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Current rules for the latest version: http://h3hota.com/ru/rules
HotA online game rules (the ones in this post are outdated and have not been updated since version 1.6.0).
English version is in the second post of this thread: /topic/at/827561/
The rules provided here are recommended for online games or tournaments on HotA.
These rules are based on the HeroesWorld rules:
/topic/10593/
Changes have been made in accordance with the specifics of HotA Gameplay.
[list=I]General.
[list=1] The rules regulate games of two or more players against each other on random maps.
Basic terminology and abbreviations.
Selection of castles and colors.
[/list]
Rules common to all templates.
[list=1] Restarts.
In the situations described below, players must/may start a new game with map regeneration. With HoMM3 HD, to perform a restart, the server can click the Start Over button in the System Options menu.
1.1. Mandatory restart must be taken. Immediately after the game is generated, players must check for grounds for a mandatory restart and are obliged to take a restart within 1 minute in the following cases:
— if a player or computer is missing a starting castle;
— if no roads lead from the starting castle;
— if the ГО is generated right next to the starting castle (such that one cannot leave the starting castle or enter it without a battle with the ГО).
1.2. Restart on first encounter up to 115–116–117 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively.
An encounter is considered any battle between players (battle between any heroes, battle with the garrison of an opponent's castle or mine). Capturing a town or mine without a battle is not considered an encounter.
If an encounter occurs within the specified period, any of the opponents has the right to demand a restart immediately after it.
If both players agree to continue the game, the game continues. Subsequent encounters in this generation occurring within the specified periods are not grounds for a restart.
After the first restart due to an encounter, the deadlines for taking a repeat restart are reduced by one day, i.e., the second restart due to an encounter is taken up to 114–115–116 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively. The deadlines for the third and all subsequent restarts due to an encounter are reduced by another day, i.e., up to 113–114–115 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively.
When playing with OH, the interruption of OH is considered an encounter.
1.3. Subjective restarts.
1.4. Restart due to strong block up to 112 inclusive.
A block is a strong guard of something that cannot be destroyed without catastrophic losses in a specific deal.
A restart is taken at the request of the player who owns the block if it is impossible to bypass the block, which cuts off the castle from the main part of the starting zone, leaving no possibility for development up to the block.
If subjective restarts remain, one day of subjective restarts is spent (i.e., on 112 we take a 111 restart).
If subjective restarts have run out, the player has the right to demand an additional restart.
Allowed actions, prohibitions, and limitations.
2.1. hit-and-run is prohibited: Your hero, attacking an opponent's hero, has no right to retreat in the first round of battle if they cast any magic. This prohibition does not apply to the defending hero.
2.2. Dimension Door spell:
— on all templates except XL+U size templates, it can be used by each hero no more than 1 time per day;
— on XL+U size templates, it can be used by each hero 2 times per day with expert air magic and no more than 1 time otherwise.
2.3. Assembling the combined artifact Cloak of the Undead King is prohibited. All other combined artifacts are allowed to be assembled.
2.4. Actions not prohibited/limited by these rules are allowed.
Fair Play.
Players must play fairly and respect each other.
3.1. On templates intended for online games, the number of battle rounds is limited and an infinite battle situation cannot arise: after a certain number of rounds, the battle will end and the attacker will be offered to retreat or buy off (even in the presence of Shackles of War).
If there is no limit on the number of battle rounds in the game, the following rules should be followed.
— If a "stalemate" situation occurs in battle, the attacking player must retreat.
— For example: during the battle, the attacker is left with 100 Dwarves, and the defending hero has 1 Hydra. And 100 Dwarves cannot catch the Hydra. In this case, the attacker with 100 Dwarves must retreat (or buy off).
— If someone is wearing Shackles of War, it is necessary to load the last saved game, repeat all moves exactly as they were made before this battle, and dismiss the troops that were killed during this battle. Then the player who was wearing the Shackles of War must remove them, the attacker must attack and flee/buy off.
3.2. It is prohibited to use cheat codes, programs not permitted for use, and bugs resulting from the use of additional programs and files during the game.
