New Map: Alamaze Resurgent!

[Ry Vor]

Posts your thoughts on the new Alamaze map, including strategic implications and your overall feeling about the first new map in Alamaze since the original was made in 1986.

Have updated the map as of 11/26 to make some minor changes and add the Fire of the Void. Also including a version with a somewhat darker grid and a PDF format.

Attaching map as files here.

[Hawk_]

Posts your thoughts on the new Alamaze map, including strategic implications and your overall feeling about the first new map in Alamaze since the original was made in 1986.

Attaching map as file here.

-Awesome graphics!
-interesting changes on the seas and city locations
-Viperhead moving to the Island is cool
-Zarathon father south is nice
- Is there a new terrain type of hills or does some of the plains just have sparse trees?
-introduction of little islands is cool, wondering about those towers...
-City graphics are very detailed and look good

Can't wait to play on it!

[DuPont]

Well, first of all, great job. As much as I love the old map (and I do love it), this new one looks to have lots of possibilities! The 'Horn Bridge' into the Northern Mists should require major strategic changes for the WI position, but it's made up with the fact that Viperhead is now out of range of the Giants Turn 1 Diplomacy gambit. Is that the Volcano Of The Void at SN? Is there some significance to Mt. Tutus or is it just there for colour? I see the Southern Sands has less sand in it, but I like the addition of variety to Oakendell with a bit of mountains to break things up.
I have to point out (because I'm a dick) that given that the equator in Alamaze has always been around the 'Q' line, hurricanes don't form at the equator. They wouldn't know which way to spin. I love the islands and the expansion of Avalon Island. It's going to be lots of fun to explore the new map!

[Titus]

first of all its Mount Titus!!I have my own mountain, I feel like such a proud Dwarf!!!!

[Titus]

perhaps the only thing I don't like is Zarathon is 6 sqaures from up to 5 cities.

[Wynterbreeze]

First off it's looks alamazing! (sorry). Seriously very nice.

I guess I'll first have to ask, are there new terrain types now?

There are what appear to be hills, with the white little cap on little trees.
It might look like the trees in Runnimede and Synisvana could be jungle? Maybe hence the city name Jukanta?

And if you do have new terrain types I'll be excited to see new set ups and maybe new Kingdoms all together.

I love Viperhead on the other side of the Island. I'm not going to speculate about anyone's starting position getting better, in case you changed (going to change) that also.

Assuming the DW still has the same starting point, have you changed the Dwarfs troops movement rates? With all the cities now some what farther away, the Dwarf is set back turns before he could normally get armies to a another city. A little pet peeve of mine has always been the DW movement rates. To me they were designed with short little legs in mind. However in all, (every) fantasy series I have ever read, the dwarfs have legendary stamina, they can RUN for days and show up at a battle ready to fight at 100%. I would think that would be quicker then they are now

The short distance between Jukanta and Gundibar should be interesting, only one turn distance away militarily. While as pointed out by Titus, Zarathon is one turns march from 5 other cities. I would imagine in a hostile world like Alamaze Zarathons walls must be most impressive (Huge Defense) by now do to all the strife.

I guess my point is nice work, very well done

[davekuyk]

First of all PowerPoint is an odd format for an image. I suggest making it a JPEG or PNG. Many people will not have PowerPoint installed.

I am surprised it is still a simple grid as opposed to a hexagon grid.

I had expected an actual new map. This is the old map with some tweaks. I had hoped to see improvements such as roads and bridges (How does the Horn Bridge up in the mists work?)

This map is rather clear of obstacles and has fewer defined "routes" for group movement. Thus predicting group movement will be more difficult, if not impossible at times, which also causes intercept order, one of the best military tools available, that much more difficult to utilize.

I see numerous terrain spots where a new player could wonder what terrain is there. Additionally the various terrain colors could cause confusion, i.e., the golden forest in Oakendell.

Assuming similar starting areas, the movement of the cities is going to cause numerous early game changes.

With Viperhead on the other side of the sea, for example, it is the WI's city to lose, as few kingdoms could get a group there to stop the diplomacy. Is this a good thing or not? I'm not sure, but it does reduce options, both for the WI and for others, and fewer options are often a bad thing in these sorts of games.

Similarly, with the move of Zarathon, this reduces options for the DA, DW and possibly others. Overall the DW looks like he got the short end of the stick here. "Gurisek" is even further away and requires forests and swamps to tromp through.

