Posts from Tournament of three forums for the second game, "The Legend". Auto-translated

Dear players! Today marks the start of the 7th Joint Tournament for Heroes of Might and Magic 2 on the HeroesPortal, HeroesWorld, and HeroesLeague forums. "The Hero" Tournament rules: 1. General provisions 1.1. The tournament will run from July 9th to August 6th, 2009. 1.2. The tournament will be held simultaneously on three online resources: HeroesLeague, HeroesPortal, and HeroesWorld. 1.3. The tournament will be played on the following game versions: Heroes II: Price of Loyalty 2.1 (English), Heroes II: Цена верности 2.1 (Russian) Playing on earlier versions of the game, where many bugs have not been fixed, is not allowed. Playing in DOS and switching between versions is prohibited. 1.4. Any registered user of one of the three forums – HeroesPortal, HeroesLeague, HeroesWorld – can participate in this tournament. An identical final tournament table will be posted on all three sites. However, it is strongly recommended to register on the HeroesPortal, HeroesLeague, and HeroesWorld sites – this will allow you to receive bonuses on all three forums. 1.5. The winners of the tournament will receive rewards corresponding to each of the resources (rating, fiefs, arrob, mines) on each of the resources. On the Heroes League, in addition to the rating, the winner will receive the title "The Hero," which they will hold for the entire year. 1.6. ATTENTION!!! Throughout the tournament, the player MUST save at the beginning or end (preferably both) of EACH game day and keep them on their computer! The judge has the right to request daily saves from ANY player and explanations about them, up to a description of the tactics of a specific battle. If there are no satisfactory explanations (from the judges' point of view), the player's result will be annulled. If the necessary saves are missing, the player will be given a loss. The statute of limitations (the period during which daily saves must be kept) is 7 days after the results of the round are announced. 1.7. The tournament organizers are: HeroesLeague - Dust, HeroesPortal - Lion Star, HeroesWorld - Qwerty. 1.8. The player must name their final save with their nickname and send it to: hmm2@mail.ru 2. Restrictions on gameplay: 2.1. It is strictly FORBIDDEN to use cheat codes, prohibited bugs, and game features in the final playthrough, to hack saves, or to manipulate computer players in hot-seat mode. The use of standard cheat codes is allowed for the purpose of initial save scouting. However, after the scouting is completed, the player must load the starting save and start the game again. 2.2. The rule for digging up the Ultimate Artefact (UA). You can only dig up the UA after visiting ALL obelisks. To prove this, the player must send the organizers, along with their final save, another save that shows that all obelisks were visited before digging up the UA. The name of such a save must end with "UA". 2.3. You can use a redeemed, escaped/bought-out hero on the day they escaped/were bought out. You can redeem such a hero on the day of the escape/buyout; you can redeem and use your dismissed/killed hero in battle only on the day after their dismissal/death; if a hero escapes/is bought out/dies in battle during a turn change, you can redeem and use them immediately; it is also not allowed to redeem developed computer heroes (a developed hero is one whose experience, secondary and/or primary skills, the contents of the spellbook, and its presence differ from the standard starting values). 2.4. Visit graveyards, demon caves, and ghost ships. You can visit ships with skeletons. 3. Tournament goal: 3.1. The game in the tournament is played for SPEED (in DAYS), in which the GIVEN HERO at the START reaches level 25. At the same time, keep in mind that the experience of any other of your heroes will not be counted! The goal of the game is not to complete the map and achieve victory, but to DEVELOP THE GIVEN HERO AT THE START TO LEVEL 25 IN THE MINIMUM TIME. Attention! In the save you send, the hero must ALREADY be at level 25! 3.2. If two players show the same result in days, their position in the tournament table is determined by the SUM of the hero's PRIMARY SKILLS (Attack + Defense + Knowledge + Magic Power) WITHOUT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT WORN ARTIFACTS! 3.3. The game time in the tournament is limited to 300 days. This means that saves made after the 300th day will not be accepted. IT IS NOT REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE MAP. 4. Preparing the final save. The email with the save must contain: -) the winning save itself; -) the subject of the email – the player's nickname; -) an indication of nicknames on all three resources; For example, the subject of the email: The Hero - Alex_R, the save attached to the email is named "Alex_R The Hero," and the email says: nickname on the League - such and such, nickname on the Portal - Alex_R HW, nickname on the World - Alex_R. Download the starting save here. Have a nice game!

