Guardians
Creator: Walker Boh || First Published: 02/12/2015 || Players: 2 || Size: 23x19
Categories: B-Rank, Fog of War
Rating: 3.75 in 4 ratings
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Comments:
DASRTwelve (02/12/2015 07:36am):
Are those ports intentionally shoalled in?
Xmo5 (02/12/2015 08:05am):
Yes, I'm sure they are. The only real purpose of the ports is to transport an infantry to the
airport.

Map looks pretty interesting, though I don't have a lot of time to look at it in detail. The area
with two nearby bases reminds me a lot of Corporeal with the way the mountains, river, and
bridges are set up.


MC Hammer (02/12/2015 05:03pm | Edited: 02/12/2015 05:04pm):
It was intentional, though I might actually remove those shoals. A battleship could be a viable choice for that
lone base to try to hold on if it's being overwhelmed.

And yeah, the diagonal contested cities are also indirectly borrowed from Corporeal. The arty locking the city
was the premise that inspired the creation of the map though.

Edit: Damn account switching. This is Walker.
Everdan (02/14/2015 07:03am):
I'm not sure, but your HQs look rather vulnerable... My intuition is that Sami could probably rush the HQ pretty
successfully mid-game, or even in the late game on SCOP.

Because you have 3 bases, mech spam is viable, and 19k per side means Sami can comfortably pump out 3
mechs + 1 copter each turn, building AA's and arties as and when they're needed. The way I see it, the right
front will pretty much stabilise in a standoff between troops around GE's HQ and troops on the city 3N, 1E of it,
because the terrain allows you to build decent defensive formations at those places. As such, Sami can
probably threaten your HQ with a slow arty push, using mechs to clear the tank parking on the HQ on her
SCOP and capturing it. If it were up to me, I'd shift the HQs back a couple tiles or barricade them off with a short
pipe stretch. Rivers might also work because it hinders any early vehicle advance in general, and you can park
a copter on the HQ to prevent a rush.

Then again, the map is built more for direct combat, so that might work in favour of Sami's opponent. Though it's
hard to say because the map's small, which tends to favour mechs...

Also, because the fronts will generally be confined to small areas, Rachel might be overpowered, as her
missiles are going to hit those clumps of troops pretty hard.

Still, I guess I'd have to see a test game or two to decide for sure, because the viability of the strategies outlined
above remains slightly unclear. Maybe the versatility of the centre base changes the equation, maybe it doesn't.

Until then, I'd appreciate any replies about what I've mentioned! :)
walkerboh01 (02/14/2015 03:23pm):
Yes, the HQ's are intentionally left vulnerable. I did that to create a tough decision for where to
deploy your units from the central base. Do you press to try to take your opponent's HQ quickly,
or divert units away from the attack to defend your own vulnerable HQ? I could maybe throw a
bboat on the HQ if it proves to be a little too easy to rush, but between the two bases and the
airport I'm honestly not too worried about it.

I disagree with where the fronts will land. The artillery is positioned to give AB a chance to either
grab that locked city on the SE side, or at least try to keep GE off of it long-term. I'm hoping that
this is enough to push the main battle closer to the diagonal cities. I might shift base positions
around a little bit to emphasize that a little more, but I'd like to see a play-test first. Similarly I
might make it slightly harder for the central base to support the HQ side by adding another forest
somewhere...

With regards to your comments about Sami and Rachel, I'll just say that I don't design the
majority of my maps with particular CO's in mind. If a map is designed in such a way that HQ
rushing is encouraged, I would rather move Sami up to a higher tier (or ban altogether) rather
than change the map. In general I would say that the CO tiers should be determined based on
the map's characteristics; the map characteristics should not be tailored to maintain the
"standard" CO tiers. I do agree Sami is probably at least High Tier here, but I think the fronts are
far enough away from the bases that mech spam is not a particularly viable strategy - or at least,
it can be countered easily enough by artillery and infantry.
walkerboh01 (09/26/2021 03:24am):
Reworked for fog live play.
Live video documenting the changes: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1159576963
shoeLv3 (10/21/2023 03:08pm):
https://awbw.amarriner.com/2030.php?games_id=1037827

The HQ prophecy came true.



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