3.3. No one has the right to open the saved game files of an unfinished game except the judge/tournament organizer and only in the event of a disputed situation in the game. For this purpose, it is recommended to set passwords on saves at the start of the game (this function is available in HoMM3 HD). If, at the moment a disputed situation arises requiring the opening of saved game files, there is no connection with the judge/organizer, the game must be interrupted and saved by both participants until connection with the judges is established.
3.4. Viewing the hero's skill tree using software tools is prohibited (equated to maphack (opening the map)).
3.5. It is prohibited to open the map on which the game is being played in the editor before the end of the game.
The game is considered finished when one player has completely destroyed the second or one of them has surrendered, which must be reported separately. Only after this is it permitted to open the saved game files and view the map in the editor.
3.6. When playing with password-protected saves, players are obliged to:
— provide their password to the opponent / opponents immediately after the game;
— provide the password of an unfinished game upon request of the tournament organizer / judge in the event of a disputed situation.
3.7. If a disconnect (desync) occurs during the game, the player who was moving at that moment saves the game. Then they load from this saved game file and continue. Or they load the autosave of the player who was inactive at that moment. If the connection was interrupted during a battle, then after loading, all battle moves are repeated as closely as possible to those that were before the disconnect.
3.8 In case of interruption of OH, the blue player will need to make the last move again. It is not necessary to repeat the actions that were made before the moment of interruption.
3.9. In case of a crash or disconnect during the action of OH, the following should be done:
— If red has saved games of the current turn, he should load the last one of them. After this, red continues the turn and completes it. Blue will be forced to conduct the current turn again. Simultaneous turns will resume from the next day.
— If red has no saved games of the current turn, then blue should load the last autosave. In this case, both players will have to make the last turn again. Simultaneous turns will start immediately after loading the autosave and passing the turn to blue.
— In any case, when loading a save, players must repeat their moves as accurately as possible up to the moment of disconnect.
— Please note: during a simultaneous turn, blue cannot save the game. The only saved games that appear for blue are autosaves created every turn after merging the results of the players' turns. Red can save the game in normal mode, but blue's position in his saves will always correspond to the start of the turn. Thus, blue's actions are saved only after the turn is completed by both players, before the start of the next turn. [/list]
Recommended settings, additions, and differences in game rules for popular templates.
It is recommended to adhere to the general rules set out above, with individual differences for each template.
[list=1] Mirror template h3dm1:
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 117. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Mirror template mt_Diamond:
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Mirror template mt_Jebus:
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (16:00+08:00+02:00); expensive fast; simultaneous turn up to 116. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken.
Mirror template for 2 vs 2 play mt_TeamJebus:
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 4, computers — 0; teams — 2 (red + brown vs blue + green); no water; medium monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (16:00+08:00+02:00); expensive fast; simultaneous turn is not used. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Starting towns match for red and blue, as well as for brown and green, and are chosen randomly (using the PvP option Rand. vs Rand.). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color (the winning team either chooses one of the color sets: red+yellow or blue+green, or chooses both heroes first, the other team gets the remaining option). Gold added to or subtracted from a team as a result of bidding is divided between the players at the team's discretion. The starting bonus is random.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each team can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed:
a) between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken;
b) between two outer zones, if the ГО between the central zone and both these zones are broken.
Mirror template mt_Andromeda:
Recommended settings: map size XL-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive fast; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Mirror template mt_Antares:
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
XL+U size templates: 6lm10a, 8mm6а, 8xm12a, Spider:
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Nostalgia template:
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Kerberos template for two or three players:
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 3, computers — 3; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit for two players — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); turn time limit for three players — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+06:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— When playing with two players, standard rules are used.
— When playing with three players, colors, starting towns, heroes, and bonuses are chosen randomly.
Jebus Cross template:
Recommended settings: map size XL-U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 10 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+02:00); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 116.
