Posts from BLITZ TOURNAMENT

All of this is, of course, interesting: your argument about 3rd and 4th place, but it seems silly to me, because it was clear a long time ago what would happen and how things would turn out. But what about the second stage? The deadline has passed; where are the results, the table, etc.? In the first stage, the preliminary table was published almost immediately, but what about here? When will anything be known? I went to the forum – my heart was beating like a machine gun, and suddenly I found nothing! Something seems wrong...

Everything is fine, Lei, read more carefully: the organizers have plenty of time until May 28!

Added 1 minute later
But we are really looking forward to the task for the third round!!!

Added 42 minutes later
Is it okay to post the description? A wrong one, yes!
Walkthrough description for the second stage of the "Desert Storm" Blitz Tournament.

Since childhood, Sylvia dreamed of riding a real griffon, but always considered it an unattainable azure dream, and then came a dream. It was like reality, so vivid, so real. Somewhere far to the east, beyond the northern marshes, beyond the desert, lives a tame griffon. And her heart called her east......

First, we go to the OASIS (specifically the far right position), thereby replenishing the move point supply by 400 units.

Then we move left and.... meet spearmen, who are more than happy to join Sylvia's great army. But we don't need freeloaders, we need MP.

After the battle with the spearmen, we replenish MP by another 400 units and move east toward the NOMAD hiring agency. But here we are met by the freeloaders' friends, and one of them, seeing his friend's spear in our fighter's hands, shouted to his comrades, "Kill those brutes, they're the ones who took down our boys." Poor guy was mistaken. In an uneven battle, Sylvia had a tame Dragozmy; our army simply crushed the hot-headed Finnish... spearmen.

And here are the nomads... uh... but there's no money. What a nuisance. "Look here, folks, there's cash lying on the road, probably left by those creeps" - one sharp-eyed soldier in our army spoke up. We couldn't hire the nomads, though; there was only enough gold for one "horse." But as the future showed, this proved quite sufficient for the successful completion of the task.


Dragozmy didn't much like the presence of the new expedition member, but the spearmen flatly refused to participate in the journey together with the "dark-skinned one." So we were left without spearmen... though who the hell needs them anyway. Our path lay north toward the sands of this wonderful island. But first, we need to stop by the oasis to replenish strength (+400mp).

Oh, that swamp... it took half the move point supply. But here is the desert, the "blessed" desert... but no way, desert, we have an Arabian face, and it will help us. On its last breath, our brave squad, consisting of two units, crawled to the grassy surface and ... before our eyes appeared an old, shabby jail, yes, exactly a jail.

And where is the griffon from the dream? Only the prison can provide the answer, because there is nothing else around. So Sylvia decided to free the prisoner from captivity. "I'll deal with this tomorrow morning," the valiant warrior told herself, "no way, start right now," said the inner voice. In short, Dragozmy had something to do. His sour saliva greatly helped Sylvia in freeing the prison inhabitant.



And oh, a miracle: a knight in shining armor was leading a beast of celestial beauty on a leash. The griffon indeed turned out to be not wild at all. As it happened, Sir Orrin was continuing his journey further east on his own business, leaving the beauty in Sylvia's care in exchange for Dragozmy and the sand warrior.

Sir Orrin, a master of fire magic, never turned down additional profit, and here in the oasis (+400mp) rumors spread that dwarves were guarding countless treasures in the southwest. The battle turned out to be very simple; god bless the "Fire Wall." The stupid dwarves simply decided to walk through ice and flame. It didn't work... too bad.

On the way back, we had to visit the oasis again (+400mp); we had to let people know not to worry - the treasures are in "good hands."


Few knew that the main goal of the Warrior of Light was the Necklace of Celestial Bliss (the old geezer wanted celestial bliss), but that is exactly why the army moved north through the desert. Being a decent mage, Orrin possessed good intuition, so he spent some time collecting SULFUR, which he found in the desert.

And surprisingly, the sulfur came in handy. Two mages set up a holographic tower and removed the spell in exchange for only a few rare reagents for future experiments.
What happiness: the squad, he he, the tame Dragozmy, and the Arabian sand-walker, found their treasure.

