Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

the last screenshot is exactly the same as the starting location in Metatasker.

the last screenshot is exactly the same as the starting location in Metatasker.

The landscape is the same, but the details are different.

The last screenshot is exactly like the starting location in Metatagxer.

In one of the Chinese maps, I encountered a mixed bag of landscapes: Wayfarer and Xiedu (these are the ones I recognized right away). But the order of passage, logistics, and other map indicators are completely different.

Added 23 hours 26 minutes ago

The name translates to English as Diablo or Dark. There's no way this map will ever be reached. But it's definitely cool: it has strict requirements for tempo, as the map is full of guardians with timers, and there are high-level heroes packed with troops, meaning the map was made using an advanced editor. This is what I noticed during a quick look.

This Chinese map looks like a challenge :)
I looked at it in more detail in the editor, and here are my conclusions:
- the map is completely dynamic; enemy heroes are limited either by guardians or by water, but as soon as we kill one of the starting heroes, the controllers release stronger heroes who appear near us (I haven't checked where and how they appear yet). Therefore, we should expect a constant influx of enemy heroes.
- there is a strict timer for the first 4 days (getting to the castle with Moon, but also correctly calculating the escape route for Aine to the castle in the snow),
- the timing to reach the artifacts for the guardian on 231, because, as I understand it, there are the necessary artifacts for the quests. The timings for 311 for our heroes are not critical, because Orrin, Zidar, and Kreg can take free Archdevils, Archs, and Bears with Birds, and Kreg can also level up by killing legions of birds and cyclops. I said that this is not critical, but I may be wrong, because without these free forces, it may not be possible to kill stronger heroes.
- I see two major problems:
1) obtaining the magic of the town portal, because it can only be obtained in 3 places: 1) by the Dragon in the hut (but for this, you need the magic of walking on water, which can only be obtained in two places - the native city of Xiron, i.e., the strongest hero on the map, or from Astral in the prison, which is also very difficult to reach), 2) from Astral in the prison (you need to kill a number of heroes to get there, including one of the bosses, Malekith), 3) by obtaining the Book of Earth at 104-21-0, but for this, you need to bring a lot of junk in the form of a mummy, nomad, troll, etc., and you can gather them in different parts of the map (for example, a peasant at 5-101-0, a boar at 143-128-0, and how to bring them to one point?). Cloning will be easier, but still difficult.
Yes, you can also get the boots of levitation at 90-110-0 or 143-80-1 to solve the problem of the town portal.
2) the constant invasion of stronger heroes, from which you need to constantly run and dodge, which is almost impossible without the magic of the town portal, because there are almost no taverns in the cities on the map. At a quick glance, there is a tavern in only a couple of cities - in Inferno at 38-29-1 and in Flax at 11-126-0 (behind an impressive antimagic garrison), and in the castle at 61-77-0.
In general, this map looks like one of the most difficult I've ever seen. Perhaps this will be only the second map from my cartography for which I will need to sit down and draw a plan on a piece of paper: where, with whom, for what, and within what time frame we go.

Yes, this is the most difficult map I've ever seen. Compared to it, "Hiede" is a piece of cake. The early-game timings are achievable. There's a trick with hiding the "Explosion" spell above our Inferno Castle, which is guarded by 400 Hellhounds. There's a spot in the terrain where you can use 3 Devils to take them out one by one. The Inferno hero from the Dungeon quickly levels up his magic, gets "Explosion" and "Armageddon," and casts "Forgetfulness" near the Swamp Castle. But... I can't kill Fafnir to open the tent. If you arrive early, you have too few troops, and he manages to kill you with lightning. If you arrive later, he has even more troops. The only time I succeeded was when the AI opened the green pillars near Fafnir, and I managed to grab 40 Archers. But... it was already too late. In short, I've never had such an interesting experience playing. I wanted to ask something. All the heroes on this map have incredibly high magic power. So, are there any methods to make the enemies use fewer combat spells? Like distracting them with casting spells, healing themselves, or something else. Sometimes it works, but I don't understand why the AI chooses a specific magical action. It seems that these actions depend on what WE are doing. For example, when you start casting "Bog," the opponent doesn't attack with lightning (there's no "Antimagic"), and you think, "Okay, it's working," but then, no matter what you do, at some point, he starts attacking. What is the AI based on? I couldn't find an answer in the game's documentation.

So, what is the AI's reasoning?
I couldn't find an answer in the physics section.

As a rule, the AI switches to casting offensive spells in two cases:
1) It has cast all the spells it deems necessary and applied all the required debuffs to us;
2) It feels that it is losing.
In the first case, you need to cast a dispel magic spell at a certain point. Then, the AI will enter a cycle of casting the same type of magic. In the second case, you need to completely deplete the AI's mana before you start to seriously destroy its army.

