Posts from The “Farewell, Valya and Shakhter!” tournament (starting hero is chosen randomly). Auto-translated

Alex was the first to say here that Balance is still a good hero, even when generated with 0.0(0) chances against a Chinese hero. It all depends on luck, which is not correct.

And recently, in a Heroes 6 game against Alex, you had a situation where he blocked all your exits, as far as I remember from one of the reports.

Although the game itself didn't leave the best impression, the only thing that pleased me was the main hero. I can hardly imagine in which other random game I would make Riza the main hero.

It would be great to have this conversation in ICQ, but not here.

It would be great if this conversation could take place in ICQ, but not here.

Really? And the host asked for more impressions and opinions about the games. It's not difficult for me; I filled out the report header and am free to describe something else if needed. Let everyone figure it out for themselves through personal experience.

It would be nice to play a different version of the Balance map, the one that Dream has on his website. It simply has more zones, roads, neutral castles, and so on. And as a result, there is less chance of ending up on the only road leading to the Guardian Order castle.

It was played by her.

Another thought – what is the point of having this building on the Balance map at all? It doesn't really fit into the template's ideology. If we remove it, we could end up with something like this:

Impressions: First of all, the priority of Castles changes during the draft. So, according to the templates: 1. Castle I confidently give this to my opponent: Dungeon - with the Miner, it's not the strongest Castle in terms of development, and without him, it's even problematic to use the Dungeon's strong asset, the Portal. You need to secure a good starting position. In my opinion, the Dungeon drops in strength to the level of the Barbarian Castle at the start, and if there's no one to teleport, it falls hopelessly behind later on. Castle - heavily dependent on heroes from the start, especially the chance of getting one of the three heroes without ranged units, or even both of them))) If I'm not mistaken, only the Swamp has a higher chance of being left without ranged units. The melee units are strong, but only the older ones, and you need to fight right away. I remember playing in Kyiv without ranged units, and my army was wiped out in the 3rd week. Barbarians and Tower - practically no changes, and it's not difficult to find a strong hero for the Barbarians. Inferno - no comment, it was an outsider, and it remains one. By the way, to improve the Inferno, I think that whoever chooses it should automatically receive the Red skill. I'll give these with some reservations: Rampart - without Kirill, it remains a strong and stable Castle, but it's still not as scary (although in the last game against Preds, Kirill came to me twice out of four times for the Rampart, and Ivor came twice, but you shouldn't rely on this too much), and there's an alternative to find a Necromancer. Swamp - the same as with the Barbarians. Necropolis - even without Gosh, it's a gamble. I would never give Flax. 2. 8mm6: In principle, there are small differences from the draft for the Castle, which are also applicable to the overall strategy in 8mm6. Inferno is not that weak, you can play with the Castle, or you can take a risk with the Dungeon. 3. On the balance, the Dungeon suffers a lot, possibly the Castle as well. The Tower, Inferno, and Necropolis remain strong. I won't say anything about the Swamp and Barbarians, as I haven't played with them. Among the drawbacks of the game without a starting bonus, I would highlight the randomness of the opponent getting an uber-hero in the 2nd week. Otherwise, only positive impressions. P.S. lol - we started a rematch against Preds - out of 3 drafts for the Swamp, not a single Lizardman appeared))))

So, does starting the game with a random hero actually decrease (or at least not increase) the much-discussed balance? What definitely adds more excitement at the start is... playing "blind," like in card games...

So, does starting the game with a random hero actually decrease (or at least not increase) the overall balance? What adds more excitement at the start is definitely... the element of surprise, like when playing cards...

No, the balance itself is slightly different.

Hermit(blue, inferno, Pyre, Pyre) def злой романтик(red, fortress, random, Bron, Luna) panic 132

Won in a weird way... We started playing, and the native and necro respawns were huge, but there wasn't much use from them, because most of it was cut off by mountains and it would probably take over a week to get there. On the native - an external dwelling of gogs. The only passage on the road from the necro respawn goes through a monolith guarded by a horde of demons; it's better not to even look for the others, because by the time I get to them, the game will probably be over. By the end of the week, I finally captured the ore mine, but I realized it was hopeless to push for the lumber mine, but then Pyre intercepted the wood delivery and wood started coming in a bit as well. On the second week, very awkwardly and with heavy losses because they were magogs instead of gogs, I broke through the demons and saw a group of death knights on the mud on the other side!.. So for the rest of the week, I was messing around, thinking things were bad, and they were. At the start of the third week, I broke through the knights, freed Vey from prison, and see a Griffin Conservatory on the road, and further on, Boots of Speed. I'm rushing on efreets, rejoicing, and suddenly I see a horse's face - Luna is already taking the boots and is two hexes short of Pyre, who is rushing on efreets. I'm bringing almost everything from the castle. I check Luna's spell power and mana - not much. I check the Griffin Conservatory, take two angels, and attack. Thanks to the morale of the efreets, I even managed to kill... Thanks for the game.