Next, Orrin decided that it would be a sin to stop at what had been achieved, and decided to line his pockets just in case. Without thinking twice, the travelers rushed into the teleport... and found themselves near a magnificent oasis.

Forty fine fellows offered their services to the dirty wizard, and he, not being a fool, agreed... intuition, brother.


And now this whole marauding mob decided to collect the money, beautifully laid out right under their noses. Though in the process, they had to kill a hundred such handsome adventurers. Those guys had already managed to swipe 2 rubles.

And then cunning Orrin, who had completely lost his mind from the wealth, put his warriors in a trance and sold them at the slave market, and the little snake and horse went there as well. Then he took all his savings and spent them on a ticket to the Dragon zoo.

And in the end, he took his money back and even privatized a cool little sword.

THE END

Everything is fine, Ley, just read more carefully; the organizers have plenty of time until May 28th!

Added 1 minute ago
And we're really looking forward to the assignment for the third round!

Yes, I made a mistake...
Regarding the map I suggested: I just couldn't send it to you until I finished it myself - I'm still improving it. There are always some bugs that need to be fixed. I was really struggling with it, and it takes a lot of time, but I'll finish it and definitely send it to you! Maybe you'll see something new...

Added 9 minutes ago
to Kamikaze: you wrote about the sword, but did you sell that thing from the zoo? - because that's another 2800. You also need to go about it the right way so that you have enough moves left to trade for all sorts of funny creatures at the market.

In the end, he got his money back and even managed to acquire a cool sword.

Oh well... he forgot to send the dragon to the zoo.... :D

That's it... :smile35:

And this is for those who like to read books with pictures.

to all: I have updated the table.

Now, in order:

to RAPER: I'm not arguing that MIKKi wasn't in the preliminary results, but if you looked more closely, you would have seen that his nickname was written in bold. That is, I received his save, but I couldn't check it right away.
At the same time, MIKKi was two hours late in sending his save, but many were given some leeway (for example, Kamikaze) in the first stage. But his save was carefully checked, and it raised no questions.

to IronAxe:
1) regarding the description: I'm not forcing anyone to send a description before the preliminary results. But if you send me the description earlier, the save check will be much faster.
2) regarding bugs:

Yes, I do this in offline mode, and many others do too. At least regarding the fourth game. This situation can occur there.

We have a tournament for the game Heroes 3, so there is no need to bring Heroes 4 into this.

At least I didn't see any explicit prohibition of this in previous official tournaments. Does that mean it wasn't prohibited there?

As the saying goes: "The son is not responsible for his father."
In fact, there was a very vague wording: "10. It is FORBIDDEN to use known bugs in the game!"
I just listed the bugs that exist.

to Ley: Here's how it works: I wanted to post the preliminary results today, but, for example, IronAxe says:

This won't work. In the future, if a player's result was NOT in the preliminary results, then his result in the final will NOT be VALID.

So, it turns out that the preliminary results will only be tomorrow...
because I don't know the results of RAPER, Sage, AlexeyPank, BotINKi, and MIKKi yet...
But, of course, I can post what I have, but on the condition that you accept the results of the players listed above later. ;)

Sincerely.

