x Tiger Stripe
Creator: HarmonicaBird || First Published: 05/08/2022 || Players: 2 || Size: 20x20
Categories: New, Standard
Rating: 3.00 in 3 ratings
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Comments:
HarmonicaDog (05/15/2022 03:35am):
oof such bad ratings. is there anything that could help this map or should it be scrapped?
SirNovelty (05/15/2022 05:28pm):
The concept of the map does seem to be a really wide open battlefield, easy to move around, lots of recon play, etc. Now,
I'm not a high level player, but in my view a few major problems arise here, at least in non-FoW: 1. The two central bases
feed into the same area and are actually pretty close to each player's portion of the contested central properties, this makes
it very likely for a stare-off stalemate to occur in the middle, and thus it become unadvisable for either player to dedicate a
lot of resources to the side of the map, lest they create a weakness in the middle the other player can jump on.
2. Sort of compounding on problem 1, the capture phase is very uncontested here, with grey grabbing the bottom properties
because of their two bases on that side that can pump infantry, and yellow doing the same on the top. It's not practical for
anything not produced out of the center to be tasked with disrupting this, but again, players will hesitate to divert resources
to that task, especially given how long it would take to capture those properties themselves.
3. The airport probably doesn't come into play much, because a Black Boat to go capture it is a pretty big investment that
can easily create weakness in the middle. Meanwhile it would take a long time to pay off (1 turn to build the black boat, 2
turns to get it with an infantry inside to the airport island. 2 turns to cap the airport. 1 turn to build a B-Copter. Two more
turns to get it anywhere remotely useful. All this on a really open map where AAs can move around with the greatest of
ease. so not only does it represent a massive investment for gain that will take a long time to materialize, but that gain is not
even particularly spectacular, especially given how long the opponent can see it in advance.
4. The labs are super vulnerable until players bust their pipe seam. But, given how open the map is, and how spread out
infantry will be after the capture phase, artillery aren't super strong, so that's also a pretty significant investment.
5. As I just alluded to, infantry will end up really far away from the point of conflict as that conflict is ramping up, so they'll
play little combat role aside from a lab rush.

Given the listed problems I have a couple solutions which should make the map more dynamic. 1. Players should be given a
free Black Boat or at least APC at the start. This would help infantry infantry move around more freely, although it would
make the lab rush a much faster threat, and that has to be watched for. An APC would provide less utility overall for players,
but whether you want the airport more easily accessible is up to you. With the massive amount of shoals not only would a
Black Boat likely be all the transport players need, but healing and blocking plays with it would actually be quite viable and
give the map something pretty unique. The downside is this would further narrow early build choices, because again, all
your transport needs are filled.
2. I think the pipe seam should start pre-broken. Again, I don't think artillery are super good on this map and given the sheer
number of infantry that will end up in lab vicinity, I think each player should have access to a better way to reinforce it. This
would also make it more viable to disrupt caps on your opponent's side.
3. The airport should be closer to major conflict zones. It's bad enough how long much resources and time it takes to get the
airport, but the fact B-Copters would take so long to be relevant from it really clamps down on its usefulness. I don't know if
this is still necessary if you add a pre-deployed Black Boat however, because that would cut down the inconvenience
considerably. That said, I also find it a bit of a shame that even Drake can't reach that island from the harbor in one turn.
That could be intentional, I'm quite pro-Drake so there's a bias there, but it seems a bit odd to me.
Overall though I actually enjoyed the map, mostly because getting such great move out of recons is fun, but I think it could
definitely be improved to create more compelling matches.



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