Posts from General discussion about Heroes of Might and Magic II. Auto-translated

You're joking about completing Beltway in 4 days; the hero won't even have time to reach it, and there are also elementals and other obstacles.

Everything is possible... I personally completed it in 4 days. On the 2nd day, I fought the elementals in both directions with armies of 3-4 heroes + 8 centaurs from the castle... in one direction, 20+ centaurs + minor units... in the other direction, a goblin horde + meat shields. And I had to leave the armies to capture more castles on the 4th day!
My classmate, vbn, managed to reach one castle on the 3rd day!
And on top of that, we managed to get 12-13 parameters on our strongest hero in those 4 days.
As for Slagfest, it's true that winning on levels 1, 2, and 7 in online mode is a very good result (meaning defeating all 5 computer opponents) - but by using a lot of reloads and timing the computer opponents to destroy each other, it's possible to complete it in 1 week or less.

Join the tournament movement! I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Real players play really COOL!

Slagfest in 6 days

Sorry, but how is that possible? And who completed it in 5 days???

Excuse me, what do you mean? And who completed it in 5 days?

Are there any great Knights among our forum members who managed to defeat Slagfest in just 5 days?

I've searched and looked through all the Tournaments, and I only found a walkthrough for Mountain King. It immediately seemed very strange that all the chests contain 2000 resources, there's a pack of sprites, and there are never fewer than 20 of them, and so on – many advantages for the player. It seems like the final layout for day 7 was drawn first, and then it was rewound one turn at a time. Oh well. Could you still give me a link to Beltway, if there's a turn-by-turn description? I generally understand it, but where do 3-4 heroes come from in one direction on King mode? The number of chests near the two heroes, I understand, is quite low for Warlocks. Although, of course, I'll check again (I haven't played in a while). But 12-13 levels (as far as I understand, these are the parameters) in 4 days is just unbelievable. And I don't understand what you mean about Hotspot? There's a group of Hydras and Phoenixes on both sides of the teleport to the Warlock (I don't remember exactly if there are always Phoenixes there, or if there can be Hydras on both sides, but I think there were always Phoenixes on one side), so don't just make things up, saying that 20 units shot down 15 Hydras. And if, let's say, the Warlock's companion, left with 1 unit, defeated the Phoenixes, and then your valiant hero came and killed him and the empty Castle, that's just pure fantasy. And regarding Slagfest, if on the 2nd turn, there isn't a hero with, say, 5 Hydras and something else in your own Castle, then you're in trouble. And they'll also attack your second hero. You can rewind once or twice, but rewinding 100 times and waiting for, say, a huge army to attack a town with a few Goblins doesn't really appeal to me. And something like that can happen; I've seen it happen once in every 20 games. But what's the point of deluding yourself that you completed it in the minimum number of days if it's obvious that there was a glitch? Please forgive my noobishness; I'm just very interested, it's still my favorite game.

Good day to all!
/forum/section/38/ in this topic. In particular, you can find Beltway (this was the seventh stage of the World Cup in 2007, impossible difficulty) and Hotspot (the second stage of the World Cup in 2008, queen difficulty) in the tournament archive. The last Crosstown Traffic tournament (the second stage of the World Cup 2009) was played on Slugfest (for experimental purposes, the conditions were identical to the online rules, i.e., rook difficulty). The start on Slugfest was for one of the most popular races in online games on this map – Necromancer. Take a look at the winner's save file – it’s very impressive!!
I also played on Beltway; everything is quite simple there: we play in different directions. We build chains of heroes, through which we transfer the army. However, in that tournament, vbn and Alex_R overtook me; it’s better to watch their walkthroughs (with the same number of days - 4, they scored more additional parameters).
On HotSpot, most leaders showed a result of 8 days, but Fireball shone, giving a fantastic result of 7 days.
How this is done, or literally a few words about the technique of tournament gameplay (you can find more details in my numerous analytical materials). Several heroes of one race are bought with a maximum army. The army is combined with one or two heroes. And 165 goblins with 24 orcs easily defeat almost anything. Usually, either Barbarian or Sorceress armies are used because numerous goblins and strong shooting orcs, as well as extremely resilient gargoyles and meaty centaurs, are a significant force for the first week.
PS. See you at the tournaments!

2Qwerty: Sorry for the off-topic.

In the near future, I want to take more steps to popularize the second installment of the series, in particular, I plan to finish the literary editing of a translation of a work by a little-known player from 1998, and maybe I'll write something myself.

Did I miss something, or is the work not finished yet?

2Qwerty: Sorry for the off-topic.


Did I miss something, or is the work not finished yet?

