Posts from For beginners only: learn from the mistakes of others.

Good day.
This topic is intended only for beginner players who have not yet won major tournaments.
Lesson 1.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65xcb35B8-E&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Assignment.
1. Evaluate the level of gameplay.
2. First week of play: what inaccuracies were made.
3. First week of play: what good moves or maneuvers were made.
4. Second week of play: what inaccuracies were made.
5. Second week of play: what good moves or maneuvers were made.
6. Third week of play: what inaccuracies were made.
7. Third week of play: what good moves or maneuvers were made.

I look forward to your messages, don't hesitate.
Let's discuss it together.

I don't see any discussions here. For now, I have written a short piece about buying a second hero on the first day of the video: /topic/at/427212/. I hope it will be helpful. Dear players! Don't hesitate; express your opinions! Together we can identify typical inaccuracies in the game and find ways to improve it!

Yeah, he was just playing a rush strategy! He didn't even leave any halflings at home at the beginning to develop his hero, even though his goal was just to gather resources.

He was practically playing "run-run"! He didn't even leave the halflings at home at the beginning to level up the hero, even though his goal was simply to gather resources.

Thank you, Maestro!
So, the first mistake of the player: he was moving around with a hero-scout (i.e., the one who only explores the territory and gathers resources without engaging in battles) with slow units in his army. Let's try to calculate how much this inaccuracy cost him.
A hero with halflings has 11 movement points, and a hero with pigs has 14 movement points. Thus, in a week, a hero with halflings has 77 movement points, while a hero with pigs has 98!!, meaning he can move almost TWO DAYS more! This is the price of an inaccurate, template-based move!

There's no clear objective in his actions – usually, you need to achieve a specific result, choose a direction, and focus on that point. If you can't increase your power through magic or brute force (including creating a powerful stack by hiring many heroes).
But it seems to me that you also found flaws in his building order?

There are no discernible goals in his actions.

Absolutely. And the complete lack of a goal leads to a noticeable decrease in the quality of the game. And I'll say this specifically for those who like to "play for fun" – a game with good strategic ideas and original tactical concepts brings much more enjoyment than simply "running around with a unit."

If it's not possible to increase power through magic or brute force (including creating a powerful stack by hiring many heroes).

Well, now we've come to the question of choosing the so-called "main" hero. Let's try to figure out what kind of hero that might be.
The general line of reasoning: So, I have a map that's not too small, but not too big either. It seems to be a Medium size. On this map, considering the amount of resources and gold I have, I'll build mages in the first week. And on the first day of the second week, I'll start expanding. An approximate army for the first day of the second week (121): 6 mages, 8 birds (if I don't lose them), maybe 20-30 halflings will remain after the first week, 5 pigs to cover the archers and provide support, I probably won't be able to buy golems – I probably won't have enough gold. I'll look for a foundry – they make steel golems from iron golems for free. But for now, let's assume there are no golems.
Okay, in this army, there are two archers (it would be good if the main hero could learn the Archery skill). It's difficult to estimate the total damage, but it seems that the hero-mage will deal around 150 damage (this is just speculation, without calculations). So, a hero-barbarian will deal around 195, a knight 180, a sorceress, wizard, or necromancer – 150, a necromancer – 165. But! To build mages, you need a magic guild, and there, there might be a magic archer. And this gives mage heroes 20 (and a necromancer 30) damage. So, in principle, you can choose a mage. What's annoying is that you'll need to storm at least 3 Castles. So, you need a decent defense and ballistics.
The final verdict.
If you have a good opportunity, a knight hero is quite interesting on this map: he has ballistics and good defense with potential for growth.
Also, a native wizard hero is a perfectly normal option (he has defense + a basic Stoneskin spell), but he will need ballistics. Another quite decent option: a necromancer hero. High magic power combined with useful scouting for an early-game hero, and a very useful starting army for the first week.
We won't go into a necromancer strategy or seriously consider other heroes.
Now let's look at the Castle and see who they offer us. They offer us a native wizard hero and a witch hero. Well, then we'll play with the starting hero for now. Right?
No! Not quite!
We leave 1 pig with the starting hero and send him off to scout and explore. And with the second (or even third, fourth) hero, we take his army and the units bought in the Castle. This way, the army of several heroes gathers together and becomes a formidable force.

But it seems you also found flaws in his building order?

So, we decided that the MAGE hero will be our main hero (this is confirmed by further development, in particular, by taking chests for experience). And, having decided this, we build... a statue. Of course, when playing a magic-focused game, you need to build a magic guild so that the hero can learn the magic available there. Yes, this magic may not be very useful, but the probability of good spells appearing is high enough. And also: troops can be brought to the hero by other heroes (passed along a chain of heroes), but magic from a magic guild cannot be passed along a chain of heroes.

Colleagues, let's continue the discussion!