But if the AI's offensive magic is very strong (high-level magic specialists, for example), and it realizes that it can defeat us with 1-2 casts, then only antimagic or creatures with immunity will save you.

As a rule, the AI switches to casting offensive spells in two cases:
1) it has cast all the spells it deems necessary and applied all the debuffs it wants to us;
2) it feels like it's losing.
In the first case, you need to cast a dispel spell at a certain point. Then the AI enters a cycle of casting the same type of spell. In the second case, you need to completely drain the AI's mana before you start seriously destroying its army.

But if the AI's offensive magic is very strong (e.g., high-level magic specialists), and it realizes that it can defeat us with 1-2 casts, then only antimagic or creatures with immunity can save you.

However, this isn't always the case. I used to think that it wouldn't attack until it had applied buffs, etc., but that's not true!
There are also problems with dispelling. And if you have a Water Expert? The dispel spell also affects you. The same goes for bog spells and antimagic.

Yes, I've noticed that it starts attacking when it's losing.

Added 1 minute ago
I've also noticed that sometimes, if you cast an offensive spell first, the AI starts to imitate you.

Added 4 minutes ago
Oh! I also wanted to ask.
Is there a method for this?
The AI has Slow and Haste.
How can you (sequence of moves) prevent the situation where you end up with Slow and it has Haste?

Because sooner or later, on the second or third turn, this situation occurs, and you get destroyed by a single attack.
Do you cast Slow, do you use dispel...?

If there's a similar scheme, for example, you cast Curse, and the AI heals on the next turn, and you cast Curse again, and so on until its mana runs out or you shoot it down.

271200, there probably aren't any universal methods for such cases; you need to assess the situation.

Perhaps this will be only the second map from my mapmaking that will require me to sit down and draw a plan on a piece of paper: where to go, with whom, for what purpose, and within what timeframe.

And what was the first one?

it's a shame there aren't any methodologies.
but...
the thing is, I've had battles where the sequence of my actions led to the computer not using combat magic.
And I didn't pay attention to WHAT exactly led to this.

Maybe someone was more observant; share your examples.

I understand that on custom maps, subtle features often dominate.
Like using the terrain.
The terrain can be VERY different, as can the ground itself.

like that hiding spot in a battle with hellhounds.

where can I read about the features of battles on different terrains?
Like, for example, that on their native terrain, golems "see" the swamp? Has anyone come across such a detailed topic?

Yes, this is the most difficult map I've ever seen. Compared to it, Хиеду is a piece of cake. The early-game timings are achievable. There's a trick involving an external dwelling with a "Explosion" spell near our Inferno Castle, guarded by 400 Hellhounds. There's a spot in the terrain where you can use three Devils, taking turns, to kill them all. The Inferno hero from the Dungeon quickly levels up magic, gets "Explosion" and "Armageddon," and casts "Forgetfulness" near the Swamp Castle. But... I can't kill Фафнер to open the tent. If you arrive early, you have few troops, and he kills you with lightning. If you arrive later, he has even more troops. The only time I succeeded was when the computer opened the green pillars near Фафнер, and I managed to grab 40 Archdevils. But... it's already too late. In short, I've never had such an interesting experience playing.

Added 15 minutes ago
I wanted to ask something. Did you use combat spells? Like distracting them to cast spells, heal themselves, or something else? What is the computer's logic? I couldn't find an answer in the physics.

On one of the Chinese maps, I fought one of the three final mega-bosses - Гирд, a hero of some incredibly high level, attacking him while he was in his castle. What's noteworthy is that Гирд didn't use almost any combat magic, but instead cast positive spells on himself and debuffs on us, even though the battle lasted for over an hour. Situations and reasons why the computer doesn't want to cast attack magic (my additional observations):
1) You attack the computer in a castle, deplete your army, summon elementals, and the computer doesn't spend its magic on them.
2) You attack the computer in a castle, and your stacks are so strong that the computer thinks its attack magic won't kill them in, say, 7-10 rounds or more, and spends magic on something else. The same happens, but not always, if you cast a protection spell against some magic, reducing the damage by 50%.
3) You attack the computer in a castle, and you only have a couple of dangerous stacks (flying units) or ranged units (but weaker than the computer), and the computer might cast only a couple of attack spells to significantly reduce the size of your stack and then start casting spells on itself.
4) The computer attacks you in a castle, without teleportation or flying/ranged units, and starts summoning more elementals, usually not spending magic on attack spells.
5) You have a lot of mana, and the computer decides it's better to defend itself.
And, as others have mentioned, there's also the case where the computer runs away.
Фафнер on this map has bracers, which you can use to your advantage. For example, you can stay in a castle and let him attack (if that's possible). In the editor, you can see that Фафнер only has four spells in his spellbook: blessing, ice bolt, chain lightning, and haste. In my opinion, you either need to let him learn something so he casts something useless (but he doesn't seem to have spells in the castle), or somehow lock him into casting these two non-attack spells: blessing and haste. Or find a way to counter chain lightning (but then he'll cast ice bolt).