It's not finished yet :(((
I processed what I could and published it.
The situation is as follows: there's an original in English, and two machine translations from different versions. You know that the machine translation made a lot of mistakes, especially considering the specialized vocabulary and slang.
I was working on this text editing at work :))) a couple of years ago, when there wasn't much else to do. For now, I can't continue.
But!
I have an idea for an article:
"Practical numerology or 3 questions about the second Heroes game." When I have time at work :))) I'll write it.
Then, I will continue describing the game from the perspective of the Knight, there are still many aspects that haven't been written about.
Next, I need to write a paper on the techniques of tournament play; I have ideas, but they are still a bit rough, although many tips are scattered throughout different parts of my analytical materials.
Finally, and this is the most important thing: FizMig for the second Heroes game. It was initially created at the beginning of 2004. It started to be reworked and supplemented in 2007. Then I changed jobs and had to stop everything. This reference guide is needed, and it needs to be completed. I don't know when I will start working on it, but I know that it would be good to finish it by the end of the year.
That's the situation.

Thank you. I did find that link, but I didn't quite understand what an "archive" is. Never mind, I won't deal with it at work; I'll look into it later. As for tournaments, I'm not much of a strategist, and I don't have much time. I'm just disappointed when I compare your results to mine. Although, I don't consider the AI bug (when a large army gets stuck on some small unit) to be a legitimate way to win. Although, of course, I sometimes used it, especially when playing through Pandemonium. What else can you do? The Necromancer gathers a decent army, uses the bug to eliminate 5 units without any losses, and then moves through a teleport to my castle. And there's almost no chance of defending it – he already has a Lightning Elemental, while I only have a 3rd-tier army and an unfinished castle. If not this time, then next time. I had to block the teleport from the other side (a great feature) and capture his castle on the next turn, since there are no obstacles like dragons.

2 Ergon
I reviewed the save files of most participants on Hotspot. They were able to defeat both Hydras and Phoenixes on their own. From this perspective, the playthroughs are completely fair. On Beltway, at least the top three (which took 4 days, plus the hero had good stats and a decent amount of Mercury) also defeated the computer opponents without any mega-generations or ridiculous losses.
Regarding Slagfest: this map is very dynamic, and if you play online, you'll see this kind of thing in real matches (without any reloads or generations)...
P.S. AlexSpl, after your question, I added a chapter about the Knight, but when I submitted it, the account timed out and nothing was saved:((( (I'm writing directly in the reply field, without drafts). So, we'll continue waiting for the continuation for now :)))

Well, I guess I'm just a terrible player. I didn't even think about eliminating the Phoenixes. In the first game, you just set the "King of the Hill" option and calmly advance your heroes wherever you want; the AI is only interested in your empty castle. That won't work in the second game; they'll attack your weak hero first, and then they'll think about your castle. Although, if you manage to eliminate both strong armies near the teleporters in one turn and also capture a castle, then it's possible. But eliminating about 15 Phoenixes would require around 40 Nomads and a hero with good stats. And you also need to capture two more castles without an army. Okay, never mind, I won't get upset. Thank you very much.

The tactic for defeating Phoenixes is similar to the tactic for defeating any two-unit creature: maximize mutual damage between the Phoenixes. They attack the Archers, and we attack them with Goblins. It's desirable to get some Luck/Morale boosts, of course. Hydras are defeated without major problems; Phoenixes are much more difficult.

2 Ergon
Actually, it's not even about that. It's about whether it's a tournament game or not. And what save file is being used – the same map can be generated differently each time, so the completion time can vary by a factor of two.
If you're interested in tournament play and what the secret is to achieving such impressive results, write here, and I'll be happy to discuss it with you on Monday (and it might be interesting for many others too...).

I was just testing Beltway; at first, I managed to complete it in 6 turns, then in 5. It's very difficult to do in 4 days; the chains are long, and I would have to try very hard, and even then, it might not work. I just used 2 heroes going in one direction and 2 in the other. The warrior fights, and the mage provides support.
I looked at the Hotspot map again in the Editor, but I can't come up with any ideas.
And I don't have time. What about you on Monday?

I've searched everywhere, but I can't find a walkthrough for the Hotspot scenario. Can you at least give me a hint about what it involves? I specifically decided to replay it and see where the reserves are located. I couldn't find them; everything is guarded, and almost no one joins you. And to complete it in 7 days, you need to send at least three beavers to three different directions on the 2nd day, and that's with an army. Okay, there are nomads in one place; if you eliminate the two poorly positioned armies that are hindering you from taking them, you can hire them. But there are no more than 20 of them, and in two of the games, the road to the upper Castle was guarded by lots of water or fire elementals! This isn't like on Beltower. Fine, we take the upper Castle. But how do we take the other two? And there's also a group of phoenixes. And we need to defeat them on the 6th day! The tactic of having the phoenixes attack each other is understandable, but 100 goblins and 25 orcs, or even 120 goblins, won't stand against even 10 phoenixes of a beaver with almost basic stats. Or was there a Speak Shield lying around? Okay, we defeated the phoenixes. And after that, we need to hold out for an entire turn in the Warlock's lair because the Castle is far from the teleport. And the third Castle is a complete mystery. It's not the first Heroes game where you can build a chain to the third Castle, and the opponent will be gathering resources or attacking your Castle without considering the path. Maybe they built a Magician's Guild with Dimension Door? But where did they get the resources?