Posts from "The Art of Strategy," a section for reports.

Adv (Red, Imps, Marbas) defeated Lutii (Blue, Necromancers, Deidra) 1-3-4
I really wanted to play with Imps on this map, but the game didn't work out... :smile51:
We played for 4 hours, it was a simultaneous game, we didn't save manually, and on the 3rd week, we got a desync :eek:
This is the first time this has happened to me in 3.1 while playing on HotA... autosaves didn't help...

By this point:
Marbas level 20, 20-8-7-11
3 racial - Sign
3 machines - Ballista
3 darkness - Mind Lord + Darkness Seal + Darkness Weakness
2 log - Find Path + Path of War
2 defense - Reflection
1 attack - Devil's Strike

In the end, we decided not to start a new game, because our desync with Lutii in real life is even worse - 6 hours!!!,
and today was the last opportunity to finish the game before the end of the group stage...

Lutii gave me the victory, and I have great respect for him:smile02:

I confirm! It was a pity that this desync happened:smile29:, and I really wanted to play :(

Alex_R (blue, Horde of Hagash) defeated Raykonen (red, Gnomes of Ingvar) 216
It started slowly, the first two weeks were tough because I didn't upgrade my defense right away, and although I took machines from the beginning, they didn't give me ballistics. Then I got "Path of War" and upgraded my defense and army, and things started to go better... I gained 30 levels + 2 from huts, and right after switching to turn-based mode, I found a treasure where I collected sets and other relics, including the "Bow + Quiver" set and the "Lion Set." I had to remove the quiver, although Centaurs were the key in the final. I also took the "Armor of the Forgotten Hero" from 4x50 Rakshasas.
Ingvar didn't have any machines, and he was developing combat magic throughout the game. He had a lot of light creatures, but not enough to make light magic dominant, although 360 shields held the attack incredibly well; it seemed like they could withstand the entire orc onslaught. But as soon as they moved and reached the centaurs, they took -100+ damage in the first counterattack.
Thanks to my opponent for the experience and the interesting game.
P.S. Group "B" finished playing.

I confirm the report by Alex_R.

dwp(mages,....) lost to smerti_po(Dungeon,....)

He conceded on neutral ground and didn't want to replay.

dwp (mages,...) lost to smerti_po (Dungeon,...)

He lost on neutral ground and didn't want to replay.

Confirmed.

Additional game:
immortal (Haven, Vitorrio, red) defeated moskovskiy_1 (Inferno, Daleb, blue) 2_2_1, template "smile".
Since machines are strong on this template, I was looking for Vitorrio, and he came to me as the 5th hero. It was a bit tight financially, but he had no problems in battle. My opponent was luckier - Daleb appeared right away. At the beginning of the 2nd week, I went into an adjacent area, which was completely empty for some reason: 1 artifact, 1 crypt, 1 gargoyle lair, and that's it... I barely reached level 9 by the time I found a portal to the city area and went there. I spent the 3rd week in the city. I couldn't get the Log for a very long time, so it took a while. At the beginning of the 4th week, with a growth bonus, I broke through to the Treasury. Until that time, Daleb was ahead of me in stats - apparently, he had better artifacts there. In the Treasury, I took two magic towers - I got vampirism and enchantment, then I took a Utopia, and I took armor from a forgotten hero. In the end, I got 4 draconian artifacts and armor from a forgotten hero, a bow, and the rest was junk - I sold everything for training. At the end of the 4th week, my opponent's main hero appeared in my city - then I realized it was time to go home. I retreated and at the beginning of the 5th week, I went towards the Treasury to attack the enemy through it. Daleb turned from my city and also headed to the Treasury. I didn't let him wander around there - I caught him right at the entrance. 80 Incubi and ballistae didn't let him move around, and without magic, he had no chance. Daleb bought his way home with jumpers and imps, and I reached him at the beginning of the 6th week and finished him off in the castle - the enemy's ballista didn't have time to fire again :). Thanks for the game.

Gastello (Orcs, Arghat) lost to Hero_of_heroes (Inferno, Grok).
Unfortunately, I had to end an absolutely winning game due to family circumstances :( By the middle of the 4th week, I had fully built, upgraded, and leveled up to level 27, adorned with artifacts like a Christmas tree, and was ready to go to the Grail and attack my opponent. I apologize to Hero for the wasted time and to Kill for depriving him of the chance to continue in the tournament.

