Wargrounds of Scape (WoS) - discussion thread

[dok]

Fire Isles - OEAO edition (originally by yagyuninja, modified by OEAO)

It’s not a secret at this point that I’m one of the more nostalgia-driven WoS judges. I was disappointed when Fire Isles didn’t make the transition from BoV to WoS. I felt, and continue to feel, that the style of gameplay that Fire Isles creates is unique and fun and good for the metagame.

That said, I recognize that original Fire Isles had a few issues that did keep cropping up:

• The molten lava strip in the middle, in addition to creating all the lava dunk issues that molten lava can create, also had the potential to create “ring around the lava” endgames where one side plays keep-away. I didn’t see it happen often, but it could happen.
• The “Kaemon perch” on the side of the map, surrounded by water could also create some pretty ugly endgames.
• The annoyance of that one space that looked like it was part of the startzone but wasn’t. I’ve seen lots of figures placed on that spot at the start of games.

The updated version of the map addresses all these issues:

• The molten strip is replaced by water, with a 4 space bypass in the middle to allow for jumping from one lava field height to the other. I’ve enjoyed this tactical change to the map - it’s significant but not so dramatic that it changes the feel of the gameplay.
• The sandbars on the sides are reworked completely, so there is no longer an elevated perch, and the glyphs can be accessed without dropping into water first.
• Likewise, the startzone is reworked and are now clear and intuitive.

The biggest issue I have with this version is that 6 move flyers can reach one glyph and not the other. I have workshopped alternative layouts for the sides of the map that would solve this, but ultimately I didn’t find anything that didn’t have worse drawbacks. And there is at least some compensation in the form of having easier access to height overlooking the more distant glyph.

At any rate, this is certainly my favorite RotV+VW map, and among my favorite lava-using maps overall. The minor quibble I have about glyph distances isn’t enough to turn me away. I was mulling over nominating it myself and was happy to see Sheep put it forward. YES to induct.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

No Aloha by Ulysses. Marvel x 2, BftU, TJ

Ulysses is probably my favorite “newer” map maker. I really enjoy quite a few of his maps.

As mentioned when reviewing Nightfall, I’m definitely not a fan of all the sets it takes to build No Aloha. No Aloha has a hill in the middle with the rock outcrop smack dab in the middle. Dungeon is used for defensive positions along the base of the hill with jungle as well to help melee make the approach. This did help against range.

This map is quite cramped when pushing forward. There’s not much room to maneuver unless you want to go up, which slows you down. The Marvel walls only complicate this without providing much cover. You notice this especially when you go right out of the start zone. There’s a Marvel wall, jungle bush single hex that can be locked down quite easily. Once you get pass the hill the map opens up a bit more and plays a bit more freely.

One can use the wings a bit to try and come through, but those aren’t really any more open than the hill area. Then you can get into a bit of ring around the rosey with the hill in the middle.

The map is OK, but with all the sets used and the middle being cramped for melee I vote NO to induct.

[Shurrig]

I'd like to nominate two maps of mine:

Guts


Tournament Use

- MARS Philadelphia - Valhallan Valetines' Day
- Peoria Monthlies 2024- AoA Returns!
- Hexicon II

This version of Guts also saw play in the playoffs of OST S6 Alliance Pod Draft

Very grateful this map has seen so much play recently. Guts is fairly new to the tournament scene, but I'm nominating it to WoS today because there are not many tournament maps with this set combination (Hot Fulcrum, If You Can't Take the Heat..., and ...Stay Out of the Kitchen are the only maps that come to mind) and none have been inducted.

Stechavan


Tournament Use

- Lincoln Seasonal IV
- Indiana 2024 | Bloomington Indiana | Jan 2024
- MARS Salisbury MD - VC Delta General Wars Ro9
- Kentucky 2024 | April: Delta Uniques Only
- SoCal 2024 | May - Reverse Draft
- Ryguy Plays Games Presents: Destroyer Dan

Stechavan will also be played at the upcoming Scape Summit convention.

I tend to go through several iterations of a map after I post them on my thread, and Stechavan is no different. Feedback on this map over the past year or so has been truly invaluable, and it is in a place now where I think it is worthy of a nomination. This is also another map that uses a terrain combination not yet represented in the WoS.

(NOTE: This is a slight visual update to the Stechavan played at the aforementioned tournaments, nothing has changed that would affect gameplay.)

[superfrog]

Thanks for the recent nominations, everybody! Some I was expecting and others I wasn’t, but looking forward to digging into them all.

[superfrog]

Flaxen Shard by Ulysses

I was relatively skeptical of this map going in to my testing of it. A few things drew my eye as negatives:

• double small ruin without the realistic ability to swap either for a large ruin*
• no adjacent height on the glyphs
• the level 2 contours, central height, level 3+ center area, level 3 runs, and even the ruins are all nearly symmetric left/right in addition to rotationally symmetric**
• water potholes interrupting level 2 pathing

In reality, these things didn't end up making the transition from yellow flags to red flags.

I do think there's some possibility of reconfiguring the jungle/water on level 2 on one side to accommodate the large ruin, but at the end of the day, we judge the maps submitted, not the maps that could have been submitted. People have shown their willingness to use this and other maps with two small ruins, so I am taking this as only the slightest ding against Flaxen Shard.

The perches were pretty approachable in my games (jungle backing helped), and there were definitely noticeable subtle differences between developing left/right/center. I even found good flexibility in moving between the perches (for Nilf, say) without it feeling too oppressive for opposing melee armies.

The water was helpful in further differentiating the two sides, and it actually ended up benefitting double-space armies (hounds, for example) because they can cross over the water. And many single-space figures would splash into the water to get more attacks when necessary.

Finally, the glyphs. I found gameplay on this map to often ignore the glyphs but some armies really benefitted from Wannok or Valda (my favorite two glyphs, and I found them well suited to this map). Having glyphs in a somewhat protected spot added another goal to claim on the map besides the 5 height perches, while still being attackable. I don't think I ever put a figure on the outer water, but you can't win them all.

I did appreciate the interaction on the center/side level 2 corridors and the level 4 and 3 heights. The level 3 heights behind the ruins form a nice little staging area that I used pretty often.

Overall, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this map, and I vote to induct.

*on Percolator, say, the map plays better with two small ruins but is very workable with one of each. The combo with the level 1 water on the right makes access to level 3 very bad if you were to use a long ruin on Flaxen Shard.

**This isn't a huge negative but it can lead to boring gameplay, since any strategy involved in developing left/right is irrelevant.