Clarifications on restarts:
— When using the restart due to strong block rule, a block is considered a guard (or group of guards) for which all specified requirements are met:
1) The group of guards blocks both roads to the villages;
2) The guard cannot be destroyed with a loss of less than half the army;
3) The guard cannot be bypassed in less than 1500 movement units. Movement units are counted "from road to road" via the shortest route. If there are guards along the way that do not fall under point 2, they are considered already destroyed.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed:
a) between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken;
b) between two outer zones, if the ГО between the central zone and both these zones are broken.
2sm4d(3) template:
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+06:30+01:00); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Mini-Nostalgia template:
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Diamond template:
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles by standard bidding or elimination. After this, players cross out one castle each from the remaining eight that will not participate in the game. The red player starts crossing out. The player creating the game assigns the remaining six castles to computer players in any sequence. All starting castles must be different.
Boomerang template:
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Apocalypse template:
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Necropolis cannot be a starting town.
— Players choose their castles by standard bidding or elimination. After this, the blue player crosses out one castle from the remaining seven (excluding Necropolis) that will not participate in the game. The player creating the game assigns the remaining six castles to computer players in any sequence. All starting castles must be different.
Anarchy template:
Please note: the template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 200% or 160%; turn time limit — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Castle selection can be done:
a) either by elimination (bidding when playing on 160%),
b) or randomly (full random) — random starting castle, hero, and resource. In this case, after each subjective restart, players swap colors; for objective restarts, no color swap occurs.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter and due to strong block are canceled.
Clarifications on rules:
— All rules are canceled except for the Fair Play rules.
Black'n'Blue template:
Please note: the template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Templates 2sm2с(2), Skirmish(M), Nine-day Wonder on 200% difficulty:
Please note: the Nine-day Wonder template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; map size M; no water; medium monsters; difficulty 200%; turn time limit — 4 minutes, with a chess timer — (08:00+04:00+01:00); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Selection of starting towns and bonuses is random.
Additional restarts:
— Restart of generations with identical castles. Taken at the request of at least one of the opponents immediately after map generation.
Additional rules:
— After each subjective restart, players swap colors. [/list][/list]
HotA online game rules (the ones in this post are outdated and have not been updated since version 1.6.0).
English version is in the second post of this thread: /topic/at/827561/
The rules provided here are recommended for online games or tournaments on HotA.
These rules are based on the HeroesWorld rules:
/topic/10593/
Changes have been made in accordance with the specifics of HotA Gameplay.
- Briefly for those familiar with the HeroesWorld community rules.
The following prohibitions apply:
- hit-and-run is prohibited;
- recruiting monsters (via diplomacy) is prohibited;
- Limitation on Dimension Door (as in SoD);
- Assembling the Cloak of the Undead King is prohibited;
- Some additional prohibitions for specific templates.
Allowed:
- Performing red-rush on all templates;
- Recruiting monsters (via diplomacy);
- Using Cartographers (they will not be encountered in-game) and Forts on the Hill;
- Bypassing any guards of objects and passages (which is impossible due to game mechanics);
- Building any structures in any castles and upgrading any creatures;
- Choosing any starting hero for all castles;
- Leveling up expert necromancy for Isre and Vidomine;
- Using any Spell Scrolls;
- Digging up and placing the Grail;
- Using SoD bugs (all prohibited bugs have been fixed or cannot manifest in the modes used in online games).
[list=I]
[list=1]
- Castle (lowercase) — any town/village on the game map.
- Template — a graph of zones used by the random map generator as the basis for the created map. Before the game, players agree in some way on which template they will play; a specific template for the game can be selected in the random map settings menu in HoMM3 HD.
- The words “passage between zones” on a generated game map refer to the gap between obstacles forming the zone boundaries through which a hero can pass into an adjacent zone. In a real game situation, there may be several such passages, even if the template scheme indicates that the passage is unique.
- bugged passage — a passage between zones that should not exist according to the template scheme. It is characterized by the absence of guards. This often occurs when a mine, village, etc., is generated on the border of two zones (in which case the mine guard may block the passage and look like the guard of that passage). Fixed in HotA.
