Sandcastles in the Sand
Creator: liandry || First Published: 07/05/2016 || Players: 2 || Size: 18x18
Categories: C-Rank, Standard
Rating: 0 in 0 ratings
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Comments:
liandry (07/05/2016 01:21pm | Edited: 07/13/2016 09:43am):
So, um, I've decided to try to make an actual decent map of my own.
First, some backstory:

What drew me into playing Advance Wars was the fantasy of being an actual CO, sitting in an artillery unit, trying to strafe
and fire at the enemy and stuff. I've daydreamed about coastal warfare, driving a tank on some beaches, fighting amongst
the sand, the mangroves, some island mountains, and all that happening on some tropical island (Madagascar?)

This map tries to fulfill that fantasy. Lots of shoals, some islands here and there, forest tiles for mangrove patches, ports
for naval support, and some transports for "mobile terrain" around objectives.

I've tried to weaken the stronger fronts a bit by placing some annoying terrain in the way, and I've provided a patch of sea
for Battleships. The terrain is sparse enough for the map to be Sturm-proof, though.

Recommended CO bans include the elite (erm, broken) five, Sami, Drake (transports, infs, naval advantage), and Kindle
because cities (idk if you should ban Lash, look at all them shoals...) You can also ban infantry, ala "Beyond Infanteries"
and "Target!" (That's why the Mechs are there, heeheehee!)

I know I suck at terraining and general mapmaking; feel free to critique!

P.S. (Don't read if you don't care) Speaking of Advance Wars fantasies, I wanna write something about who I'd be if I were
a CO. Here goes:

CO: Liandry
One of the new COs of the Blue Moon army. Rather chill most of the time, but gets both really anxious and fired up on the
battlefield. Has a keen eye for tactics, but a blind eye for strategy.

Hit: Hedgehogs
Miss: Large armies

Highly adept at complicated battle maneuvers, she somehow gets extra precise with her interlocking attacks. Her units
gain a +30% offensive boost on tiles where any unit has been destroyed during the day. Her footsoldiers have 10%
increased build costs, and -2 to capture if damaged.

COP: Eye of Pain (3 stars): Fires a 3-tile radius flare at a selected area. Enemy units in the area are revealed and their
defense against any attack by her units is fixed at 90%, regardless of terrain or powers.
SCOP: Liandry's Torment (7 stars): All enemy units have their defense against any attack by her units fixed at 80%,
regardless of terrain or powers.

Quotes:
Powers: "Take a deep breath, calm down, destroy the fools..."
"They gave me a chance to strike. I won't waste it..."
"Gaaaaah! Screw this, we attack! NOW!"
"Whew, there goes the opponent's lead..."
Victory: "Why do they often let me win?"
"Blue Moon is hiring advisers on strategy. Want to apply?"
"Be careful with the new ground, troops; don't harm the hedgehogs..."
(No tag breaks, she's very shy)

EDIT: Buffed her powers to emphasize her reliance on finding weakspots, and planned to make changes to the map.
I shall change the SW and NE bases into towers and make new neutral bases closer to starting points. Will also remove
lander and reposition inital Bboat positions. Will extend patches of sea to make more varied paths and provide more
ground (lmao) for Bships. Hope this doesn't make the paths too chokey, though.
MOAR EDITS: I went overboard with the sea tiles, and added back some shoals to ease the chokes. I also added port
bridges for an alternate path towards enemy weak bases. I added some reefs not just for aesthetics but also to make it
harder to block important paths with the black boats; speaking of which, I removed one of them, and made another
attempt to fix FTA with the boats. Sorry Uchin, that was the serious problem I was going to fix; apologies if it seemed I did
not want to play anymore.
liandry (07/05/2016 01:43pm):
Hmm, I might want to turn two neutral bases into cities: maybe the base closest to the HQs could be fun...
Nyvelion (07/05/2016 04:41pm):
...are there sandcastles that are NOT in the sand?
liandry (07/05/2016 05:11pm):
I did an image search for "sandcastles not in the sand," and apparently there aren't. Yet. I'll make one for you, remind me
sometime.
...
...
In other news, apparently "Sandcastles in the Sand" is the title of a How I Met Your Mother episode. The more we know.
Xmo5 (07/06/2016 08:55am):
All I can think of is Jimi Hendrix. "and so castles made of sand, slips into the sea...
eventually."

https://vimeo.com/98836506
jgujgu (07/08/2016 02:05pm):
I love your enthusiasm.
lavagainer (07/11/2016 03:49pm):
I would still play Eagle on this map...
liandry (07/11/2016 04:04pm):
Well yeah, naval battle per se is almost non-existent here, not to mention wheee doublemove!
Xmo5 (07/15/2016 12:35pm):
I'm worried about the disparity in defensive value between all of the shoals and the
cities. The fronts might need a playtest to see if they need to be tweaked or not, but I
don't see anything immediately in need of fixing.
Xmo5 (07/20/2016 08:54am):
Okay, so now that we've had a match (despite the fact that I goofed majorly by not
finishing capture of the neutral base before I moved off of it...), I have some more
thorough feedback:

1) Bboats are too annoying. I recommend limiting it to 1 or 2 and making it so that they
A) can't go everywhere, at least not quickly/easily, and B) don't have convenient places
they can block off with just a single bboat (for example, the one you camped on that port
by my base). Also, my bboats were able to drop off my mech on the forward base just as
quickly as the "starting" base, so that would be an advantage if I didn't screw it up.

2) Bships should be banned because they're OP here (as you've noticed). The only true
counters to bships are subs and copters/bombers. Subs can't access enemy waters and there
are no airports, so that leaves them with free reign over large sections of the map and
it's just plain impractical to challenge them. Granted, in normal gameplay you wouldn't
see many bships until later on, but they really are game breakers, since you have no
choice but to build your own bship as a counter to force a stalemate.

3) I would add another crossing into the center from the opposite diagonal. This would
help mitigate any bboat blocking and add more interesting routes. Right now that spot just
short of center is basically a dead zone since you have to go through it to capture, but
can't get out without going backwards. The path can be chokey, but I think it should be there.

4) The shoal-surrounded cities are definitely a hassle. They aren't practical to attack
unless you hit hard and can occupy it yourself before your turn is over, especially if
it's already owned by the enemy. Kindle and Lash would be next to impossible to remove
from any cities and same with Rachel for cities she owns. Other COs with notable defense
or offensive boosts would also be difficult. Max (with tanks), Sami (with inf), Sturm, and
Von Bolt come to mind.

Also, there's a symmetry error by the non-ghosted port near the tower. Right between the
port and the 2 forests, one side has 2 shoals, but the other has a shoal and an ocean tile.

liandry (07/20/2016 01:06pm | Edited: 07/20/2016 01:13pm):
Alright, now I've put forests by some cities, but to avoid ruining the sandcastles feel, I've only put them on contested areas,
and some wherever. Lash is gonna be more OP now lol
Black Boats are now limited to one, so people can't just block stuff. If one really needs to block stuff, there are (only) shoal-
locked ports for more 'boats, but I think people are still gonna use them for BShips; those near the fronts can easily be
artylocked though.
Added another tower to overcompensate for city terrain issues. Ban Javier now.
Should be better, eh?
Xmo5 (07/21/2016 04:02pm):
I'd favor 1 tower over 2 because the units on the shoals will take a lot of damage.



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