Posts from Flooders Tournament for HoMM III Online

HoMMie, Fortress (Ingvar) defeated Arandor, Sylvan (Vingael) 3.2.4

Here is the result of our epic match. (I don't know of a more suitable thread for posting fan-game reports. :)) It turned out well, I really enjoyed it, and Ar seemed to as well, though defeat is, of course, never a good thing. :o We played by standard rules; we chose the races, heroes, and starting bonuses ourselves. On the surface, our two starting zones were spread out with everything needed for survival; each of us had 2 moves to reach the dungeon, which was roughly the same as the surface, only with more powerful artifacts.
I'll start the chronicle of events.
I started off quite well; I had no financial difficulties until about the end of the 1st month, as I found a refugee camp in the 1st week and hired 2 Ancient Ents, with whom I successfully cleared various resources, chests, and medium-power artifacts. Then, around the beginning of the 2nd month (yes, we played terribly slowly, but the map template encouraged it :)) I began taking mines with growth from my castle, which already possessed decent strength (I had a quite impressive number of Thans, for example), finished clearing my zone by exploring dwarven vaults and elemental warehouses (everything was already being ripped apart by auto-battle), and headed into the dungeon, from which I didn't leave until the end of the game. :) Accordingly, I wandered there for about 1.5 months, collecting artifacts and developing my hero. Once, through a chain of events, I swapped some outdated units for more modern ones. After some time, Ar and I agreed to hold the final battle soon. I simply said that I would be at his place in about 1.5 weeks and headed home (to finish learning the Battle Frenzy rune and consolidate all troops) via the opposite exit of my dungeon zone. And how surprised I was when I saw Vingael jump out from there fully armed and with all the active forces of the Sylvan faction, and realized that the zone formally wasn't mine! It turned out that the 2 entrances to the dungeon lead to different parts of it... Well, Arandor had 1.5 times more troops; half of my armed forces were in the castle and with Ingi, whom I decided to level up on the "week of creatures" neutrals that appeared near the castle. Well, at least all the necessary spells and artifacts were on me. As for runes, I was missing Battle Frenzy, but that was insignificant, especially since I developed the hero according to my plans. And without thinking twice, I decided to accept the battle, for some reason fully confident that Ar didn't have the Shackles of War. Ar, of course, would have let me prepare properly, but it would have been unsightly to spend another half-month traveling home (a calculation error led to me getting mega-far from the castle), especially since Vingael would have gone berserk on the neutrals by then... Plus, I had 2 more levels, just as many troops in the castle, and a super-ballista...
And so, I attacked in hopes of a war of attrition and... won! :eek: Ar lamented the runes, but our army focused on the ballista and Divine Vengeance, which I think carried me through. The Stun rune helped a lot, triggering at the most appropriate moments. Elven luck turned away from its owner today...

Now for the technical part.
Vingael, level 23. 15 20 6 13 [Morale - 4, Luck - 4, Mana - 129]*
From the leveling during the battle, I only learned:
Trained Avenger - Arrow Rain.
Logistics - Surprise Attack.
Light Magic - Righteous Wrath.
I hope Arandor will tell about it himself. ;)
Ingvar, level 25. 9 19 15 15 [Morale - 0, Luck - 1, Mana - 120]*
3 Rune Knowledge - Greatest Rune, Renewed Rune.
3 Defense - Endurance, Evasion, Fight to the Last.
3 Machine Management - Ballista, Rapid-fire Ballista, Runic Machines.
3 Attack - Tactics, Marksmanship, Fire Arrows.
2 Light Magic - Righteous Wrath, Storm Wind.
* - including equipped artifacts.
As can be seen, the development was quite anti-Vingael: Storm Wind and Tactics reduce the ability of enemy troops to reach ours immediately, + half of the "Embrace of Death" set was equipped, which also took away Ar's ability to move an extra cell. :) (Cloak of Deadly Shadow and Necromancer's Amulet.) Runic Machines (+3 to ballista initiative) and the Dragon Crown (another +10% initiative for machines) allowed the ballista to act before the elven archers and weaken them. Also, among the artifacts, 2 Rings of Broken Spirit were equipped, which together with the Cloak stripped Vingael of all 6 (!) units of Morale and 2 Luck. In the end, he was left without Morale and almost without Luck, with troops that didn't move far (nymphs were only able to fly 3 cells), and the dwarves even came out faster than the elves! Other artifacts included a set of Runic Battle Harness and Runic Axe (+3 to all stats), Boots of Speed, Dragon Scale Shield, and the Tarot Deck.