I only watched the first week, because the internet connection is not very good... ******* Indeed... As was said, the heroes were running around aimlessly... There was no tactics, no strategy... Just a rush of dark creatures... =)) This is not even a game, but just a demonstration of what the heroes can do... =)) There was, apparently, no scouting either... Running with slow units is not a great decision, but collecting resources diagonally is even worse... Spending one and a half steps and staying in place is an unacceptably big luxury... This action is justified if: 1. There is only one step left to the movie. Then the hero can make one last diagonal move... 2. If the general direction of movement changes. 3. - maybe someone else can add something - Regarding resources. Resources are power, but sometimes converting chests into experience is not justified... Here, you need to divide it depending on what you are playing... Either it's online, then we use them to level up the main hero, or offline... In this case, gold is often needed to hire the maximum number of necessary heroes and break through the defense with starting units, capture the enemy Castle, etc... The same applies to building up your own city... It is often not justified... Since in all official tournaments, the opponent is always in a more advantageous position in terms of resources and by the end of the week manages to build almost all dwellings + a guild of mages of level 2-3... Here you need to think and guess... The goal is usually one... To reach the enemy Castle in a week, capture it, and as a jackpot, get its weekly income... =)) Also, it seemed very strange that the chest near the sawmill was not taken... Of course, it may have been planned for something in the future, but in practice, a hero, after leaving his home Castle, rarely returns to it... That's it... For now... =)) :o

I agree, the resource allocation wasn't done perfectly. The second hero didn't take the chest because it was left for the first hero to gain experience. As correctly noted, this is questionable. Regarding the building, I would still call the weekly results rather positive: everything that could be built has been built. However, I would adjust the order of this construction, placing the guild of mages first and the statue second, but overall, it was played well. There are still a few aspects in the first week that are somewhat disappointing. Which ones?

Well, I'll share my opinion about the first week of the game.
1. The player's skill level is not professional. Even when playing on a completely unfamiliar map, just for fun, without aiming for records, etc., the player's technical skills clearly show some shortcomings. Also, a number of inexplicable mistakes were made, which lead to this conclusion.
2. Inaccuracies in the first week of the game.
In addition to the above, I would add the following:
-) when building, troops are immediately bought. These troops do nothing; they just stand in the city. If this is to protect against a hero with the Dimension Door spell, it is clear that they are unlikely to be able to do anything against such a powerful hero. If it is done for some other purpose, it is unclear what that purpose is. I would like to remind you that in the second game, upgrading troops costs twice as much as the difference in price between un-upgraded and upgraded units. Thus, by buying un-upgraded units unnecessarily, the player loses a significant amount of gold.
-) timidity in the game. The player's strategy is clear: clearing the area around the castle and leveling up the main hero. But at the same time, when the second hero could easily break through the Mercury Laboratory, guarded by peasants, without any losses, he did not do so, as a result of which he missed out on resources.
-) lack of interaction between the heroes. When the secondary hero passed by the main hero, he could have transferred all the troops to the main hero, except for 1 pig, because it became clear that the player intended to fight only with the main hero. However, this did not happen.
-) playing with too few heroes. It was clearly possible to organize a third hero, which could have paid off with an earlier capture of mines. For example, on the second day, after building the birds, a hero could have been bought, given these birds, and even within the framework of the existing strategy of all battles only with the main hero, the third hero could have transferred additional troops to the main hero, with which it would have been possible to solve quite serious tasks. Moreover, an excellent necromancer hero appeared for recruitment, who is fast at the start, with archers, and with the scouting skill.
3. I liked that the player built everything that was needed. I was also very inspired by the rapid start with the purchase of all troops, although this faded somewhat later.
4. Second week. I didn't like that the main hero didn't break through the goblins before the stone mine. The battle was easily won with minimal losses, or even without any losses. Strange maneuvers at the end of the week. A hero who has pigs at the beginning of his turn moves 4 squares across the grass, which is more than a hero who has iron golems at the beginning of his turn. This was clearly not taken into account. Next. Battle with archers. With this number of units, the priority is the mage squad, so casting Stone Skin on the halflings is just a waste of 3 mana. And the mages received from 0 (with morale on their troops) to 2 (with morale on the archers) hits, that is, the mage was not targeted in any case.
5. In the second week, I really liked the choice of leadership for the secondary hero (instead of expert wisdom). The fact is that leadership is sometimes required to select artifacts, so this decision seemed very interesting to me. I also liked the typical maneuver: preliminary scouting of the hut with the secondary hero's scouting skill (so that if the skill turns out to be useful, send the main hero there, and if not, don't send him).

I had something about redeeming troops in mind, but I couldn't quite put it into words...
After all, there's never enough gold to redeem the entire weekly increase, so I focus on redeeming more useful monsters (those that shoot, fly, or are fast-moving)...
And here:

Just a reminder, in the second game, upgrading troops costs twice as much as the difference in price between an unupgraded and an upgraded unit. Therefore, if a player redeems completely unnecessary unupgraded units, they lose a significant amount of gold.

I really didn't consider that... I didn't even know...=))) Because I don't redeem them immediately after building...

