White Knight's Maps -- Input wanted on Deep River Bridges

[White Knight]

Deep River BridgesUses: 1 RotV, 1FotA, 1 BftU
3x glyphs are random





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Comments:
I've heard people say that it's hard to create a competitive BoV map with the Fortress Set that does not favor Range. I took that as a challenge and came up with Deep River Bridges. The top level has some choke points, but it's hard to hold both sides at once. The glyphs give incentive to drop to the river below.


Glacier Creek
Uses: 1 RotV, 1x RttFF, 1TT
Normal snow and ice


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Pictures of Glacier Creek

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Comments

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I've tried for a while to come up with a beautiful map that met the requirements for BoV. Glacier Creek has gone through several changes since I came up with the concept (modeled after a bridge waterfall on the road up to Mount Rainier).

The most recent change is the ice along the outside edge of the pool of water (added to give armies another way to cross over rather than over/under the bridge). I've playtested the battlefield without the extra ice and it's a lot of fun, but there is a huge bottleneck on the bridge. The bridge is still the main attack avenue, but the ice could force figures off the bridge.

Mostly, I just love how it looks.

Knight's Canyon Road
Uses: 1 RotV, 1RttFF


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This is one of my entries for the 2012 Tournament Map Contest.

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Knight's Canyon Road plays quickly at the beginning. Using the road, figures with high move can quickly get close to an opponent's starting zone. But all the height is off the road, so it makes for good decisions.

I've playtested this map a little and I really like how it plays. Range can pick off figures on the road, but melee figures can stick to the ridges on the side.

It also looks like I'd expect a road through a canyon or ravine to look like.

Glacier Pass
Uses: 1 RotV, 1TT
Normal snow and ice.



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This is my 2nd entry for the 2012 Tournament Map Contest.

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I used Glacier Pass to playtest my Sparks entry for Auggies Small Fire Elemental Squad contest. I had the Firestorm going against the 10th Regiment with Marcus. The 10th were able to get height and attack pretty quickly, but just with 1 squad. Once that squad went down, the Firestorm was able to control the top of the pass. The 10th won one game, while the Firestorm won the other.

I like how this battlefield stretches out the terrain by making a bridge over the middle.

If anyone has suggestions for ways to improve the maps, let me know.

[Killometer]

Both your maps entered in Rÿchean's contest caught my eye (in a good way ).

I really like Knight's Canyon Road, but I'm wondering why you opted not to use the ruins? It's a pretty long map, and the cover they offer would usually be well used. It looks to me that they might serve well placed on top of the level 2 24-hex rock plates. That would help give this map three strong routes to choose from-down the center you'd have road, to the right you'd have a level 3 plateau, and to the left would be the best cover. I know their different sizes can present some difficulty balancing them, but they might work like this (with an extra tile added where the gray circle is, assuming that you have one available):



They'll offer about the same amount of cover, and affect the flow of movement about the same when positioned like that.

Also, for Glacier Pass, I noticed that you have two unused grass 7-hex plates. You might want to add them to the voids in the first level to connect the three islands.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by Killometer

Both your maps entered in Rÿchean's contest caught my eye (in a good way ).

I really like Knight's Canyon Road, but I'm wondering why you opted not to use the ruins? It's a pretty long map, and the cover they offer would usually be well used.

Thanks for the input Killometer. I usually don't like to use the ruins because their different sizes do (maybe only slightly) unbalance the map. But I can see them being useful for melee on Knight's Canyon Road, and your placement does seem to offer almost balanced cover. Not only that, but they make the side edges of the map more useful.

I'll have to playtest with and without them to see how they affect the play.

Originally Posted by Killometer

Also, for Glacier Pass, I noticed that you have two unused grass 7-hex plates. You might want to add them to the voids in the first level to connect the three islands.

Good catch--somehow I completely forgot about them! I built the map without them and it's still very stable, but I do like to fill in underneath when I can.