I will temporarily post my own walkthrough: Sylvia's Turn. 01) Enter the spring (increase movement points). 02) Kill 20 pikemen near the spring (without losses). 03) Press the spacebar on the spring (increase movement points). 04) Kill 20 pikemen near the nomad tent (without losses). 05) Dismiss 20 pikemen. 06) Enter the nomad tent. 07) Pick up 200 gold. 08) Buy 1 nomad. 09) Enter the spring (increase movement points). 10) Free Orin from prison. Sylvia's turn ends, and Orin's turn begins. Orin's Turn. 01) Orin gives away the griffin, takes the Flying Serpent, and the Nomad. 02) Visit the spring near the dwarves (increase movement points). 03) Lose 31 mana (19 remains). 04) Attack 35 dwarves, using 6 mana once for the Fire Wall spell (without losses). 05) Take the guarded gold. 06) Visit the spring (increase movement points). 07) Collect sulfur and gold. 08) Pass through the quest guard #1. 09) Pick up the Necklace. 10) Visit the oasis. 11) Recruit 40 pikemen. 12) Attack 100 pikemen, using 6 mana again for the Fire Wall spell (without losses). 13) Visit the oasis. 14) Collect all the gold around. 15) Exchange the entire army (1 serpent + 1 nomad + 40 pikemen) for gold at the mercenary guild, leaving only 1 pikeman. 16) Visit the spring (increase movement points). 17) Pass through the quest guard #2. 18) Recruit 1 Golden Dragon. 19) Exchange the dragon for gold. TOTAL: Days: 1. Gold: 54746. Orin's remaining mana: 7. Remaining movement points: 3.

This is an interesting point, because a hero can indeed lose a battle unintentionally, simply because their army is weaker than the neutrals. How can you prove that the player attacked with the intention of weakening them? Please explain. It seems like some kind of "bug-not-bug." :confused: :D

If a hero attacks neutrals and "unintentionally" loses, you have several options:

1. Reload the save and try again until you win.
2. Leave the neutrals alone and go attack someone else.
3. Or, finally, explain why your hero attacked those particular neutrals if there was no chance of winning...

This is exactly how it works in the original game.

Added 2 minutes later

First, we go to the OASIS (specifically, the far right location), replenishing our movement points by 400.

Oasis +800 mp. The description is excellent; I'm just curious how you managed to cross the swamp with the nomads... ;)

12) We attack 100 pikemen, using 6 mana for the Fire Wall spell again (without any losses).

Could you describe this battle in more detail... since it's not a trivial one? :smile13:

The essence of the battle lies in the correct positioning of the Serpent on the battlefield, calculated so that in both rounds, almost all of the spearmen are killed by the wall of fire. The remaining portion is destroyed by its own 40 spearmen. I note that 7 mana remains, so, if necessary, many other spells could have been cast.

Forty good fellows offered their services to the dirty sorcerer, and he, being no fool, agreed... intuition, brother. And now, this entire marauding horde decided to collect money, neatly arranged right in front of their noses. True, in the process, they had to kill a hundred more of these handsome adventurers.

Kamikaze, by the way, conducted exactly the same battle. I think he will be able to describe it more beautifully. P.S. So that you don't think I'm refusing to describe it – I'm just not able to do it right now due to time constraints. But later, I promise to upload the battle process in the form of a small avi file.

to all: The preliminary results are posted on the first page. But keep in mind that the results from RAPER, Sage, AlexeyPank, BotINKi, and MIKKi will be added there as well. Please pay attention.

Added after 28 minutes
DEAR TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS,
Congratulations on the start of the third stage.
All information is available on the first page or at this link!

I wish you all success!

Sincerely.

I appeal to all forum members, as well as tournament participants!

All your messages will be reviewed without fail, but in about two weeks, as I am going on an unplanned internet vacation due to a heavy workload at my main job.
Therefore, I will appear on the internet extremely rarely during this period of time.:o

I ask for your understanding and forgiveness.:o

And now,
:smile51:

After reviewing the map, several walkthrough options were considered in the draft walkthrough:

1) Recruit +20 Pikemen (P1) and immediately the pond! Kill the Pikemen (P2), pond, portal, kill 100 Pikemen (P4), +500 gold (G8), +1000 gold (G9), oasis, artifact, portal, oasis, all remaining gold at the top.
TOTAL: 22000 gold.