- Growth — troops that appear at the start of a new week in the player's castles or in castles of human and computer opponents captured on that day.
- treasure zone = treasure = treasury — the zone with the best content on the template.
- ГО — Main Guard — strong guards (Value = 45000) either between zones that are starting zones for players (2SM4d(3)), or between the starting zone and the main treasure zone (Jebus Cross, Nostalgia, Mini-Nostalgia).
- Mage Guild — Mage Guild.
- Buy-off — the ability to surrender in battle by paying money to the opponent, as a result of which the hero ends up in the tavern with all the army that survived until that moment.
- OH — simultaneous turn: a HoMM3 HD option allowing players to simultaneously make several first turns in the game.
- It is recommended to bid for the castle/color (or hero/color in case players have the same castles). This requires the use of HoMM3 HD. Not suitable for games on 200% difficulty.
- In the PvP options, the server-player clicks Rand. vs Rand., resulting in a random pair of castles being generated and the bidding beginning.
- Before bidding, the pair of castles can be regenerated. Each player can pay the opponent 500 gold to regenerate the pair of castles. If, in the new pair, at least one castle matches a castle from the old pair, the initiator of the regeneration has the right to demand one more regeneration for free (only one and only immediately after their paid regeneration). Each player can initiate a paid regeneration only once. Any pair of castles can be regenerated for free as many times as desired by mutual agreement of the players.
- As a result of the bid, one of the players will choose a castle from the resulting pair (or will be the first to choose the starting hero if the castles are the same), and their opponent will choose the color and play with the remaining castle from the pair (choosing the starting hero second in case of identical castles). The winner of the bid gets the choice of what exactly to choose — the castle or the color. In the case of playing with random castles, the purpose of the bid may simply be the choice of color.
- Any player starts the bid (with a zero or positive bid). Players take turns announcing bids in gold that they are willing to send to the opponent from their starting money at the beginning of the game for winning the bid. Each subsequent bid must be higher than the previous one, the bid must be a multiple of 100 gold and cannot be more than the player's starting gold (taking into account the payment for regeneration).
- If a player does not wish to or cannot increase the bid, their opponent is declared the winner of the bid and makes their choice. Accordingly, players determine their castles (heroes) and colors. Starting heroes (in case of different castles) and starting bonuses are chosen by the players at their own discretion.
- Before the start of the game, the server-player must open the Gold Transfer menu in the PvP options and, based on the bid and regeneration sum, specify "-x" for the player who must pay gold, and "x" for the player who must receive gold, where x is the amount of gold one of the players must pay the other.
- Example of bidding:
A pair of Inferno vs Tower was generated.
--
Vasya:
— I do not request regeneration
Petya:
— I do not request regeneration
Vasya:
— 0
Petya:
— 100
Vasya:
— 200
Petya:
— 300
Vasya:
— Pass
Petya:
— I choose the color. I'll take red
Vasya:
— I'll take Inferno
--
As a result, Petya plays with the red color for the Tower with 9700 starting gold, and Vasya plays with the blue color for Inferno with 10300 starting gold.
- In the PvP options, the server-player clicks Rand. vs Rand., resulting in a random pair of castles being generated and the bidding beginning.
- If bidding is impossible, the selection of castles by the elimination method is allowed.
- Players take turns crossing out (removing) from the full list of 10 castles those they do not want to play, until 3 castles remain. The player who crossed out a castle second chooses a castle for themselves from the three remaining, then the other player chooses a castle from the two remaining and announces the color they want to play (red or blue). Starting heroes and starting bonuses are chosen by the players at their own discretion.
- On templates with computer players, castles for the computer are chosen randomly.
- Example of castle selection by the elimination method:
--
Vasya:
— Conflux
Petya:
— Necropolis
Vasya:
— Fortress
Petya:
— Stronghold
Vasya:
— Rampart
Petya:
— Castle
Vasya:
— Wharf
Petya:
— I'll take Inferno
Vasya:
— I'll take Dungeon and red color
--
As a result, Petya plays with the blue color for Inferno, and Vasya plays with the red color for Dungeon.
