Posts from BLITZ TOURNAMENT

Indeed, dragons didn't need to be taken into battle! Everything is correct, but it wouldn't have saved Amber, as he still had 300 more units.

Dear tournament participants,
The preliminary results of the 3rd stage have been posted on the first page, but please note that the results of the following participants will also be added to the table: IronAxe, _Lexx_, Mikki, RAPER, Ta Kotoraya..., and GmiR.
Currently, the respected Dmitry_AS is in the lead; perhaps he is being helped by a certain ring... but not the one you might be thinking of... :D It's called the "Ring of the Skeleton Lord," which he was awarded by the Creator. :D

to Yaroogle: Thank you very much for writing the walkthrough description, because first, you will receive additional Grails for it! Second, you showed a slightly different tactic for completing the game. And finally, you made it much easier for me to check the saves, for which I thank you separately! :smile01:
I also hope that each of you will write a few lines of description... :)
And we are waiting for a description from Dmitry_AS. :D
to AmberSoler: Since you also have a good result, I would like to ask for a description from you as well. :D

to Mega and Conong: Unfortunately, your saves are not winning, because you have regular skeletons in your army, and the task requires "Skeleton Warriors." Next time, read the tournament task more carefully!

Sincerely.

Dear tournament participants,
Due to numerous requests, the fourth stage of the Blitz Tournament has already begun.
Information about the fourth stage can be found on the first page, as usual.

Good luck!

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28 Mega 0(14638)+ 34290
29 Conong 0(13387) 33570
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Well, these players could have had their first result counted. It's clear they are new to the game. They have enough money to upgrade skeletons and upgrade them in the Fortress. Otherwise, their start will be quite unsuccessful.
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8 BotINKi 17695+ 27570
11 Ley 21484+ 25070
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And here's a question for these players. Where did so much money come from? Did they buy skeletons in all the Fortresses on the third day? Please explain.

Kyle, thank you very much for promptly announcing the preliminary results and for quickly moving on to the start of the 4th stage! :p

... yeah... it's a shame I missed the blade.. I could have taken it.. yeah, I messed up—since I went through with Azure and opened it on day 1, but then looking at the editor.. I saw that 1.1.2 was written and thought it could be opened on the second day(((... so in principle, I could have had more than 2k skeletons.... instead I got 19567, yeah if only (if just :)) it could have been 21567 .. but instead only 19((((.. and there was enough for the 1st day of movement, but for some reason I didn't go(((. oh well.....
I HATE COLLECTING UNDEADS=)...
Well then, congratulations to the winner.. or rather the leader for now =)....
and I cleared 7000 Darkons with a loss of 1 phoenix and 43 dragons... although it was possible not to lose anyone... just never had time to make sure all slots were covered by berserk...... screenshots below...
by the way, how did everyone do the box with 400 of everything in all slots...
I'll post my tactic a bit later...

Well, there aren't any identical results yet... at least, not yet. And those skilled chess players are truly impressive; I have nothing but praise for them. I take my hat off to them!

Theory of the third stage map walkthrough of the Blitz tournament.

The map's storyline was built on four pillars (listed in order of decreasing importance):

1. Conducting battles with minimal losses
2. Solving all quests, especially those that provided additional unit growth.
3. Proper use of the Cloak of the Undead King in on/off mode
4. Promptly achieving 100% necromancy level

1. The first point is extremely clear – each player used their own battle scheme against different types of enemy units (there are about a dozen such schemes on the map), there is no point in dwelling on them because the results of the vast majority of participants show that these schemes were found and worked effectively enough.

2. The key quest – opening the guardian of the passage to Armageddon's Blade on the first day, involved finding the simplest path to the Dragons, whose destruction was the guardian's requirement. Additionally, along the way, it was intended to visit the Scholar who gave Fire magic – the combination of Expert Fire + Berserk + Medal of Vulnerability was the easiest way to conduct a battle without losses against 7000 Dragons at the end of the game. Although, as practice shows, some solved this task without Expert Fire. But nevertheless – I am talking about the easiest way to solve this problem.

The path that was the simplest is shown on the diagram. The red line indicates the direction of movement, the yellow lines – forced battles.

