Blast 'Em
Creator: Pℓague || First Published: 05/14/2025 || Players: 2 || Size: 20x16
Categories: B-Rank, Live Play, Standard
Rating: 3.75 in 4 ratings
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Comments:
DaysOfPlague (05/14/2025 02:30am):
3b2a standard map. 21k even income.

Do you delete your carrier, or do you leave your central airport offline?
MaxxSaigen (06/05/2025 05:56pm):
This map is just really bad and has a huge FTA problem. The extra infintry does not do enough to make a difference and the first player has a huge advantage due to all the rough terrain. They will win their strong side way before 2nd player wins their strong side. If you want to keep the predeployed infinitry, 2nd player needs more income, such as one of the top right bases being owned by blue right away for 1 turn. That might help them? I don't know.
MontySigurdson (06/06/2025 12:20pm | Edited: 06/06/2025 12:20pm):
I would agree that there is FTA here since OS is immediately ahead on 2 bases (which are the strong side bases, too, where OS is not supposed to be ahead). Meanwhile, BM is only ahead on one base (the weak side). So I think this should just be switched to a regular FTA counter.

Untagged this for now as it does look like the FTA counter is incorrect.
DaysOfPlague (06/19/2025 03:42am):
I'm fairly certain the FTA argument is wrong - if anything, I'd be concerned with STA since quite a few of the 2b's initial
properties can be denied/delayed by the 1b (that said I have looked at these lines and don't see anything concrete that can't
be mirrored). If anyone sees an interesting line, feel free to DM me (or leave a comment, I guess, but who knows when I'll
see it).

> So I think this should just be switched to a regular FTA counter.
The standard FTA setup doesn't work because of the property distribution and would have noticeable FTA. The 2b player
would fall very far behind if the 1b aggressively denies properties.
This setup isn't actually that different - since it takes time to capture both strong side bases, the 2b is only up one unit
compared to normal.
> (which are the strong side bases, too, where OS is not supposed to be ahead)
Because it's a 2k start (go labs!), not a 3k start, this doesn't matter. Delete the starting 1b inf, move the p1 infantry away to
delay the 2b by one turn and now p1 and p2 are reversed (back to normal) - the only problem is since this delays everything,
the players have extra funds due to the starting buildings which makes vehicles come out too soon (also it introduces a
basedelay opening but pretty sure that's suboptimal).

> 2nd player needs more income, such as one of the top right bases being owned by blue right away for 1 turn
@MaxxSaigen fyi, I checked this game, you lost 4k in the cap phase by rushing the comm tower at the price of delaying
(10,15) and (12,15) for 2 turns (and eventually capturing them with a 2b inf instead of a 1b inf).
So yeah.... if you think 1k extra would have helped; you actually could have had +4k basically for free.
Rutherford Gaming (07/02/2025 04:57pm):
This is a neat gimmick. I can definitely see how different COs might utilize it differently. Like Sami would want to delete it immediately for a T-copter, or if you are playing against VB or Rachel, you'd want to keep it to bait the missiles away.
MontySigurdson (07/27/2025 10:10am | Edited: 07/27/2025 10:19am):
The gimmick is very interesting, yes. However I think this is a B-rank due to the funding curve.

While the FTA counter itself may maybe work (I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until more testing is done), I think at least the funding curve advantages P1 somewhat. For example, P1 can get a Copter as a first vehicle which is especially problematic because P2 will likely already have gotten a tank by then and cannot afford an AA as a counter without 2 baseskips. It's even more of a problem if P1 deletes their Carrier immediately to get out a Copter in the center - that Copter should get at least one free attack unless P2 skips on 2 bases for the AA. And even if an AA is bought by P2 eventually, the Copter can somewhat easily frontshift despite P2's Carrier. P1 can even keep the BAAB vehicle order after the Copter buy if they skip on one base on the 2b side which at that point is very feasible.

On top of that, P1 also has a capture skip possibility only they can do and still keep the BAAB tank order (but you have to do that skip very early and thus can likely only perform it if you know about its existence beforehand which is not ideal for Live). I'd normally remove the map from Live for that but since the B-rank pool is not as curated it's probably acceptable still.

So to sum up: P1 is ahead on thr 2b and can either get Copter first in the center or do city skip strats exclusively to them. P2 doesn't get a lot to make up for that.

I think just having a standard FTA counter (and maybe editing the city layout slightly) should fix most of this.



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