6 date cards

I had the perfect date in Heroes 3. From 8 pm to 8 am we sat in my office, ate pizza and fought in an alliance on the big map against the evil AI, which found Angel Wings and hid behind a mountain pass, and we caught it with the Chains of War.

But time is merciless, sitting all night at the monitor with red eyes and caffeine instead of blood is already doubtful. And sometimes you want to play. By Valentine’s Day, I selected cards “for future dates”, which

• different from auto-generated ones (because they are just tired, I want crafting / lore / variety);
• small [S] or medium [M] size (because you want to play one evening, and not the whole evening, all night, all morning, and a couple more days to “repair” the daily routine);
• with an alliance for two players (because getting divorced after each PvP is a so-so quest).

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Initially, I was looking only for small cards, but there are only

There are 3000 maps for HoMM3 on a large portal (heroesportal) and half of them for SoD. It would seem that choose the taste and color, but basically the cards are made for one player. For two players, the filter outputs only 200 cards (out of 1,500), of which only half are SM-sized (100), of which 90% are PvP cards.

Of the remaining ten cards with the alliance – part of the curves. Either the events are registered only for the Red player, or only one has transitions between zones, and the second imitates AI and walks through the mills in his pen.

On the second large site with maps (maps4heroes) there were 30 small maps for two players, 2 of them in the alliance. One with the difficulty “normal”, and it takes 15 minutes to complete on the auto battle, the second one is not opened by either the game or the editor.

You can evaluate the map either from the editor, which means that someone is then not interested in playing, or during the game, here already two people have an interactive break for the evening.

So here’s what little I’ve been able to dig up.

Note about features of auto-generated maps

Symmetry

Most auto-generations will be symmetrical, with the same conditions for computer and real players.

Here here you can read in great detail about templates for autogeneration. The guys who play hota explained very clearly what the meaning of the templates is. The hota community is finalizing the templates for greater “fairness”, but for my task this is not very interesting, I want.

Neutral mood

Standard original ranges include the following presets: Compliant (always join), Friendly (1-7, more likely to join), Aggressive (1-10, may join), Hostile (4-10, unlikely to join), Bloodthirsty (10, will never join). Defort setting are Aggressive.

Here it is described in detail how Diplomacy works and the mood of neutrals.

❯ Admirals Hat

Map with symmetrical conditions for allies, but special for the company.

Don’t let another ally scare you, he is completely passive, he won’t get in the way, he is only needed to fulfill the victory condition – bring the Admiral’s Hat to his Tower in the upper right corner. Its location opens quickly, but you will have to get to it through the system of Tents and Guards under the protection of AI.

Here at the beginning there will be a little lore, you can safely skip it, it does not affect the passage. The card can be played “on-relaxation”. Despite the small size, in some places I regretted that I did not take Pathfinder.

In the middle it gets a little boring due to the lack of gold, I just skipped a few days to save up for the army, but for challenge lovers, this map can really be completed in 4 game days (here standings 2009 And starting save for the tournament).

❯ Harmony Corruption

According to the lore, the alliance plays for the nobles who rebelled against the mad king. The choice of faction is limited – only Castle against Castle. A map with symmetrical conditions for allies, but to get to the computer opponent, you will have to find a tent of the right color in a dungeon crawling with the dead. There are many “invisible” events on the map, when players are suddenly attacked by a neutral squad or a bonus in the form of experience falls off. There is a side quest (symmetrical for each player) that helps to defeat the blue computer. Diplomacy works well on this map, because. most monsters with default aggressiveness parameters (can both attack and join), with the exception of Dragons in a few places.

❯ Rome in Danger (Allies)

• Size: M
• Author: Robert Lakatos
• English language.
• Year: 2005.
• Download

The Western and Eastern Roman Empires are surrounded by barbarians. Play with Rome (red) or Constantinople (blue) to defeat the Germans (brown), Huns (green), Berbers (orange), Egyptians (purple), Franks (turquoise) and Slavs (pink).

All the castles on the map are random, so you can play as your favorite faction or bet randomly, but the Egyptians like the dwellings with mummies. Quite a dynamic map, you play as a random castle, 6 opponents, from the plot on the map there is only a map shape that resembles the real world.

Due to the size, the map encourages a fast game, if you don’t capture, they capture you, and quickly. There are no additional events or storylines on the map. It’s just cool that you seem to be walking through uncharted lands, but it seems that this “boot” has been sitting in the liver since school geography lessons.

For those who are too easy – try from the start save pass it in 1 day, as the winner did 2014 tournament.

❯ Divine Intervention

I think this card is my favorite out of the whole collection.

