Posts from Terra dei Demoni

Unlike some, I not only read the first post but also downloaded the template and generated several maps before expressing my opinion.

the only template where you don’t immediately want to give Inferno to the opponent

forts should be removed from secondary towns, except Inferno, so they don’t get built out

also, a double-ГО for one of the players in the form of a portal isn’t great either; it should be like on Jebus — the exit to the treasure zone is always by land

This is truly a demonic scheme, and you can't do without demonologists here to figure out, for example, what the numbers in parentheses mean. And how did the Dungeon-Citadel pair even come about? And what is the meaning of "you-yourself" in this context?

As my experience with Heroes 3 shows, a draft of 18 castles doesn't change the essence. In any case, you end up with a limited selection of options.

As an option, simply make the secondaries identical - weak castles, like Tower, Barbarian, and something else. This will balance the draft: there will be an option to play with a strong castle or a weak castle with a double.

But with two-sided bans, the number of options increases — the mentioned towns only need to be banned by one player, so pairs like red Dungeon vs blue Rampart or red Castle vs blue Swamp are possible.

With such a banning system, the number of options is reduced to exactly two - red Tower vs. blue Barbarian and Conflux vs. Conflux. If the red or blue player tries to deviate from this direction at any stage, they risk ending up in a losing situation. I'll explain why.

Firstly, each player must ban at least 5 towns for their opponent - Necropolis and 4 double-builds. This is unavoidable; if red does not want to get into trouble, he must start banning them - because blue has the last word, and he can use it to help red postpone a good brick setup. I'll demonstrate using Necropolis as an example - if red does not ban it for his opponent, blue will do so at the very end - and will play Necropolis against any other town, which for red is equivalent to defeat on this template - we've already established that. By the same logic, red cannot leave double-builds for blue if he does not want to play against a double with a normal setup, which is also not great. Blue, of course, in response must act synchronously - he cannot leave such advantages in red's lineup after losing them himself, can he?

So, both players have already used 5 bans. Now, in turn, blue bans Dungeon and Castle for red - because he absolutely cannot let red keep these two strong towns - he loses the benefit of having the secondary skills of these factions, such as Angel upgrade and at least double mana with Portal. And now red is forced to react - removing Rampart and Fortress from his opponent, also two formidable towns.

And now each player has one Conflux left, as well as Tower for red and Barbarian for blue. So what will red ban in this situation? He can proceed in two ways - ban the opponent's Conflux based on the considerations mentioned above, and then it will be Tower vs. Barbarian, or ban his own Tower, and then it will be Conflux vs. Conflux. That's essentially the conclusion I came to after thinking about it. Of course, I could be wrong, so if anyone sees a mistake in my reasoning - I'd be happy to listen.

The main mistake is that you build your strategy by crossing out good towns for your opponent. But you could also cross out bad towns for yourself.

Second point — not every double is bad for your health. Say, in a matchup of red Castle vs blue Tower, I'd bet on the former.

I'm building my strategy this way because I decided that crossing out castles for myself is a bad plan specifically on this template. But let's say I'm playing as red and I've decided to cross out bad castles for myself. What can I cross out? Do I really have that many bad castles? Necropolis, four double-builds, Dungeon, Castle — that's already seven excellent castles. Conflux is a decent castle, I think. So, I crossed out Tower. I even crossed out Conflux, let's say. But then, I ask you, what am I supposed to cross out next with this strategy? Plus, my reasoning that I cannot leave Necropolis for my opponent, for example, still holds true even in this case.