Noir Detectives
Creator: Mex64 || First Published: N/A || Players: 2 || Size: 20x16
Categories: None
Rating: 8.25 in 4 ratings
For design map discussion or to get suggestions from other users, visit the AWBW Discord Chat!
Comments:
Mex64 (07/14/2023 10:16pm):
Designed for rain, ban Kindle / Koal, keep those Black / Grey colors :)
Mex64 (07/17/2023 01:00pm):
Notes to myself to update: Give Grey an infantry for FTA, and fix the roads next to the bridges near the airports to orient in the
correct direction.
SmaggTheSmug (08/17/2023 03:31am):
Nice little gimmick map, may be fun, very favorable for wheeled units.
Indigo Neko (08/17/2023 03:59am):
not a single plain. might give this map a try
210000BF (08/17/2023 05:45am):
。。。。。。。。。
e_black162_2 (08/20/2023 11:34pm):
interesting map. i thought high defense and indirects
would be too good on this map, but i didn't implement the strategy that well. I
wanted to get ahead on properties and use them with the extra defense from my
comm towers to make you attack from the roads and get destroyed by cycling
units. I still think its a sound strategy, but you'll need a better player than I to test
it. The two chokepoints on the sides might get kind of stalemate-y, especially
once indirects come into play. I think Javier, Von Bolt and Sturm would be the
best of the Tier 1s for this map. In the right hands Javier might be especially
annoying. All in all, it was a really fun map! curious to see where it ends up!
Amazing work.
VariaStarwild (09/10/2023 11:11am):
I think adding 6 rows (an interesting thought Design-wise could be connected
bridges supported by the road terrain, since the bridges and roads both don't
give defensive cover, making them while somewhat chokepointed more able to
break through with the support of air units. Avoid Forests so that Fog of War
doesn't literally break things in the defender's favor (as in planting Artillery and
Rockets in the woods on one side of the bridge, so leaving out Forests can
leave such indirect defenses exposed. (These bridges could be 3-4 tiles wide,
with a few glimpses of ocean tiles in small areas that can show air unit
versatility, since outside of recon spam those will also be spots that aren't
necessarily scouted out.

The HQs could be a bit more exposed as a result, placing them on the
opposite side of each side's central pipe layout. This brings an interesting
predicament to the player on how they protect their HQ since it's partially
walled off to them, though it does allow them to protect with indirect fire. Could
place it one square off of the pipe setup so that Artillery can't protect it directly
from behind. Rockets still could but they'd require vision support in the rain so I
think that's reasonable enough.

The com towers as they stand now, and as you saw earlier, are too easy to
cheese with the penalty-less terrain. I think that inserting the rows from above
will still make them contestable without making them the absolute focus. You
saw, we both fought tooth and nail over what your com tower was while I bum-
rushed mine.
VariaStarwild (09/10/2023 11:11am):
With regards to adjusting the pipe seams near the towers, (if need be) I would
knock off the section that's 1n 1e from each side (the piece after the curve). The
reason for that is that it currently is what creates the biggest chokepoint. Even
with that chokepoint being a road, a high-tech can very much stall things there as
a result (like a md/neo, or even frankly a bomber/fighter that won't be targetable
by mostly anything). It's good to have the rivers there to allow infantry but infantry
won't do much of anything with the base being so close.
coolguy5000 (10/07/2023 09:18pm):
I mean, Koal might still not be worth banning. If just tier 4, then maybe.
FunnyManInAClownWorld (01/11/2024 04:37am):
Kaczynski warned us of this
Infentree (03/28/2024 08:41pm):
copypasta
I guess the issue is that it becomes very hard to come back once behind because it’s so hard to dislodge someone off cities
on roads, reduced vision etc. ‘Noir Detectives’ made me imagine the vision and hunting down enemy units would be more
important. I think a larger map with some more forests throughout would make the tactical/stealth aspect more important.
These maps need to be bigger in general I think since roads are easy to traverse, I like Noir Detectives being a small aggro
map, but it’s certainly not balanced. On a bigger map placing ‘parks’ (interspersed plains/forest perhaps more water tiles) can
help balance the vehicle reinforcement lines and the combat stats (preventing it from being entirely city vs road/road vs road),
plus aesthetics! Then Drake’s immunity to rain becomes more important and maybe you may have to place him in T1 (or T0
even). As it stands maps like ND are skewed towards certain COs but that can be changed.
I get that using mostly plains as 1* terrain is good for typical gameplay but this map shows it can be mixed up and still be
fun. I like this as a game type and I’d love to see a Quack Cup involving rain/fog. Having some maps use mostly roads
instead of plains can provide a fresh gameplay experience, opportunities for creativity in map design and invoke modern
urban warfare. There’s certainly balance issues involving this, especially if we include the rain/fog aspect but I think there’s a
lot more that can be done here.
Even without the fog/rain add-on I think maps using mostly roads is something to be explored more. That’s all



Advance Wars is (c) 1990-2001 Nintendo and (c) 2001 Intelligent Systems. All images are copyright their respective owners.