Playtesting Armies
 

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but I searched and couldn't find anything.

I was thinking about Warlord Alpha's thread, How do you test a map? earlier today, and got thinking about what kinds of armies you should use to playtest a map. I know that you should use armies that include abilities that might be favored on a map (flying, range, the drop, slither, etc.) but what armies specifically?

Should you use all flying armies (Raelin, Atlaga, Minions x3) or partial flying armies (Minions x2, Q9, and Krav)? Or should you use any flying army, and just see if the specific flying units have any advantage?

The other thing you need to know when choosing armies to use for playtesting a map is if the armies are even. What I mean to say is, if one army has an advantage over the other, right off the bat.

I am a new map maker, and am looking for good armies to playtest with. If you have any armies to suggest, please post them in pairs, so one can tell which army has a fair shot against the other.

For another question, I'm curious which abilities can usually ruin a map. I'll start off with a list of some abilities. Any suggestions are appreciated.

• Range
• Flying
• The Drop
• Slither
• Rat Podges
• Melee (once in a blue moon)
• Dragons

Thank you.

~Rednax

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

Should this be in the Maps & Scenarios forum?

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

I thought that it would be weird listing armies in the Maps and Scenarios forum, IAmBatman, so excuse me if I put it in the wrong place. Sorry.

Edit: Thanks for whichever Admin moved the thread for me!

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

Oh, no worries. I phrased that as a question for a reason. I can understand the thought behind placing it in either section. But since it mostly seems to be about map playtesting (something I don't have much experience in) and addressed to those familiar with that, this seems like a better location for it.

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

Sorry If I came off as rude, because I didn't mean to be. :p

So I'll ask again, what are some good playtesting armies?

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

I usually use sub-standard to standard meta-game armies if Im making a tourney-style map. These are some of my favorites:

Yari x3 120
Harqs x3 180
Kato 200

Nilfheim 185
Zelrig 185
Stingers x2 120
Isamu 10

Migol 110
Dwarves x3 210
Stingers x3 180

Omnicron Snipers x3 300
Omnicron Repulsors x3 120
Old Raelin 80

x3 Protectors 330
Atlaga 90
Old Raelin 80

x2 Knights 140
x2 4th 140
Gilby 105
Alastair 110

x3 Heavy Gruts 210
Chompy 120
Nerak 50
x2 Stingers or Kaemon Awa 120

Mittens 120
Brave Arrow 50
x3 Venocs 120
x3 Mohicans 210

x3 Capuan Gladiators 210
Sparty 200
Crixius 90

x2 Romans 100
MDG 100
x2 10 Reg 150
NeGokSa 90
MeBurqSa 50
Isamu 10
But truely the best way to test a map is to use a variety of armies with a variety of strategies. Testing using a knight army and a grut army won't be effective since they play similarly.

Re: Playtesting Armies
 

Back when I was still a BoV judge, one of my favorite armies to test was one I enjoyed playing, but also helped highlight how different units would function on it.

Krug 120
Mimring 270
4x Swog Rider 370
3x Arrow Gruts 490
Isamu (maybe) 500

This army helped you find out a lot of things.

How did slow, double-spaced melee fare? (thanks, Krug)

How did fast, cheap, common ranged squad figures fare? (thanks to Arrow Gruts)

Any 'dragon perches?' (Thanks mimring)

How did fast, double-spaced melee fare? (thanks to swogs)

Is there enough room for adjacency-related special powers to work? (again, thanks to Arrow gruts and swogs).

Sometimes I'd play a similar army with Raelin in it, to find out where her 'best' spots are.

Aside from that, I'd test whatever armies I was thinking of playing or figured I was likely to face in whatever the next tournament I was attending. This meant a lot of Deathreavers, 4th Mass, Stingers, Q9, etc...

When designing a map, I think there is an important pre-playtesting step where you count how many spaces it takes to do certain things, like get glyphs and such. I'd explain in more detail, but I'm about to head out...