Posts from Heroes of Might and Magic IV Duel Tournament: "Honor and Blood"

The tournament will be held on version HoMM IV: Equilibris 3.51 (download here)
Registration for the tournament will last until April 1st
To participate in the tournament, you need to leave an application in this topic, in the application you need to indicate: your nickname and ICQ number (or another way to contact you).

Tournament rules:

1) The tournament will consist of two stages: group stage + playoffs.

2) The first round lasts until April 10, each subsequent round is given exactly 1 week.
After the game is played, players must provide a report on its completion:
(Sample report for the first stage) "Player1 def. Player2*total score*"(it is desirable to provide at least brief information about each of the battles. Be sure to indicate the races that you got)
The second participant must confirm the result, after which it will be accepted by the tournament organizer.

3) Games in the general group are played on a calendar basis. For each victory in the arena, 1 point will be awarded, for a defeat - 0. That is, you can score up to 5 points in one game. If a player surrenders with a score of 0-4, the winner automatically receives the 5th point and the total score of the match will be 0-5.

4) The settings for the map are as follows:
Difficulty - "Master", time per turn - 10 min.

5) Having gathered all the proposed armies, the player on the very first (at most on the second, if you don't have time) day must go to the arena.

6) It is forbidden to level up one hero in both quest houses.

The general scheme of behavior on the map is as follows:
a) In the city tavern, the first hero (any) is hired and leveled up in one of the two quest houses.
b) In the tavern outside the city, the second hero (also any) is hired and leveled up in the second quest house (do not forget to separate the newly hired hero for leveling up)
c) go along the roads and join your army.
d) choose one of the two sets of artifacts.
e) make the necessary arrangement and go into battle! (the right exit from the portal at the top).

It is not recommended to build anything in the castle.
All buildings on the map can be used.
The first-level dwelling near the castle informs about the race of the opponent.

Tournament format:
- Players will be divided into two groups. Matches in the group are played in a Bo9 format - best of 5
- Up to 2 restarts are allowed for each round. A restart must be taken before the end of the first day
- Players take turns hosting the game, but do not change during restarts.
- The playoffs are held in a Double Elimination format. Games in the playoffs are played in a Bo5 format - best of 3.

The winner of the tournament receives 1000 tugriks for beer :)

Or at least, after the tournament is over, will the participants be introduced to KPD? :)

Will the participants be introduced to the KPD at least after the tournament? :)

Everything will be done during the tournament.

turn time - 10 min

Isn't that a bit short?

Isn't that a bit too little?

Well, if you don't mess around, I think it's just right.

KPD
Haven't started registering yet, but I have a question. Do you want to launch the same arena? Are there other options?

If you play on this arena, it needs to be refined, in my opinion. Nature and Barbarians are clearly the underdogs; Nature benefits from portal monsters and, consequently, their scattered placement, while Barbarians suffer from a lack of magic (a level 1 spellbook doesn't save them, although it's better than nothing).
And Chaos is clearly the leader due to the absurd experience gained from Megs and Goblins (4 Megs = 5 Dark Knights; there are more Goblins than dead Ifrits – it's not serious).
It would be good to balance this somehow, especially considering the random race selection.

As statistics show, Death is a clear underdog. A Barbarian with magic is simply a killing machine, in my opinion. Magic isn't as important for the Barbarian as a stack of Berserkers. I agree about Chaos, but I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. In this sense, the extremely low increase in Dark Champions is also a clear example.

You can replace the random monsters with fixed ones, but then some of the game's charm will be lost.

As statistics show, death is clearly an underdog.

That's true, it's logical. Because morality matters, and vampires also get reduced experience due to necromancy. But what to do about it is anyone's guess.

A Barbarian with magic is simply a killing machine, in my opinion. It's not the magic that matters for Barbarians, but a stack of Berserkers.

It depends on the magic. And Berserkers don't perform well without magic, but with it, they become overpowered. But pure Barbarians, even with a stack of 900 Berserkers, can't do anything. They could only win due to birds with harpies and initiative with morale, to destroy the heroes before their turn. All other options are useless.

It depends on the type of magic. Berserkers are useless without magic, but with it, they become overpowered. However, pure barbarians, even with a stack of 900 berserkers, can't do anything. They could only win by using birds with harpies and relying on initiative and morale to eliminate the heroes before their turn. All other options are weak.

No, barbarians are quite capable in combat. It depends on what they get. But that's the point, after all. The only thing is that maybe the well that replenishes 35% of mana should be changed to a 100% mana replenisher.

That's true, it makes sense. Because morale is important, and the experience gained by vampires is reduced due to necromancy. But what to do about it is a mystery.

Maybe give them an artifact at the start that provides neutral morale?

You could replace random monsters with fixed ones, but then some of the uniqueness would be lost.

Ah... I asked the Equi-team if it was possible to add a flag to a monster, such as "from the castle" or "not from the castle." They didn't answer me...

Added 3 minutes later
We need to strengthen beavers, corpses, and nature...
What if we gave nature and corpses a stack (or half a stack) of level 4 units, and beavers an additional stack of level 1 units (or the same)?

Maybe give them an artifact with neutral alignment at the start?

Actually, that's not a bad idea. With their meat, they could definitely become leaders, or at least become competitive.

As for the combat effectiveness of the barbarians, I'm not convinced. :)
They were only effective against other weak factions like Nature. Chaos, Life, and Order can easily defeat them, if you don't make mistakes, of course. And Undead, with proper magic, would also defeat them.

The statistics aren't entirely conclusive because the number of restarts isn't specified.
I'm willing to bet that Nature and Barbarians would be leading by a large margin. :)

Added after 10 minutes

What if you gave Nature and Undead a stack (or half a stack) of level 4 units, and gave the Barbarians an additional stack of level 1 units (or something similar)?

Nature is only weak because of its randomness. If the monsters are placed without much variation, Nature is actually quite good. In this case, the enhancement would be an obvious overkill.
Ideally, you should exclude portal monsters. It's theoretically possible to implement this with scripts... but it would be tedious. :)

As an alternative, increasing the number of choices for Nature could help. Instead of 3 lines of monsters, make it, say, 5. :)

Maybe set a fixed level 4, and leave the rest random?

Maybe set a fixed 4th level, and leave the rest random?

Then the problem will be with paired growth. For level 4 monsters, it will be completely excluded.

As an option, increasing the number of choices could help. Instead of 3 lines of monsters, make it, say, 5.

We could try introducing a 4th paid branch.