Posts from World Championship in Heroes of Might and Magic III.

Played the 1st game with Maretti. Speechless.

I negotiated to get Sandro against Inferno.
The start was smooth as butter - 2 Pandora's Boxes with troops, 113 - cons 1 , 114 cons - 2, a level 3 is scouted, artifacts lying around for +6 and +4 to all stats (the shield is far away though). It was going so beautifully that I even thought I could be accused of cheating. In short, already on day 121 on an angel near the ГО (and this is on slow roads). But I decide to skip a day - the chains were set for taking the shield, I'm replenishing mana myself. And then the unforeseen happened: both roads leading to the ГО went not to the center but to empty respawns. I can't look at the ground, the view air shows that the nearest town in the treasure zone is very far away, and the opponent is somewhere messing around on his side. Long story short, the moment to catch the opponent and crush him on parameters was missed.
I'm trudging along stones with an under-leveled pathfinding, found the road after 3 days, but the opponent had already grown fat, upgraded to devils and attacked with shackles. Without shackles, there were still ghostly chances for the orb + collecting AOTD, and even that was unlikely.
Watched the saves - it's unclear what he was doing on his respawn instead of rushing to take the ГО, but winners aren't judged.

P.S. And regarding the rules. It's unclear why transport spells were banned. If they bother someone, why not impose a ban on spells from scrolls and books, but allow building them yourself. And here's the situation: I could have tried to build something in my town (especially since I started building in the secondary on day 114, but then remembered it's not needed at all) to somehow compensate for the generator bug, so that I wouldn't have to drag ridiculous chains through impassable terrain. In short, it's frustrating - you play faster and better than your opponent, but it's all for nothing.

What template was it? Jebus?

yes, complete Jebus.

Could you please upload a starting save file? I won’t be commenting on the game here:D

Wow, Maretti is crushing everyone.
One foreigner wrote on the tournament forum that he would give 5 beers to each participant if Maretti loses any game :D

If Javdet doesn't beat Maretti, I have a feeling AtG will win against Maretti 2:0 in the next round.

Okay, here are the saves, let's take a look...
http://www.fayloobmennik.net/74549

I don't even know what kind of epithets AtG would use to describe both me and the Dane for such a second week.:D :D :D

If Javdet doesn't beat Maretti, something tells me AtG - Maretti 2:0 in the next round.:D

Ooh, Maretti is crushing everyone.
One foreigner wrote on the tournament forum about balance, saying he would give 5 beers to each participant if Maretti loses any game :D

I have no doubt that Alex is stronger.

If Javdet doesn't beat Maretti, I have a feeling AtG will win against Maretti 2:0 in the next round.

Alex needs to beat Predsa first, and he's not the type to give up a victory easily:smile01:
Let's take a look at the saves.

The score doesn't necessarily reflect the difference in skill. At first glance, Maretti moves the knights quite well and plays with a good margin of safety, but that might be useful in tournament games.

Overall, it's a very interesting setup for the Dungeon faction; it's a shame there isn't a 0-save file, it would be interesting to play through the single-player campaign.

Alex needs to finish the Предса campaign first, and he's not the type to give up a victory easily:smile01:
We'll take a look at the saves soon.

Alex has already beaten it, he just hasn't posted it yet.

I can't say that anyone was shortchanged by the spawn layout in this game. A Chalice and a Shield +4all for the Wasps, a Stable, Griffin Conservatories minimum and a level 3 one, which was needed. Maretti has a Sword +5all for the Demon Horde and a Dragon Utopia. By the start of the first week, the advantage is definitely with Javdet: the Conservatories are cleared, the Chalice is taken. But what was Maretti doing in the last days of the week? confused: - Tazik is scouting the respawn on a Devil :D Though it must be noted that the Devils are well placed in the Castle with two painted external dwellings.
An interesting move by Maretti - buying out at the external tavern after the split, worth noting.
In the second week, Shakti should have, imho, started with the Stable near the Sword, followed by a split into the secondary hero. This would have significantly increased the tempo and could have decided the outcome.

I think Maretti was betting on getting to the center on turn 131 with Archdevils, which are quite effective against Angels.

In general, this setup for Dungeon should be played as aggressively as possible, perhaps even going out on the first turn. Roman and I have different views on the development strategy. :D Yes, the idea of starting with a stable for the Grand General is good.

For the second week, Shakti IMHO should have started with the stable near the sword, followed by splitting into a secondary hero. This would have significantly increased the tempo and could have decided the outcome.

I considered that option. The only advantage is the stable, but there are more disadvantages: you still need to get there, along the way there's practically nothing valuable, the road to the GO hadn't been scouted at that point, and splitting near the stables would only be against Vasko's forces. However, in a week I managed to eat the consulate on 3 with a pandora and break through almost to the GO (I couldn't have known that the village was on the border with Trezha, otherwise I would naturally have finished at the stables with a subsequent split)

Added after 4 minutes

I can't say that anyone was shortchanged by the layout in this game. Teapot A. But what was Maretti doing in the last days of the week confused: - Tazik is scouting the respawn on devil :D Though I must note that the devils in the castle with 2 painted external dwellings were placed well.
An interesting move by Maretti - buying out at the external tavern after splitting, I should take note of that.

Too bad the logs with Alex from our game got erased; the situation was somewhat similar, but the general gist is: by the start of 121 you should already be at the consulate, and raiding Naga banks and scouting the map is for noobs. Maretti, if I'm not mistaken, uselessly drove Taz around until 123, and only took the consulate on 124

Added after 4 minutes

Generally, this layout for Dungeon needs to be played as fast-paced as possible, possibly even winning on the first week

I'd like to see that, even offline. But only with acceptable losses.

Maretti at 123 takes the max console with Taz, then the hive, sword, and Dragon Utopia. He was undoubtedly lucky with the shackles.
In the finale with cr.share and shackles, he still didn't catch up to Shakti in stats, but instead outweighed them in the quantity and quality of troops, which is actually what decided it.
From this, I concluded for myself - an early move to the center does not always lead to victory. To effectively clear the center, you need Dimension Door, flight, or at least upgraded pathfinding. Paradoxically, Tazik managed to win without having stables, logistics, pathfinding, boots, or gloves, while having 2 times less experience

Waiting for part two :smile23:

I'll still stick to my opinion — you needed to reach the center on 123-124, not at the end of 126. And if I had had a decent road, who knows what he would have gained from his troop quality. With a road, the strategy would have been completely different — not blindly charging around in search of it, but scouting and taking easier stuff with Lashers and the main goodies with Papa. And finding Shackles on Jebus Cross is a common occurrence.