Dragon Rush

[KGB]

I've noticed an interesting trend lately in Team Games that I like to call the Dragon Rush after the DLR Dragon Rush.

In many games the starting gold is around 1300-1500. With 2+ players that means 2800-3000 starting gold. I've seen several games now where one team mate gives the other a bunch of gold initially to buy a Dragon in their capitol on turn 1. If you can both pillage a city for a bit of gold on turn 1 it's even possible to get both players a Hero too since the total cost would only be 3100 (including tax and for the other player to buy a Lt Inf).

With this Dragon coming on turn 6 and many maps featuring VERY hard terrain you then proceed to Rush the dragon + Crows around capturing neutrals/attacking enemies who barely have 5-6 cities and 10-12 men of their own by turn 6-7.

KGB

[ezras]

yeah, I also am wondering if teams pool their gold and then get a better hero offer a few turns later. if there are 3 members on a team it makes it even easier. I was recently in a 3v3 and one team had 2 demons and 2 elementals by turn 6 or 8 seemed pretty obvious they were using a similar tactic. Not sure if there is any recourse or solution to avoid this, other than a higher tax on transfers...

[flash]

yeah, I also am wondering if teams pool their gold and then get a better hero offer a few turns later. if there are 3 members on a team it makes it even easier. I was recently in a 3v3 and one team had 2 demons and 2 elementals by turn 6 or 8 seemed pretty obvious they were using a similar tactic. Not sure if there is any recourse or solution to avoid this, other than a higher tax on transfers...

I was in that game too. I suppose myself they shared the gold to get better units / heroes. Its a legitim tactic, but Im not sure thats the way the game should go.

[piranha]

How about not allow players send gold until 4? With the increased price for dragons in B5 it should be a bit harder to plunder to get an early dragon.

[Moonknight]

Or a max transfer per turn of 300-500 gold. Enough to get a lone hero offer or upgrade a city's walls.

If we have this combined with not allowing such huge amounts of gold to start of the game in team play, it should solve the problem.

In addition, I actually think there should be a "vectoring"-type process for transferring gold where it takes x amount of turns depending on the distance between your closest cities; I don't think there would be wire transfers in this realm

[KGB]

Piranha,

I think the following things would help:

1) Restrict buying of 4 and 5 turn production units until turn 5.
2) Limit gold transfers as you and MoonKnight suggested. However rather than a fixed turn or amount why not gradually let it increase. Say 100 gold on turn 1 increasing by 100 per turn. So that by the time you reach mid game (turns 15-20) players can pretty much do what they want since at that time it would be nice if you found 2-3K in a L3 ruin to transfer 1000 or 1500 to a team mate.
3) Transfers didn't take place until the next turn (ie not immediately).

Your right that the increased Dragon cost will help too. Unless Beta5 is coming out soon, why not change the Dragon cost now in Beta4 to 2300?

MoonKnight,

I like sometimes having larger amounts of gold at game start so that every game isn't just hero + a crappy 1 turn unit. It's nice to be able to decide instead to maybe buy a Minotaur or even a Pegasi in your capitol or save it for a hero on turn 2 etc. Some variety is good especially in Beta5 where many other good units like SandWorms will be potential buys on turn 1 with 1400 gold. However if the less gold route is chosen (say 200 less) then the initial hero cost should come down slightly from 500 as well.

Ezras,

Higher taxes? What are you, some kind of socialist That's the standard Gov't answer to every problem and it's never the right solution.

KGB

[flash]

I like moonknight's idea to limit transfer too, but later on in the game you have bigger money stacks, so the riches can help the poor in team games. They dont have to do much more with it anyway. What about to cap the amount to be transfered to max half the full gold? Permanently. Its not that complicated to implement I guess, and should help - especially at the beginning - without taking this strategy fully out.

[kenc80]

haha i say let the free market dictate, no taxes and no limits after turn 3. There will always be rich and poor...let them help each other.

[SnotlinG]

Have just implemented the code to only allow transfers from turn 4 and onwards.

Its a very easy change compared to the other ideas, so we will start like this, and then if needed we will revisit the issue in beta6 etc