OK based on the week or so of games I have played and the ones I have been monitoring here is a ton of thoughts from me. Please feel free to discuss these as I feel like there are a ton of things that need to be done to better balance the map or at least keep it fun for everyone.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY1) Special Features: I have noticed that in manual deployment games the 3 troops on the special features translates into 3 troops for the main map and in 2 player games that is 8 troops! ... I feel like these need to drop to 1n from 3n and be changed to auto 1 so that as the game progresses they will be more resistant to being eliminated by the forbidden lands.
2) Forbidden Lands: Speaking of the forbidden lands I feel like the 20n seems pretty good in games with more players as it usually doesn't come down to that. However in low number of player games with escalating bonus it seems a bit low. I have two thoughts for this. A) Bump the neutrals up to 30n Killer 30.
3) Starting Forces: Not sure how I feel about starting forces ... I almost feel its a bit slow at the start but if you just reinforce on turn 1 then you have 8 troops on turn 2 vs 3 neutral and should get that territory although the dice have been unkind to me on this map. Does anyone else have feedback about this?
4) Starting Positions: One thing I have noticed about 2 or 3 player games is that if you start next to an opponent and they get bad dice you can quite easily overwhelm them. I propose setting a Max of 2 starting kingdom/favored starts instead of the max of 1 as it is currently set. This would allow 1-4 player games to be a bit more balanced at the start.
5) Starting Neutrals: I am not sure that the 5n's in M4, T4, S4, P4, F3, J3 are doing their job at discouraging easy kills of neighbors who got dice screwed. The xml fix for the bugged bridges over the chasms may help. As for D2 and V2 they should probably remain n5 or be dropped to n3 to give incentive to go that way rather than through the aforementioned areas.
6) Elimination: How do you folks feel about the "hold at least one basic land or you are eliminated"? does this make the games too fast? does it make games unfair for people who get dice screwed? Should it stay? Should it go?
SPECIAL FEATURES7) Aquatic: I am not certain the bonus for aquatic is what I was looking for. But I just don't know how I feel about it. It seems like a bonus needs to come just a tad quicker. I would like to add a +1 for having at least 1 territory adjacent to a sea and then the existing structure on top of that. So the 1st territory is +1 then at 3 you have +2 and at 6 +3 etc. I also feel that seas should be 1 less and Killer 2 to make them more attractive to jump across.
8) Cultists - The Bomb: I feel the bomb needs to be reigned in a tiny bit by either increasing the neutral value or limiting range. I would consider an increase from 7n to 13n. I have easily won 2 player games with the bomb in 5 or 6 turns and that may just be too good. The bomb also doesn't need to target seas anymore as seas are killer.
9) Demonic - Underworld: It seems like the minion bonus is low at +1 and auto 1 is a small consolation for assaulting 7n troops on underworld. I feel like this should be dropped to 5n to make it more attractive.
10) Druids & Elementalists: Based on what I see the bonuses for them seem to be too hard to acquire. I want to propose a slightly different structure.
Existing structure is [J][J] +2* [F][F] +2* and [T][T] +2* [V][V] +2*
Proposed new bonus structure [J][J] +1* [F][F] +1* [F][J] +1* and [T][T] +1* [V][V] +1* [T][V] +1*
This would grant the same maximum troops but let a bonus be drawn form combos of either so it would be easier to get at least some bonus and makes a very interesting bonus structure
[T][T] + 1
[V][V] + 1
[T][V] + 1
[T][T][V] + 2
[V][T][T] + 2
[V][T][T][T] + 2
[V][V][V][T] + 2
[T][T][V][V] + 4
[T][T][T][T][V][V] + 5
[T][T][V][V][V][V] + 5
[T][T][T][V][V][V] + 5
[T][T][T][T][V][V][V] + 6
[T][T][T][V][V][V][V] + 6
[T][T][T][T][V][V][V][V] + 8
KINGDOM CHANGESKINGDOMS: I did have one BIG thought. What if I decoupled the kingdom from the first territory so that kingdoms just represented your physical race and your favored territory. They would start with 1n and have auto 1 and provide a +2 bonus. This way they would be like special features and would be more resistant through the game to being eliminated by forbidden lands (although nukes still wreak havoc). This way you get a 3 drop right from the start and get that 3 every turn pretty much (unless you lose that kingdom). This might speed up the early game just a bit but would provide slightly less troops overall. With the max 2 change I also propose this would let players in 2 player games start with 6 bonus right from the start. This may seem like a major change in gameplay but should actually balance the game and take out that need to remember to move those troops and because basic lands are what count for elimination its not like stacking on the kingdom helps you in any way. And we could leave the starting neutral 5's as they are.
NOTE: None of the changes proposed change the number of territories but do change starting forces and a few connections. OK that's all I have based on what I have seen thus far ... please feel free to comment as I would like to make changes this week and try and get them into the xml asap. =D13=========================================================================
These images reflect my ideas above or at least the parts of my ideas above that I would like to implement.
* seas killer 2 (more attractive for aquatic).
* the bomb killer 13 (slows down early use of bomb).
* forbidden lands killer 30 (slows down early use).
* kingdom no longer assaults anything, starts with 1n and is auto 1, grants +2 bonus (should make the map easier to understand).
* special features start 1n and auto 1 (less manual deploy troops).
* druid bonus change (see above).
* elemental bonus change (see above).
* aquatic bonus change (added +1 for minimum 1 adjacent to sea) this mill make max 8 instead of the previous 7.
Small v2.0.0http://imageshack.com/a/img849/2430/luox.png
Large v2.0.0http://imageshack.com/a/img197/4677/4mxg.png