Out of 112 matches, 82 were played. Those starting as red won 50 times, while blue were the winners 32 times.
The longest game ended on day 331 (week 11), while the fastest ones (weeks 3-4) were either due to throwing or a quick encounter. The bulk of the games took place within the 2nd month.
More than once, hero development reached level 30 and above, with total stats reaching a hundred; in separate cases, magic power alone exceeded 40 units. In principle, despite a sufficient number of techs (30 pcs) and partial throwing of "unnecessary" races, parity in the use of castles was maintained at approximately 80%.
The Necromancer faction was played the least (16 times), but they were also tried to be saved for the first round of the final part (out of the 6 Necromancers that appeared).
The most games were played by Dwarves (24) and Haven (23)
The best win/loss ratio is held by Academy: 13/9 = 59.1%
The worst indicator is Inferno: 9/13 = 40.9%.
From this, it can be concluded that in practice, the balance is normal.
Of course, one could adjust for differences in player skill, as well as try to exclude the moment of "throwing races," but let everyone do that for themselves... everything written above is simply my opinion (for more details, see the attached screenshots at the end of the post).

1 Bridiaga (Red, Inferno, Nibros) lose Xodyn (Blue, Fortress, Inga) - 2-3-7
2 SylarOff (Red, Haven, Vittorio) lose Gastello (Blue, Inferno, Grol) - 2-4-3
3 Koloobokk (blue, inf) defeated Kill (red, dungeon) 2-2-7
4 BOLIVAR (blue, necromancer Zoltan) defeated Lok1978 (red, sylvan Ilfina) 2-4-7.
5 TwoEP (red, inferno, Deleb) defeated denden (blue, barbarian, Goshak) 2-3-6
6 Raykkonen(Vitya, Castle) def ekzekutor(Ilfina, Sylvan) 2-1-1.
7 dwp (Red, Dugal, Castle) won Ad_v(Blue, Ossir, Sylvan) 231
8 Kolobokk (Red, sylvan) defeated Lok1978 (dungeon, blue) 2-2-3
9 immortal(Red, Stronghold, Haggesh) defeated Shadow35(Blue, Inferno, Deleb) 2_1_7.
10 chudo_udo (red, castle, Laszlo) lost to dmitrik (blue, castle, Miv) week 6
11 ekzekutor (blue, dwarves, Karli) defeated eldarmoon(red, sylvan, Anwen)
12 KillAndAction(Academy, Hafiz) def. Lok 1978(Fortress, Ingvar) 2-3-6
13 ekzekutor(red, castle, Rutger) defeated barma21(blue, sylvan, Vinrael) 2.2.3
14 Kolobokk (dungeon, Letos) defeated BOLIVAR (haven, Vitek) 2-1-7
15 Gastello (Red, Clans, Erling) defeated BOLIVAR (Blue, Inferno, Nimust) - 3-1-2
16 Alex_R (red, Dwarves, Ingvar) def ekzekutor (blue, Inferno, Deleb) 227
17 Leolopus (red, inferno, Jazebeth) won Lutii (blue, inferno, Nimust) 331
18 Hero_of_heroes (red, Academy, Razzak) defeated Lok1978(blue, Inferno, Marbas) 3-1-3
19 lady revan (Academy, Nura) defeated Moskovskiy_1(Inferno, Deleb) 3-1-1
20 ekzekutor(red, necropolis, Zoltan) defeated moz(blue, dwarves, Ingvar) 2-2-3
21 lady revan (Stronghold, Haggesh) defeated Bradiaga (Dwarves, Inga) beginning of the second month
22 Xodyn (red, inferno, Nimust) lost to dmitrik (blue, inferno, Deleb) week 4
23 Leolopus (Dungeon, Sinitar, Red) lost to dwp(Vinrael, Sylvan, blue) week 7
24 Lavageth(Priest, Ingvar, red) defeated Gastello (Sylvan, Ossir, blue) day 38 3-2-2
25 Saruman665 (Inferno, Deleb, Red) lost to Adv(Dungeon, Letos, Blue) 2-4-4
26 Raykkonen(Dungeon, Letos, Sinitar) defeated Barma(Castle, Vitya, Myth) 2-1-6
27 FLASH_RUS (Red, Fortress, Ingvar) lose Xodyn (Blue, Dungeon, Vaishan) 3-2-5
28 Vip.rus (castle, Vittorio) defeated Lok1978 (castle, Rutger) week 6
29 lady revan(red, necromancers, Orson) defeated Flash_RUS (blue, sylvan, Anwen) day 3 week 3 month 2.
30 Vip.rus (mages, Faiz) defeated BOLIVAR (mages, Ora, Nura) week 5
31 Moskovskiy_1(Blue, Dwarves, Inga) defeated maksar(Red, Dungeon, Letos) - week 7
32 Shadow35 (Red, Dwarves, Ingvar) defeated Maksar (Blue, Necromancer, Orson) 2-2-3
33 Xodyn (Red, Academy, Razzak) def immortal (Blue, Fortress, Ingvar) 2-3-4
