One-of-a-Kind Map: Heat-of-Battle hybrid w/ accessible cave!

[rouby44]

PDF Download (Tundra version)

PDF Download (Non-tundra version)

This map combines two innovative map features and boasts a game-play experience like no other.

The first of these features is the brainchild of White Noise, which he calls "A Practical Approach to Large Caves and Tunnels." The gist of his idea is that, in order to make a cavern area accessible, one can simply model that part of the map separately and let figures traverse between the two maps - Spaces on the separate cavern section are built to coincide with spaces on the main map, allowing one to act as if they are parts of the same landscape.

The second feature is my own idea, which involves the Heat-of-Battle scenario. In the standard form of this scenario, there are no designated start zones. To begin the game, players take turns placing one army card's worth of figures on the board until all figures are placed. Obviously, the metagame changes drastically in this scenario - melee figures skyrocket in playability and range suffers heavily.

My idea involves creating a hybrid of sorts by combining conventional start zones with a designated heat-of-battle zone. Players would have the option of placing their figures in their own start zone or in the neutral heat-of-battle zone. They would alternate placing one army card's worth of figures just like they would in the standard Heat-of-Battle scenario, except that not all sections of the map would be available for figure placement.

Combining these two features, I have produced this map titled "Cold Mountain." There is an alternate version that doesn't require the tundra set for those who don't own it. The tundra version (which I recommend for aesthetics and the slippery ice rule) requires 3 RotV, 2 RttFF, 1 FotA, and 1 TT. The non-tundra version requires the same sets minus Thaelek Tundra.











Non-tundra version

[Drizzt Do'Urden]

Yikes! I think that the site had some information that was not fit for human eyes... So the aliens must have deleted a chunk of the site...

Anyways, I just would like to say that this map is awesome... Again.

Also, I think I'll rep you... Again.

Well, that's my comment... Again.

I think I'll say "again" again.... Again.

Really, great job (Again!).

[rouby44]

Originally Posted by Drizzt Do'Urden

Yikes! I think that the site had some information that was not fit for human eyes... So the aliens must have deleted a chunk of the site...

Anyways, I just would like to say that this map is awesome... Again.

Also, I think I'll rep you... Again.

Well, that's my comment... Again.

I think I'll say "again" again.... Again.

Really, great job (Again!).

Thank you, sir!

Again!

I just played this map with my girlfriend, so let me give you a brief battle report:

Army 1:
225 10th Regiment x3
375 Roman Legos x3
475 Marcus Decimus Gallus
565 Ne-Gok-Sa
585 Marcu
595 Isamu

Army 2:
210 4th Mass x3
420 KoW x3
525 Sir Gilbert
575 Marro Warriors
600 Dumutef Guard

Figure placement:
Ten Roman Legos faced off against 12 KoW in the Heat-of-Battle zone. The 10th Regiment, 4th Mass, Marro Warriors, Dumutef Guard, Marcu, and Isamu hanged back in the start zone. Ne-Gok-Sa, MDG, and Sir Gilbert poised themselves on the lowest level of the start zone with the quickest route to the cave.

Round 1:
The Jandar army won initiative, and on their first turn they claimed both wound glyphs, but failed to kill any legionnaires. The legionnaires and knights mostly traded turns taking swipes at each other in the HoB zone for most of the round; however, the 4th mass were given an OM and moved onto the road towards the cavern. Meanwhile, NGS and MDG used their bonding activations to make their ways into the cave. Marcu ended up absorbing two wounds from the wound glyphs.

Round 2:
The legionnaires rolled just enough skulls to begin gaining an edge against the knights in the HoB area. The legos sent two soldiers down to the platform that serves as a safe falling point into the cave to intercept the approaching 4th Mass. Meanwhile, the 4th Mass were headed for the tower ladder on the far side of the map, nearest to the vulnerable 10th Regiment, who were on low ground in their start zone.

The legionnaires continued to bond with Ne-Gok-Sa, who attempted to block the way to the ladder that the Mass were trying to reach, but used their soldier activations to attack the knights above ground. Inside the cave, the 4th WTFed Ne-Gok-Sa for four wounds in a turn, but he survived the onslaught.

