Posts from Four Lakes

and I haven't even seen any dragons... =( hmm... maybe I could have completed it faster with them)) it's strange that there's a devil here) I had a praying mantis)))
HP is king))))

IronAxe 9 days ago: :smile16: It's time for you to open your own church :smile41: A walkthrough would be great!!!

IronAxe 9 days, oh my!
...
a walkthrough would be great!

Actually, it's 10 days. The record table in the game incorrectly counts the days – all completion times in the table need to have 1 day added. I want to put a video of each turn in the walkthrough. The fourth game allows you to view the entire turn of a player on the adventure map by having a save from the end of the turn. And if you want a video, just ask questions.

:smile16:you should open your own church :smile41:

:) I'm not that much of a saint. I think some players could have achieved even faster results on this map. They just weren't here.

well, here's another modest one :)

I'm really looking forward to these moves.

I tried to upload the save files from the end of each day here, but it didn't work. I uploaded them here:
http://slil.ru/24932957
The file will be deleted from there a month after the last download.
You need to unpack the archive using the 7z archiver (7-Zip). You can find it online. It's useful for those playing Heroes of Might and Magic IV – I've mentioned it before. It compresses the save files significantly. First, I unpacked the save files using a regular archiver. Then, I added the .h4s extension to each of them. After that, I packed them using the 7z archiver. The archive turned out to be 2MB instead of 4MB if archived with a regular Zip. All you need to do is extract the files from the archive and put them in the GAME directory for Heroes of Might and Magic IV. It should work! The archive contains 10 save files. The abbreviation is:
d_XX_YY_zzzz, where
XX - the day number
YY - the sequential number of the save file for that day
zzzz - a brief description of the save file

Initially, I chose the wrong hero in the castle, but I could have improved my result by 1 or 2 days with the new possibilities I saw, although it would be more challenging. By the way, it might not be significant, but I defeated the Berserkers near the wooden mine on the first day with the Sorceress Mayveda. :o
I have a question for IronAxe. Is it possible to view the save files from the beginning of the battles when capturing castles and see an example of the tactics used? I just can't figure out how you managed to defeat them. :smile34:
P.S. Congratulations on your well-deserved victory:smile49: :smile49: :smile49:

Initially, I chose the wrong hero in the Castle, but with the new possibilities I've seen, I could probably improve my result by 1 day, maybe 2, but that would be harder.

And who did you choose? As you saw, I took Mayveda in the Dungeon, and in the Fortress, I bought a Nature hero. Why? Because many combat tactics are based on the idea that one Chaos hero blinds, and the second blasts from a flamethrower. The Nature hero has the summon fairies magic, and he also summons actual fairies into his army during the turn transition, which can be split up one by one if he summons more than one. That's why he can handle the slow units alone. And if he acts together with the Chaos heroes, the fairies can be used to block not only the ranged units but also the monsters attacking the Chaos heroes. In other words, there's plenty of room for maneuver :) In a worst-case scenario (the absolute worst), you can cast a couple of blinds per round, summon fairies, and fly them forward in front of the monsters so they don't make a full move toward the heroes — they won't bypass the fairies; they'll attack them and lose their turn. Plus, there are still single fairies and 4 Goblins on the heroes' defense :) Practically all the most difficult battles were built on this scheme; this includes the guard of the Evil Eye spawn and the final battle against 2 Nature heroes who had 3 Gargantuas in their army and other miscellaneous riff-raff :) However, there were two other difficult battles — specifically when, after the Evil Eye spawn, I had to split the heroes into two squads. Two Chaos heroes went for the Order fortress, and the Nature hero went to the Life fortress alone. On the way, they had to discard the Evil Eyes taken from the spawn from their armies, because they slowed down the progression of the heroes who were riding fairies. For this very reason, the Nature hero didn't buy catapults for his army, although I think I placed a flag at the spawn for them, just in case I didn't have to replay later — I thought if I couldn't manage to take the fortress, I'd have to bring the artillery to the fortress manually. But thank god there were enough bottles :) Leshy, when you were watching the movie, did you press pause before and after the attack on this fortress? You can check out of curiosity how many bubbles and mana I spent on this battle, though there was more than enough mana. By the way, in this battle, the Nature hero DIED!! But before death, he managed to summon Fairies several times. And one real living one was also running around there; it wasn't hit. But I think that even without it, the fortress would probably have surrendered to the grave ??? I should check. By that time, all the enemies' arrows had run out. And the remaining enemies were finished off by the summoned fairies. Therefore, the battle was won. And the fortress became mine — because it revived the hero. This is a feature — units with a grave in their pocket CAN capture an enemy fortress, and the grave comes back to life. And the two Chaos heroes had to struggle a bit to take the Nature fortress.