Japan was miraculously able to repel the attack of the Mongols in 1274. The allies on this map will play for the Emperor of Japan and its Shogun.

Diplomacy here is bread and butter, every starting hero has it. This is an island map with the lore of Japan of the 13th century, which is fun to read, if you skip, you can also pass normally, but it’s still more profitable to read, there are many invisible events on the map, such as pirate attacks at sea or a sudden exp. Sometimes this is forewarned.

I can’t vouch for historical authenticity, it’s unlikely that Titans and Azure Dragons walked the streets in Japan, but the author chose the events as the basis for the plot and depicted Japan in a similar way.

Attempts to conquer Japan by the Mongols were made by the Mongol Empire of Khubilai, the grandson of Genghis Khan, twice: in 1274 and 1281. Both times, powerful invasion fleets were created in a short time, the second of which was the largest in the history of mankind before Operation Overlord of the Second World War. © Wikipedia

❯ Underground Kings

• Size: M
• Author: Unregistered Author of Maps
• Russian language
• Year: 2005
• Download

You will have to play against Inferno and Dungeon with any castle you wish. The task is to destroy the underground kings. Underground kings have more castles at their disposal and higher starting stats, plus it is more difficult for human players to break through to neutral castles in the neighborhood, and all entrances to the dungeons are guarded by level 5 monsters.

The map is similar to an auto-generated one, there are no special events, lore or signs with jokes, the difference is in asymmetric conditions for computer and real players.

❯ Conquest of Hell

• Size: M
• Author: Chaddiek
• English language
• Year: 2019
• Download

On the portal, the map is listed as the Breath of Death, but in the editor it opens as Erathia’s Resurrection.

You will play for the alliance of humans and elves. The map was lavishly bombarded with neutral monsters that – spoiler – will never join, so on this map it is better to choose a more useful skill instead of Diplomacy.

Another spoiler – the economy of computers is much better developed, some even have Grails rebuilt, so you will have to save the original army of the union:

In search of all the computers, you have to jump through one-way portals, since shipbuilding was not brought into this map. There is also a feature of the map, I don’t know if it’s a bug or a feature, but at some point players receive messages about a zone on the map where there are treasures and neutrals ready to join. There really are treasures there, only the neutrals are still bloodthirsty there, like on the whole map.

As a bonus, I decided to add very specific cards, they are not for everyone, but suddenly someone wants to unearth the stewardess.

❯ Hanger

• Size: S
• Author: Alexmm8
• Russian language
• Year: 2002
• Download

The map was made in the format of a fierce banter, but if you are not afraid to meet a dragon with obscene vocabulary, then you can try. The map is small but rich. Here you can fight for crystal dragons, and look for treasures in dungeons, and the author shoved as many as 4 computers.

❯ Asterix

• Size: S
• Author: SuperStar
• Russian language
• Year: 2011
• Download

Map from the Hidden object category. Here the game is not about combat, but about attentiveness and the search for passages and objects. The goal of the map is to build the Grail, but all the obscene are hidden behind other objects, or the path to them is blocked or guarded. At first I did not want to add this map, but when I hung in it for 30 minutes, I decided that it was still possible to mention it.

small spoiler

When the hero has a resource on the road and there are no free cells to bypass this resource, the hero can move on only if he picks up the resource. Some tricksters hide resources behind landscape elements:

The whole map is built on such tricks, and forces you to move the cursor while waiting for the arrow to stop turning into a horse.

The only thing that confuses me personally is that the author rhymed all the pop-ups and tips. When I say everything, I mean absolutely everything.

❯ The Beginning of Time

• Size: S
• Author: Superstar
• Russian language
• Year: 2011
• Download

Another Hidden object map from the same author. There are a lot of bonuses on the map, no enemy computers and a bunch of disguised objects. The task of the map is to collect Azure Dragons, you need 100 pieces to win. Here again all the hints and alerts are in verse (not to my taste).

I found a funny paradox on this map. There is an alliance in the map settings, Brown and Pink play on the same team, but the worlds of the players do not intersect (one plays on the surface, the other in the “dungeon”). The game will end when one of the players accumulates 100 Azure Dragons. There is no cooperation and mutual contribution to victory on the map.

If each player could accumulate a maximum of 50 Lazuriks, and then they would have to combine stacks, it would be more interesting. And here is a confrontation, but without battles among themselves and with a dying sign “you won” at the end.

By the way, there is no tavern in the cities, if the main character dies, it is impossible to play further, but there is no loss, because the conditions for losing are standard – to lose all heroes and all cities.

If you know any cool cards with an alliance for cooperation, or at least something different from auto-generation, please share.

Here’s a last joke for you:

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