On the Portal, the save is now available, or it was working. I've already submitted my modest final entry. Thanks to the organizers for the tournament and the good map.

Preliminary results.

place	Nick	Days	Skills	Experience
1	Hell Executioner	10	7-6-15-12	196727
2	HeatEx	12	7-7-15-12	193084
3	Psixxx	12	6-5-13-12	194529
4	DR28	12	5-3-12-13	196813
4	Pash	12	5-4-13-11	193883
5	Lovelass	12	5-3-13-10	193906
6	PReDS	14	5-3-14-11	194124
6	Werky	14	5-3-13-12	194172
7	KIP service	15	5-3-12-14	194641
8	Ergon	20	6-6-15-13	196965
9	DeathLust	43	10-9-23-16	225635
10	valery	72	9-8-19-15	211363
11	Konstant	97	12-15-24-15	194097
12	Vendetta	104	10-7-22-17	194040
13	sancho-siniy	109	10-11-20-18	223470
14	Sculptor	148	26-32-39-41	5616403
15	DIOS HP	148	19-22-40-31	230625

Yes... What can I say? Congratulations to the winner. For some reason, he immediately dismissed the pyramid option and started building a Dimension Door in his village. I wonder if anyone else has completed it this way? I think I squeezed the maximum out of this strategy - on day 7, a Dimension Door with same-day full-speed Dalamar.

2Ergon: fighting for last place? Sure...

2Ведущие: And what is the great point of making Dalamar from a Necromancer? Maybe everyone misunderstood something?