By the way, this might not be significant, but with the Wizard Mayveda, on the first day, I beat the berserkers at the wood mine :o

Well, didn't I destroy the berserkers at the wood mine on the first day too? Only, as I recall, the Nature hero took them out with Fairies DURING the turn transition from 1 to 2. That is, the Nature hero positioned himself at the end of the 1st turn so that the berserkers attacked him themselves.

I have a question for IronAxe. Is it possible to look at the saves from the start of the battles when capturing castles and the approximate tactics? I just can't wrap my head around how You wiped them out.:smile34:

Yeah :) , I understand you. I think we should stick to those 4 battles I mentioned (including the fortresses) — they are the most difficult and they aren't repetitive — so I have plenty of saves from them, unlike battles where I was wiping out the Glade, Trolls, or other slow units with Fairies (I'll report on those regardless — but does anyone actually need those battles?). I'll provide saves for the start of each of the 4 battles mentioned above. Try to fight until Victory. Maybe you can win some, then they'll be filtered out. And then we'll see which battles need more saves, or maybe I'll draw the sequence of actions in pictures and provide a description. In short, for now, I'll prepare the saves for the start of each of the 4 battles and post them in the same format as the saves for the end of each day. I'll post the link here once I'm done.

P.S. Congratulations on a well-deserved victory:smile49: :smile49: :smile49:

Thanks. Seems like no one is asking anything else. That means everything is clear :) And thank god for that :)

it's clear how you moved around the map in the videos, but the most interesting part is how you handled the battles.

No, it's just that watching you navigate the map in the videos is clear, but how you handle the battles is the most interesting part.

So, a systematic review should be conducted, as I suggested. First, we watch the videos. Based on the videos, we determine which specific questions about the walkthrough and which specific battles need to be analyzed (not all of them, right?). So far, we've identified 4 battles. There will be save files right before the start of each battle, with coordinates indicating where to attack. Then, anyone who wants can try to complete them themselves, and the battle will take place on the same battlefield as mine. If it doesn't work out, I'll provide a bunch of save files from the battle – figure it out. Then, there will be explanations. Or what? I think this order of reporting is optimal and will help players who try to overcome these battles themselves gain experience – even if their attempts are unsuccessful.

Added 7 minutes later

No, it's just that watching you navigate the map in the videos is clear, but how you handle the battles is the most interesting part.

P.S. To start, based on the videos, you can understand which potions I used in the battle, what mana costs and what losses in manpower I incurred, see what magic the hero had, and try to at least simply guess/speculate how this battle could have been completed based on the information you already have. Of course, there will be additional save files. I just need to understand which battles you are interested in having save files for. I have over 200 megabytes of save files for this game. That's not even much. It's been worse. And where would I upload 200 megabytes to you? It's unrealistic. We need to focus only on the key moments of the walkthrough.

Who did you choose? As you can see, I took Mayveda in the Dungeon and bought a Druid in the Fortress. Why?

