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

Tournament with Hotspot /topic/4219/
I would like to point out that in this tournament, I conducted an experiment by setting the difficulty level to "Queen" (with the aim of attracting attention to online play in Heroes II).
The stunning result for Fireball is still hard to believe, but 8 days on this save at this difficulty level is a great result for a good player. Read the topic; there are many descriptions and even saves...

It seems like finally. Eight days seems like a normal time for this scenario. I recently tried playing it on King difficulty, and it was a complete disaster – I finished it in 32 days. I want to capture the computer's castle, but its hero keeps defeating me, and it's the same thing over and over again. If I hadn't encountered a Warlock with a hero with 12 attack and 20 defense, and hadn't built bone dragons in two castles, I wouldn't have won at all. Okay, I'm already reading, thanks. That's great. Can you clarify how it works with the map? Is it always open, or can you only view it at the beginning using a cheat command? The main question is: can we see the opponent's moves? There are phrases about scouting the area – what does that mean? Because even during this scouting, you can see who is joining. That's really cool.

2 Ergon
Yes, we have come back to the concept of "tournament game" and "tournament game technique." Read the numerous materials collected in our section.
I haven't written a separate guide specifically for tournament play yet, although many tips are scattered throughout different sections. I definitely wrote about scouting in a nutshell: look at the map in the editor, explore the save in cheat mode, then play. If necessary, you can save in the middle of the game and look at the save again in cheat mode (just don't forget to load the save BEFORE viewing).
If there is a need, I will write a guide on tournament play for advanced enthusiasts.

Sorry, the general idea was explained, but perhaps it wasn't in this message. Here, everything is clear. It turns out that you can peek at the opponent's moves, which isn't entirely fair. Of course, with an open map, the game and the results could be completely different. I often miscalculate the number of troops needed to capture the opponent's castle.

Yes, that's the thing about competitive gameplay focused on results. The emphasis shifts, and the intrigue isn't about whether you'll complete a map or not, but whether you can complete it within 5-10 days :)))
Of course, something is lost with this kind of gameplay. It becomes a game "for results" rather than "for fun." However, many alternate between competitive and more relaxed gameplay.
You can also play online, where there are no cheats and plenty of intrigue.

2 Ergon
By the way, there's a school for beginners in Heroes II at http://offtop.ru/heroes2school/; it has a lot of interesting and useful information.

Oh, thank you, there's not even a password needed, that's great.

Added after 16 hours and 11 minutes
I want to ask our experts about playing against the AI without scouting.
The same Hot Spot, of course, on King difficulty, any Castle, because I haven't been able to complete it even remotely successfully with any Castle. It takes about 30 days, but I'd like to finish it in, say, 15.
Let's assume that we don't know at all what monsters will hinder us, we only know about Hydras and Phoenixes. What general tactics can be used, and for the first week? Should we try to eliminate the Phoenixes on day 6, and take the other two Castles later? Or should we try to capture the upper Castle as quickly as possible?
Of course, I understand that it's all described in that amazing walkthrough, but for some reason, these weakly-armed chains with capturing an empty Castle don't work for me. Besides, for example, I had about 25 Water Elementals or 30 Fire Elementals twice, and that's quite problematic for a regular hero. And after eliminating such powerful neutrals with heavy losses, the AI hero immediately destroyed all thoughts of an easy victory. And the weakest opponent without any bonuses caused me the most trouble. I also don't want to use cheat codes.

2 Ergon
Once again, we return to the question of "what rules are we playing by." I believe I understand your position (or maybe I don't).
Let's clarify what rules we are playing by. Are these standard tournament rules? Or are these essentially standard tournament rules FOR ONLINE PLAY? Or is it a game based on some kind of "ethical code for second-tier players" (everyone has their own "concepts" here, but in the vast majority of cases, it involves no scouting, a closed editor during gameplay, a ban on scouting during the game, and a ban on deliberately using save/load (sometimes with permission to take 1-3 autosaves per game), and permission to use all features and bugs)?
Let's define it...