- Players take turns crossing out (removing) from the full list of 10 castles those they do not want to play, until 3 castles remain. The player who crossed out a castle second chooses a castle for themselves from the three remaining, then the other player chooses a castle from the two remaining and announces the color they want to play (red or blue). Starting heroes and starting bonuses are chosen by the players at their own discretion.
[list=1]
In the situations described below, players must/may start a new game with map regeneration. With HoMM3 HD, to perform a restart, the server can click the Start Over button in the System Options menu.
1.1. Mandatory restart must be taken. Immediately after the game is generated, players must check for grounds for a mandatory restart and are obliged to take a restart within 1 minute in the following cases:
— if a player or computer is missing a starting castle;
— if no roads lead from the starting castle;
— if the ГО is generated right next to the starting castle (such that one cannot leave the starting castle or enter it without a battle with the ГО).
1.2. Restart on first encounter up to 115–116–117 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively.
An encounter is considered any battle between players (battle between any heroes, battle with the garrison of an opponent's castle or mine). Capturing a town or mine without a battle is not considered an encounter.
If an encounter occurs within the specified period, any of the opponents has the right to demand a restart immediately after it.
If both players agree to continue the game, the game continues. Subsequent encounters in this generation occurring within the specified periods are not grounds for a restart.
After the first restart due to an encounter, the deadlines for taking a repeat restart are reduced by one day, i.e., the second restart due to an encounter is taken up to 114–115–116 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively. The deadlines for the third and all subsequent restarts due to an encounter are reduced by another day, i.e., up to 113–114–115 inclusive for fast–medium–slow roads respectively.
When playing with OH, the interruption of OH is considered an encounter.
1.3. Subjective restarts.
- Each player has the right, without explaining the reasons, to take a restart/restarts no later than the end of their turn on the corresponding day. It is possible to take either 3 restarts on the first day of the game (111+111+111), or 2 restarts on the first and second day (111+112 or 112+111), or one restart on the third day (113).
- When playing with OH, restarts are taken in the following order:
— During the first turn or before taking the second turn, red must write "111" or "I am not taking a restart". After this, if red did not take a restart, blue, without taking the second turn, must also write "111" or "I am not taking a restart".
— If a player has taken the second turn, they can no longer take a 111 restart. You can see that the opponent has taken a turn by the fact that the action bar under the timer begins to be displayed for them.
— On the second and third turns, 112 and 113 restarts can be taken according to the same scheme. If a player does not take a 112 or 113 restart, they can simply take the next turn and write nothing (while blue has the right to wait for red to take the turn or clarify whether they are taking a restart).
1.4. Restart due to strong block up to 112 inclusive.
A block is a strong guard of something that cannot be destroyed without catastrophic losses in a specific deal.
A restart is taken at the request of the player who owns the block if it is impossible to bypass the block, which cuts off the castle from the main part of the starting zone, leaving no possibility for development up to the block.
If subjective restarts remain, one day of subjective restarts is spent (i.e., on 112 we take a 111 restart).
If subjective restarts have run out, the player has the right to demand an additional restart.
2.1. hit-and-run is prohibited: Your hero, attacking an opponent's hero, has no right to retreat in the first round of battle if they cast any magic. This prohibition does not apply to the defending hero.
2.2. Dimension Door spell:
— on all templates except XL+U size templates, it can be used by each hero no more than 1 time per day;
— on XL+U size templates, it can be used by each hero 2 times per day with expert air magic and no more than 1 time otherwise.
2.3. Assembling the combined artifact Cloak of the Undead King is prohibited. All other combined artifacts are allowed to be assembled.
2.4. Actions not prohibited/limited by these rules are allowed.
Players must play fairly and respect each other.
3.1. On templates intended for online games, the number of battle rounds is limited and an infinite battle situation cannot arise: after a certain number of rounds, the battle will end and the attacker will be offered to retreat or buy off (even in the presence of Shackles of War).
