Posts from [Tournaments-HotA] Urfin Jus and his wooden soldiers

It seems to have become clear - the "HeroesWorld rules" checkbox appears to reset when hot-restarting from the game.

I tested this in single player, so I couldn't detect it.

So until the update comes out, we'll restart the old-fashioned way - by recreating the game.

At level 121, a diplomat with the angel logo was in the castle, and the opponent surrendered.
A cheerful person, he started with the Ufretin, but never revealed the secret why. Thanks for the game.

picked Ulanda's secret agent again. My Mephala with Diplomacy took Utopia as a home town with Castle. Opponent surrenders again.
Thank you for the game.
P.S. Let's play a hundred games with Wizards. I was interested in the possibility of adding them and firing them for a reason, but there's no answer.

Added 77 green wyverns - tech loss.

You can simply disable the HW rules.

A small manual on fast play.

Players who only practice long controls often just do everything faster when playing short controls, doing the same things they do on long ones. Although they should often be doing something slightly different...

I am writing for the WT version and WT hotkeys, so for SoD+HDmod, some ideas might not be mentioned or may require adaptation.

Suggestions and proposals are welcome; the topic is quite fresh and poorly developed.

1. General thoughts.

When playing on long control (4000+500 and similar), players usually spend a significant portion of time as early as the 1st week; some hit zeitnot in the middle of the 2nd week, and by the middle of the 3rd, most are there.

This approach seems fundamentally wrong to me, as the most complex moves requiring thought occur precisely on the 3rd and 4th weeks. Therefore, I personally try to accumulate time, approaching the 3rd week with a reserve of at least 2000 seconds. Because of this, many running endgames have been won—opponents in zeitnot made mistakes, took suboptimal decisions, or only managed basic actions, failing to complete additional ones. Moreover, while catching a "pope" for free or taking the main castle happened rarely, killing noobs and taking side castles from opponents in zeitnot happened constantly.

But overall, the strategy of spending time predominantly at the start of the game is quite viable, if only because so many players follow it. But it is designed for a classic scenario—collect everything, move to the center, and beat the opponent between the end of the 2nd and middle of the 3rd week.

On short controls, however, the "cockroach races" begin from the first days, and the accompanying mistakes as well. Therefore, here it is important not so much the tempo, but the absence of fails in obvious places—simple and reliable play can bring many victories just on opponent blunders, even before first contact.

Also, since long moves will be required from time to time, it's desirable to have a time reserve for them. This is also needed to correct mistakes—for example, if you accidentally enter a dangerous fight, the cost of an error increases sharply, and time is needed to make the right decision.

Specifically on Diamond, there is another feature: the road network is quite rich and branched, so the phase of fighting noobs and stealing castles from each other can be very intense and time-consuming. That is, if one player reaches the contact phase with zero on the timer while the second has accumulated 1500, it gives them a serious advantage in guerrilla actions.

To summarize, the main factors on short control are:

a) Reliable play, absence of mistakes in obvious places.
b) Simple play, absence of complex maneuvers requiring time to think and account for non-obvious risks.
c) Economical execution technique of game actions, allowing one to accumulate time for complex moves in the mid-to-late game.

2. Planning actions.

You should think about plans for your turn during the opponent's turn. That is, upon receiving the turn, you should already clearly know what you will do—which heroes go where and in what sequence, and what they will do.

Similarly with battles—the formations for them should be thought of in advance, so as not to waste an extra 10-30 seconds on your own turn.

If a chain is planned, the points for placing heroes should also be determined before the start of the turn.

If information allows, you can even calculate castle buildings, especially those that will be built at the beginning or middle of the turn, before the completion of hero movements.

And it's also useful to estimate how many and what resources there will be in the morning, primarily gold. If a resource trade is planned, it should also be calculated—how much and which resources are sold; this sometimes takes up to a minute. If it's unclear exactly how much money is needed, you can simply designate an untouchable reserve of resources that cannot be traded.

3. Hero specializations

I mean not game specialties, but the functional role of these heroes in your match.

In games with long control, most heroes usually act in different capacities—collecting resources, scouting, transporting troops, and even fighting. This allows for strong play, but spends a lot of time on composing an optimal algorithm of actions.

Therefore, on short control, it is desirable to give heroes a smaller range of authority, specializing them in something. Obviously, depending on the situation, they can be used otherwise, but there should be a "default" specialization for each hero that they will implement if there isn't enough time to find a more reasonable use.

Main specializations are scout/freebie collector, transporter, fighter.

Usually, it is necessary to separate the roles of scouts and transporters; often it's more profitable just to put a hero in a chain than to calculate whether they can also grab a bunch of wood off-road before that. If this isn't a critical resource for building, spending 30-60 seconds here is usually not justified.

4. Remembering hero positions.

I often see people scrolling through the hero list looking for the right one. This wastes time that could be saved if you remember who is where and what they are doing.

This is especially critical if there are 7-8 heroes; here, losses from searching for the right heroes can reach 20-40 seconds per turn. Correct searching for a hero consists of one mouse click exactly on their face.

For example, when building a chain, you shouldn't just remember that "there is a 3-hero chain over there," but also know everyone by sight and name.

This saves especially much time in case of an attack on your noob by the AI or opponent—knowing exactly where the attacked noob is located allows you to reflect on the changed world picture in a calm environment (the timer isn't ticking).

Therefore, after passing the turn, the first thing should be to click through all heroes, remember who is where, with what army, artifacts, etc. Besides the goal mentioned above, this also allows for quickly detecting blunders like forgetting an army/artifacts on the wrong heroes.

5. Sitting at the computer.

As someone who learned esports through Starcraft and shooters, I was amazed by the sight of a typical Heroes player at the computer—left hand propping up the chin, right hand lazily clicking the mouse, body either lounging back in the chair or slumped to the right/left, etc. As if they aren't playing an esports game, but browsing porn sites.

Correct posture when playing on short control should be roughly like that of esports players from real-time games—back straight or slightly hunched and tense, left hand playing chords on the keyboard, right hand clicking the mouse sharply, eyes staring intently at the screen; the whole look illustrates tension and concentration.

Specifically regarding the position of the left hand—it should almost always lie in the Ctrl-Alt-Shift area, not be sent there only when a need arises. This achieves about one second of saving per action, which is a lot.

Similarly with other keyboard buttons—the hand should move there in advance. For example, while performing the last action in a battle, you should simultaneously move your hand to the Enter key to immediately accept the battle results as soon as they appear. And don't stare at them; an extra 2-3 seconds per battle will accumulate into a significant amount by the end of the game.

6. Hotkeys

Much has been written about them, but still not everyone knows/uses them. I have more than once seen even top players splitting stacks manually, touching the slider, etc.

The general principle is this—if a hotkey exists, you must use it. There are few useless hotkeys even in original Heroes, and in their expansions (WT and HDmod), there are none at all.

Separating ones and collecting them seems to be used by everyone, but, for example, transferring via Ctrl-Alt is far from universal.

Example—the very start of the game: you hide your starting hero in the inner garrison and buy a second hero; you need to dump their army to the first hero. Here is what I observed with many top players including Alex—click elves, click elves, click dwarves, click dwarves, click centaurs, shift-click centaurs, drag slider all the way right, click OK. Total: 7 clicks and 1 slider.

When playing with short control, you should not do this.

Correct algorithm: ctrl-shift-click cents, ctrl-alt-click cents, ctrl-alt-click dwarves, ctrl-alt-click elves. Total: 4 clicks. Moreover, these clicks are ergonomically in a row from left to right, not up-down-diagonal, which forces longer aiming.

In general, the slider should not be used under any circumstances—fast buttons are enough for almost all tasks, and for non-standard stack splitting, you should type the number from the keyboard; it's faster even considering the time spent on calculations.

Also, not everyone uses the ctrl-alt-shift button (even split among free stacks). For example, if you need to divide 36 wolves into stacks of 1-1-17-17, this is done as ctrl-shift-click + ctrl-shift-click + ctrl-alt-shift-click (if the other 3 stacks are filled with gobbo-orcs), which with fast hands takes 1-2 seconds, while a slider takes at least 5 seconds or more.

In HDmod, by the way, this operation is even more thought out—ctrl-click + ctrl-click + shift-click; same number of actions, but easier to press, and also not tied to the number of free slots.

I'll also note that many fail on standard SoD hotkeys—passing the turn, viewing opponent's turn, launching a hero along a route, putting a hero to sleep/waking them up, switching underground/surface, Enter for all sorts of confirmations, etc. All this should be done from the keyboard, not by clicking icons on the screen.

7. Battle techniques

Applies only to WT.

