Central Sahara [15.0] is submitted for review.

[Igor]

New map: Central Sahara [15.0] by Igor.
Map editor link: Central Sahara [15.0]

[Igor]

Changes in central city, it is no more. Medium ruin is instead of it, with pegasi inside.
I put a look again on money in ruins. On my mind, central ruins with 1500 gold are digged too rarely for cutting this sum now. Also about medium ruin in corners, often hero leaves his corner without digging medium ruin, only 2 easy. That is why 1000 is still in medium ruin in corner.
3 elementals are still in ruin, but if future games will show that they will turned a game too much, then number of them will be cut to 2, the same as number of ruin defenders will

[tabanli]

I think we should also discuss Sandworm in neutral cities. Sandworm gives a specialized move bonus which is quite frankly gigantic in this small island. With a Sandworm, basically you move 3 times faster than any land units and 2 times faster than any flyers. I almost want to plunder the central city at the Island and start training Sandworms right away. That is an anti-strategic move but it would work. When you can do that, basically you will start get everything on the central island with all the ruins in it by turn 7. If it does, than everbody will imitate it and soon the game will be decided on whoever gets lucky at turn 1.

So, I would like to get a version of the map where there are no sandworms and cities has no sandworm training ability and compare.

[KGB]

Or just change it so that Sandworms can only be produced on the central island cities and not in your starting area. That delays the Sandworms until you conquer a city in the middle and are able to hold it for 3 turns.

KGB

[Igor]

Many games were on this map and, as I remember, almost nobody built sandworm at corner island. Some times were, but few only. Would be interesting to meet such tactic in games.
Good when sandworm is given as a start unit, it's rare case.

[tabanli]

I did in a training game. I was offered weak starting units so I could only start training Sandworm at turn 2. Just like I predicted, I was on the island at turn 7 with a Sandworm and I could take 1500 gold and 3 elements and plunder cities. With gold so early, I also got crazy hero offers with allies Red Dragons etc. We can play a non-ladder game if you want.

[Igor]

I don't sure you will have enough gold for sandworm. In my new 2 games, started yesterday, I had only 200-300 gold after getting 1-st hero at turn 1. So, no heavy units could be built.

[KGB]

Tabanli said that on turn 1 he moves directly forward and pillages the Spider/Ram/Serpent city for gold. That gives enough for Sandworm production.

KGB

[tabanli]

You can get Sandworm at your corner city in several ways.

1) With a good starting stack you can go and plunder the center city. That gets you to the Island at turn 5 with a Sandworm
2) With weaker starting stack, plundering the two side cities at Dwarf, Elf and Pikeman island also gives you enough gold. That also gets you there at turn 5. I am playing a game Sandworm Rush with ManGalorie and I am at the center Island at turn 5 with a Sandworm. It will take me two turns to clean the Island.
3) You can delay the sandworm one turn which makes more sense and could be a better strategy. The ruins gives you enough if you gold if you already save your startup gold. So most definitely you can do it at turn 2 and get to the island at turn 6.

You can get a Sandworm at the main Island at turn 7-8 by charging to the Kraken. You may get divine walk to your Barbarian at level 2 or train an eagle at turn 1 or get a seaserpent from the central city. You may attack to Kraken with your level 2 Barbarian at turn 4 or 5 and get a sandworm by the turn 7-8 (which is what Igor did in the game he won.)

But I think charging the Kraken 30/3 is much riskier even for a 44/3 strength Barbarian (25% chance to loose). And plundering your central city doesn't make you whole lot weaker. Infantaries don't mean much in this map as everybody gets a level 3 Barbarian with Chaos-Leadership support and with good allies. 2-3 extra at the central island means 3-4 scorpions, 3 elements and 1500 extra gold.

[tabanli]

I think there are just a few viable strategies for this map. Similar to all the small maps, all the strategies involve having a Barbarian as the first or the second hero. I would like to give my list based on my preference.

1) Spread at your island and built Sandworm at turn 2. You will be at the central Island at turn 6 with a Sandworm, level 2 Barbarian, another leadership-chaos-ambush supporting hero and some heavy cavalry. This is the safest way and I think we will see a lot of them.

2) Some version of attacking the Kraken with your level 2 barbarian at turn 3. This has some risks but minimal. When you get the city, build sand worm there. The advantage is you will still have some mobility at the Central island by the turn 4. We will see a lot of these as well.

3) Build sandworm at turn 1. This is a high risk high return strategy be cause you are putting all your Gold on sandworm and you will be lacking development at your hometown. Also second hero offering may come late. However in FFA games, that might be the best strategy. At 1 on 1, I have reservation.

The choice of the first and second hero (one of them must be a barbarian) depends on the starting island and starting troops. In either case, i think Ranger is out of the picture neither as the first nor second hero. Horse Lord offers sand leadership, Valkyrie is good for charging the Kraken, Paladin is multi-functional for ruins and Barbarian support, Dread Knight is good for plundering.