3. According to theory – the number of raised Skeletons equals the number of Liches in any battle if the enemy is stronger than the upgraded Guard (since the health of a Lich and a Vampire are equal, we can get Liches from Vampires in a one-to-one ratio). Otherwise, the number of Liches will be smaller. Based on this, to increase skeleton growth, all battles against neutrals on the first three lines should be conducted with the Cloak of the Undead King turned off.

- But, with only Skeletons without Liches at the initial stage of the game, it is impossible to break through downwards, so a decision had to be made on the minimum number of Liches to gather at the start in order to subsequently conduct all battles with minimal losses.

- It is also important to understand that in battles against neutral Liches, we primarily lose Skeletons, so we do not take them along – we transfer them to the henchman. And generally, in theory – Skeletons participate in battles only until Liches appear, after which they are not needed.

4. To achieve 100% necromancy, we must have all parts of the Cloak of the Undead King (given at the start), Expert necromancy, and 4 castles with Necromancy Amplifiers built in them. Therefore, at the first opportunity, without breaking through neutrals, we had to capture the three nearest castles, and also build an Amplifier in the fourth one (which was given as the starting castle).

To build the Amplifier on the second day, you needed either to capture two castles on the first day, or to hire as a henchman Caitlin – a specialist in gold, although Monere is very tempting :). Otherwise, there wouldn't be enough money. Well, as an option, you could not hire a henchman at all. Then we would build the Amplifier immediately after the victory over the Dragons, but subsequently the lack of an assistant who could bring us all the necessary artifacts and the Phoenix, and to whom we could transfer the acquired skeletons, would cost us dearly.

***

So, that, in fact, is the entire theory on which my walkthrough was based. Everything else is a matter of technique and diligence. Nothing particularly complicated, essentially.

The difference in results will be determined primarily by the time taken to achieve 100% necromancy. Because the losses in battle for the majority of players are relatively equal. The screenshot Necromancy.jpg demonstrates the number of remaining neutrals in my walkthrough upon reaching the 100% necromancy level. The Pandora's Box with 3000 skeletons also had not yet been opened.

P.s. It will be interesting to estimate the absolute game maximum of skeletons (without resorting to cheat codes and assuming that we have the ability to conduct all battles without losses).

Excerpt from the description dated 05.06.07:

To collect as many skeletons as possible, you need to:
1) Lose as few of your own troops as possible.
2) Obtain 4 castles with necromancy boosters as early as possible.
3) Collect as many skeletons (rather than liches) as possible until Galtran's necromancy reaches 100% (after which you can restore liches without a second thought). To achieve this, you should consider the fact that when the hero's necromancy is less than 100%, it is better to restore liches from armies with at least 30 HP, and skeletons from armies such as other skeletons, zombies, or ghosts. This is a subtle point that may allow you to gather slightly more skeletons than if you only restored liches. BUT! Restore fewer liches, and subsequently, in battles with strong neutrals, you will lose more skeletons. So this point is so subtle that I didn't even bother with it and mostly restored liches. Yes, indeed, this situation somewhat resembles chess!

P.S.
Creatures destroyed: 3300+16319 = 19619.

Free creatures: starting amount — 10, skeletons in castles — 1648, pikemen — 2000, dragons — 500, phoenix — 1.
TOTAL: 4159.

Thus, if Galtran had 100% necromancy from the start, he could have collected (excluding losses): 19619+4159=23778 skeletons.

The number 23778 is fundamentally unattainable, even using any cheat codes, as achieving 100% necromancy would require fighting several battles at a necromancy level of less than 100%.

Creatures lost: 91+4=95.

Final number of skeletons for Galtran: 22659.

Maximum number of skeletons X that can be collected using any cheat codes:

1) Before starting any battles, build the necromancy booster and the Grail in the main castle.
2) Level up Galtran to expert necromancy.

This results in a necromancy level of 90%.

3) Immediately capture 1 castle (which will also have the Grail). Here we will lose 10 skeletons (100 creatures, and necromancy is 90%).

After this, Galtran's necromancy will reach 100%, and there will be no more skeleton losses.
Thus, using cheat codes, you can collect X=23768 skeletons.