You should use hotkeys to the maximum; under no circumstances click manually on wait, def, and cast—only buttons W, D/Space, and C respectively. Moreover, D is even more profitable here, as Space on most keyboards is pressed slightly slower, and the thumb on Space has to travel a larger trajectory than the index finger on D. And Enter at the end of the battle was already mentioned. The saving here is 1-2 seconds per action, which is a lot.

You should also minimize the number of waits in simple battles. If troops won't move/hit after a wait, they should be put into defense immediately. Similarly, do not wait with archers if they won't have a straight shot after the mobs move.

For simple battles, you shouldn't separate all ones just to avoid wasting time on their wait/defense. If the strike stack can beat the mobs alone, then the cover/distraction should be merged into one stack. Although one single unit can be left purely for insurance.

If a tactic is available, do not use it if it's not critical for the outcome of the battle—saving 5-10 seconds will not be wasted. That is, for archer castles, you often don't need to set up cover, and for Tiraxor/Shifter, you can start with a strike stack from the initial position; usually, it reaches where it needs to anyway.

8. Distance calculation

Mainly for chains or curved trajectories. For beginners, a lot of time is wasted here...

The WT alt-click that counts distances helps a lot. But there are often cases where it's impossible to use, and you have to count by eye.

Calculating the exact value usually takes long, so approximate methods should be used. For example, counting in cells—1 for a straight move, 1.5 for diagonal. That is, look at the trajectory, count total moves, then add half of the diagonals. I don't recommend counting step-by-step; in case of an error, you'll have to recount from the very beginning, which is immediately minus 10-30 seconds.

If the move is across different terrain types and roads, first determine the unit of measurement; not always 1 u.m. equals 100 moves—sometimes it's profitable to take a straight road move as the u.m., then you'll have to first convert hero moves into u.m. Usually, WT uses medium roads, where 1 u.m. is 65 moves, so you need to multiply the hero's movement reserve by 1.5, and if roads are fast, multiply by 2.

Also, with varied terrains, I recommend counting moves for each type separately, then adding them at the end. This is also to prevent recounting.

For building and checking chains, don't forget about the WT feature of temporary move resetting; it allows precise placement of heroes even on short control.

From optional but useful—using the same unit type for transport noobs, even if faster ones are available. This will unify movement length and simplify chain calculation/recalculation. Especially critical in situations where several transfers in different directions must be made. For the same reason, it's better to send logisticians/explorers for scouting/collecting, and use simple heroes for transport purposes.

9. Mouse and keyboard

For real-time games, mouse and keyboard are objects of obsession; they are chosen carefully and tested in different modes. For short controls, this issue should also be addressed, albeit less fastidiously.

Buttons on the mouse and keyboard should be pressed easily, without effort, and not stick anywhere. I remember that at SNG in Michurinsk, there were very stiff keyboards with large, high, and hard-to-press buttons.

It's desirable to use a simple mouse—2 buttons and a wheel. It can be very frustrating when, in the heat of the moment, you press some random side button with an unpredictable result.

Regarding mouse settings—cursor acceleration should be set to 0; various extra options like "enhanced pointer precision blah blah blah" should also be disabled. Cursor speed is a matter of taste.

The convenience of settings can be checked via various online games for click speed and accuracy. A classic is the Reflex game at www.missionred.com; mouse settings should be calibrated based on high results and low wrist/shoulder fatigue.

Keyboard layout preferably with a wide Enter, wide left Shift, and without power control buttons above the arrows. The Windows key between Ctrl and Alt can also get in the way. Same reasons—in zeitnot, you might accidentally press the wrong button.

If the keyboard does not meet these requirements, extra buttons can simply be removed; they are easily pried off with a screwdriver.

Laptop keyboards are generally inconvenient for fast play, so it's better to connect an external one. I recommend getting the simplest and cheapest one with a classic key layout and no extra features. Plus, you won't feel bad about poking it open with a screwdriver if needed.

... continuation ...

10. Order of actions

In a game with short control, there is always a risk of not having time to do something planned. Therefore, it's important to set priorities—what to do first and what later.

a) Buildings in castles. Usually, the turn should start with them. Because this takes only a few seconds, but the benefit is great—it can be very unpleasant to get stuck in a heavy battle at the end of the turn, exhaust your time there, and fail to make some buildings because of it. This is especially critical on the 1st week.