34 Vip.rus (Sylvan, Ossir) defeated KillAndAction (castle, Rutger) week 6
35 moz(red, sylvan, Vilraen) defeated eldarmoon(blue, necromancers, Zoltan) 1-4-3
36 Leolopus (Fortress, Karli, Red) lost to alex_nv(Vlad, Necropolis, Blue) 2-2-7
37 maksar (red, barbarian, Haggesh) defeated Flash_RUS (blue, demon, Alastor) week 2 month 3
38 moz(red, Inferno, Alastor) defeated denden(blue, dwarves, Helmar) 2-4-3.
39 Twaryna(mages, Ora) lost to Smerti_Po(Castle, Vitya) 2-1-4
40 Adv (Academy, Hafa, Red) defeated alex_nv(Inferno, Grok, Blue) 2-2-5
41 BOLIVAR (dungeon, Sinitar, red) defeated KillAndAction (stronghold, Argat, blue). 2-2-1.
42 Leolopus (red, Stronghold, Garuna) won Twaryna (blue, dungeon, Letos), 1-4-7
43 Lok1978(Mage Ora)-defeated Gastelo(Dungeon Letos)
44 Lutii(Academy, red, Faiz) defeated Saruman665(Stronghold, blue, Garuna)
45 SmertiPO (red, stronghold, Garuna) won Leolopus (blue, mage, Hafiz) 2-2-1
46 Kolobokk (mages, Razzak) defeated Hero (Stronghold, Haggesh) - 2-2-3
47 BOLIVAR (red, sylvan, Ilfina) defeated SylarOff (blue, mages, Ora) 2-3-2.
48 ekzekutor (blue, dungeon, Letos) defeated TwoEP (red, dwarves, Sveya). 2-2-4
49 moz(red, mages, Ora) defeated Twoer(blue, castle, Axel) 1-4-1
50 dwp(Red, Demons, Alastor) defeated Lutii(Blue, Argat, Barbarians) 311
51 Adv (Dwarves, Helmar, Red) defeated Leolopus(Castle, Rutger, Blue) 2-4-4
52 Hero_of_heroes(Sylvan, Anwen) def. BOLIVAR(Dwarves, Ingvar) 2-2-1
53 Kolobokk (stronghold, Haggesh) defeated Vip.rus (inferno, Deleba) month 2 middle
54 twaryna (Inferno, Deleb) defeated Alex_NV (Stronghold, Tilsek) 1-3-7
55 Moskovskiy_1(Necropolis, Orson) defeated Xodyn(Stronghold, Krag) 2-3-2
56 twaryna (Red, Stronghold, Krag + Argat) defeated dwp (Blue, Dungeon, Iranna + Irbet) 1-4-6
57 twaryna (Dwarves, Karli) defeated Lutii (Dungeon, Letos) 2-2-3
58 Alex_R(red, castle, Rutger) lost to moz(blue, stronghold, Argat) 2-1-2
59 dmitrik (red, sylvan, Gilraen) defeated maksar (blue, mages, Nura)
60 immortal(Red, Sylvan, Gilraen) defeated maksar(Blue, Sylvan, Talanar) 2_1_5
61 dmitrik (red, dwarves, Ibba) defeated immortal (blue, castle, Rutger) beginning of week 7
62 Lutii(Fortress, Helmar, Red) lost to alex_nv(Dungeon, Iranna, Blue) 3-2-4
63 FLASH_RUS (necropolis Naadir blue) defeated Shadou 35 (Academy, Hafiz, red) 3-3-2
64 Vip.rus(Stronghold, Garuna) lost to Hero_of_heroes(Necropolis, Deidra) 2-2-5
65 FLASH_RUS (Red - Dungeon - Letos) won immortal (Blue - Inferno - Marbas) 2-1-3
66 Lady Revan (Blue, Haven, Dugal) defeated Xodyn (Red, Haven, Vittorio) month 2 week 3 day 1
67 ekzekutor(red, hafiz, mages) defeated denden(blue, anwen, sylvan) 2.2.6
68 Alex_R (red Mages Jalib) defeated Barma21 (blue Mages Narhiz) 232
69 Alex_NV(Mages, Ora + Nazir) defeated dwp (Dwarves, Karli and KO) week 6
70 Moskovskiy_1(Sylvan, Anwen) defeated Flash_Rus(Stronghold, Tilsek) - day 7 week 2 month 2
71 Twaryna(Red, Sylvan, Ossir) lost to Adv(Blue, Necromancers, Deidra) - 2-1-4
72 KillAndAction (Sylvan, Anwen) defeated Gastello (Necropolis, Zoltan) 2-3-2
73 Smerti_PO(Red, Necromancers, Kaspar) lost to Adv(Blue, Stronghold, Haggesh) - 1-3-6
74 dmitrik(red, mages, Razzak) defeated Moskovskiy_1(blue, castle, Iris) middle of week 6
75 Kolobokk (fortress) defeated Gastello (probably haven)
76 barma21(red, necromancers, Vlad) lost to moz(blue, castle, Vitya + Dugal) 2-1-2
77 Raykkonen(necromancers, Zoltan) won moz (dungeon, Irana) 2-3-3
78 Hero_of_heroes(red, Dwarves, Erling) defeated KillAndAction(blue, Necromancers, Lucretia) 2-3-5
79 Adv (Red, Inferno, Marbas) defeated Lutii(Blue, Necromancers, Deidra) 1-3-4
80 alex_nv(red, Castle, Krag! + Miv) defeated Smerti_Po(blue, Mages, Ora + Razzak) 2-3-6
81 Alex_R (blue Stronghold Haggesh) defeated Raykonen (red Dwarves Ingvar) 216
82 dwp(mages,....) lost to smerti_po(dungeon,....)

