PvP Scenario Review Thread
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@board-3659 we normally play just PvP (2 player). But there are some fun PvPvAI maps, like Caribbean or Steampunk Advanced. We’ve also played some large player count ones, like a Japan/Shogun one, where we will choose to play a single faction each, with multiple AI between. I’m writing from memory here, but will try to review them in more detail in due course.
What we haven’t done is played with more than 2 humans, just cos it’s just the 2 of us. I expect the problem with multiple humans is that it becomes more about diplomacy than gameplay, and people get ganged-up on (unless you fix 2 teams).
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Can I tempt you with this 1 v 1 map game?
Its a simple, low unit count, small map with lots of tactical opportunities.
Check this out;
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3264/arena-of-death-official-threadPlay against a Fast AI to learn some of the tactics and then against a human.
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When I play with my group, we still play fundamentally "1v1" games, it is just that each side is a team with a faction (or 2) played by one player. So in the classic WW2 formula, a separate player is playing Russia/Germany/UK/Japan/USA and it is 3v2 (or 2v2 with one player doubling up).
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@mattbarnes steampunk advance imo should have one of the players be Nemo Pirates. AI isn't good with them. AI is ok with Martains but the best imo is AI Entente Central powers and the two players as the martains and nemo pirates. you could get 3 or 4 people if you want though
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So I ended up play the "Aventurica" map with 3 other friends. Initially looking at the map, it seemed very skewed against the Imperials. So we decided to bid for the right to play "evil" with the bid value going to Thorwall (part of the imperial alliance) with the stipulation that units could only be placed up to the territory maximum (to allow for AlAnsa to have a good chance at capturing Brabak in the south).
(FYI, we always play "low luck" for all of the TripleA maps we play)
The bid ended up being 41 and I and a friend played as the Imperial allinace. It turns out that this map might actually be balanced or close to balanced at 0 bid because the game ended on turn 3 when it became apparent that the Imperial player would have no problem capturing Fasar (the capital of Borbarad player) with no way to prevent it.
If we had played the game as-is, it still seems like a very huge threat of Imperials taking Fasar because it has a limit of 2 production. By turn 5, Imperials would have had about a 28 unit surplus needed to take Fasar, so there is plenty of slack to defend their capital while sacking Fasar. Even with a 0 bid, it seems like Fasar could fall even with AlAnfa's support from the south, but maybe not.
The win condition for the Imperial alliance certainly seems to be taking Fasar without losing their own capital, while the other side wants to hold Fasar long enough so that their numerical advantage can be brought to bare against the Imperials.
I would like to retry the game with myself playing as "evil" with a much lower bid (maybe $15 for Thorwall) to see if I could make it work, but not sure if anyone else in my group wants to play this map again.
Here was the end-state on turn 3 at the start of the "orcs" turn in case anyone is interested in seeing it. lrx_aventurica_g1_orc3.tsvg
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@zoozoc We played it 4 times, so I was Imperial twice and Borbarad twice. During the games my impression swung between at first thinking the map was strongly in favour of one side, then strongly for the other. Your observations, eg about the fragility of Borbarad's capital mirror mine. I think that, as you say, your Bid was rather too big. My sense that Evil has the advantage follows from being able to capture Brabak on turn 1 - you made that impossible. It would be interesting to use a Bid big enough to help Imperials but too small to delay Brabak's loss (or require the bid to be spent elsewhere). In that case, I think AlAnsa moves to support Fasar and the game is more interesting when the capture of Bornland opens a new front. The Imperials then need to look in two directions and struggle to concentrated sufficiently on Fasar.
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Caribbean Trade War
by FrostionThis is a shorter review as my play of this map was some time ago and because the map plays quite ahistorically. However, the map was fun and reasonably balanced.
The scenario pits a French-Dutch-Danish alliance against a British-Spanish-Swedish. I understand that Sweden obtained a Caribbean colony in 1784 and there were several islands in the Danish West Indies. However, I sincerely doubt there is much accuracy in the alliances, relative strengths and game dynamics as presented here.
The Game Notes appear to anticipate a number of AIs playing key nations but we played as one human against the other, each playing a three-nation alliance. It remains however that the AI controls the indigenous warriors and some pirates. The latter can be instrumental if allowed to be - they are likely to grow to material strength and punish any smaller fleets or colonies. That said, the AI can become timid in later game, when the human strength exceeds theirs, almost like they fear to aggravate a stronger neighbour. A human may win if their human opponent fails to judge and anticipate the pirate actions.
Additional resources appearing from Europe is a fun dynamic. The Game Notes flag that this will happen but offer no details, so it is amusing to see the arrivals which are unexpected in timing and nature. However, these are pre-determined, not random, so can be anticipated in further games, and strategies adopted to optimise or defeat such reinforcements. Take care if your open is forewarned and you are not!
The map provides a number of theatres of combat on land and sea, sometimes between a single nation on each side, or sometimes operating in concert with allies, or disrupted by neutrals. This all generates plenty of interesting and fun battling.