If resources for building are lacking at the start of the turn but may appear later, backup options should be planned—what to do if there isn't enough time to secure resources. For example, as Castle, if the last battle is a dwarf-nest that will give money for horses, you need to estimate before the battle whether there will be time to take it. And if there are doubts, build a citadel or griffins, and then horses on the next turn.

b) Collecting freebies. Again, this takes little time but provides huge benefits, so on the first week, this is the second priority after buildings.

c) Pope's move. In the late stage of the game, this is a more priority action than resource collection, especially if the game has entered the contact phase with the opponent. And on the first week, a pope can often even skip a turn, or stop to accelerate near another guard.

d) Chain management. Perhaps the least priority action; often you can place them haphazardly or not at all with the intention of regrouping later.

If chains have completely scattered, you can even designate a separate day specifically for restoring the transport network. Not a very profitable turn, of course, but in the absence of external pressure, this can be done once or twice per game. There is an additional bonus here—accumulating time for more important turns. Usually, such "unloading" turns are made on the last day of the week—instead of long and painful breakthroughs of tough guards on 117/127, it's sometimes more profitable to just place heroes so that on 121/131 you can break through everything quickly and simply with growth.

The WT timer has a bug where if time runs out on the map and the player performs no actions (takes hands off keyboard and mouse), the turn is not automatically passed; it hangs in a zero state. This allows for additional time to place heroes, calculate chains, etc. The main thing is not to enter cities or fight anyone (even on quick), otherwise the turn will be passed immediately.

11. Checking if everything is OK

Usually at the end of a turn, when all actions are done, players spend some more time checking—was something forgotten, should another hero be bought, should a hero in a chain be moved left or right, or just for peace of mind.

This habit must be ruthlessly eliminated, as such actions have extremely low efficiency—they almost never bring benefit, but they burn the timer significantly.

What is done is done; reflection on blunders should happen during the opponent's turn, not your own.

Example—if upon passing the turn a message pops up that one of the heroes didn't finish moving, but a visual inspection of move-bars showed everyone moved, it means someone had an extra cell not reflected in the move-bar. On long control, it makes sense to find this hero and try to utilize their cell, but on short control, you should pass the turn immediately, as the 5-15 seconds spent here are not compensated in any way.

12. Demonstration of threats

If you and your opponent have entered visual contact or are about to, outgoing threats should be shown at the last moment, giving the opponent no time for analysis.

For example—if you place a hero to accelerate before a guard blocking the path to the opponent (which he sees), the opponent will immediately start analyzing the situation, rebuilding plans, tailoring chains, etc. And the more time passes between the demonstration of the threat and passing the turn, the more time the opponent has to make the right decision.

Therefore, such actions should be done immediately before passing the turn. Best as the last action—move the hero and immediately pass the turn.

A variation on the same theme—flickering your heroes at the edge of the opponent's visibility zone. This will force him to use "view turn," perhaps even more than once, thus wasting precious time.

Another trick—occasionally flickering a hero in a lift/teleport that the opponent sees from only one side. This will force him to consider a possible attack with acceleration, a possible noob-fight in this lift/teleport, and generally force him to think and be paranoid, which is useful in terms of burning calories and time.

In general, when entering an unexplored lift/teleport, you should do this—enter and immediately hit space, falling back. Then move the screen and examine the opened perspectives. All because on short control in the contact or near-contact phase of the game, the opponent doesn't go for a smoke during your turn, but carefully watches places where your heroes might appear, even with peripheral vision on the minimap. That is, upon the appearance of your hero, he will immediately look—who and with what army. It's better not to give him such information.

Also, if he happens to be distracted and doesn't notice your hero flickering, it could come back to haunt him—either he'll be too lazy to redo the turn and won't notice the threat at all, or he will do so and be forced under a ticking timer to think about how to survive here.

I played a bit more aggressively than my opponent, engaged in combat, and caught their army in a vulnerable position. Thanks for the game!

If you didn't get any join offers, check after the game to see if they exist at all. Go through the codes with archons and bubbles. If there are no join offers, it's a bug, replay the game.

If the suspicion arose during the game, have the 3rd player check the save.

I remind you that before starting the game, you need to disable the "HB rules" checkbox (or better yet, disable HB rules altogether).

If the game is on a mirror (i.e., without HB rules, it won't work), then update the HD mod; Baratortch said he fixed the bug. And just in case, don't use the automatic restart.