P.S. Removed 1 report of an extra game on the "smile" template, but added one report I forgot; as a result, Academy took the lead over Necromancers in win percentage... let's see what changes occur after using the "last race"

Useful information – everything is gathered in one place. Thank you.

Out of 112 matches, 82 were played.

This person clearly has an analytical mind. Huge thanks to Alex for the work he did; it was entirely his initiative, which makes it even more appreciated! Judging by the results of the balance tests, no imbalances were observed, even though the tournament was specific, and opponents chose their races blindly. The balance is evident. I think Immortal and I made the right choice in selecting this tournament format; I hope everyone enjoyed it! Thanks again:smile54:

The results are great; these outcomes were predictable from the start. From a purely mathematical standpoint, it's clear that if each player has played with almost every race and the players' skill levels vary, then the probability theory suggests that the number of wins and losses will be roughly equal across different races (overall, if you count them). As for the average players, their results will likely be similar.

In short, from a scientific perspective, this calculation is nothing more than a confirmation of a normal pattern under certain rules. In this tournament, the rule was to play with different races!

In general, such research is important to science, and I've always respected it.

The most interesting part here is the summarized results on game duration – this is very telling. The faster the game, the more dynamic the experience, and the more engaging it becomes.
The statistics on hero levels depending on the game duration are also interesting.

For tournaments, I would suggest revising the format of the game summary to include the hero levels in the final game! This is essentially important information.
For example:
73 Smerti_PO (Red, Undead, Kaspar - level 27) lost to Adv (Blue, Orcs, Haggeesh - level 33) - 1-3-6 - (the hero levels here are given as an example)

For tournaments, I would suggest revising the format for specifying the header; it would also be helpful to include the level of the heroes in the final match!!! Essentially, this is important information.

I am all for it! ...but what can be done if even the color isn't specified? I determined the color for half of the reports from the draw tables...
I understand that sometimes you just want to quickly write two words about winning or losing, but you can always edit your post later, format the header properly, and write a few words describing the game.
In general, forcing people to do this is not an option, but it would be good to promote the culture of writing reports.
P.S. By the way, it is much easier to analyze reports later if you always write the winner first, regardless of who wrote the report. ;)

ekzekutor (blue, Stronghold, Haggeesh) defeated immortal (red, Wizard, Ora) 2-4-5
From the start, Haggeesh and Tilsek cleared everything quickly, even without creatures. They offered creatures late, but I declined. Attack, morale, luck, logistics, I waited for education, but they didn't give it, and I took defense at level 26. In the 3rd week, I moved to the center, cleared it, and started digging for treasure. There, I obtained a shield from a berserker and armor from a forgotten hero, and bought bracers. I tried to catch the wizard a couple of times, but Ora was cautious. In the 6th week, I gathered my troops, arrived at the enemy's castle, and stood under its walls for about 2 weeks, fearing darkness, but in vain. In the end, Ora left the castle, attacked, and died in 2 turns. Armor didn't help. With the aura of speed and tactics, my units reached the enemy and killed them immediately. Thank you to my opponent for not prolonging the game.