[White Knight]

I added a new map:
Deep River Bridges
Uses: 1 RotV, 1FotA, 1 BftU
3x glyphs are random





DOWNLOAD PDF

Comments:
I've heard people say that it's hard to create a competitive BoV map with the Fortress Set that does not favor Range. I took that as a challenge and came up with Deep River Bridges. The top level has some choke points, but it's hard to hold both sides at once. The glyphs give incentive to drop to the river below.

Feedback Desired!
I'm very interested in feedback for this map. It is my latest attempt at producing a competitive level map.

I've done some playtesting and the map seems pretty balanced. I still need to try some melee armies. The glyphs can be powerful, but to hold the glyphs means being shot at from above.

Let me know what you think.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

I've experimented with using the Castle Set to hold up other terrain long ago. You've inspired me to give it another go! Here's your map with a bit more light:

[Sheep]

I really like Deep River Bridges. Interesting, and I'd build it if I didn't have maps set up to go to NHSD. I'll definitely build it after.

[ShadowWater]

This is a really cool map concept, but I have a couple comments. First, the map doesn't look super stable as it is right now -- maybe some of the pillars should be moved from the center to the sides for more support there. Also, I think range has a huge advantage over melee due to being able to shoot across the center gap or onto the bridges from the relative security of their own side.

I still think it's an awesome idea, but I think it could still use a little development.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by ShadowWater

This is a really cool map concept, but I have a couple comments. First, the map doesn't look super stable as it is right now -- maybe some of the pillars should be moved from the center to the sides for more support there. Also, I think range has a huge advantage over melee due to being able to shoot across the center gap or onto the bridges from the relative security of their own side.

Thanks for the feedback. I've built this twice already, and it's pretty sturdy. The pillars are on 4 opposing edges of each of the 27 hex pieces.

2 Build Suggestions
1) Don't build it on a rug. Build it on a hard table or a board. I built mine on a foam board, and it's very stable.

2) Use the ladder pieces as shown in the build instructions to hold the pillars to the 27 hex pieces. It works very well. Without the ladder pieces, the pillars sometimes fall.

Yes, ranged figures can fire over the gap. Melee figures should take the bridges or drop and get the glyphs down below. Or they can hold back and wait for the range to come to them. Only ranged units should be standing in the middle close to the edges.

I'm guessing that Knights and the WoA builds will have the hardest time here (take more strategy to use).

[ShadowWater]

Well, if you've built it IRL, I guess I can't argue stability .
Yeah, KoW and WoA would be tough. I guess gruts probably wouldn't work particularly well either. I just know that personally I'd never give up height advantage with a significant force for a glyph (unless it was Ivor or maybe Jalgard), and if only 1-2 figures went for it they'd get pulverized pretty quickly.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by ShadowWater

Well, if you've built it IRL, I guess I can't argue stability .
Yeah, KoW and WoA would be tough. I guess gruts probably wouldn't work particularly well either. I just know that personally I'd never give up height advantage with a significant force for a glyph (unless it was Ivor or maybe Jalgard), and if only 1-2 figures went for it they'd get pulverized pretty quickly.

My first few games on it, I selected randomly from the Attack +1, Unique Attack +1, Common Attack +1, Summon, Wound, and Defense +1 glyphs. Those glyphs are pretty good incentives for risking a figure.

I need to try other figure, but I'll say that the rats didn't mind jumping down into the sewer and getting +1 Attack, +1 Common Attack, and the Wound glyph to help our their Stinger allies!

[ShadowWater]

I suppose with rats anything becomes viable . A glyph pool like that might make me consider jumping screen-type figures down in there, so I guess my previous definitive declaration about "I'd never give up height advantage for a glyph" is invalidated.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by ShadowWater

I suppose with rats anything becomes viable . A glyph pool like that might make me consider jumping screen-type figures down in there, so I guess my previous definitive declaration about "I'd never give up height advantage for a glyph" is invalidated.

Do you think having a set revealed glyph in the middle would be better (such as Summoning, or Attack +1, or Defense +1)? (So you know what you're going for?)

The sides need to be random so it doesn't imbalance the map.