If there is no limit on the number of battle rounds in the game, the following rules should be followed.
— If a "stalemate" situation occurs in battle, the attacking player must retreat.
— For example: during the battle, the attacker is left with 100 Dwarves, and the defending hero has 1 Hydra. And 100 Dwarves cannot catch the Hydra. In this case, the attacker with 100 Dwarves must retreat (or buy off).
— If someone is wearing Shackles of War, it is necessary to load the last saved game, repeat all moves exactly as they were made before this battle, and dismiss the troops that were killed during this battle. Then the player who was wearing the Shackles of War must remove them, the attacker must attack and flee/buy off.
3.2. It is prohibited to use cheat codes, programs not permitted for use, and bugs resulting from the use of additional programs and files during the game.
3.3. No one has the right to open the saved game files of an unfinished game except the judge/tournament organizer and only in the event of a disputed situation in the game. For this purpose, it is recommended to set passwords on saves at the start of the game (this function is available in HoMM3 HD). If, at the moment a disputed situation arises requiring the opening of saved game files, there is no connection with the judge/organizer, the game must be interrupted and saved by both participants until connection with the judges is established.
3.4. Viewing the hero's skill tree using software tools is prohibited (equated to maphack (opening the map)).
3.5. It is prohibited to open the map on which the game is being played in the editor before the end of the game.
The game is considered finished when one player has completely destroyed the second or one of them has surrendered, which must be reported separately. Only after this is it permitted to open the saved game files and view the map in the editor.
3.6. When playing with password-protected saves, players are obliged to:
— provide their password to the opponent / opponents immediately after the game;
— provide the password of an unfinished game upon request of the tournament organizer / judge in the event of a disputed situation.
3.7. If a disconnect (desync) occurs during the game, the player who was moving at that moment saves the game. Then they load from this saved game file and continue. Or they load the autosave of the player who was inactive at that moment. If the connection was interrupted during a battle, then after loading, all battle moves are repeated as closely as possible to those that were before the disconnect.
3.8 In case of interruption of OH, the blue player will need to make the last move again. It is not necessary to repeat the actions that were made before the moment of interruption.
3.9. In case of a crash or disconnect during the action of OH, the following should be done:
— If red has saved games of the current turn, he should load the last one of them. After this, red continues the turn and completes it. Blue will be forced to conduct the current turn again. Simultaneous turns will resume from the next day.
— If red has no saved games of the current turn, then blue should load the last autosave. In this case, both players will have to make the last turn again. Simultaneous turns will start immediately after loading the autosave and passing the turn to blue.
— In any case, when loading a save, players must repeat their moves as accurately as possible up to the moment of disconnect.
— Please note: during a simultaneous turn, blue cannot save the game. The only saved games that appear for blue are autosaves created every turn after merging the results of the players' turns. Red can save the game in normal mode, but blue's position in his saves will always correspond to the start of the turn. Thus, blue's actions are saved only after the turn is completed by both players, before the start of the next turn.
It is recommended to adhere to the general rules set out above, with individual differences for each template.
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Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 117. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (16:00+08:00+02:00); expensive fast; simultaneous turn up to 116. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken.
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 4, computers — 0; teams — 2 (red + brown vs blue + green); no water; medium monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (16:00+08:00+02:00); expensive fast; simultaneous turn is not used. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Starting towns match for red and blue, as well as for brown and green, and are chosen randomly (using the PvP option Rand. vs Rand.). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color (the winning team either chooses one of the color sets: red+yellow or blue+green, or chooses both heroes first, the other team gets the remaining option). Gold added to or subtracted from a team as a result of bidding is divided between the players at the team's discretion. The starting bonus is random.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each team can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed:
a) between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken;
b) between two outer zones, if the ГО between the central zone and both these zones are broken.
Recommended settings: map size XL-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive fast; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Recommended settings: map size L-U (the underground part will be generated as a copy of the surface); players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; chess timer: (21:00+08:30+01:15); expensive medium; simultaneous turn up to 115. Use of HoMM3 HD is required.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players' starting towns are the same, chosen randomly (using the PvP option Random Town). A bid is held for the right to choose the hero/color. The starting bonus is random.