Added 8 minutes ago

271200, there probably aren't any universal methods for these cases; you need to look at the situation. What was the first one?

I don't remember exactly, but I think it was Abelia by Grigori Mintchev. At the time, the map seemed very, very difficult to me. You had to go through quests, ignoring the surrounding computers, to get armies, and you had to create a quest map: what to take and where to go. I remember that there was no town portal on the map. 20% of the map was water, and you had to somehow teach the computer to walk on water, teach yourself magic by buying heroes, and there were other problems. I couldn't do it without a plan. I couldn't keep up with everything on the map. I remember that I even left my review and tips on its walkthrough in English on Meps4Heroes. Generally, the maps are passable; you usually just need to remember 3-5 directions and what to do in the coming weeks. P.S. Grigori released another map this year: Audaciousness. I started the first week, but then I found out that heroes can't get earth magic, and I didn't know how to play with that. Plus, there's a severe lack of resources and gold, a negative experience of -25,000 for the starting hero, etc. I put it aside for now. I used to email this author, and he asked for save files of a walkthrough for some map, so the author is reachable.

Added 4 minutes ago

...
the thing is, I had battles where the sequence of my actions led to the computer not using combat magic.
And I didn't pay attention to what exactly caused this.
I think that on author-made maps, there are often subtle features that are important. Like using the terrain.

A simple cheat that helps me on many maps: play the original landscape on author-made maps, and you can see what the author intended. In places where you don't see a solution or where there's an opportunity to let a hero be attacked in different locations, check all these locations. If there isn't a good one, load the HD+ mod without the SoD plugin, and voila: the landscape has changed. Repeat the check of all possible cells. This simple trick allowed me to win seemingly impossible battles by hiding a stack in the right cell and letting the computer attack you with something that can't retaliate (magical elementals, harpies, etc.). Well, everyone probably knows about the "safety" cell in Xyiedu. I found a similar cell on that map, but in a different place, and on another Chinese map (Counterattack of the Jedi), not far from the central key castle. And as for how to lock the computer into casting the desired sequence of spells, there's no universal advice, only practice. Usually, it's more or less clear when you're besieging a castle where the computer is: you destroy the ballista, lose your ranged units, kill the computer's ranged units and flying units, then cast dispel and restoration on your own (you need to know restoration :)). A battle in the field is a completely different story; here, usually, only depleting the computer's mana helps, when we hide behind a force field.

As I understand it, author-made maps often feature subtle tricks that give an advantage. Like using the terrain.
The terrain can be VERY diverse, as can the ground itself.

I browsed through my folders and collected some screenshots from various sources where the emphasis is on using the terrain (and war machines): https://imgur.com/a/lSbkEHa

Please add anything you have; I'm collecting this kind of thing.

If you need to find suitable terrain for a battle with the computer, you can check the map with the h3mtered program. There is also a more convenient program by kazmer, but I still haven't figured out how to run it:D

I browsed through my folders and collected some screenshots from various sources that emphasize the use of terrain (and war machines): https://imgur.com/a/lSbkEHa
Please add any that you have; I'm collecting these.

See my review on page 155 of the map thread, "Jennifer's Dream Journey (a memorial to love)." It contains screenshots of ambushes in field battles.
And here, I specifically took a screenshot of the 80-71-0 point on the "Jedi Counterattack" map, which I found through trial and error and which allowed me to kill a good half of the enemy heroes near the central Castle. There is access to the point via single-hex enemies, but if someone can be recruited, we'll do it; if not, we'll try to kill or hypnotize them. Then, we deplete the computer's mana and kill them one by one.

wenwell, here are a few interesting strategies from Metatactics for your collection.

wenwell, here are a few interesting strategies from Metatactics for you.

Okay! Stap! In the second miniature, there's a fire wall.
Is this some kind of bug?
Do hydras not cross the wall?
I've encountered situations where two-hex creatures don't attack past a fire wall in certain positions on the EDGE of the map.

Can you provide more details about this?

Neither hydras nor wyverns will attack, as they will take more health damage from the fire than the health of the enemies they kill. Therefore, they wait for the wall of fire to subside. In such cases, a bug occurs where units that are immune to the wall of fire (for example, azure or black dragons) behave similarly.

Added after 13 minutes
It is best to use weak units for the units behind the wall. The computer will sometimes still target angels.

yeah, I get it, weak troops in the front.
And I also saw something weird in a battle against neutral creatures: my fairies' griffons didn't "see" them.
This only happened if they were standing at the EDGE of the battlefield, behind the expert-level wall of fire.
As soon as they were moved forward one square (the expert wall allows this), they were attacked.