And now the bonuses!
1. Replay of the final battle.
2. Replay showing how I sometimes had to be resourceful with my "neither here nor there" dwarves.
3. This is how the ents helped me at the start.
4. To give a general idea of the terrain.
5. And of the dungeon.
6. For those who cannot watch the replay.

P.S. I hope Ar won't be stingy in posting his own vision of the situation. :)

I didn't have any logistics or light magic skills. The unicorn just stole your spells, and I leveled up its speed from attack.
Yes, that holy strike of yours and the stupid ballista (I should have spent two turns on it) were the biggest obstacles, and of course, the speed... I also had artifacts to reduce enemy defense and luck, but I decided to keep them for myself. It's a pity that the defense and luck were reduced (only 2 luck remained, and the defense was at zero), meaning all the leveling was for nothing, and you can't run away with just one attack and defense, even though I had a decent army. Maybe I was doing something wrong because of my noob status in Heroes 5 (not in terms of leveling, I don't know anything about that... but in terms of combat, because I mostly played duels, and they've simplified these battles, which doesn't give you enough experience).
P.S. I still think runes are cheating because they provide extra magic for EVERY unit and on EVERY turn.

HoMMie, Fortress (Ingvar) defeated Arandor, Sylvan (Vingael) 3.2.4
Rune Machines (+3 to Ballista initiative) and Dragon Crown (another +10% initiative for machines) allowed the ballista to attack before the elven archers and weaken them.
:)

You were just lucky; if the archers had attacked before the ballista, your names in the report could easily have been switched. A 40% bonus for machines gives an initiative advantage during the battle, meaning it will attack more often, but this doesn't affect the initial placement in the lineup. It attacked first because of the dwarven battlefield; I believe the racial field gives the owner +0.25 to the initial placement (I read about this on the Nival forum). So, think about luck and fortune ;)

Well, I'm a noob :(

Added 4 minutes later
Although, wait a minute!

Added 8 minutes later

<...> your names in the report could easily be swapped.

But I had large reserves in the castle! I could have escaped and returned with them...

I just got lucky; if the archers had fired before the ballista, then <...>

The archers would have only killed a few more priests.

The 40% bonus gives machines initiative during battle, i.e., it will shoot more often, but this has nothing to do with the initial positioning in the lineup.

Wow! So the initiative stat doesn't affect the position in the initiative scale at the beginning of the battle?

And it fired first because of the dwarven battlefield; I think the racial field gives the owner +0.25 to the initial positioning (I read about this on the Nival forum).

Interesting, I didn't know that, thanks for the information! :smile20:

Added 52 seconds later
Although, I'm still a noob :(

I forgot to mention that I didn't explore the dungeons much because the surface was quite inconvenient, and I spent the entire game on the surface, clearing my lands. And when it was time to go down, I just happened to stumble upon Homm (I should have gone into the lower tunnel; maybe I would have ended up closer to his castle).
I also didn't find any of the cool artifacts that Homm mentioned. There were some good ones on the surface, but it was still difficult to choose between them. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the Lion set, which gives bonus defense, into battle. I don't know. And I also took a teleportation scroll instead of a +5 shield, although it lowered initiative. In duels, the teleport works differently than in other games. It doesn't give the enemy a turn; it doesn't seem to add anything at all, maybe because it's a scroll.
And it's a pity that I didn't have time to level up properly. I was just a little short of getting inspiration and defense.

