But it plays quickly. And the imbalance isn't that extreme. In HL+U, luck plays just as much a role, if not more. This is Heroes, after all; very few games depend on skill. It's better to lose in 2 weeks due to bad luck than in 2 months.
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Simply put, if you give a less skilled player a more powerful starting army, the gap between them and a more skilled player will be greater after 10 battles than after 20 battles.
The Balance template is quite simple in terms of gameplay tactics; there are few opportunities to demonstrate skill, so the initial distribution matters much more than on more complex templates. In other words, there isn't enough time for the less skilled player to make enough mistakes to turn the situation around.
Of course, when the game enters the late stage, you need to perform many actions with different heroes in a limited time – this is where you can show skill, but such situations don't occur as often as fans of these templates claim.
Have you not considered that on small templates, the cost of a mistake is much higher?
At the moment, practically everyone has learned how to clear the starting respawn on standard templates, as well as how to take cons-hives-Dragon Utopia.
Therefore, the room for mistakes (and opportunities) has moved slightly further—into the technique of developing distant territories, clearing with spoons, leveling up several papas, army splitting, etc.
On Balance, almost none of this toolkit is used as it's unnecessary—after initial scouting, you plot the papa's trajectory through tasty objects and execute it without much fuss. There is some room for Creation in attacking off-road or in choosing the time to go into a treasure run. But here, general game intuition is needed more than own "straightness of hands."
The cost of an error only makes sense to consider where there is a significant probability of making one.
At the moment, practically everyone has learned how to clear the starting respawn on standard templates, as well as how to take cons-hives-Dragon Utopia.
Therefore, the room for errors (and opportunities) has shifted slightly further—into the technique of developing distant territories, clearing with spoons, leveling up several pops, army splitting, etc.
In Balance, almost none of these tools are used as they are unnecessary—after initial scouting, you map out the pop's trajectory through tasty objectives and implement it without much fuss. There is some room for Creation in attacking off-road or in choosing the time to head into a treasure hunt. But here, general game intuition is needed more than own-hand dexterity.
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Therefore, the room for error (and opportunity) has shifted a bit further — into the technique of exploring distant territories, clearing with spoons, leveling up several stacks, army splitting, etc.
taking cons-hives-Dragon Utopias.
On Balance, playing a setup ideally is much easier than on XL+U. Even if that playthrough turns out slower.
Example: if at your respawn you have virtually nothing and a maxed-out Griffin Conservatory on the only road to GO, then the plan is obvious — scavenge around the respawn for 2 weeks, run Papa around the upgrade huts, break into the Conservatory on 131 with the growth, and immediately take GO. Even some Novice participants can pull this off. But a similar situation on XL+U will result in papas trying to find a way to break the Conservatory on the 2nd. And they'll most likely find it. Moreover, someone will break it on 126, and someone else on 125. That is, the range of options for improving your game is significantly wider, allowing skill to shine.
Therefore, the room for error (and opportunity) has shifted a bit further—into the technique of exploring distant territories, clearing with spoons, leveling up several pops, army splitting, etc.
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Example—if you have nothing on your respawn and a maxi-con at the only road to ГО, then the plan is obvious—spend 2 weeks scavenging around the respawn, running the pop through boosters, and on 131 with growth, rush the con and immediately to ГО. Even some participants of "Novice" could execute this. But a similar situation on XL+U would lead to pops trying to find a way to break the con on the 2nd week. And they most likely will. Moreover, someone will break it at 126, while another at 125. That is, the spectrum of options for intensifying the game is significantly larger, allowing skill to be shown.
And the games I managed to play on this balance this year were some of the most interesting, especially with The_, where I took a third-level Griffin Conservatory on 123 as Inferno, and Necropolis, and a war of weaklings, and leveled up 4 heroes, and by the end of the game switched from a warrior daddy to a mage daddy and lost the game because the opponent killed the hero with the Crown of +4 Knowledge closer to the end.

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It doesn't matter whether it's easier or not. What matters is the gap between the perfect execution of a setup and the execution by an average player. The larger this gap, the more room there is for skill, i.e., bringing the execution closer to perfection.
On Balance, it's much easier to execute a setup perfectly than on XL+U. Even if that execution ends up being slower.
Lol. Have you played this map?
Even a CM map requires more skill.
I once played a tournament on Balance, going undefeated (reaching the final, then withdrawing). I formed a very definite opinion: 90% of the maps are heavily skewed in one direction, and exploiting that advantage is not difficult even for an average player. And this was on XL Balance; I think it's even worse on L Balance.
Even Chaos Maps are much more demanding in terms of skill.
I believe that on XL+U you can often just mess around and still win, because you have a Dragon Utopia with control right next to you, and even if you take it 2 days later than ideal, it often works out.
The games I played with balanced factions often came down to the wire, the finales were tense and exciting, and more than once, the finale didn't end the game, but turned into a war of attrition and income.
Well, they got lucky. Judging by public opinion, most players have the opposite statistics.