Ah, yes, I see now. I play without scouting or an editor, so I can't see the enemy. I have two save files that I use, for example, when buying beavers at the beginning, when the main or an important hero takes a bold step, or just for important moments. I usually replay unsuccessful battles with important heroes as well. I buy any heroes; I haven't noticed any particularly significant bugs. Well, if you consider that the computer can bug out and kill a very strong army, then I guess I'm using that (Pandemonium and bone dragons). Now, I'll set up a beaver Castle and try to defeat the phoenixes on day 6. I'll act in stages, so to speak. It worked, so now I just don't understand anything. The hero is 5-1-1-1 with a leadership base and a flower. The army consists of 103 goblins, 65 halflings, 29 orcs, and 5 wolves. There are 10 phoenixes. No matter how I rearrange them, I can't get more than 4 phoenixes to attack. The phoenixes barely attack each other. When the goblins attack, 40-48 of them are wiped out immediately. Now, the tournament setup is 1-1-1-166-26 orcs. 5 groups of phoenixes, 2 in each stack, start flying. The first two attack the orcs and then stop. What should the 3rd and 4th do? They attack the goblins because there's no more space near the orcs. The hero attacks the phoenixes with stats no higher than 4-1-1-1. Let's say the phoenixes kill 30 goblins instead of 40. After their turn, there are definitely fewer than 113 goblins left, which is the number remaining at the end of the battle. It's clear that the 3rd group of goblins retaliated. The 5th stack moves depending on what happened to the 3rd. I'm all confused with the math. Apparently, there were several phoenixes, probably 8, but most likely 7.

Experiment with the latest arrangement as follows:
1 Orc (not a Goblin!!!), 1 Ogre, 169 Goblins, 23 Ogres, 1 Ogre. Then, the third and fourth stacks in the first round will attack the Orcs. When placing 23 Orcs in the first stack, it's not certain that the Goblins in the second round will attack. When placing them in the third or fourth stack, you need to calculate. With a powerful stack of 169 Goblins, you don't need to worry about the retaliation. Theoretically, you can also try to influence morale and luck...
Regarding reloads and generation (in a very simplified form).
Reloading is actively used to "dig up" the desired hero.
Generation is used to force the computer to play the way we need it to.
And finally, experimenting with the arrangement in battle to achieve optimal morale/luck.
It's clear that if you play Hotspot without "digging up" the desired hero, you won't be able to complete it in 8 days.

Well, I don't know, that's how the author designed the setup. And with it, the goblins take the brunt of the attack. I don't want to reread the whole thread, but there were definitely several phoenixes. By the way, there were several hydras in my setup: 2, 2, 2, 2, 1. So, there could be several phoenixes, and maybe the number of phoenixes can also vary.
And now it's clear what "fishing for luck" means. It's just rearranging the units, or the turns, let's say, attacking not these units, but those. Thank you very much, I theoretically know almost everything, but I'm not very good at practice. Stereotypes still get in the way.

NO!!!
Here's a quote:
"I see that before the battle with the Fen, you have an army of 169 goblins and 29 orcs. After the battle, only 113 goblins remained!
Tell me about your battle strategy; I had a similar army, but I lost more goblins.

To be honest, I just got lucky. I positioned 1-1-1-169-26." As you can see, the units in the 1-1-1 positions were ORCS, not goblins!!! By the way, this thread also has save files..."

Sorry, I was just wondering why there was an error with 3 goblins; I just got distracted. Since I wanted to arrange them to catch something, there was nothing to catch.
And will saves from Buku, or rather when playing the Russian version, be normal when viewed in the English version? I mean, are there font problems, or will they simply not load?

They will load, but there might be issues with the fonts, yes. It would be better to purchase a licensed copy, as there might be slight differences. In any case, for the VK tournament (seventh stage), which will be held approximately in August, you need to obtain it (we only use the licensed version in the VK series tournaments, and the English version can be used in joint tournaments).

2Qwerty: So, there won't be any tournaments for the second game before August? :(