Lincoln Seasonal V Maps:
By a Thread by
@superfrog
:
My game on this map was drawn entirely to one side. I opened full Q10 to attempt a MBS assassination (which worked) and once the grok riders made a desperate engagement attempt I sent in vipers and we crashed our units into each other until I came out on top. The outside double hex level 3 perch was perfect for Q10, and he tanked a ton of unbuffed grok attacks from that position. It's possible that it's just how a mostly-melee game turns out, but it's easy to see how a Raelin/screen setup could support a double-space range domination (dragons or majors). It's difficult to explain in text but I think either a slight adjustment to the road or to that outer level two may keep that in check.
Stigmata by
@Typhon2222
:
I'll come clean. I'm not a fan of Dance of the Dryads. If you're reading this and you don't want to be friends with me anymore, I'd understand. And unfortunately, I'm not sure Stigmata greatly improves on what in my mind is Dance of the Dryads biggest flaw, which is that it's really easy for range to slide to the left and dominate melee. I only had one ranged piece, but Q10's 8 range dictated my opponent's early placement (who, granted, was also dealing with the threat of 9 move venocs). Q10 hopped up from the start zone behind an armoc/Venoc Warlord screen and started launching attacks at grok riders. My opponent took the time to develop a squad of micros to their hill, but having committed to groks early lost all of them for very little compensation. By the time the armocs and Mittens chewed through the groks, the micros didn't have enough of a head start to utilize their downhill attack. I didn't mean for this to turn into a battle report, but I wanted to give an idea of just how powerful having one strong ranged piece on this map can be. You can force your opponent into the bottleneck, and the road doesn't end up leading anywhere useful to assault the level two dungeon. Their best bet was probably a microcorp opening, to do the exact same strategy to me. In terms of mitigating this, possibly placing the single-hex tree by the start one 1 space further in might help mitigate sight lines? I admit Q10 already had a tough time seeing through that gap, but it was enough. Somehow shielding the road from LoS while also keeping that pathway open might help in the long run. It's certainly improved over DotD, but it's just not for me.
Trodden path by
@Shurrig
:
Second time playing on this map, first was at the last Midwest Melee. I had Valda on this map and it played FAST. I don't have a ton of useful feedback. The ruins provide useful cover and pathing options, and I think more careful glyph placement will lead to more tactical games. I'm also partial to single RotV maps as a TD and this is up there with Origin and Compact while providing a much different play experience.
Percolator by
@Ulysses
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I had this map knowing full well that if I played on it, I wouldn't have any feedback. One of, if not my favorite map currently. I could play on this map 100 times and not get tired of it. Every game feels balanced for both range and melee and provides so many interesting options. There is a recording of the three games played on it (Games 1, 2, and 4) with Wannok and Dagmar that I streamed during the tournament including a game between Matthias and I in Game 4 that was quite interesting until I decided to let Ken win. The stream quality is not great and is something I'm hoping to improve on in the future, but the footage is there: