[Ranked] Batford's Manor - Double Burglary!

Discussion in 'Custom Scenarios and Boards' started by Flaxative, Jan 17, 2015.

  1. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Story

    You infiltrate Lord Batford's manor through the servants' quarters... only to find that another team of burglars has done the same! As you ransack the manor in search of treasure, you clash with competing robbers at every turn. There may not be a Ring Of Appropriation at the end of this treasure hunt, but hey, you'll pick the gear off lesser burglars at every opportunity!

    Theme

    This is a set of 5 boards for 3v3 ranked matches. They are all based off boards in the Lord Batford's Manor module—which uses a tileset untouched in the current ranked rotations. Each board has been altered to be symmetrical (along one axis or other). In some cases I inserted some extra terrain features to keep things fresh. Many of these maps have a 'race' aspect—get to the victory first! On some of these maps, I've tried to insert terrain features at intervals that benefit elves. Human team moves are also going to be very good on these maps. Dwarves might want to pack some extra movement :)

    At least one of these maps will allow Firestorm to essentially function at pre-nerf capacity. Of course, cramped quarters also benefit warrior blitzes! I don't think we have boards quite like these currently—these are not just reskins of existing ranked boards. Some have unorthodox victory square configurations or strange shapes. Very excited to see how these play out, if and when we end up using them.

    Screenshots

    Lord Batford's Servants' Quarters
    [​IMG]

    Lord Batford's Kitchen
    [​IMG]

    Lord Batford's Ballroom
    [​IMG]

    Lord Batford's Parlor
    [​IMG]

    Lord Batford's Sanctuary

    [​IMG]

    (And yes, I'm aware that I didn't do one based on Lower Halls.)
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 18, 2015
    ParodyKnaveBob, Stexe and CT5 like this.
  2. Stexe

    Stexe #2 in Spring PvP Season

    Nice. What are the colored squares in the first one? Are they VP spots? If so that might lead to a stalemate situation.
     
  3. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thanks!
    They're player-specific victory spots, so you have to get through your opponents to reach them.
     
  4. Stexe

    Stexe #2 in Spring PvP Season

    Ah, thought so. I'm hesitant on that design do to the large stalemate possibilities that you also see on Celestial Lions. If each point isn't within 4 spaces of another, then Dwarves can't save 2 Racial Moves to go from one to another which makes engagement slow.
     
  5. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Yeah, that's a possibility... we'll see. Always easy to rotate it out or change it :)

    (Also, I think Celestial Lions is one of the best maps in the game, hands down.)
     
  6. BlackVoidDeath

    BlackVoidDeath Guild Leader

    Which one is that?
     
  7. Jarmo

    Jarmo Snow Griffin

    I know a neat magic trick! Want to try it?

    Here's what you do:
    1) go to http://google.com
    2) write Celestial Lions card hunter and press the enter key
    3) click the Image search link
    4) the first result is the map!
    I know, magic, right! Awesome, isn't it!
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  8. BlackVoidDeath

    BlackVoidDeath Guild Leader

    um... what are these figures? are they from war hammer or something?
    Edit: nvm - i added card hunter on the end, not a bad map but not my fav
     
  9. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Have you played on it?
     
  10. BlackVoidDeath

    BlackVoidDeath Guild Leader

    what do you mean?
     
  11. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Like, have you played on Celestial Lions. Have you faced an opponent on it. Crossed mental swords. Etc.

    Maps might not look good on paper, but then prove to have massive strategic depth upon repeated playing :)

    Back on topic:
    I've updated the Servants' Quarters and Parlor boards. On the former, I removed the player-specific victory terrain that was far from the neutral victory terrain. This should decrease stalemate potential significantly. On the latter, I removed 1 square of victory terrain to reduce the chance that a player would be able to park one character on that square and block the rest of the victory terrain using zone-of-control hindrance. The updated screenshots and .brd files are in the opening post.

    Thanks to feedback from @Stexe and @Farbs. :)
     
  12. NobleHelium

    NobleHelium Kobold

    This thread is now the #1 result on Google Web Search for "celestial lions card hunter."
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  13. Jarmo

    Jarmo Snow Griffin

  14. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    These maps look like great fun! I'll try to test a few of them out, and once I do I'll write up some reports on them so we can all point and laugh at my silly opinions.
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  15. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    I've played on the maps a bit, and they were less fun than I initially imagined them to be, regrettably. This might just be my opinion, but this month's maps have not exactly encouraged me to play ranked very much.

    Kitchen: A pretty good map, all things considered. It doesn't particularly favor one race over another, giving elves a bit of a bonus but is small enough to let other races have a chance too. Wizards will have a bad time of it, thanks to the lack of good sniping spots because of the difficult terrain tables. Close together VP squares mean that warriors will be in the spotlight.

    Sanctuary: My personal favorite out of the set. The difficult terrain does give an advantage to elf warriors as they can get there the fastest, and the tight quarters and chokepoints mean that wizards without backup will have a very difficult time if an enemy can get past the water. Close together VP squares mean that, yet again, warriors have an advantage, especially with the blocking terrain covering it from view.

    Parlor: Yet another map with close together VP squares. The blocking terrain makes it hard for wizards, not to mention that there's a lack of places to run away to if caught. Rather boring.

    Ballroom: UUUUUUUUUUGH. This map would normally not be particularly bad, except that there is almost no incentive to go into the center area at the start. This means that it'll be 2-5 turns before the teams meet, possibly punctuated by a burst wizard tagging some of the opponent's characters by going into the aformentioned empty center. Once the teams meet, it plays almost identically to the other maps, with warriors being the order of the day.

    Conclusion: I know that the high levels of Cardhunter are usually filled with warriors anyway, but this is out of hand.
     
    Stexe likes this.
  16. Stexe

    Stexe #2 in Spring PvP Season

    Yeah, it would be nice if the middle rug had some VP or something on it. My experience with that map devolves into hitting the enemy once or twice and then fighting in a very tight single line at the VP area. Not really that interesting due to the lack of mobility. Ultimately, I think the problem with most of these maps is that the VPs are on a wall and limit mobility to fight while on them. Kitchen is the sole exception and that's the one I find the most interesting overall.
     
  17. Jade303

    Jade303 Thaumaturge

    I think Ballroom is a really interesting map, that doesn't quite play like it should. If you made it one square narrower/wider (for symmetry) and added a VP in the center, it could make for some more interesting plays.
     
    Magic Elves likes this.

Share This Page