Six Islands
Creator: fiermann || First Published: 04/19/2018 || Players: 4 || Size: 19x19
Categories: None
Rating: 2.50 in 2 ratings
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Comments:
fiermann (04/19/2018 05:07pm):
I designed this map some years ago, played it quite a lot against AI. Games are really
tough, but don't end up in stalemates and can be decided in 20 turns.
Xmo5 (04/20/2018 10:19am):
I have a hard time believing that games won't end up in stalemates in pvp games,
especially with the AWBW meta. All players are going to crank out 4 infantry per turn
here, and that will block up any paths pretty quickly.

Additionally, for FFA play, GE and YC will suffer from not having an FTA counter.

Lastly, contested production facilities are considered a really bad idea on AWBW because,
unlike the AI, human players are very good at taking advantage of any small imbalances and
turning them to their favor. With contested production facilities, a small advantage, like
imperfectly balanced FTA, can lead to a potentially game-determining advantage by
capturing a central, unrivaled production facility. (It's also considered bad form to
leave production facilities within one unit move from each other, as it further
exacerbates FTA by allowing the first player to build, say, a copter or fighter to
essentially lock the other nearby airport, even if they were captured on the same day.)
Shadow Star (04/20/2018 03:44pm):
So, Xmo has already said it but.... I'm in a generous? malicious? mood.

First off: each country is 5 spaces away from their first capturable property, then from that first capturable
property we get 6 squares (mountain and river slow movement) for OS and BM, but only 4 squares for YC and
GE. That's going to cause some imabalances as OS will always be a turn ahead of GE and BM will always be
a turn ahead of YC. OS and YCs interaction mainly will take place between one tile wide chokepoints. the
same with BM and GE. it's unfortunately not condusive to dynamic gameplay.
The two airports in the middle are close enough for battlecopters to bother each other. ANd there are less
airports than players. The ideal thing would be to have each player obtain an airport safely. which brings me to
my next point, funding.
Funding, funding is incredibly low on this map for 4 players. with only 30 property to go around the four
countries,you won't see many tech options besides infantry, mechs, recons, and possibly an occasional AA or
battle copter. The awbw meta is "build on everything you can. excess funds are when the larger units appear.
and with 30 property that's only 7.5 per country. with 4 starting bases (all owned, and all at the start) that's
going to be mostly infantry. Infantry are capable of going over mountains, and rivers (albeit slowly) but there's
nothing to really capture besides the center as everything else is relatively safe. this means that everything will
get gummed up by hordes of infantry.

Realistically on a map this size, even having more than two bases per side is going to cause a lot of gummed
up areas full of cheap units.

Going back to FTA, there have been several methods for minimizing the effect of FTA. the most common one
is to give the second half of players half of the first turns built units as predeployed units. but with 4 starting
bases, having two starting infantry frees up the option of a recon to cause some serious havoc to another
countries capture phase as there are roads leading straight to one another. So that won't work.

I wouldn't doubt that games will be really tough on this map, as everyone will be spewing out infantry. As for
the claim that things won't stalemate, or end in 20 turns, that i think might be from playing against the AI, who
doesn't really play much like a person.

I will say this though, the fact that you put OS and BM on opposite sides, and GE and YC on opposite sides is
a good thing. it means that OS's advantage against BM is minimized. and that GE's advantage against YC is
minimized. Unfortunately, without an FTA counter, OS still beats out GE and YC< and BM still beats out GE
and YC. So, you got half of the fta counter figured out.



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