225 archers kill a ballista (hopefully, this is beyond any doubt) on the first turn, and then the dwarf buys his way out, gathers an army (although it's unlikely to be many times larger), and the elf again kills the ballista on the first turn. Then, by rearranging the units a bit, the entire army can be quite effectively ambushed.

I don't remember why the elves didn't kill the ballista. Ents definitely couldn't do it in one hit, so I didn't attack it with them. I don't know, I didn't think it would shoot so often. As for the elves, I don't remember. Watch the replay, maybe you'll see the mistake there.

Quite often, I found myself in situations where a single incorrect move in battle decided the entire game: either I didn't move correctly, or I didn't attack the right targets, or I didn't choose the right spell at the beginning. There was even one instance where an unequipped artifact completely changed the situation.
But that's a different story. When are we going to start the tournament?

Did they say anything about a tournament for Heroes of Might and Magic III? Because that won't be happening anytime soon.

Wouldn't 175 elves destroy a ballista?
I spoke with such confidence about the priests because I'm not sure that Ar correctly assessed the potential of the ballista at the beginning of the battle. That is, he would still be shooting at the troops.

in duels, teleport works differently than in such games) they don't immediately give them a turn, it seems they don't add anything at all, maybe because it's a scroll...

In duels, almost all heroes with teleport have it taken from Logistics: the "Sudden Attack" skill. (Shifts the unit by +0.5 in ATB. Or to its beginning, if half of the scale has already been passed.)

yes, I just checked, and it doesn't make logical sense, because the skill is based on speed, and elves are always fast. Also, this skill is only available to Elves and Mages. If I had known, I wouldn't have taken this scroll.

we just played a few games of Heroes 3. There were four of us: me, Revan, Veg, and Medzh. We only played for a week, but we'll continue tomorrow, maybe.

It turned out to be quite fun. Veg and I wanted to play a conflux map, so I invited Revan, and then Volk joined. While I was connecting with them, Veg left. For a few minutes, I was just chatting with Revan and Volk, but then Volk also left, and we were left with just Revan. He said he was playing with Medzh. I asked to join them, and we started creating a map, and then Veg showed up. We invited him too, and we started playing with four players. I played as Haven, Revan played as Necropolis, Medzh played as Fortress, and Veg played as Dungeon. +4 companions (Tower, Demons, Dungeon, and Barbarians).

We just played a game in Heroes 3. There were four of us: me, Tan, Veg, and Medj. We only played for one week, but we'll continue tomorrow, maybe.

It turned out to be quite fun. Veg and I wanted to set up a conflux, and I invited Revan, then Volk joined. While I was connecting with them, Veg left. For a few minutes, I just chatted with Revan and Volk, but Volk also left, and we were left with just Revan. He said he was playing with Medj. I asked to join them, and we were already creating a map when Veg showed up. We invited him too, and we started playing with four players. I played as Haven, Revan as Necropolis, Medj as Fortress, and Veg as Swamp. +4 companions (Tower, Demons, Dungeon, and Barbarians).

When more than two people play, it probably becomes a particularly interesting game. I haven't tried it myself, but I really want to try playing one-on-one or each player for themselves in a group of three or four.

and yes, we had a lot of fun playing, even though the turns took a while. Time flies faster on Skype, especially when we're joking and having fun. It's a pity that Medzh wasn't with us.

When more than two people play, it probably becomes a particularly interesting game. I haven't tried it myself, but I really want to try playing in pairs or each player for themselves, with three or four players, or even more.

It would be good to find a playable, symmetrical map for such cases, for 4 players.

Added 1 minute ago

It's a pity Medzh wasn't with us.

Never mind, everything's fine. I have less hassle with the family when I get up from the computer every 10 minutes and give my eyes a rest. It's very convenient with four players.