I quote the walkthrough of the winner - Hell Executioner. "Walkthrough of the joint tournament "Citadel of Heroes" on the Balance map. A few general words. At first glance, the map was striking for its variety of paths. The Dimension Door spell was available in two nearby towns, as well as in two pyramids nearby. Everything was built and achieved in the first week. Also, two Andurans were noticed, one of which was very close to the starting point. The second one seemed to be very far away and was not needed. And besides them, there was also a set in disassembled form, as well as scrolls with the Teleportation spell. With the help of a boat, the village on the other edge of the map was reached in the first week, where 4 levels of the guild had already been built, and there was also Dimension Door. But the village was guarded by 35 djinns, which presented an insurmountable obstacle for our starting army. Despite the apparent lack of resources, the initial respawn provided them in abundance for building guilds. At first, I was inclined to this option, because in the guild, many heroes can learn the spell, and in the pyramid, only one. Secondary heroes were supposed to capture villages and events, and the main hero, after improving navigation, was supposed to sail for the Anduran. Unfortunately, in this case, he would take the Anduran and learn Dimension Door only on the 8th day, which was not ideal. Since after that, he still had to somehow get to places where he could gain experience. The pyramid at the sorceress's respawn was discarded because the path to it required a lot of detours. In the end, the choice was made in favor of the pyramid in the desert. There were many trees on the map, but most of those located close to the starting point were greedy for diamonds. Therefore, it was necessary to either look for resources or look for selfless trees. At the end of the walkthrough, I realized that it was possible not to hire a single hero at all, to go through the entire tournament from start to finish with the starting hero and fit into the same time frame. Only the skills would be a little worse. I would also like to note the excellent work of the organizers in preparing the starting save. Such a confusing start. So many options. Moreover, resource events mainly served as a distraction from the optimal path, as did the nearby Anduran. Now, the walkthrough itself. Day 1. Dalamar leaves the minotaurs in the castle (1-1-1-1), takes the chest to the left and two chests to the right of the castle (diplomacy, scout, wisdom), and spends the night in the magic enhancement (1-1-1-f). Day 2. Dalamar runs to the right, defeats the hydra and gargoyles. Sleeps above the river delta (1-1-2-f). Day 3. Dalamar takes the chest (logistics), defeats the trolls, and takes the boots (1-1-3-1). Save at the end of the day (1-1-3-f). Day 4. Dalamar visits the well (1-1-4-1), defeats the hydras, without visiting the defense enhancement (logistics), and the zombie-mutants. We do not take the small chest. I will not describe the actions of the secondary heroes, as they are not very important. You can understand everything from the saves (1-1-4-2, 1-1-4-3, 1-1-4-f). Day 5. Dalamar defeats the medusas, ghosts, elementals, and golems (finance, ranged attack) (1-1-5-1) (1-1-5-2). Spends the night under a pile of sulfur (1-1-5-f). Day 6. Dalamar takes the chest, attaches veteran pikemen (had to make a small detour, as I could not find a way to take the pyramid without losing one dragon. With them, the dragons remained intact, although it was still difficult) (1-1-6-1), defeats the golems (wisdom). Next – the pyramid (1-1-6-2) (logistics). I hesitated for a long time whether to take the chest at the beginning of the day and get an expert in logistics by the end, or to get an expert in wisdom in the pyramid, remain an advanced logistician, but manage to perform one Dimension Door. Logistics gave a bonus of 1.3 moves, and jump saved 2.25. But considering that the ultimate goal of the game is experience, I decided to sacrifice the move reserve and took the chest. Maybe it's a mistake. Night in the pyramid (1-1-6-f). Day 7. (1-1-7-1) Dalamar jumps to the oasis, visits it, defeats the archers, again the oasis (1-1-7-2). Dalamar takes Stormhaven (1-1-7-3). Two jumps up and the oasis (1-1-7-4). Jump up and defeat Maelstorm (scout) (1-1-7-5). Jump to the oasis and visit (1-1-7-6). Jump up, take Iron Works, jump up, visit the mana doubler (1-1-7-7). Jump to the mine, defeat the pikemen, jump to the compass, then to the mana doubler, and to the island to the medusas, take the scepter (1-1-7-9). Then up, through the island with phoenixes to the elementals, take the Anduran's sword and sleep (1-1-7-f). Day 8. (1-2-1-1) Dalamar defeats both elementals (1-2-1-2). Jump up – chest (scout), jump up – Anduran (in fact, this set was much better located than the one closest to the castle), jump up – defeat Lachdanan (1-2-1-3). Jump – take Lankershire (1-2-1-4). Jump – gazebo, two jumps – well (1-2-1-5). Jump – take the +5 scroll and spend the night near the dragon city (1-2-1-f). Day 9. In fact, all the events took place on this day. A large share of the experience was gained. Nothing extraordinary happened. A typical game with oases, which Sir Catch has described many times. Nevertheless, I could not pass the save in 9 days. Although it may be possible. (1-2-2-2) Dalamar defeats the dragons (mysticism) in one move and immediately takes the dragon city, hiring one dragon there. It's enough. Although it could have been done without hiring him (1-2-2-3). We do not take the chest, jump to the left, defeat the dragons and elementals (finance) (1-2-2-4). Jump to the right, defeat two elementals (mysticism) (1-2-2-5). Portal to Iron Works, jump to the doubler (1-2-2-6). Portal to Stormhaven, two jumps to the oasis and visit (1-2-2-7). Defeat the pikemen (on foot) – oasis. Then jumps to the halflings, oasis, ankh (djinn), oasis, titan, oasis (1-2-2-8). Portal to Lankershire, three jumps to the portal (1-2-2-9). Exit the portal in the southeast (1-2-2-10). Defeat the ogres (1-2-2-11). Oasis, lich (on foot), oasis, take Mirage, oasis (1-2-2-12). Ogre, oasis, minotaurs, oasis (1-2-2-13). Five jumps to the right with a visit to the fort and defeating the zombie-mutants, oasis, mages, oasis (1-2-2-14). Mages (defeated by moving to the right side of the oasis with a simultaneous increase in the move), ghosts, oasis, a pile of crystals, skeletons, oasis (1-2-2-15). Well, defeat Roxana, oasis, take Crypt, oasis (1-2-2-16). Zombies, oasis, pikemen, oasis, vampires, oasis (1-2-2-17). Portal to Iron Works, jump to the doubler, visit its other side (1-2-2-18). Portal to Crypt, defeat the boars, oasis (1-2-2-19). Minotaurs, oasis (1-2-2-20). Stable (1-2-2-21). Xanadu, take Ghost town (1-2-2-22, 23). After that, Dalamar reaches the planned 17th level, and he only needs to visit 8 trees, which is quite achievable in two days, including today, but not in one. Portal to Mirage, oasis, pikemen, oasis (1-2-2-24). Visit four trees (up, then diagonally down to the left) with a visit to the knowledge enhancement (1-2-2-25). Portal to Stormhaven, sleep (1-2-2-f). Day 10. (1-2-3-2) Dalamar jumps up, defeats the wolves, oasis, gnomes, oasis, Rukh, oasis (1-2-3-3). Portal to Iron Works, visit the tree above it (1-2-3-4). Portal to Lankershire (1-2-3-5). Tree, jumps through the well under Burton, tree (1-2-3-6). Xanadu, portal to Ghost town, jump to the last tree up (1-2-3-7). Exchange resources on the market for 10 diamonds, tree, victory – 25th level. Perhaps it was possible to more actively collect resources with secondary heroes, take castles, artifacts for knowledge, then 9 days would become a reality. But I did not try to replay, especially since I was not sure that it was possible."