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Yes this map is quite "fragile", we had structured the bid such as we did because if the bid went instead to Imperials, that would simply mean they could take the capital even earlier. I think what would have to happen is a bid for Thorwall getting balanced by a bid for Borbarad as well so that they can reinforce their capital. Or perhaps simply changing the production amount of their capital to more than 2.
Or as you say, simply stipulate that the bid cannot be placed in the south so that AlAnsa can take it turn 1.
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@mattbarnes yeah I think it's one of my favorites.
I think the AI Indian, and Pirates also help the map from being scripted but that's meAnyway if your reviewing Steampunk Advance, I could help play if you need more people
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Can I tempt you PvP-ers to comment on our new map, initial impressions or even a PVP game?
1941 Global Command Decision
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3326/1941-global-command-decision-official-threadI know its a big ask as its still in development, but the changes are slowing down, honest
https://forums.triplea-game.org/tags/thedog
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3741/curated-best-top-maps-triplea-guides -
My problem is the people I play with are very slow. But also not very adventurous. We haven't done any maps with complicated rules. So I doubt we can jump into this one, though it does look interesting.
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@thedog Hi, I'm happy to take a look. I see it's not built-in to the usual map downloader, unfortunately. I tried to manually download from your link but can't get it to work. Is it as simple as your file being "YML" and the game expecting "XML"?? Note I'm on v2.5 of the game; is that what you expect?
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In your downloads folder, copy the zip file to the usual place, typically for Windows its;
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\triplea\downloadedMapsand unzip the zip file there.
You can leave it zipped but I find there are less errors if it is unzipped.
ps. ask you need more help
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@thedog that’s exactly what I did but the game said it couldn’t find the map XML. Which game version are you designing for? Can you maybe paste a screenshot of Windows Explorer showing the right files in the right places?
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Only for 2.5.22294 as 2.6 crashes with not enough detail to fix.
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@thedog Thanks. I am also on v2.5. I have the same files. A subtle difference is my folder name ends “-30” (which was part of the Zipped file name). Have I got an older or newer version of the map than you? I’m going to just edit the folder name to see if that solves it.
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Seems to be working now. Thanks for your help. I’ll explore more later or at weekend.
Any reason it’s not in the automated Downloader?
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30 is the current release, so all is good.
In future if you open the zip and just drag & drop the folder name that also works.
The TripleA automated loader for 2.5 is too fickle, I have wasted so many hours trying to get it to work and as time is precious, better to code than mess with the loader.
2.6 loader is a lot easier, but not without its problems.
As the releases are about 1 a week and google drive just works 100% of the time, its a lot easier and less frustrating for me, but a bit of work for you to put it in the right place.
When the changes really slow down I will upload it hopefully to 2.6 if a dev can fix this maps current crashing issue.
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Alagaesia (4 player)
This is a nicely rendered map, available as 2 player or 4 player (but still 2 factions). We played the latter, imagining it offered a little more depth.
The context seems to be drawn from a series of books called the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, and also spawned the film Eragon about a teenager who learns to ride a dragon and becomes embroiled in a continental conflict with fantasy races alike to Lord of the Rings. I felt however little immersion in that realm from playing this map.
This map was reasonably fun, but we won't play it a lot more.
The game lacks the Tech, National Objectives and Terrain-modifiers seen in some of the more sophisticated maps. The nature of the map also makes the naval side quite minimal.
There are two "dragon riders" in each faction which are super-powerful aerial units and the Empire player can also produce a bomber-type of creature-unit. The dragon riders are limited in number and cannot be produced (unless you change the map option) which makes sense but the consequence is to give the Empire a significant air supremacy advantage: the combination of bombers and cheap infantry allows attritional 'strafing' each turn which ultimate dominates. The elves and dwarves only have high-value units so cannot compete.
The map geography with swaths of impassable desert and mountains keeps the non-Empire races separate and difficult to co-ordinate, while also reducing strategic options. Essentially the north produces a static frontline between Elves and Empire, making the Elves boring to play. In the south, Surda is easily overrun by the Empire until the Dwarves can arrive to aid Surda try to hold any small remnant. However, the Empire probably has more income by this point so will eventually overwhlem. The Dwarves could only really advance on one axis, so their choices did not feel highly meaningful.
Certainly, we found the Empire won the games that had no Bid, so players may wish to adjust for this to seek balance.
The dragon-riders and a number of other units are labelled as high- or low-level "casters" and the game notes imply there is some sort of magic mechanic. I can indeed see in some battles that the unit values vary unexpectedly when casters are present. However, I could never pin-down exactly how it worked, I could only rely on the Battle Calculator to guide me.
Oddly, the 2-move units cannot blitz, which seems like an omission that could have balanced the game a little, eg if Surda could 'can-open' a gap in Empire lines for the Dwarves to blitz through.
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@mattbarnes Alagesia works well as PvAI.
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