Posts from The 3rd stage of the annual John Van Caneghem Tournament (2009).

Otherwise, you can't even send the save file without a number :(

There are 13 participants in the table, so feel free to send your save file as number 14! ;)

There are 13 participants in the table, feel free to send your save as number 14! ;)

That's what I did. I will be the fourteenth.

Dear Kluka, your save has been received! The tension is rising! :smile14:

Hello! Please register me!

I remind you that

The 11th tournament starts on March 20, 2009, and will last until April 20, 2009 (until 23:59:59 Moscow time).

There is only one weekend left before the end of the tournament. Good luck! :)

P.S. Entomb, your save has been received.

I quickly went through it. Now I'll send the save file.

Added 16 minutes later
I sent the save file. If anything, send me a private message, as usual.... Of course, you can't call my game a "walkthrough," but I barely managed to complete it.... However, the map is well-made.

Yeah, Dirty_Player, as always – top-notch!

And the save has been received... But there seems to be too little mercury... :)

I sent the save file. Did you get it?

I still don't understand what to do on the map. I just took one hero and killed everyone :D

Yeah, Dirty_Player, as always – top-notch!

Kostya, thank you for the interesting map, Vitaly, thank you for the interesting tournament:smile49:
I finally signed up and played in an official tournament:smile21: Good luck to the newcomers, you still have 25 minutes ;)

Shall we discuss it in 30 minutes?

Shall we discuss it in 30 minutes?

Let's discuss it! I'll even post the preliminary results.
2 Elcidere: Your save has been received...

Unplayed Tournament or A Delightful Nightmare.
Dirty Sergeevna vs Eldg Offlainovich.

As in every horror story, the beginning of this tale was brisk and optimistic. Using vbn's "golden rule," I quickly determined that the minimum for this map was 2 days. A little later, it turned out the maximum possible amount of money on the first day was 17600, i.e., 7 heroes. The first clouds on the horizon appeared when I tried to estimate the expected income on the second day. It turned out to be only 10-15K (without the market). But, by inertia, I was still briskly testing variants for completing the "Flight" quest, freeing Mullich, taking the shield, etc. Only after a week did the meaning of what Dirty had drawn and the "highlight" of the map begin to dawn on me. In the previous mini-maps by Dirty that I knew, it was like this – completing the minimum days was not a problem, it could be done in many ways, and the task boiled down to finding the variant with the maximum secondary criterion.
But with "Terrible Rumor," it's the opposite. The whole task boiled down to searching for that, possibly only, variant in which it is even possible to complete the minimum days.
Still not fully believing, I went back into the editor, suspecting Sergeevna of a trick and hoping to find a missed money surprise there. But no, Dirty is honest and it's all correct – 7 heroes on the first and 4-5 on the second day. It is with these heroes that you must reach the Dragon Utopia and take it. And this is despite the fact that the map has no external market or tavern, no speed boost objects, no convenient stacks for leveling or splitting. There's a lot missing.
More than once I had thoughts of giving it all up, but two things prevented me from doing so.
1. Dirty is a chess player, and his map is a study. If he leaves a tiny possibility by MP to reach the Dungeon with the Dragon Utopia, then it's not for nothing. After all, he could easily have placed the Dungeon (or Inferno) literally 100 MP further and thus made it clear – "no way in 2 days!" and that's it, a weight off the shoulders! But he, that demon, draws the castles so that you CAN reach them! So there is a loophole? So the study is solvable?
2. Constantly before my eyes were the future descriptions by vbn and DmitriyAS "Walkthrough in 2 days." True, the text itself was blurry and I couldn't read anything. :)
And then the nightmare began. The more I delved into studying the millimeters of the map, the more variants I worked through, the more convinced I became – Dirty had "been" here too and done everything to make this next management variant impossible too. He'd adjust the distance, or carefully block a passage with a cursed pile of stones, or draw a tiny obstacle exactly where it shouldn't be. :)
I also tried resorting to cunning, inventing some extravagant variant and, hoping in the end to crawl unnoticed past Sergeevna to a 2-day result. But when it seemed I was about to slip past that cherished "idea-practice" boundary, suddenly spotlights would flash, a siren would wail, and from somewhere on a tower I'd hear Dirty's barking voice: "Achtung! Achtung! I see you! You won't crawl through here either!"
God knows how many man-hours this correspondence confrontation and struggle of ours lasted.
Gradually, testing the map began to resemble more and more the process of banning heroes before an online duel. Day after day I crossed things out and crossed things out. Following "Flight" and Mullich, Gelu and the Dragon "died" (along with taking the Snow Castle and upgrading into Wizards), taking the Necropolis castle, etc. Then it came to the purchased heroes, who were weeded out in batches. In the end, a stunted little freak emerged, as harsh as the Pravda newspaper.
Day 1.
1. Gundula and Yog. Without their starting troops, taking the crypt was not possible. They also took the scroll and cleared the path to the crypt.
2. Brissa. The only one who could not only reach the crypt but also take it with minimal losses.
3. Deesa. The only one who could reach the Dungeon with the Dragon Utopia on the second turn. And that only with the condition of staying overnight on the behemoth.
4. Monere. Straight to the elves, taking the chest on the last MP. Besides him, Ignissa and Lorelei can do this too, but they are no better.
5. Pyer (Luna?). His task is to clear a path to the Dungeon for Deesa on day 2 (thanks, Dirty!). Pyer is better with his ballista, but Luna can clear the path alone, without troop help, meaning she can take both 2K chests immediately, right at the start of the second day.
6. Septienna. Since none of the newly purchased heroes can reach from the elves to Inferno, you have to dismiss one of the logisticians on the first day. Of the logistician-mages, there are only two – Septienna and Xarfax, but Septienna is preferable (Sorcery and Literacy). Septienna's route is also forced; before "leaving," she must take the chest near the crypt, otherwise there won't be enough money for the 7th hero (and preferably also the helm +2).
7. Kilgor moves out so as to take the red Tent on the second day.

