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

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

There definitely will be!!!
The next one is planned to start within the next 10 days, and it will be dedicated to collecting the maximum amount of gold within a fixed game time. And it will most likely be a team tournament!!!

After that, I want to organize one more tournament before August, but the dates and rules are not yet clear...

Yesterday, I witnessed a very strange bug, or maybe I just never encountered it before. I was playing as Mountain King for the Knight (again, I didn't build Swordsmen on day 1), and on days 7 and 8, I took the right and left Castles, almost dealing with the remaining heroes from those factions. Around day 10, my hero finally started clearing out the bottom Castle. I noticed that a Sorceress from the upper Castle was standing with a decent army near my left Castle. I reloaded the autosave; she wasn't anywhere nearby, and the map was mostly open, allowing a hero with an army to move quite quickly. She didn't have Dimension Door (her Castle only had level 3 on day 19), and she wasn't leaving Boots behind. In short, this unexpected "gift" certainly prolonged the game. When I finally managed to defeat her with a Beaver after sending the left Wizard and Warlock to attack her (thankfully, the Beaver was smart and built a level 2 town, but it only had cold-based units), I was left with 1 Ogre and about 20 peasants.
It seems that either the Sorceress was invisible on the previous turn or she somehow teleported to the Castle using some clever method. I didn't see her move; it was just a shadow, and then this "gift" appeared. Is that even possible?
I checked Teleport for the Yellow faction – I didn't have enough money twice to buy Dragons, and the second time, I was only a little over a thousand short. This was assuming I only took two heroes to their home Castle. I was afraid to go to the Blue faction; it wouldn't be easy for Ilia.

If there's an autosave, you can use a cheat to open it and see where the Sorceress is located before the turn begins. Besides logistics, boots, and transport spells (which, by the way, can also be obtained through a scroll or a pyramid, in addition to the guild), the speed of movement is also influenced by visiting special locations, such as a stable or an OASIS (a factor that is often overlooked). Theoretically (though I doubt it), the Sorceress could have been positioned with her Phoenixes before the turn began, and the rest of the army was brought to her.

I didn't really like the maps in The Price of Loyalty. That's why I mostly play on the old scenarios. And it seems like there are no stables or scrolls there. Oh well, probably just a bug. Fortunately, there were no Phoenixes there, just 10 Druids, 8 White Chargers, and some minor units on the second week, which isn't too bad, especially since I just moved the main reserve out of the castle. In one place, it seemed like there was a little-known artifact; I need to open the last save and see what it is, maybe something from RoL got into the game. Although, in my case, the scenarios are divided into two types.
And in general, in RoL, or rather in the Book version, can scrolls or new artifacts appear on old maps like Good vs. Evil?

It might not be a bug. It would be interesting to open that autosave with a cheat and see where the Sorceress came from and if there are any oases along the way. By the way, maybe she had excellent logistics?
Yes, old maps don't have scrolls or stables. However, you can edit them, adding a stable, scrolls – then it will be saved in the new format.

I only have 2 save files, and I've already overwritten one. Usually, you can see the opponent's moves clearly, but here it's like 0.1 something, and they got a gift. It's bad that the computer seems to be cheating. How can there be 10 Druids or Trolls in the 2nd week? 8 Unicorns or 12 Ogres?
And have you tried dismantling the Pyramid? It can't be used in online play. I never found the 7 days that I heard about on the internet. I even tried searching for it through the walkthrough author. It seems they were playing on King difficulty, but I'm not sure. It seems clear that on the 2nd day, the Beaver is taken out (this is difficult on Impossible, because the Warlock with 3 Gargoyles has to defend against at least 4 Wolves and 15 Goblins), on the 4th, or at the latest the 5th, one Necropolis Castle is taken. On the 5th day, a hero is sent to the Warlock, and the Necropolis takes a 2nd Castle, starting a hunt for its heroes. Then, on the 7th day, the first Warlock Castle is reached (presumably weakly guarded, with unredeemed Dragon(s), and then, through a chain reaction, the other 3 Castles are taken by buying heroes in each captured Castle, and a couple of Warlock heroes that are hanging around nearby.
Although, I think I saw information that the starting Castle was a Barbarian Castle, in which case you can't eliminate the opponent's Beaver on the 2nd day.

It's bad that the computer cheats. How can there be 10 druids or trolls in the 2nd week? 8 unicorns or 12 ogres?