Hermit (blue, Inferno, Pyre, Pyre) def Evil Romantic (red, Fortress, random, Bron, Luna) panic 132
I confirm. I fell for the boots and went after them with my hero without checking the spawn point, thinking that if something went wrong, I would bring the rest of the army on the next turn, but then Pyre came charging in...

...
PS lol - started the rematch with PReDS - out of 3 randoms for the swamp, not a single lizard))))

Finished. PReDS - Javdet 2:0.

PReDS(red, castle, random, Loins, Turris) def (blue, swamp, random, Tiva, Moner), 8mm6, 135, TE-light.
Having a one-point lead, I relaxed: my play wasn't the best, and I played sluggishly. But the RNG gave me such "chocolate" that I couldn't ruin the layout anyway. For 2 weeks I simply didn't leave the respawn: external dwellings of archers, spears, swords, angels, monks (I never actually took it), a sea of money, minimum cons. On the way to the village on the sands, throne cons without gr. (turned out to be three) and a Dragon Utopia, in the village zone another 2 Dragon Utopias. In 2 Dragon Utopias (mini and two-stack) I got artifacts only for magic, but given the heap of resources, I easily upgraded 7 angels and Moner had no chance in the finale, although not many other troops were left: 7 archs and light on 525 decided it. If Moner hadn't come to visit, I would have taken the second Dragon Utopia by the village, and there, as it turned out, was a cap of fives.

Thanks for the games.

We're done. PReDS - Javdet 2:0.

PReDS (red, Castle, random, Loins, Turris) def (blue, Fortress, random, Tiva, Moner), 8mm6, 135, TE-light.
Having a one-point lead, I relaxed: I made suboptimal moves and played sluggishly. But the draw handed me such a sweet deal that I couldn't mess up the situation anyway. For 2 weeks I practically never left the starting area: external dwellings of archers, spearmen, swordsmen, angels, monks (I never took that one), tons of gold, minimal Griffin Conservatory. On the way to the village in the sands, a troll Griffin Conservatory without gr. (turned out to be tier 3) and a Dragon Utopia; in the village area, 2 more Dragon Utopias. The 2 Dragon Utopias (a mini and a tier 2) gave artifacts only for magic, but with a bunch of resources, I easily upgraded 7 angels, and Moner had no chance in the final, though I didn't have much of the rest of my army: 7 archers and Light on 525 decided it. If Moner hadn't come visiting — I would have taken the second Dragon Utopia near the village, and there, as it turned out, were tier 5 caps.

Thanks for the games.

I was still wondering why my opponent didn't take res with three Fortresses:)
External dwelling of archers and gnolls, still no restorations, I'm running to the computer. At the fork, a cave toward the reds for whips. Can't not fight — with the log and stables, it's a day to my castle, but I fought poorly — lost all the gnolls. By 115, the opponent kindly builds a Citadel and doesn't enter the castle. And then there's just nothing to do — didn't find a Dragon Utopia, few Griffin Conservatory hives, I go visit with 100 tier 3 lizards, 26 cows, 27 ducks, 2 angels, and nearly 100 gnolls. But I was met inhospitably — 7 archers keep resurrecting Marksmen no matter what, and there's not enough mana for Anti-Magic for everyone.

Thanks for the game.

Just a reminder to a couple of debtors: Kash-NumOne (currently 0:1) - the final deadline for finishing the match is December 13th, which is Sunday, although you could have played the decisive 1-2 matches earlier. Take an example from the other participants, especially PReDS and Javdet, who deserve great respect for their promptness and good reports. Right now, we are only waiting for you, so please let us know as soon as possible about the current situation, upload the logs from ICQ - from 00:00 on the 14th, I will start awarding the victory without any delays.

If it's urgent, you can award the tech points to me without logs; I don't mind. Our schedules don't align by about 12 hours. NumOne contacts me early in the morning, and I go to bed then. I can only play in the morning on Saturdays, and even then, not every time. On the remaining days, I might be able to free up earlier in the evening. I'll see you in-game, and we can talk.