A few words summarizing the tournament.
It's a pun, but in this tournament, experience proved to be truly invaluable. And the vast experience gained on the Portal, specifically in such competitions, is very clearly reflected in the final standings.
Regarding the specific results.
The winner's result is simply magnificent; by the way, Hell Executioner is winning for the umpteenth time...
Among the other results, I would like to note the well-deserved success of Psixxx, and the result of the experienced all-rounder Lovelass is also pleasing.
At the same time, a number of players, in my opinion, played below their potential.

Stay tuned for new tournaments; the seventh stage of the Van Kanegem tournament will be held soon. As a reminder, this tournament is about speed, and the map will be very small, as usual!!!

I join in the congratulations, Hell Executioner played great! Thank you to the organizers for the excellent tournament. I hope I can participate in the next tournament:). Best regards, Psixxx.

I'm not cut out for playing Two either; I think I only gathered the resources and built a Dimension Door on day 16. I honestly can't understand where you found them on day 7. Anyway, it's better if I put all my effort into One, because there you're in a rush, playing for 1-2 hours, whereas here it takes 20-25 to set up such a hilarious run.

I'm not cut out for playing Two either; I think I gathered the resources and built Dimension Door only on day 16. I honestly can't understand where you found them on day 7. Anyway, it's better if I shift all my efforts to One, because there you're in a rush, playing for 1-2 hours, just to set up such a hilarious run here over 20-25.

It's just that Dimension Door can be obtained not only in the Castle but also in the pyramid. And on this map, you can reach the pyramid by day 6-7. So it's simple. Now, if you want to build Dimension Door in the Castle, you have to think carefully to build it up as quickly as possible. As far as I know, in the first part, just like in the second, you need to think carefully for such builds.

Well, DD (Death Dealer) isn't implemented that often in Heroes I. But all tournament maps for Heroes II, size L and larger, are based on DD. I just somehow forgot about the Pyramids on this map, checked for DD in the nearest village with scouting, and then stopped looking for it. And I built it incredibly slowly; I was really short on resources. I managed to go get Anduran, visited the Sorceress, and only then built it.

In principle, it's best to use codes for scouting. But everyone has their own methods. After reinstalling XP, I can't seem to configure the code version, where I used to add the "nwc" string. I probably forgot something; maybe someone can help me with the setup if it's not too much trouble?

Just copy the shortcut and add `/nwc` to the launch path.

Just copy the shortcut and add /nwc to the launch path.

It gives an error, saying the file path is incorrect. It seemed to work before, but now something is wrong.

Just copy the shortcut and add /nwc to the launch path.

"D:\Heroes\Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete\heroes3.exe" /nwcgrail
This is how I do it in Heroes of Might and Magic III. The same should work for Heroes of Might and Magic II, just use nwc. Don't forget the space!!!

Exactly, perhaps the /nwc parameter was simply pointing to the directory itself, rather than the executable file, which would indeed cause an error.