Four Lords [3.0] is submitted for review.

[Darkh]

New map: Four Lords [3.0] by Darkh.
Map editor link: Four Lords [3.0]

[TheVic]

I like this map, one of my favorite. There are 3 special cities, but in reality is only the Archon city possible to take. And why have red and blue Archons there? Please do not have multiple strong units in same city. Makes plunder to good if one is lucky early on. Demon +15 city that grows and are difficult to reach with catapult are just to strong. Dragon city in center is possible but very hard to take. OK as position is very good.

[KGB]

I have captured the Demon city one time due to starting with 2 Eagles and making Eagles immediately in my capitol and getting the Demon city on turn 4 before it got too powerful.

But yeah, it's really hard to take. But so what, 99% of games are won before any of the 3 special cities are captured anyway.

KGB

[Homerunner]

But yeah, it's really hard to take. But so what, 99% of games are won before any of the 3 special cities are captured anyway.

I think the best way to make special cities useful in this map is to cut out bridges and roads in the pheripery, so it would become harder to strike other gamers in the first turns.

[hungrytales]

This map gave me one of the best WB experiences to date. I started in the desert quarter (SE) and went for a strategy of a lot of RDs with GDs aided by a swarm of crows (it was before the new killer-demons) that I learned courtesy of some KGB's hints on the forum . Land troops consisted mainly of scorpions as I started on a desert (I don't think it was such a good idea, but still - it worked). This was the first (and only so far) time I played this map and I managed to hold off both adjacent opponents (Darkh among them ) even though the fourth one quit early giving them a lot of free space to expand. It was not only the first time I played the map, but also the first time I played the game in such an advanced stage (more than 40 turns) with high-end stacks and all that. It was ladder and I won it and it was great, but took a healthy serving of time to complete :>.

[KGB]

The biggest mismatch that takes place on this map is when a Sandworm is included in the starting units. I've had it happen once when I started in the Desert. I got a huge lead on the other players really fast that allowed me to win with little effort. Not much can be done about it unless all the sand is replaced with something else. But it's something to be aware of.

Otherwise I agree with HungryTales that this is a fun map for a 1v1, 2v2 or 4 player FFA game. Hardest starting spot seems to be the Nw (Black). Can't quite figure out why but I've never seen a winning player come out of that spot.

KGB

[hungrytales]

No sandworm in my game :>. Well, a sandworm is a big advantage almost on all maps. I got one in my ladder game against Darkh on Rivalry and surely it helped a lot with a quick expansion as it single-handedly captures weakly defended cities one by one like there's no tomorrow

[LPhillips]

Sandworm: 14 move, city killer.
Paladin/DK: rides the sandworm with 14 moves as well, gains tons of xp.
It's a great fast expansion unit on any map, and a hero booster.

I have played and lost from the northwest position, KGB. The travel times are all wrong. It takes too long to reach anything. Nothing is at quite the right distance (taking terrain into account) to conquer efficiently. And this is from a player whose cornerstone of play is fast expansion. Granted, the opponent who beat me is quite good, and the reason he won was catching my border campaign off guard. But expansion for the northwest player is highly retarded (in the literal meaning of the word, not "stupid"). Take an elf (who gets a bonus part of the way), and try to walk him from the bottom right black castle to the main interior road. It'll take you 3-4 turns. By the time you can do anything from there, other players are way ahead. At least a specialty unit like a wolf rider can cross from red's territory to the main area in a turn. It's basically the same for everyone except the northwest player, who has to wrestle forest, mountains, and swamp. Next consider the travel distance from his cities by the road to others; then compare it to his opponents'. It may be as small as 20% on average, but at 4-5+ turns to travel with hefty guardians along the way, along with slow initial expansion, he won't be getting above 6-7 cities for 20 turns. I only outlived 2 players because I searched every imaginable ruin way out ahead of my territory/army with paly+wizards.

[KGB]

LPhillips,

Your probably right about the NW position. I've never counted the squares to know if it's 20% further. I mostly just noticed that after your initial 4 cities it takes FOREVER to get any more because its so slow moving through the snow in the mountain pass and hard moving toward the interior. I also think the mountains surrounding the Demon city hurts too because you can't move south to that island of 3 cities between you and Green so you have to go around through those hills/swamp/forest you mentioned and you never get there first.

First time I played I was in the NW corner in a team game and despite starting with 2 Eagles, buying Eagles, finding Eagles in a close city and getting the Demon city very early we still ended up losing because we fell behind in the city race very fast. We did a rematch and by luck swapped starting spots and then we ran over them as easily as they over us. That's when I got the feeling something wasn't right despite it looking close to equal. Since then I have played another 6-7 games on this map (team, 4 player FFA and 1v1) and never has the NW spot won in solo or team play.

KGB