"Triesa" is much easier to assault, as it is no longer tucked between mountain ranges. Same thing for Vanasheen; it has lost its protective shield of mountains. Again not sure if this is good or bad.

I am unsure if adding space the Avalon island is an improvement; much of the fun before was working with and around the restriction that it was only a single square of land there.

I miss the expansive desert in the south. It gave the area character. Back when we had a Nomads kingdom it also thematically fit.

[Ry Vor]

Posts your thoughts on the new Alamaze map, including strategic implications and your overall feeling about the first new map in Alamaze since the original was made in 1986.

Attaching map as file here.

-Awesome graphics!
-interesting changes on the seas and city locations
-Viperhead moving to the Island is cool
-Zarathon father south is nice
- Is there a new terrain type of hills or does some of the plains just have sparse trees?
-introduction of little islands is cool, wondering about those towers...
-City graphics are very detailed and look good

Can't wait to play on it!

Thanks Hawk. Main purpose here was to see if we Alamaze folk could create and implement a new map. Wanted to make aesthetic improvements to the map itself, if possible, while preserving the Alamaze Classic world and still providing some new strategic twists.

The intention is that this new map will be the normal map for Alamaze 2nd Cycle (Classic) games, and another new map entirely will be introduced for the 3rd Cycle.

Those hard core Classacists can still request a game on the original map, otherwise after this game and the first Newbie game, the new map will be used for Classic, Warlords, and Titans.

[Ry Vor]

First off it's looks alamazing! (sorry). Seriously very nice.

I guess I'll first have to ask, are there new terrain types now?

There are what appear to be hills, with the white little cap on little trees.
It might look like the trees in Runnimede and Synisvana could be jungle? Maybe hence the city name Jukanta?

And if you do have new terrain types I'll be excited to see new set ups and maybe new Kingdoms all together.

I love Viperhead on the other side of the Island. I'm not going to speculate about anyone's starting position getting better, in case you changed (going to change) that also.

Assuming the DW still has the same starting point, have you changed the Dwarfs troops movement rates? With all the cities now some what farther away, the Dwarf is set back turns before he could normally get armies to a another city. A little pet peeve of mine has always been the DW movement rates. To me they were designed with short little legs in mind. However in all, (every) fantasy series I have ever read, the dwarfs have legendary stamina, they can RUN for days and show up at a battle ready to fight at 100%. I would think that would be quicker then they are now

The short distance between Jukanta and Gundibar should be interesting, only one turn distance away militarily. While as pointed out by Titus, Zarathon is one turns march from 5 other cities. I would imagine in a hostile world like Alamaze Zarathons walls must be most impressive (Huge Defense) by now do to all the strife.

I guess my point is nice work, very well done

Thanks all, it's nice when an experiment seems to be going well.

There are no new terrain types: all the variances in a terrain are for aesthetic purposes. So jungle=forest. The usually sparse green with a few white trees is a plains variant, not hills or trees. Some marsh (dark green) have symbols like a jungle tree, some don't, etc.

The Horn Bridge is an intentional cross to and from Perdition Isle.

Some of the blue colored flavor marks are just that for now, but are begging future design considerations, such as, "The Key of the Maker is said to be lost within the Rainbow Wood."

Again, starting setups will be as you have seen in Classic. The Map itself is the change that we think will give you reason to consider new strategies, alliances, paths to glory.

A map tool will be made available that discloses the terrain of each area. Also, the PowerPoint symbols almost all players use will be added to the download of the map when the First Experienced Game begins.

[Kalrex]

It looks like neat map.

I agree with Davekuyk on several points, I think most are valid. I'm fine with a square map however.

Maybe too much random icons in a square. Most importantly I want the map to be readable. I'd like well defined lines so I can read the grid easily.

Viperhead, I like the move and even if positions remain as before the RD will contest the city as it's not a freebie for the WI. Also, with the added groups now in G117, Giants had a 10 brigade group on Viperhead against me Turn 1. That should be a standard move considering natural enemies and I expected him to arrive there but with some crazy huge group it's nearly a game breaker.

I like having the land squares in the Seas and the other city placement makes things interesting... The DW might be challenged to get anywhere but that also means it's harder to go get the Dwarves as well.

This assumes kingdom placement remains similar which I doubt.

The original map is elegant and this map looks like a fun map to play on.