2) Level up the hero at the pond (killing 2 stacks of Pikemen, P1 and P2), arrow, portal, oasis, kill 40 Pikemen (P3), oasis, kill a hundred Pikemen (P4), gold (2000+3000, G5 and G7), oasis, artifact, portal, oasis, 1500 (G6) +3000 (G5) +5000 (G3), prison.
2-1) Lower oasis, dwarves, 5000 (G11), 1 sulfur (S2), 1 sulfur (S1), 25000 (G11).
TOTAL: 44500 gold

3) Level up the hero at the pond (killing 2 stacks of Pikemen), arrow, upper portal, kill 100 Pikemen, 500, 1000, portal, oasis, kill 40 Pikemen, oasis, artifact, portal, oasis, all remaining gold at the top, prison.
3-1) Lower oasis, dwarves, 5000 (G11), 1 sulfur (S2), 1 sulfur (S1), 25000 (G11).
TOTAL: 50000 gold

4) With Nomads.

I settled on the fourth option, as I knew that Nomads have no penalty on desert, and Dragonflies have none on swamp. It was precisely this knowledge that was taken as the basis for completing this tournament.

For convenience and easier reading, I recommend looking at the MAP OF RESPAWN 2!:)

So, let's go:

The first 6-turn sequence looks like this:

Hiring just 1 Nomad is not enough to successfully capture the prison, so Sylvia needs to be properly leveled up.
To do this, you need to move as shown in Figure 2.
We level up Sylvia at the pond (1), fight the 20 Pikemen (2) (P1) without losses (we fly with the Dragonfly, kill with the Pikemen slot by slot) and increase our movement points by a few more without leaving the spot, immediately after the battle ends (2)!
We attack the next Pikemen (3) (P2), kill them without losses. Staying in place, we take 200 gold (4) (G1), hire a Nomad (5), and visit the pond again, leveling Sylvia up almost to the max!
Next comes the most important moment in the game!

WE DISBAND THE PIKEMEN AND SWAP THE NOMAD AND DRAGONFLY POSITIONS! I.E., IT IS NECESSARY THAT IN THE HERO'S SLOTS, THE NOMAD IS PLACED TO THE LEFT OF THE DRAGONFLY, THAT'S THE TRICK!

We hover our mouse cursor over the prison and see that now Sylvia can reach it without any problem (if we swap the Dragonfly and Nomad positions, Sylvia would be exactly 3 moves short of reaching the prison)!

Having thus freed Orrin from captivity, Sylvia's turns end.

ORRIN'S FUN ADVENTURES

Orrin, without wasting a moment, takes all artifacts, the Dragonfly, and the Nomad from Sylvia, leaving Sylvia with only 1 Griffin.
He runs straight to the oasis, increasing his movement points.

Here I also want to note the following trick:
For Orrin, the Dragonfly stands on the left, and the Nomad on the right, but there is no penalty anymore!
What a funny guy, Orrin.

After having -31 mana taken away, things got a bit more complicated, but nonetheless, the glorious spell Fire Wall successfully did its "dirty" work.

Battle with 30 Dwarves + 5 Battle Dwarves

Turn 1

As can be seen from the figure, on the first turn Orrin casts the Fire Wall spell at the designated spot. The Dragonfly moves to the cell between the three resulting fires, thereby provoking the gullible Battle Dwarves into suicide.

Turn 2

Since an army of 1 Nomad and 1 Dragonfly is not really an army (one man is no army), killing the remaining 5 Dwarves is not possible with such forces, so we recast the Fire Wall as shown in the figure, and with our troops, we press spacebar, which means skipping the turn:

All 6 stacks of Dwarves die one and all in the flames.

Orrin takes the 5000 gold (G11) and levels up again at the oasis.
Next, he takes the 25000 gold (G10) and 2 Sulfur (S1, S2).

Please pay attention to the following important point!
The gold and sulfur must be taken in such a way that as many movement points as possible remain after taking these trophies. To do this, use the method: "taking trophies without penalty".

He takes the long-awaited artifact, guarded by 2 Pikemen. He must put it around his neck, and through the entry monolith, levels up at the oasis and recruits the 40 Pikemen (P3)!
Then he takes the gold in this order:
G7, moves 1 step up, i.e., stands on the spot where the gold (G7) used to be, G5, G4, G6, G8, G9!

Attacks P4.

Battle with 100 Pikemen.

