Happy Little Piperunners
Creator: SkankHunt42 || First Published: 07/22/2017 || Players: 4 || Size: 32x20
Categories: None
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Comments:
a9977321 (07/22/2017 10:16pm):
With proper team management (ABBA) FTA counteres are not needed.
SkankHunt42 (07/23/2017 09:43am | Edited: 07/23/2017 09:44am):
I know, but I wanted the piperunners to face the correct side :D

On most of my maps I do ABBA, but sometimes I also like to try something else :p
Xmo5 (07/24/2017 09:07am):
If you're going to set the teams up like that, both BM and YC need FTA counters
SkankHunt42 (07/24/2017 10:08am | Edited: 07/24/2017 10:18am):
I did consider that but I think if both of them got Infs they would have a signifcant advtantage over
OS/GE since they can decide to build early recon/APC (or even Tank on Day2) with way less of a
punishment in the funds department because of the Inf for free. I think it's fine the way it is, but I could
also be wrong ofc - FTA/STA is always a tricky thing :/


I should add that you have to keep in mind that starting funds are 5000 here, so there is nothing holding
you back from buying an early recon/APC other than... well... giving up building more Infs. Compared to
3000 starting funds where you could only build mechs anyway (not a good idea). So if you think about
it, giving additional Infs to start with is actually really strong, as that partially takes away the deficit you
receive from building an early APC/recon. And you get it for free too! So basically if everyone decides
to do an early push the additional Infs will be a huge difference in early funds, which I think would be
way stronger than having the first turn here.
Xmo5 (07/25/2017 10:33am):
And you've just uncovered a basic principle of FTA/FTA counters:

The more starting income players have, the more difficult it is to effectively balance
FTA. Once you introduce the ability to purchase recons (viably) in the first couple turns,
you've changed the considerations of what makes a good FTA counter. Also, the roads,
cities, and shoals make recons extremely fast on this map, exaggerating their power a good
bit.

That said, you have a bunch of piperunners, so nobody can really interfere with their
opponents' capture phase economically- any attempted disruption would likely result in a
net loss for the player interfering. In fact, the whole design of the center greatly
encourages turtling. Basically, unless you're willing to sacrifice units in attacks that
don't deal as much damage as they take (in funds/value), you don't have any incentive to
strike first, once you've moved into the midgame and the fronts (well, in this case, a
single front) have established. You've created two firmly safe territories with the
piperunners and cities, and given only a very small strip of no-man's-land comprised of 0
star terrain. Pretty much any attack starts from a disadvantage and moves into greater
disadvantages that are nearly impossible to overcome. Making progress will likely be
difficult and be the result of repeated mindless, brute force assaults rather than
strategic strikes or out maneuvering your opponent, etc.
SkankHunt42 (07/25/2017 04:22pm):
Yea exactly! There's only 1 front and it's kinda hard to cross middle anyway making FTA less relevant
as far as recon/APC rushes are concerned (I guess FTA still plays a role in placing artis or even rockets
first maybe?).

I have a different map with piperunners (same countries/team distribution) where I gave both on the
right an FTA counter (Inf) cause there are 2 seperately contested fronts (OS vs BM, GE vs YC) and 1
combined front in the middle, but here it's only 1 (that is also highly protected on both sides) so I think a
double FTA counter with Infs would definitely put the favor on BM/YC side. I agree about your
statements on FTA/counters though

And the rest what you said is also true, with the pre-deployed piperunners it's definitely hard to cross
the middle, I will see how it plays out (some pipe seams are destroyable at least) and there are also the
ports that you could either use to bring more units into the middle (that's the main idea behind the
shoals in the middle) or a "suprise" attack with multiple landers/battleships where you come from the
side. But it's definitely true that this map has a rather high stalemate potential where no side really
wants to approach the other... we will see :D
DSMaps (06/12/2021 07:05pm):
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