In general, I think I played pretty well in the second offline game, although I didn't do the obvious things:( (stupid me:D). How could I not think of the Druid:(.
Actually, I wanted to show off that I managed to get Mayveda to the Berserkers :smile26:, but you already understood how:D.
In general, in the Castle, I bought a Thief, leveled him up in stealth, and sent him to Haven (lower left). There is a dwelling of Titans (which the computer didn't buy, I think, due to a lack of resources). I bought the Titans and wiped out Haven, but I chose a long path for leveling up (I messed up). And I divided the Mages and sent them separately to each remaining Castle and defeated them. I took the Nature Castle with Mayveda and one Gangarua :(

In general, I think I played pretty well in the second offline game, although I didn't do some obvious things:(

You did a good job. And everyone makes mistakes, I guess. Did you notice that I didn't spend 11 movement points with Mayveda on the first turn? I forgot :)

Actually, I wanted to show off that I managed to get Mayveda to the Berserkers :smile26:, but you already figured it out :D.

Now I understand :)

Anyway, in the Castle, I bought a thief, leveled him up in stealth, and sent him to the Order (lower left). There's a Titan dwelling there (which the computer doesn't buy, I think, due to lack of resources). I bought the Titans and attacked the Order, but I chose a long path for leveling up (I messed up). And I divided the mages and sent them separately to each remaining Castle and defeated them. I took the Nature Castle with Mayveda and one Gargantuan :(.

Wow, how many Gargantuans did the opponent have? You must have leveled up Mayveda well.

Added 25 minutes ago

No, it's just that it's clear how you moved around the map in the videos, but how you fought the battles is the most interesting part.

----------------------------------------------------
Before the battles, all the troops seem to be arranged correctly, and the necessary potions are used. There are also pictures before the final strike in each battle. This is to make sure that you get the same battlefield before the attack when loading the save.
Well, maybe it can help someone in some way.

Battle for the nascent Evil Eye Castle.
Save before the attack: d_04_08_Koni_X1.h4s
Attack in point [70,103]
In total, there are 43 saves for this battle - 14MB
Picture before the final strike in the battle: d_04_08_Koni_X1_L.JPG

Battle between two Chaos factions for the Order Fortress.
Save before the attack: d_07_03_Blue_Castle.h4s
I messed up here. With this save, you can't get the same battlefield that the battle was fought on. This happens if you select the battlefield using a two-cycle method instead of load-save-load. But the thing is that the battlefield isn't critical here, that is, you can actually use any battlefield. In the battle with the Horsemen, it's still necessary to have more obstacles in the center of the field. Therefore, I'm also adding an additional save for the first turn of the battle: d_07_03_Blue_Castle_B01.h4s
In total, there are 15 saves for this battle - 4MB
Picture before the final strike in the battle: d_07_03_Blue_Castle_14.JPG

Battle of a Nature faction for the Life Fortress.
Save before the attack: d_07_07_Rozi_Castle_X2.h4s
Attack in point [15,85]
In total, there are 51 saves for this battle - 19MB
Picture before the final strike in the battle:
d_07_07_Rozi_Castle_X2_B50.JPG (this is the battlefield - lots of corpses :))

Final Battle with Nature (Gargantuan).
Save before the attack: d_10_19_Last_Bat_X3.h4s
Attack in point [84,24]
In total, there are 40 saves for this battle - 47MB
Picture before the final strike in the battle:
d_10_19_Last_Bat_X3_B40.JPG (this is also a bloodbath :))
----------------------------------------------------
All this is here (approximately 1.6MB):
http://slil.ru/24936683
Unpack the archive with the 7-Zip archiver. You can consider these saves as mini-tasks "How to win the battle?"

Okay, the hassle with Luzhik's save has finally ended. Now that all results have been tallied, the unofficial tournament is officially closed. Thank you to all participants, and see you at future tournaments. Also, I remind all players that a new tournament is currently underway, already the third for Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Stage 9 of the Van Kaninghem Tournament. For peace throughout the world! For war during wartime! For conquering all lands! Well… it’s starting to go in the wrong direction… Anyway, thank you everyone, goodbye.