At the end of the round, each army controlled one of the wound glyphs. Marcu and Sir Gilbert absorbed a wound each.

Round 3:
The legionnaires gained near full control of the HoB section and began sending the troops who were victorious there into the cavern via the side platforms. Marcus entered the cave (using the road bonus to catch up) to aid the critically-wounded NGS and support the legionnaires who were beginning to filter in. They routed a few straggling 4th Mass, who were cut off before they could ascend the ladders to the towers above - there they might have wreaked much havoc on the legionnaires still in the HoB zone and the 10th Regiment still sitting in the start zone.

Round 4:
The 10th Regiment begin to enter the cave, protected by a front line of a few legionnaires and their warlords. The Mass were forced to retreat and regroup. It ended in a slow but inevitable death for Jandar's forces when the full force of 10th Regiment reached the tops of both towers.

Closing thoughts:
Though he only killed one figure, NGS was invaluable to the predominantly-Einar army. Had he not intercepted the 4th Mass making their way to the far tower, it could have spelled doom for much of the 10th Regiment. Bonding allowed the Romans to fight on two fronts - the HoB zone and the cavern, which I think proved vital to their effectiveness. However, the extra speed of the 4th Mass provided via Gilbert and their ability to reach the towers faster might have provided the key to victory on another day.

I'm thinking the normal start zones might need to be expanded so that no army is forced to start in the heat-of-battle area, if that is their general's choice; it would seem to incur a disadvantage to opt out though, because it gives the opposing army free access to the wound glyphs.

The reason being is that a bit of bad luck early on (like the Knights had in the above battle report) in that area can give a great deal of momentum to the other side and ultimately make it very difficult to control access to the towers (which ultimately should determine the winner in most cases).

P.S. Shaolin Monks might be awesome on this map...

[ProtoFury]

Heh how much does this suck, [B]rouby[B]? I mean you got the option to open up a new thread and make it different/better, I'm stuck with my old one... I still need to start putting it back together.

But I praise you rouby! Heh my girlfriend doesn't know much about HeroScape, just that I play "some nerdy game" (quoth me) with some of my friends. Let alone her actually plaing with me!

The fact that she lives 1200 miles away is a problem though.

Anyway, I like the playtest of the map. And, I playtested Rights of Passage with some friends today. We loved it! I dominated with some new combinations of my trusty Marro.

[rouby44]

Originally Posted by ProtoFury

Heh how much does this suck, [B]rouby[B]? I mean you got the option to open up a new thread and make it different/better, I'm stuck with my old one... I still need to start putting it back together.

But I praise you rouby! Heh my girlfriend doesn't know much about HeroScape, just that I play "some nerdy game" (quoth me) with some of my friends. Let alone her actually plaing with me!

The fact that she lives 1200 miles away is a problem though.

Anyway, I like the playtest of the map. And, I playtested Rights of Passage with some friends today. We loved it! I dominated with some new combinations of my trusty Marro.

Yeah, man, it does suck. Fortunately for me, I had most of the text of the original post of this thread pasted as map parameters in the VS file. I'm sorry you lost so much of your thread and all of the comments contained therein. I'll be sure to help build it back up.

Glad to hear you liked Rights of Passage! Any brief battle summary for us? I'm still learning how the metagame changes with these Heat-of-Battle hybrids, so any details you are very interesting. Anyways, I'll be getting Rights of Passage back online here momentarily.

[White Noise]

Wow, way to go the extra mile (or two) on that one. I never thought of having an actual castle shoot up out of the cave! Now if we could only find a way to make the map even more complicated... what do you think about a dive-able lake?

[rouby44]

Originally Posted by White Noise

Wow, way to go the extra mile (or two) on that one. I never thought of having an actual castle shoot up out of the cave! Now if we could only find a way to make the map even more complicated... what do you think about a dive-able lake?

Genius! Now just come up with an awesome way to implement it like you did with the caves - I'm thinking we'll need to have ladders on every "lake" tile so that the figures can swim to different depths. And of course we'll need a drowning rule.

[ProtoFury]

Originally Posted by rouby44

Yeah, man, it does suck. Fortunately for me, I had most of the text of the original post of this thread pasted as map parameters in the VS file. I'm sorry you lost so much of your thread and all of the comments contained therein. I'll be sure to help build it back up.

Glad to hear you liked Rights of Passage! Any brief battle summary for us? I'm still learning how the metagame changes with these Heat-of-Battle hybrids, so any details you are very interesting. Anyways, I'll be getting Rights of Passage back online here momentarily.

Well I also have eeryting for each map in the map parameters... It's just tiring and inconvenient to do all the linking and stuff for things, whn I've re-organized the post like 4 times in the last week, and now I have to again. It could be worse though. I should have the thread back up and running within the hour.

As for the game my friend and I played, we chenged the glyohs up (I have only one SotM, which means I didn't have doubles of your two glyphs.) and we made them Astrids and Gerdas instead. We drafted 600-point armies, a bit large, but that's how I like it. (Go ahead and that's what she said me, I don't care lol. That's what I started typing and I'm not gonna fix it.)

My army consisted of:
Su-Bak-Na
Marrden Nagrubs x1
Tul-Bak-Ra
Marro Dividers x2
Marro Warriors
Marro Stingers x2

His:
Sonlen
Kaemon Awa
Izumi Samurai
Mimring
Krav Mag Agents
(He's new to the game, so it's not the most thought-out army. He just picked what he liked power-wise.)

The only guys I deployed in my actual start zone were 1 set of Stingers, 1 Marro Warrior, Su-Bak-Na, and his Nagrub snacks. All the other went into the HoB zone. The only one of his tht was pld n his start zone was Mimring.

It's pretty safe to say that I dominated him. Sonlen was hit hard right off of the bat--Tul-Bak-Ra got some good shot in and managed to teleport the entire squad of Stingers out of my start zone thanks to his specal power. I swarmed the outpost ith my stingers, taking the towers and the ladders. By the time he had finally taken out all of my Dividers (at first he was glad I didn't use the hive this time because he was tied of me reviving my guys.. oops ) he had already lost Sonlen and his samurai, and one of his agents. Later on I brought Su-Bak-Na in with his nagrubs to finish off Keamon and by this time, he had taken out my three Marro Warriors inside the base. My Marro Warrior, back in my start zone, moved out to the swamp water and a few turns latr I had all four Marro Warriors back and hoarding the Glyphs (boy was he angry!). At the end of the game, all that wa left of my army was Su-Bak-Na, with one life left, one stinger, and three warriors. He ended up pulling off quite a comeback with Mimring and his agents (Stealth Dode, gotta love it.) before I finally crushed the last of his guys.

That's the summary of the battle. It as fun, and the map was very well balanced. I think my glyphs changed te gameplay a lot more than you glyphs would have, bu we didnt go for them until the last like 30% of the game anyway.

All in all, I love the map. The aesthetics are great, but gameplay on it is even better!

[ProtoFury]

Originally Posted by rouby44

Genius! Now just come up with an awesome way to implement it like you did with the caves - I'm thinking we'll need to have ladders on every "lake" tile so that the figures can swim to different depths. And of course we'll need a drowning rule.

It's really freaky that you guys say this, because me and my friends were discussing our dislike of the opaque water tiles, when I said that the only good thing about them is that I could use them as dive spots for a map with a side-cave lake...... Weird.

[White Noise]

Originally Posted by rouby44

Genius! Now just come up with an awesome way to implement it like you did with the caves - I'm thinking we'll need to have ladders on every "lake" tile so that the figures can swim to different depths. And of course we'll need a drowning rule.

I'll have to think about this one. Ladders may be a bit hard to implement on every space (that's a lot of ladders), but then again the underwater map would be on the small side...

[rouby44]

Originally Posted by White Noise

I'll have to think about this one. Ladders may be a bit hard to implement on every space (that's a lot of ladders), but then again the underwater map would be on the small side...

Yeah, I was being a little facetious with the ladders thing. Modeling a three-dimensional lake seems a bit more challenging than a cave!

[ProtoFury]

Originally Posted by rouby44

Yeah, I was being a little facetious with the ladders thing. Modeling a three-dimensional lake seems a bit more challenging than a cave!

If I may interject an idea here--

A three-dimensional lake, in and of itself, seems a little out of the cards for Heroscape. However, a 3-dimensional lakebed is not. Use a Glyph of Brandar, or for someone who has both kinds of water tiles, such as myself, to distinguish where one can and cannot dive, and then on the side map, just place another of the same tile to show where they may rise to the surface.

Roll the d20 on your way down, when you step on that space. If you roll a 5 or higher, your figure has successfully taken a large "breath" and has dived. Depending on your roll on the d20, it says how large of a breath you took, and how long you may stay on the lakebed for.

Divide your roll on the d20 by 5, rounding down. This is how many turns you may stay submerged for before "drowning." If your figure is not resurfaced by the end of the last turn, and for every turn that passes while your figure is submerged past the time limit, your figure takes one wound. This allows your figures to "drown."

Only single-space figures may dive. When moving underwater, after your initial dive turn, roll the d20. If you roll a 1-10, your move is cut in half do to slow movement in water (round any halves up). A roll of 11-20 leaves your move normal. Ignore height elevations when moving--essentially, all characters have Flying in water, because they are all swimming. No ranged attacks may take place underwater, but adjacent ones may. Ignore engadgement rules underwater. When you step on an underwater dive tile, you may instantly resurface on the corresponding dive spot on the main map.

For instance, it is my first turn this round, and I wish to dive with Tul-Bak-Ra, Life of 6. I land on a Dive Space, and roll the d20. I roll a 16. I may stay on the lakebed side-map for 3 turns now--16/5=3.2, rounded down to 3. (This is why you must roll at least a 5--4/5, rounded down, equals 0. The "breath" was not big enough to dive.) I may now continue my move, and end my turn underwater. On my turn 2, Tul-Bak-Ra is not my selected figure, and so doesn't move. However, he has spent a full turn underwater, and it counts as the first of his three turns. The same goes with turn 3, he was not my selected figure, yet has spent 2 turns underwater. The next round begins, and Tul-Bak-Ra is my selected figure for turn 1. I roll the d20 to determine his movement and roll a 7, so his movement is cut in half. 5/2=2.5, and we round up, for a movement of 3. This is his third turn underwater, and with a mere move of 3, he has not made it to a dive spot to resurface. Tul-Bak-Ra takes one drown wound. On my second turn this round, no order marker was on Tul-Bak-Ra, and since he is underwater after his time limit has run out, he recieves another wound. On my third turn, I have Tul-Bak-Ra selected, and I roll the d20 for his movement. I roll a 13, and have full movement of 5. This allows me to reach a dive spot, and Tul-Bak-Ra resurfaces, taking no wound on account of resurfacing this turn.

These rules account for many things.
-Diving shouldn't be done flippantly. If you dive without sufficient planning beforehand (i.e., enough order markers that round to get your guy out of the water) you run the risk of needlessly wounding your figure.
-It's much riskier to dive with a weak character--whole squads may not dive together unless they all step on dive spots--and because of the risks of being wounded, diving with any figure who has 1 Life is not recommended.
-Movement into and through the water is more or less realistic--currents can be helpful or harmful, so you may not get where you want as fast as you want.
-Figures can drown, and if you don't play smart, they can drown pretty easily.

Here's what I mean, in a visual way.


The double-stacked water tiles are unnecessary, I just used them to help show the four dive-spaces in this particular lake. They correspond to the other dive spots, as shown in the picture, which lie on the side-map.

Just an idea, but one that I put a thought into--although I wasn't planning on it originially! I just kinda went off from just my original thouht to actually detailing out rules and stuff. Not a bad thing, but still.