Turn 1

Mana is 7. This is enough for 1 Fire Wall. And it's very important where to cast it. Knowing that its effect lasts only 2 turns, we need to kill the maximum number of Pikemen in that time! The following figure shows the zone where the most suitable place for placing it is. And the army should be positioned accordingly.

The Pikemen all as one head towards honest combat in our direction.

Turn 2

Here, the special importance lies in the movement of our Dragonfly. By moving it exactly this way, we essentially win the battle, since the fight against 5 Pikemen in 4 slots is completely predictable, even on auto-combat. Which is exactly what I do, after the Pikemen's turns end.
The cunning move of the Dragonfly is clearly illustrated in the following figure:

After the unconditional victory, we receive:
+1 to Defense skill;
Basic Logistics;
+2000 gold.


Orrin visits the oasis again; after a sip of fresh water, his strength is partially restored. These forces are just enough for the 2 remaining piles of gold (G2, G3), the portal leading to the gold dragon, the Freelancers' Guild, and, accordingly, the pond!
Before visiting the pond and replenishing his strength once more, Orrin, at the Freelancers' Guild, exchanges all his troops for gold (leaving one fearless Pikeman).
Having replenished his strength at the pond, we open the Quest Guardian, paying a tribute of 51946 gold.

Attacking the Gold Dragon, we achieve Grandmaster level, as well as rewards:
Armageddon's Blade
51946 gold
1 Gold Dragon.

In the ending, without thinking twice, we achieve the absolute result on the map by exchanging the obtained Dragon for 2800 gold.

Final result: 1 day, 54746 gold.

P.S. Unused artifacts: Book of Earth Magic, Skull Helmet, Pendant of Freedom, Frozen Dragon's Eye. The map can also be completed without the following artifacts: Ring of the Wayfarer and Cape of Velocity.

Respectfully, VDV_forever

completely followed the walkthrough by VDV...... awesome - everything worked out =)....... so frustrating - I don't know so much =)....... I completely forgot that you can revisit water bodies after a battle (((((

It's so frustrating – I don't know so much =). I completely forgot that you can revisit water sources after battles ((((.

Read carefully FizMig...
By the way, read it before the third stage too; it will be useful: D

I would like to personally thank VDV_forever, and on behalf of all other participants in the VDV_forever tournament, for the detailed description of how to complete the second stage of the map. As always, excellent!

Nevertheless, I believe it is necessary to explain some of the "magical" tricks that VDV_forever used to optimize logistics when traversing areas with movement penalties. There are two such areas on the map: swamp and sand.

WE ARE REMOVING THE COPPER MINERS AND SWAPPING THE NOMADS AND DRAGONFLIES! THAT IS, IT IS NECESSARY THAT THE NOMAD STANDS TO THE LEFT OF THE DRAGONFLY IN THE HERO'S SLOTS, THAT'S THE TRICK!

This trick, otherwise known in the Heroes community as "Neutral Unit Carry," works as follows: when moving across rough terrain (swamp, snow, sand, and rocks), if the hero's army contains only units native to that terrain, the hero moves without penalty. If the army contains even one foreign unit, a penalty will be applied. This is an internal game rule.

However, one trick has been noticed: it turns out that there is a way to carry neutral units (nomad, mummy, hobbit, sorcerer, etc.) in such a way that they do not incur the penalty. To do this, the neutral units must be placed to the left of the units for which the terrain is native. This is not a documented feature, but it always works.

For this, it was enough to place the nomad to the left of the dragonfly, thereby avoiding the penalty in the swamp while preserving the nomad, which will be useful in the future. More on this below.

Here, I would also like to note the following trick:
Orin has the dragonfly on the left and the nomad on the right, but there is no penalty anymore!
Orin is such a funny guy.

I don't quite understand what VDV_forever means by the trick of the "funny guy Orin"... ;) However, I would like to note that having even one nomad in your hero's army avoids the penalty on sand. It doesn't matter where the nomad is placed, what other troops are present, or what the hero's name is.

That's all there is to it about these tricks, and the entire task was built on the knowledge of them...