A small number of heroes is definitely a drawback... The number of heroes is directly proportional to the amount of resources collected, especially when there are many of them lying around + by the beginning of the second week, it will be possible to pass monsters along the chain to the main hero, who will be 3-5 days away from the home castle at that time...

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By the way, taking this opportunity, Happy Birthday!..=)):smile12:
Happy 103rd anniversary... :D Judging by the year in your profile, 1907...=))

A small number of heroes – I agree, it's a big drawback... The number of heroes is directly proportional to the number of resources collected, especially when there are many of them lying around + by the beginning of the second week, you can pass monsters to the main hero in a chain, who is already 3-5 days away from the home castle at this time...

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By the way, taking this opportunity, Happy Birthday!..=)):smile12:
Happy 103rd anniversary... :D Judging by the year in your profile, 1907...=))

Thank you!
As correctly noted, you can transfer troops from the castle to the forward hero using a chain of heroes.
The correct game plan for the second week in this case was as follows: the forward hero goes up, the hero from the castle buys troops, passes them to the second, he passes them to the forward hero. The battle with the trolls should follow this scenario: stone skins on upgraded mages. They shoot at the trolls. Pigs go forward. Trolls shoot. Birds block the next two troll squads. The last squad(s) of trolls shoot, halflings shoot, then without losses, you just need to monitor the amount of health of the birds. In principle, in the worst case, the losses will be 1 archmage and 1 bird, but most likely the battle will pass without any losses at all. After this battle, the hero goes forward to capture one of the computer's castles no later than the first day of the third week.
After that, the plan is as follows: the main hero goes to capture the next castles, the hero from the home castle with the army of the second week goes to help him, if necessary, crushing the computer's heroes and capturing castles, if there is enough strength, in the captured computer castle, reinforcements are bought, and this hero clears the territory and helps the main one. On day 141, you need to finish the game, otherwise there is a risk that it will drag on.

Well, let's watch another video: http://www.youtube.com/user/LarvaExoteech#p/u/9/0gArEUbOCFk.
Let's try to answer the same questions:
1. Evaluate the level of gameplay.
2. First week of gameplay: what inaccuracies were made.
3. First week of gameplay: what good moves or maneuvers were made.
4. Second week of gameplay: what inaccuracies were made.
5. Second week of gameplay: what good moves or maneuvers were made.

I think watching it will evoke many emotions, enjoy!

Well, here it is!... It's immediately clear what the main difference is from the previous video – the presence of a goal... And the goal is one: Kill everyone!...=)))

But I'll also add a fly in the ointment to this barrel of honey...=))
Starting from the beginning...
The fact that a Castle is being built is, of course, a plus... After all, the "outpost" sometimes really helps... In this case, I would have hired a Whisper... He has a magic power of 3 at the start, not 2 like the Necromancer... Besides the magic power, there are also gargoyles at the start...

The same mistake as in the previous video – running with low-speed units... The first hero dismissed the undead only at the beginning of the third day...
There was no need to take zombies with him, and the skeletons should have been dismissed immediately after recruiting the ogres... They are of no use anyway, they only provoke negative morale in the ogres...
Hiring skeletons also doesn't give any advantage...
Moreover, it is clearly visible in 1-2-1 that one step was not enough to reach the enemy, and that's the most annoying thing...=)))

If I were the player, starting with a Necromancer, I would leave all but 1 skeleton in the Castle, collect the free gold around the Castle, and also the chests for gold... As much gold as possible to hire more heroes...

Maneuvers...
There is a saying: "War is a mess, the main thing is maneuvers!"...
The heroes behaved very strangely... Since the first one ran down and already saw the enemy's Castle, he should have run to it...
And the second one should have struggled to the top corner...
After capturing the Castles, it was necessary to hire another hero, divide the troops, and have the purchased one run down, while the other remained to defend...

With this arrangement, the points:

4. Second week of the game: what inaccuracies were made
5. Second week of the game: what good moves or maneuvers were made.

become irrelevant...
That is, theoretically, capturing two Castles on the third day, and then two days later capturing the fourth...
could have been done in 5-6 days...
For now, that's it...=)))

By the way... It seems that it was possible to launch a total attack with three heroes in three directions (left, diagonally, down)... and then it could have taken a minimum of 3-4 days...

Excellent analysis. Thus, we have identified the following inaccuracies: 1. Moving with slow units. 2. Unjustified reduction of troop morale due to skeletons. 3. The maneuver was correctly identified: after capturing the upper left castle, it was necessary to buy a hero there and, with part of the troops, finish off the remaining hero of the opponent near the castle; the other hero should go down to capture the lower castle. 4. The game plan was correctly identified: 3 heroes immediately go to the castles. I agree with the assessment of the minimum time to complete this map: 3-4 days. 5. I would add one thing: an inaccuracy was also made at the stage of choosing a faction. It would have been better to choose the Warlock faction. They have gargoyles and no zombies:))).