ekzekutor (blue, Horde, Haggeesh) defeated immortal (red, Mage, Ora) 2-4-5

Confirmed. It's not easy to keep up with an Orc, especially Haggeesh... On the 2nd level-up, I was offered machines - I decided to take them instead of logistics in the future, so as not to get bogged down on neutral territories. In general, I didn't get bogged down on them, but the lack of logistics was noticeable. I initially developed the hero in Chaos and Ice to protect myself from early encounters, and then in Darkness with the second-level magic. The adjacent territory was a Necropolis without roads, and it was too far to go to the second one, so I went to look for a path to the resource territory. In the middle of the 3rd week, I reached the resource territory - and there was snow :(. I mostly traveled along the road, but it still took a long time. I leveled up to 20, rushed to the city for artifacts, and at the beginning of the 5th week, I reached the center. I immediately saw a looted pyramid - I realized that the opponent had already cleared everything here, so I ran to another center through my resource territory, fortunately, the passage to it was only 1 day away. The second center was sand, but again without roads :(. I took several Dragon artifacts there, and a couple of magic towers - but they stubbornly didn't give me Darkness spells - they kept using Light and Summoning. In the city, only Blind was available, which was essentially useless. The nearest portal from the center led to a treasure, and I was already happy, but then I saw a blue flag there, guarded by a spider :(. I didn't want to encounter the Orc here anymore - he already had insane stats and all the meat was bought, and I only had 3 stacks and no Darkness spells. I went to look for the second treasure. I wasn't so lucky this time - I opened a lot of portals, and found the treasure in the second to last one - again snow and no roads :(. At least I took yellow boots from the center, but it would have been better to find green ones... I sent the spiders to the treasure. It turned out that this treasure bordered my city - what a coincidence :(. But the opponent didn't let me explore it - he went to my city. I managed to take only the Blood Temple, take the Tome of Chaos, and some other not very useful artifact, I don't remember which one. I teleported home. I had almost no artifacts, some slots were not even filled, I think if he had attacked the city, he would have taken it without any problems. But the opponent was afraid and besieged me, not letting me leave. He stayed there for about 8-9 days, while I slowly made my way from the center through the resource territory to his center. The only hope was to force my hero with Chaos and machines to return to the opponent's hero, and in the meantime, jump into the treasure and find spells and artifacts there (I really wanted the Staff of Sarai). The plan almost worked - I killed the only dangerous spider for me - a 16th-level Tilsac, reached the Orc's home territory, but I didn't summon the genies from the city in time - I wanted to do it on the next turn, I didn't think that the next high-level spider would be so close. It was a 10th-level Keegan with dancers - I had 3 Earth Elementals. I positioned my hero too late - the opponent managed to place all the dancers in such a way that it was impossible to kill even one of them. As a result, I was left with only 1 Earth Elemental. Next was a 10th-level Garuna with 2 druids and some other units, I had to pay to get home. There was nothing left to do here - since I couldn't leave the city... I just lost to the opponent's hero, Orai - there was no chance: the Orc has 17 skill points, I have 24, Armag with the Phoenix Cloak has only 700 damage, and 5 stacks resisted him out of seven :(. Thanks for the game.

Smerti_Po (blue, elves, Ossir level 30 + Gilraen level 23) won against Bolivar (red, orcs, Tilshek level 29 + a bunch of cool roaches) 2-4-1. The start was rough. Ossir, without any artifacts or resurrection, was slowly losing archers, and Gilraen lost over 100 dancers in one go. But after Ossir reached level 20, he retreated home for resurrection, and after that, everything went smoothly. He defeated everyone until his mana ran out, and luckily, there were plenty of mana wells on the map. However, he wasn't lucky with artifacts. He didn't find a single artifact that boosted initiative. From the sets, he only collected the Elf's Dream, which, to be fair, helped a lot in the final against the Staff of Power. However, his opponent pressured him with high-level roaches, which gave him complete control of the map. But I had my secondary town from week 6. I waited for the end of the game because the Gate of the Underworld was one step away from my city. And since it was guarded by a horde of green dragons, I didn't even think about an early rush. Finally, after checking all my treasures and taking a quick peek at his, I decided to pay him a visit. On his side, the Gate of the Underworld was further from the city, but still less than a day's journey. I didn't expect Tilshek to be nearby, and I didn't have time, so I foolishly lost all my dragons, giving them to the roach and not equipping the Book of Darkness. I wanted to have some fun in the final , but I ended up getting nervous. But still, archers under Ossir and the archer's dream are a powerful combination. Thanks for the game.