— After bidding, the player choosing the color (and choosing the hero second) may cross out from 0 to 3 heroes of the castle that the players will play. Players cannot take these heroes as starting heroes. If on the first day of the game one of the crossed-out heroes turns out to be in one of the players' taverns (with an army), a technical restart is performed.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter are canceled.
— Each player can take only one subjective restart and only on the first day.
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Recommended settings: map size XL+U; players — 3, computers — 3; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit for two players — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (21:00+08:00+01:15); turn time limit for three players — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+06:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— When playing with two players, standard rules are used.
— When playing with three players, colors, starting towns, heroes, and bonuses are chosen randomly.
Recommended settings: map size XL-U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 10 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+02:00); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 116.
Clarifications on restarts:
— When using the restart due to strong block rule, a block is considered a guard (or group of guards) for which all specified requirements are met:
1) The group of guards blocks both roads to the villages;
2) The guard cannot be destroyed with a loss of less than half the army;
3) The guard cannot be bypassed in less than 1500 movement units. Movement units are counted "from road to road" via the shortest route. If there are guards along the way that do not fall under point 2, they are considered already destroyed.
Additional rules:
— To leave your zone for the central treasure zone, as well as to pass from the central treasure zone to other zones, it is necessary to break through the corresponding ГО.
— With the Dimension Door spell, you can teleport to a cell of the guarded zone next to the ГО and attack immediately.
— Transition between zones using the Angel Wings artifact and the Fly and Dimension Door spells is allowed:
a) between any of the outer zones and the central zone, if the ГО of any passage between the corresponding zones is broken;
b) between two outer zones, if the ГО between the central zone and both these zones are broken.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+06:30+01:00); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles by standard bidding or elimination. After this, players cross out one castle each from the remaining eight that will not participate in the game. The red player starts crossing out. The player creating the game assigns the remaining six castles to computer players in any sequence. All starting castles must be different.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Players choose their castles and colors by standard bidding or elimination. Then they choose castles for computer players — their immediate neighbors on the template: red chooses castles for brown, orange, and green, and blue — for light blue, pink, and purple. Castles for computer players are chosen by human players alternately, one by one from the list of remaining castles. The blue player starts choosing. All starting castles must be different. Before the start, the player creating the game assigns the chosen castles to the computer players.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 6; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (16:00+08:00+01:00); medium roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Necropolis cannot be a starting town.
— Players choose their castles by standard bidding or elimination. After this, the blue player crosses out one castle from the remaining seven (excluding Necropolis) that will not participate in the game. The player creating the game assigns the remaining six castles to computer players in any sequence. All starting castles must be different.
Please note: the template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 200% or 160%; turn time limit — 6 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Castle selection can be done:
a) either by elimination (bidding when playing on 160%),
b) or randomly (full random) — random starting castle, hero, and resource. In this case, after each subjective restart, players swap colors; for objective restarts, no color swap occurs.
Clarifications on restarts:
— Restarts on first encounter and due to strong block are canceled.
Clarifications on rules:
— All rules are canceled except for the Fair Play rules.
Please note: the template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: map size L+U; players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; no water; strong monsters; difficulty 160%; turn time limit — 8 minutes, with a chess timer — (19:00+08:00+01:15); fast roads; simultaneous turn up to 117.
Please note: the Nine-day Wonder template has special object value settings. It is recommended to study its settings before the game.
Recommended settings: players — 2, computers — 0; teams — 0; map size M; no water; medium monsters; difficulty 200%; turn time limit — 4 minutes, with a chess timer — (08:00+04:00+01:00); any roads; simultaneous turn up to 115.
Clarifications on the order of choosing starting towns, heroes, and bonuses:
— Selection of starting towns and bonuses is random.
Additional restarts:
— Restart of generations with identical castles. Taken at the request of at least one of the opponents immediately after map generation.
Additional rules:
— After each subjective restart, players swap colors.