The computer gets an extra boost at higher difficulty levels. For example, the increase in druids in the computer's castle at the "impossible" level is 7 per week, the increase in unicorns is 5, the increase in ogres is 8, and the increase in trolls is 6. This results in exactly what you described.

Regarding building a pyramid in seven days. I don't have the description on hand, but I know that Alex_R had it. I didn't look into it myself; I once completed it without reloading on a boat, and I still don't understand how I managed to defend the castle with 1 black dragon against two red dragons and one black dragon. So, either wait for me to find the description, or ask Alex_R for help...

wait until I find it, or Alex_R will help...

I read the description... the principle is the same as you described - but I would call the key moment the joining of a pack of wolves at the exit of the first computer-controlled Barbarian to the Necromancer - they quickly ran along the chain and were able to kill the Warlock in the first castle - and then the Dragon Tower helped!
I'll look for the description later.

Thanks, I understand that with a large number of wolves, I would go to the Necropolis on the 3rd day, but how do you recruit them? On the Fortress, you can already buy a 4th hero on the 3rd day, but it's hard to assemble an army with 5 heroes to recruit the wolves. Although, I've read a lot of fantastic things here! I myself had a hard time completing the Pyramid on the Fortress, in 22 days, then I learned about the 7-day completion, but remembering how difficult it is to choose the right strategy and how much stress it causes, I decided to leave that result. The most fun playthrough was with the Warlock; I built 4 red creatures and on the 15th day, I charged like a bulldozer from my home castle to the very end. However, it only took 24 days. A hero with stats like 6-6, with two Centaurs and a couple of Gargoyles, should be able to withstand a level 0 Warlock with 2+1 Dragons.

Let's try to figure out what we need to recruit a group of "loyal" wolves. So, a group consists of 20-49 wolves. Therefore, their strength in peasants will range from 524 to 1283.8. This means we need an army with a strength of 1048 to 2567.6 (or more). An army with 4 Barbarian heroes can consist of 100 goblins and 20 orcs (511.2), and an army with Warlock heroes can consist of 38 centaurs and 16 gargoyles (528.17). This simple calculation clearly shows that an army with 4 heroes will be enough, at best, to recruit 10-19 wolves. However, you can still buy something else in the castle, but it still seems insufficient. Now, I'll try to clarify this issue a bit more.

Is a peasant really worth that much? It turns out that 25 peasants and 1 wolf are equal. That's quite debatable. Although, it seems to be roughly the same in the first game. True, there a dragon can recruit almost 2000 peasants. Before guessing, we need to know for sure what difficulty level the game was played on. I reviewed the map. If you play on the "Queen" difficulty, you can buy almost 6 heroes by the 3rd day, if you find good gold piles and chests. However, you'll have to ignore the Beaver Castle on the 2nd day. It probably won't be too late to recruit wolves even on the 4th day, but the hero needs to have enough movement points left after recruiting them. On the "King" difficulty, it's even difficult to buy 3 heroes by the 3rd day. It's more likely that the Beaver Castle was taken on the 3rd day. 3 more heroes were bought for the main hero, most likely all Barbarians, the entire desert was cleared, and even Wolf dens were built. In two turns, the opponent-Barbarian didn't buy a second hero. And then, after his 2nd turn, a whole delegation arrived at once - one positioned himself near the Wolf dens with the same single wolf, another took the Castle, but I don't know if the computer bought Ogres or gave them to the player for future recruitment, and another player's hero ran down to the unclaimed chests and mines. Well, and the Beaver hero was either defeated by his own Castle or was defeated by the player. Well, and then, of course, everything is great for recruiting wolves - there's a lot of money (income of 3000, plus a chest), so you can even start producing Trolls. In general, we recruit the wolves, and on the 5th day, the hero calmly takes the first Necropolis Castle. A hero is bought who drives the wolves further, and this hero buys something in the Castle and deals with the 2nd Castle and a couple of Necromancers. There, of course, an army should be stationed, guarding the passage to the Warlock, but the Warlock probably creates it himself. The Warlock Castles seem to be too far apart on the map in the editor. Most likely, you'll have to send heroes against some annoying Warlock hero standing near the first Castle (they rush out with a single Gargoyle, surrender, buy themselves in the desired Castle with a full movement allowance, gather an army, and run to the next one). Well, and of course, the hero who was sent to attack must also be eliminated on the 7th day. Damn, how much money will all this cost, although the income will already be around 10,000, although it won't be possible to avoid collecting resources and selling on the market.

