Posts from [HMM II TOURNAMENT OFF] The second stage of the Van Cunningham 2008 tournament.

That's it. No more questions. There's simply no save before the battle. The Barbarian's army in the Castle cannot break through. But after purchasing the spellbook and a Warlock, everything becomes clear. Excellent! To be honest, I didn't believe that the yellow creature could be killed in the first week, so I didn't even consider a seven-day result.

I see you had an army of 169 goblins and 29 orcs before the battle with the Phoenixes. After the battle, you had 113 goblins left!
Tell me about your battle strategy; I had a similar army, but I lost more goblins.

To be honest, I got lucky. I set up the formation as 1-1-1-169-26. With some minor variations, I managed to achieve early morale for the goblins (as you know, in the second game, morale is quite predetermined, unlike the first and third games, but not as rigidly as in the fifth). Plus, the phoenixes were attacking each other.

That's it. No more questions. There's no save before the battle. The army that the Barbarian has in his castle can't break through. But after buying the Book of Magic and a Warlock, everything becomes clear.

My central computer built a guild of only level 1. As a result, I had to recruit some more troops and killed the enemy with a Barbarian and 3 spells of Blessing, using an army of 147 goblins, 8 orcs, 7 gargoyles, and 11 centaurs. It was an interesting battle. 53 goblins survived.

I'm posting my walkthrough here.

About the map.

The map is quite generous with available money and resources. Some of them are free, and some are guarded, but not by too strong neutrals. The passages to the enemies are guarded by armies of varying strength, but it is possible to break through each of them with the troops of several heroes. This makes a strategy of rushing with a large number of heroes obvious.

About the troops and magic.

We have low-level troops from heroes, potentially joining fairies, thieves, goblins, and nomads, 11 of which can be bought on the map. It's not that bad. Phoenixes also join when guarding the teleport, but we can't gather an army strong enough for that. There are many troops that can be recruited for money, but it is impossible to quickly level up Expert Diplomacy, and the need to rush in three directions at once eliminates this strategy. Magic can only be used after capturing enemy castles, but the spell selection for the top and central computers (the right one is not dangerous because it doesn't have such starting bonuses) is quite good. Keep this in mind.

About the heroes.

For this map, you need many Barbarians (strike force in the form of goblins and an anchor in the form of orcs) and Warlocks (high starting speed, strategically useful units, potential runners). Fortunately, only 1 Warlock is occupied among the heroes we are interested in; the other 17 are free. In the walkthrough, I had to buy a hero 19 times, which means I had to "dig" 18 times with varying selectivity. I would like to thank vbn for the hero-finding tool for the second Heroes game.

About the resources.

There is a lot of gold and treasure chests, but they are scattered across the map, which makes collecting them difficult. We need other resources mainly for selling, except for wood for the Markets.

Day 111

Gwennett takes a treasure chest +2000 and a bonfire +500, +5cr. We buy Gem (in Barok's tavern), who takes archers from Gwennett (leaving them in the castle) and gives a fairy. On the fairy, she takes a treasure chest +2000. We buy Barok (Whisper), who, with the fairy, takes gold +600.
Day 112

Gwennett runs to the northwest. Gem heads east. Barok goes north, taking a treasure chest +2000. We buy Whisper (Fineas), who, with gargoyles, runs up. As a result, we get 20 centaurs and 8 gargoyles from 2 warlocks.
Day 113

Gwennett takes 5cr and 2 treasure chests of 1500. Gem +2000 near the mercury mine. Barok picks up 2 chests of +2000. Now we have money to organize a hero rush. We buy Fineas (Ergon), who runs east. Whisper goes up. Ergon (Agar) heads north. Agar (Jodjosh) with gargoyles occupies a strategic position between the gold and the mine. Jodjosh (Jacqueline) stands next to Fineas. On the third day, we have 8 heroes; the preparatory stage can be considered successfully completed.
Day 114

Gwennett is dismissed. We start building the future chain. Barok takes +500, +5 gems, +1000. Gem +1500 and down. Fineas stands in front of the elves. Jacqueline (Atlas) transfers 12 archers, 13 fairies, 8 gargoyles, 26 centaurs. She is dismissed after transferring all the goblins. Ergon breaks through the orcs without losses. Whisper picks up free loot +2100, sand, and recruits thieves. Then, 123 + 43 goblins and 29 orcs through Gem get to Jodjosh. The transfer is complete. Jodjosh breaks through the hydras with the loss of one goblin and stands in front of the phoenixes. Although on this day, with a more precise approach (perhaps even in the previous days), as I think, it was possible to kill the phoenixes on day 5. But during the walkthrough, there was a strong lack of time to optimize the runs.
Day 115

