemate, the battle should be finished in AutoCombat mode.

7. Each player is entitled to 3 restarts with map regeneration no later than the third day (the end of the day is considered the pressing of the turn-transfer button, regardless of whether the opponent has completed their current turn or not); after a restart, the template is reset to the one determined before the restart. If a restart is taken on 1-1-1, the player has 2 days of restarts for the next map (meaning they can take another 2 restarts on 1-1-1, or 1 restart on 1-1-2). If a restart is taken on 1-1-2, the player has 1 day of restarts for the next map (meaning they can still take 1 restart on 1-1-1). If a restart is taken on 1-1-3, the player has no more restart days for the next map.

Simultaneous turn break or desync in week 1 - technical restart (except cases where both players are ready to continue the game)
Simultaneous turn break or desync in week 2 and later - the game continues (except cases where both players are ready to start the game over)

8. "Red-rush" is prohibited, meaning an attack by red on the first day of the week with purchased growth (the red player may attack on the first day, but not while purchasing growth).

9. Joining neutrals is prohibited. As an exception, joined units can be taken to be sacrificed in a pit or sold at the market, but not put into battle.
Goblins who joined the army after "Betrayal" triggers may remain in the army.

10. Using the same-turn spell "Astral Gates" to jump from any zone into the opponent's starting zone is prohibited if the portal/garrison connecting them has not been broken. It is also prohibited to use the same-turn spell "Astral Gates" to jump into an adjacent zone of the opponent and enter the opponent's starting zone in that same turn.

11. Pressing wait on Krag's first hit in battles with opponent heroes is prohibited; it is permitted against neutrals.

14. When determining a player's position in the tournament table in case of equal points, the following criteria apply:
- Berger coefficient;
- result of head-to-head meeting;
- number of wins;
- number of draws;
- number of losses;
- additional game.

15. Attention! LOADS are PROHIBITED in this tournament!!
Exception: a mutual agreement on the number of loads has been reached by both players. If, despite the agreed number of loads, players have disagreements about the outcome of the game (win/loss) due to loads, the tournament judge reserves the right to decide the outcome of the game.

The application for registration in the tournament is made using the automated system by clicking the "sign up for tournament" button.
In the message, you must specify data for all available means of communication that the player deems necessary to provide:
- I.C.Q., qip, Miranda and similar;
- Discord, Skype and similar;
- phone, Viber, WhatsApp and similar;
- email address.
After this, send the automatically created message.