I don't remember how many wolves joined – but together with the native ones, there were at least 36, and at most 46. We recruited them with an army of 3 heroes, plus the addition of goblins, orcs, wolves, and ogres from our own territory, and ogres and minor units from a captured enemy castle. It's possible that before recruiting the wolves, we joined a large group of goblins at the gold mine (I'm going by memory, I can't find the report right now... I remember downloading it in txt format).

Added 4 minutes later

Man, how much money will all this cost, even though the income will already be around 10,000, but you can't avoid gathering resources and selling on the market.

That's a fact, and there were also some minor tricks involved – like on the first day, we only bought one hero, and one of them took the gold mine, while the other moved towards the barbarian, but not all the way – so that the barbarian would come out to meet him...

So, it seems they were playing on the Queen difficulty level, where it's impossible to buy a hero on the first day (you can only get a chest or two piles of gold, but it's not enough for a hero).
I myself defeated the beaver on the second day, and then spent five days collecting everything and waiting for my army to grow. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to fight dragons with a small army. Well, on the 8th day, I went to the Necropolis with 8 trolls and 10 Ogres...
It took a very long time after that, and it took about 22-24 days.
Maybe I'll gather my strength and try to replay it sometime. Every turn felt like dragging a piano up to the 9th floor.

I just looked at the description of a tournament by a very skilled player, and I was actually planning to check out the winner's save file, but I keep forgetting. Anyway, it all worked out somehow. Initially, I planned for 7 days, but then I had to replay to capture the Wizard Castle on day 4, and then I realized that on that day, I could capture two out of the three remaining Castles. Day 2: Capture the Barbarian Castle and defend against a hero. Day 3: Capture the Warlock Castle and defend against a hero. Day 4: Capture the Wizard Castle, defend against a hero, and capture the Sorceress Castle. Day 5: Capture the Knight Castle and eliminate the last hero on the map (a Knight. Sometimes, the Knight would defeat the Sorceress and return to recapture his Castle; I managed to defend against him once out of about 30 attempts). In general, the strategy boiled down to forcing the enemy hero to attack after capturing the Castles, leading to a battle between the Sorceress and the Knight on day 4. Is it really possible to succeed with this approach? Will the army be sufficient? Well, let's assume the Beaver is incompetent; he might have left Orcs behind, shot down the Trolls, and captured the Castle with minimal losses. But the Warlock, with his large number of flying units, especially the two green ones, will significantly hinder our advance. And then there's the Wizard. It seems that the Sorceress and the Knight were just standing around doing nothing. When I played this scenario on King difficulty, you can't buy a hero on the first day, and there are enemies who want to capture your Castle, and the pillar that reveals the map is not exactly on the way. No matter how many descriptions I read, they all point to the same thing: calculate the minimum number of days it takes to reach the furthest Castle, assuming your hero has an army with "very fast" speed starting from the second turn. This number is the solution. In this calculation, the enemy doesn't really exist. Also, I wanted to ask: does the creator of the save file calculate something and base their decisions on it, or do they just choose the first available option?

Regarding Slugfest. The idea was as follows: to provide maximum preparation for players for future online matches (Slugfest is one of the most popular maps for online play). In this regard, the starting conditions were taken from online games: Warlord level. Usually, in Necromancer games with these conditions, there are about 3-4 heroes on the first day. Here, regarding the generation of the save file. The save files of most of the tournaments I run are characterized by the mandatory presence of heroes with Very Slow speed, and I usually place the second hero in a not-so-useful position. The artifact in the castle is also of average importance :))). Of course, there is a certain image of the save file that is then achieved (or partially achieved) through generation. Now, regarding the walkthrough. The column that reveals the entire map in offline mode is generally not relevant (it can be opened anyway). Gunnar's research clearly showed that even in online games, the Necromancer can defeat the Barbarian with the loss of two or three Liches. And there's nothing to say about offline mode. The Warlock is taken easily; it is possible to defend against him in the castle: the defense of the Liches is no less than the attack of the Dragons, and as soon as they arrive, everyone starts attacking them. Not to mention that if the opponent has Gargoyles, it is possible to make the Dragons attack our Dragons instead of the Liches. Capturing the Wizard also does not present significant problems. The situation with the Sorceress and the Knight is more complicated. It is desirable to defend in the castle. However, the losses are no longer critical: the goal is to complete the map as quickly as possible, not to save all the troops...