Jodjosh destroys the phoenixes, keeping 113 goblins (lucky with morale). He runs to the Warlock's castle. Ergon sequentially takes a bonfire, visits an oasis, recruits fairies, destroys orcs, picks up a treasure chest, buys 11 nomads, an oasis, breaks through druids and orcs near the mine. Losses are not that important. The main thing is to keep the gargoyles and desert riders, because we dismiss all other troops to speed up the process. There are 5 gargoyles and 11 nomads left. We buy Crag Hack. With the other heroes, we collect everything we can reach, while building a chain to transfer the army to Fineas, whom we dismiss on the remaining gargoyle.
Day 116

Fineas receives reinforcements and easily defeats the zombies, the enemy hero, and captures the castle of the right knight. He is dismissed. Ergon +2000 and runs into the castle of the top knight. He leaves the army and is dismissed. Jodjosh runs into the Warlock's castle. We build 2 markets; we will trade. Then comes the final chord. In the central castle, we buy 2 warlocks, who bring the army and pay for themselves by collecting 3 treasure chests and sand. Then 2 barbarians (Jacqueline, who was dismissed on day 4, and the last barbarian who was not bought) - one is needed only for the army, and the second buys the Book of Magic and, with an army of 147 goblins, 8 orcs, 11 centaurs, 7 gargoyles, kills the remaining Warlock. 53 goblins survive. In the top castle, we buy a total of 3 heroes: one collects 2 treasure chests, the second Warlock with 5 centaurs lures mana from the computer (this redhead had 2 lightning spells) and knocks out his pikemen and swordsmen, the third, in auto-battle mode, with 14 centaurs, 12 gargoyles, and 11 nomads, finishes off the last enemy. Although all these hero rearrangements are better to see in the saves.
Victory.

Final result: 7 days, 5-1-1-1, 3 mercury.

buys a book and with an army of 147 goblins, 8 orcs, 11 centaurs, and 7 gargoyles, kills the remaining Warlock.
53 goblins survive.

Victory.

Final result: 7 days, 5-1-1-1, 3 mercury.

Please describe this battle in more detail.

Added 13 minutes later
By the way, huge respect to Fireball for the speed – it's amazing to complete such a run in 13 hours – that's really impressive.

It's a bit strange that this battle is causing questions. First with Kamikaze, now with you... I'll explain in detail. Starting disposition: centaurs-goblins-1 gargoyle-6 gargoyles-orcs. The task is simple: to defeat the minotaurs and griffins with minimal losses, and we'll deal with the hydras later. Round 1: 1 Gargoyle takes revenge on the minotaurs, the rest attack the enemy centaurs and finish them off in retaliation. Meanwhile, the orcs die from the griffins and gargoyles without even getting a turn. Fortunately, we attack the minotaurs with goblins, and the centaurs shoot at them. Round 2: The gargoyles retreat, and the enemy griffins and gargoyles attack them. The minotaurs kill the centaurs, but then the already weakened goblins send them and the minotaurs to their ancestors. Round 3: Fortunately, we attack the griffins with goblins. Round 4: We finish off the griffins; the gargoyles are already killed by the goblins' retaliation. Then the most interesting part begins: the goblins put the principle "they won't catch us" into practice, because the warlock quickly curses the main (and still almost unharmed in battle) goblin squad, and Благо attacks the 5 hydras. This situation is not in our favor. The long-distance race continues until the enemy runs out of mana and the spells expire. Next, we implement the principle "the main thing is to defeat them, and then we'll finish them off." Благо (the third and last of our arsenal) attacks the goblins, and then we use auto-battle. 2Catch

To be honest, I didn't believe that the yellow one could be killed in the first week, so I didn't even consider a result of seven days.

Although HW is a young resource, it already has its own traditions. One has already been mentioned: the saves of the winners are presented to the public in full. Another is that if it seems that a map can be completed in 8-9 days, then it will be completed in 7, sometimes even by several people. It's almost a magical number.

2Catch

Although HW is a relatively new resource, it already has its own traditions. One has already been mentioned – the saves of the winners are presented to the public in their entirety. Another is that if a map seems to take 8-9 days to complete, it will be completed in 7, sometimes even by several people. It's almost a magical number.