Maximum number of skeletons Y that can be collected in a clean game, but without accounting for losses of your own troops:

I, for example, collected 22659 skeletons and lost 95, meaning that without accounting for losses, I would have had 22754 skeletons.
Thus, 22754 < X.

On the other hand, when recapturing the 1st castle, Galtran's maximum necromancy will be 60%, therefore, he will lose 40 skeletons during restoration and 6-7 skeletons from the towers in the castle.

When recapturing the 2nd castle, Galtran's maximum necromancy will be 80% (assuming the booster is built in the starting castle), therefore, he will lose another 20 skeletons during restoration and several creatures from the towers in the castle.

Until Galtran reaches expert necromancy, he will under-restore at least 100 skeletons from neutrals.

Plus, while breaking through to the 2nd castle, he will under-restore another 100 skeletons or so.

Provided there are no other troop losses (which is, in principle, impossible — additional losses are inevitable), Galtran will thus under-restore at least 260 skeletons.
So, 22754 < X < 23508.

I don't know how else to "narrow" this inequality.
Perhaps the results of the Tournaments will help ;), strengthening its left side.
The right side of the inequality can be strengthened with a more detailed calculation.

Maximum number of skeletons Z that can be collected in a clean game, accounting for losses of your own troops:

Here 22659 < X < 23450.

The number 23450 is based on the assumption that in any, even the most ideal Walkthrough, at least 58 creatures will be lost. If anyone loses fewer than this amount, it means they under-restored somewhere on the neutrals.

So these numbers are reliable.

Well then, from the calculations it follows that it is physically impossible to collect more than 23450 skeletons on this map! The number is exaggerated, of course, but what can be done — one doesn't want to provide unreliable information. And purely intuitively — my prediction is: there won't be more than 23100 skeletons!

I wonder if any of the chess players managed to hit 23000? ;)

I wonder if any of the chess players managed to reach 23000? ;)

At the moment, two results exceed this threshold. We'll see in the end, maybe more will be added...

My absolute maximum was 23034. This was one of the test runs with a full effort. :) But since it wasn't done from a starting save, I can't submit it for credit, even though the save is no different. On this map, all starting saves that do not give Galtran an artifact increasing his initial skills can be considered absolutely equal to each other. But formally, that would be a violation... Otherwise, I probably ran through it about ten times... By the final run, I no longer had the strength to strive for the optimum...

So your estimates are very logically constructed. The upper bound of the interval is what's truly interesting. We will see the lower bound in practice.

Hello everyone!

I'll start working on the description soon – I haven't had the time.
I can say that, with it, I could gather 23101 skeletons. But that's the limit (at least for me), and I can't go any higher for now.

Here's a possible route to the Dragons:
If you follow the arrow, you'll encounter the necessary battles along the way.

Here's a possible route to the Dragons.
If you follow the arrow, you'll encounter the necessary battles along the way.

But in this case, you'll be without expert ranged support, which isn't ideal in most game situations.

P.s. The absence of a Shield in your scheme reduces the final result by 200 Skeletons...
That's quite a luxury... ;)

A question about the fourth stage. I can't re-hire dismissed units, right? But if I dismiss them, they will keep appearing again; what should I do?

Added after 2 minutes

But in this case, you are left without expert fire — which is not very good in most game situations.

P.s. The absence of Shield in your scheme reduces the total by 200 Skeletons...
An unaffordable luxury... ;)

Yes, I lose 280 skeletons on the shield; that's mentioned in the description. In my walkthrough version, it so happened that the shield must be taken at the beginning and fire magic is completely absent! That's how it goes. Armorer.

Question about the fourth stage. And you can't re-hire dismissed heroes, right? But if I dismiss them, they will appear again, what should I do?

Well, after so much training, don't you know what to do in this case? Hire the hero you need and see who follows him. If it's someone you've already dismissed, load a save and hire again until you get the desired result. Or - which is much simpler - use the "hero digger." A small number of heroes can dig very quickly...

Yes, I'm losing 280 skeletons on the shield, this is mentioned in the description. In my playthrough, it turned out that the shield needs to be taken at the beginning, and there is no fire magic at all! That's how it is. Armorer.

You don't have to take the shield at the beginning... It's not necessary.