Chain Island
Creator: Luke Herzen || First Published: 08/28/2015 || Players: 2 || Size: 30x18
Categories: None
Rating: 8.00 in 1 rating
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Comments:
Luke Herzen (08/23/2015 04:59pm):
Note to everyone who wants to comment on that:
Yes, I notice that the four islands in the corners are not of military relevance. They are supposed to be. The map
simply is not in a rectangle shape, imagine it beeing more of a Plus while the corners are ony there to flatter the
eye.
You're welcome.
BountyFrog (08/28/2015 11:09am):
Good map... And I'm no expert by any means, but I think you will need to move the GE inf one space so it takes
two turns to get to the landers, because like this it looks like sta instead of fta.
Xmo5 (08/28/2015 02:54pm):
Nicely caught BountyFrog. He is correct that there will be STA with the way the map is set
up right now. Normally, the idea is that giving a single infantry will put the second
player ahead on one of the fronts, typically the one responsible for capturing the neutral
base. That's what's done here, but it's a bit more complicated because of the layout.

The central island setup makes it such that the first player to land units on it will be
ahead on the entire battlefront, which can make a big difference, especially on smaller
maps, like this one. My recommendation is to find a way to make it more balanced. Perhaps
giving 2 predeployed landers with obvious landing sites near the bases (this would require
some redesign work) or starting OS with 1 infantry and GE with 2 (this would be an
imperfect counter with the map as-is, but better than the current one). Give it some
thought and see if you can come up with something that will match what you want to do with
the map with something that will work well to counter FTA.

One other thing I'll say is that I think it's dangerous to have the corner city and the
port preowned. This opens up too many possibilities to recon/early vehicle rush before the
capture phase is fully developed, especially with the delay to get from the HQ island to
the center island.

Overall, pretty decent map and I think it has some potential to be even better. I'm going
to add it to New for now; feel free to PM me or post on the temporary forum
(http://isndev.omgforum.net/) if you want the map reevaluated and it doesn't look like
anyone's seen it.
the-deadly-shadow (08/28/2015 04:04pm | Edited: 08/29/2015 06:56am):
I think Xmo and Bountyfrog are right, but I would like to make another point, which is
another advantage for GE. As Xmo noted GE will get the first base in the middle earlier.
However the GE lander also returns earlier to bring a second infantry to the second
neutral base. That makes GE getting ahead on both neutrals.

This is especially as I think GE can rush to prevent OS from capture the second neutral base.

I did not consider OS shipping a recon. I don't really know what happens then. I think
that the recon needs to move to a certain base. OS gets that base and GE the other. I
think it does not really matter which base OS moves the recon to. In this case OS builds
and ships a recon, which GE does not and this gives GE the advantage.

According to me your map can't be balanced in a similar way. removing the lander does not
solve things, as someone will build a transport first.
Xmo5 (08/29/2015 08:50am):
You'd need two independent landers that can't be loaded simultaneously or feed the same front.
Also, the recon can track any infantry, so it doesn't matter where it goes, it will catch and stop
the enemy infantry fairly consistently I think. That is a problem that should be addressed,
preferably by eliminating the ability to build one early.
Luke Herzen (08/29/2015 06:39pm | Edited: 08/29/2015 06:43pm):
In an attempt to solve those problems, I removed the schoal from the islands and made the citys neutral.
To counter FTA I decided to try something risky: I gave GE a Mech unit. Now GE cannot reach the centre as
quickly as before, but has a pretty decent fighting unit while OS will have most likely two Infantry. OS will have
an advantage with two Infantry against one Mech, but GE will have a recon counter as well as the ability to start
capturing citys from the main base earlier.



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