Well, I don't think it's specifically about the number 7.
In general, while playing in this tournament, I noticed a few peculiarities of playing on the Expert difficulty (I haven't played in a long time).
1. The AI doesn't buy heroes. It just moves around with one.
2. It leaves the Castle empty. The exception is the Green Castle. But (!) its hero runs off to collect resources, and while it's doing that, it builds buildings and recruits an army. The Red and Yellow Castles have initial buildings, so the AI takes everything from there.

These peculiarities were what determined the development of the strategy. It was important to capture the empty Red and Yellow Castles. Otherwise, it's impossible. Why 8 days, and not seven? I finished playing on Sunday, and it took 8 days, and I was very short on money. I thought that theoretically 7 days was possible, but financial problems wouldn't allow it. I didn't try to verify it. But, as we can see, everything is possible with the right strategy. Once again, congratulations on the well-deserved victory :)

where are the preliminary results?

Added 1 hour 27 minutes ago
I, on the contrary, had a run with such a large margin that it was clear I could have finished a day earlier.

Where are the preliminary results?

Preliminary results.

place	Nick	Days	Skills	Mercury
1	Fireball	7	8	3
2	Romanuel	8	11	18
3	Catch	8	10	0
4	Nzol	8	9	37
5	Kamikaze	8	9	10
6	BigAke	11	13	23
7	Zydar	18	16	55
8	Pash	23	16	2
9	yasnikov	25	20	69
10	WOLVARINE	110	39	21

Well, as tradition dictates, I'll say a few words.
First of all, I want to congratulate all the tournament participants on their good performance.
Secondly, I want to thank Romanuel, Catch, Nzol, Kamikaze for their excellent games, and Fireball for his simply fantastic result!!!
By the way, I also really liked BigAke - believe me, he played very beautifully, especially with taking two piles of sulfur and 1 stone on day 7, which allowed him to summon dragons, as well as the maneuver with the buyout on the turn transition after day 9!
The participants who took 7th to 9th place are definitely capable of more: the potential is there, I see it!
And of course, I want to support the newcomer - Wolvarine, who boldly entered the battle with the masters!

The density of the results and the simply amazing quality of gameplay shown by the first 6 players made me very, very happy.

Thank you!
To be continued...

Congratulations to all participants on the completion of the tournament, and especially to Romanuel for making it to the prize places in VK tournaments for the second time in a row. P.S. Looking at the final standings, I realize that something is missing, or rather someone: vbn, Alex R, Qwerty, VDV Forever, Kyle... I really hope to meet them and many others in new tournaments for any part of the Heroes series.

Hooray! I'm not in last place again.
I'm surprised that Pash didn't beat me by much. I thought I'd be alone at the bottom with that result. :)

I'd like to say something slightly off-topic, but still related.
After reading Fireball's walkthrough, I realized what my main mistake was. I didn't think of the simple trick – dismissing heroes and then buying new ones. And 8 starting heroes weren't enough to implement my Napoleonic plans. Unfortunately, they didn't teach me that in school. Well, never mind, you learn from your mistakes (it's just a shame that you have to learn from your own). I hope to show a much better result next time.

Dear forum members, there have been changes in the current rankings on our portal! You can find out more about the individual total at this link, and also about the Clans ranking at this link

Here's a quick ranking based on the "Johnny C. Memorial Tournament."

Congratulations to all participants on the completion of the tournament, and especially to Romanuel for making it to the prize places in the King's Bounty tournaments for the second time in a row.

P.S. Looking at the final standings, I realize that something is missing, or rather someone:
vbn, Alex R, Qwerty, VDV Forever, Kyle...
I really hope to meet them and many others in new tournaments for any part of the Heroes series.

Thank you for the kind words!
vbn, Alex_R, and I are currently playing online more often. But I still hope to participate in offline tournaments this year, and I hope to see the glorious heroes you wrote about at the tournaments...

Now we'll take a couple of weeks off and start playing to gain hero experience!!!

Congratulations to everyone on the completion of the tournament. Special congratulations to the members of the "Many in One" clan. Guys, you were amazing!!! A very strong performance with very close results!!! Taking 3rd, 5th, and 6th place is very good! And overall, all three of you are ranked high and are doing well. Keep it up!!!!

To my great regret, the problem lies primarily in setting the task. I can't clearly understand how long it actually takes to complete a map. That's why the results are like this. I can play a single battle, but strategy is my weak point. So, I need to learn and learn again. In this map, I didn't even think about attacking the phoenixes. For some reason, I thought they would definitely overwhelm me. I waited for the central one to be destroyed and then finished it off.