Day 2.
Monere takes the Elf castle.
1. Septienna (in the Elf castle). Taking Inferno. For the castle battle, she must also learn something battle-related (Ice Bolt?).
2. Labetha (in Inferno). Buying the devil. Chest near the dwelling (expert earth) and battle with 40 golems.
3. Alagar(?) (in the Elf castle). Transfer of Ice Bolt to Septienna before the battle in Inferno. After Labetha, opening Pandora's box and transferring troops to Deesa. Deesa – taking the Dungeon.
4. Grindan (in Inferno). Studies Force Field, splits against gremlins, buys back in the Dungeon and fights in the Dragon Utopia (tactics: monks + devil + Force Field).

This was the general outline that emerged for the heroes, based on the available money. But to finally start playing, just a little remained. Find a solution for the garrison battle. And find another 4.5K for buying the devil. But considering that almost all heroes perform their tasks literally on the last step, there are virtually no opportunities to gather resources. And the garrison battle (with endless travel through event trees) began to haunt my dreams. Sometimes I'd wake up at night with the thought "I did it!" But when my consciousness cleared from the remnants of sleep, I realized – the creatures participating in the battle were far from Heroes. And the outcome of the battle was decided by a superunit, Freddy Krueger with a Texas chainsaw.

Overall, over this month I got a lot of emotions, but I never found the solution to the study.
All the more interesting it will be to read the descriptions of the winners. Or at least Dirty's comments on my "description." Maybe it was all obvious? :)

Dirty Player (red, Map Editor) def Eldgernon (blue, Off-lain) fix Terrible Rumor 112
1:0
I confirm. That's exactly how it was. I used all restarts, all humanitarian autosaves, but lost on 112.:smile16:
Thanks for the game.

Dear participants! Our tournament has come to an end. Ahead of us is the discussion of the tournament, its Walkthrough, summarizing the results, and congratulating the winners.
I would like to thank everyone who took part in the tournament and successfully crushed their formidable opponent! :D It was very pleasant to see both our veterans and new, promising players. Well, why drag it out?! We announce

Special thanks to our magnificent mapmaker Косте for adapting the tournament map.

Wow, 2nd place, I didn't expect that (I'll write a report).
Kluka, congratulations!!!

It is noteworthy that the top three pairs of players have the same number of days: 5-5, 11-11, 14-14. And especially noteworthy are the 1st and 2nd places, Kluka and Entomb, where the victory was decided by a difference of only 1 point in the parameters.

Eldgernon - RESPECT!!! I often have similar ideas throughout the tournament. It's a pity that you got so carried away and heated up that you didn't have enough time to complete even 3 days. Maybe that's the minimum? I hope your mind has calmed down now, or are you still daydreaming? ;)

Moreover, you need to take the absolute minimum number of days, even if at first glance it seems that it may not be possible to complete the map in this number of days, or it will only be possible under certain conditions that cannot be immediately predicted (whether it will be possible to destroy certain neutrals, whether the hero will receive a certain combination of skills)...

At the same time, you can immediately assess the minimum number of days (taking into account movement bonuses and spells) that you need to run directly in the worst case to the farthest castle. This number of days, as a rule, will be the minimum.

It seems that in this tournament, the "rule" became an exception. In any case, Eldg Offline, I am impressed by such an unprecedented brainstorming session! Many thanks!