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Author |
File Description |
Cheerful Chum |
Posted on 07/27/00 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Version: |
Age of Kings 1.0 |
Style: |
Build and Destroy |
Number of players: |
5 |
[b]Relic Central V ![/b]
5 Player FFA
Hello all! This map is the latest and best in the RC line of multiplayer maps. The RC maps have always given significance to tactical military warfare, while decreasing the significance of economy. This was done to give the Economy dominated AoK a fresh breath of life.
[color=brown][b]Download Link:[/b][/color]
The Map: [url]http://www.geocities.com/sundisoft/rc5.zip[/url]
The Sound Files: [url]http://members.xoom.com/sunnyverma/rc5sound.zip[/url]
[b]To Download:[/b]
1. Right Click on the link
2. Select "Copy ShortCut"
3. Go to the URL space and paste the URL
4. Press enter to download.
The Map goes in the ".../Age of Kings/Scenario/" directory.
The sound files go in the ".../Age of Kings/Sound/Scenario/" directory.
[color=brown][b]The Map:[/b][/color]
[IMG]http://www.geocities.com/sundisoft/minimap.bmp[/IMG]
As seen in the above picture, the map can be broken down to three major parts.
a) The Relic Hill
b) The Central Ruin Hill
c) The Player Bases
[b]The Relic Hill[/b]
The Relic Hill is somewhat like a spiral staircase, where you reach the top after completing two circles around it's center. The topmost point (elevation wise) holds relics, which need to be garrisoned in the monasteries located further north.
[b]The Central Ruin Hill[/b]
This hill serves as a battlefield for the armies coming out of the Fortresses. Elevation plays a very important role when the infantry is well supported by archers. All the players have to go across the Central Ruin Hill to reach the Relic Hill. Therefore, control of this hill becomes important early in the game.
[b]The Player Bases[/b]
Every player has:
6 Barracks
2 Ranges
2 Stables
1 Castle
Apart from that, each player starts with a king and 8 villagers. If the King dies, you lose the game. The villagers are for repairing buildings and making outposts. The villagers are important as you cannot [b]build[/b] any military buildings, just "rebuild" them.
The buildings are given in this amount because it reflects better on the medieval warfare. Like real battles, the armies that are seen in gameplay are basically Infantry based, with cavalry and archers providing support.
In addition to these buildings, every player has a Monastery at the very top ( north ) of the map. These monasteries are indestructible, as they pop up right after you have razed them. Attacking them however makes sense because they will un-garrison the relics they hold.
[color=brown][b]Starting Conditions:[/b][/color]
Every player starts in Feudal Age with the Max possible Food/Wood/Gold. 1000 stone is provided.
[color=brown][b]Objectives[/b][/color]
The objective is to kill the king of your opponents, and thus become the sole ruler of the land.
[b]Four Important Things to keep in mind:[/b]
*+* You would need relics to advance through the ages. Get 5 relics and your people would celebrate the dawn of the Castle Age... get 10, and you shall witness the wonders of the Imperial Age.
*+* Your troops would get better as they get more number of kills under their belts.
*+* You cannot produce Monks or Trebuchets from your base. However, you will never run out of monks. As soon as your monks die, they will reincarnate themselves within your base.
*+* Bring the monk near the ruins on the central hill and they will teleport a clone near your monastary on the corner of the map. But beware, too many monks can encourage religious fanatics to strike... and all your monks will die. You cannot just walk your monk to the Relic Hill, you will need to teleport him.
*+* That said, you will need to strike the winning balance between offence and defence if you wish to succeed. Throughout playtesting, the player who controlled both the hills (Relic and Ruin) was the one who emerged victorious. But do not go all out offence, as a small army in your base can destroy your infrastructure... which cannot be rebuilt.
*+* You cannot build a TC.
[color=brown][b]Hints and Tactics[/b][/color]
This map is all about options. I have worked hard to mould the map so that a "Rock/Paper/Scissors" environment emerges while gameplay, and IMO I have succeeded. There are basically four basic strategies that you can execute in this map:
[color=maroon][b]*+* Relic Based Win[/b][/color]
The player pays greater attention to the Relic Hill and tries to advance quickly through the ages by collecting relics before his opponents. Of course, every player will be keeping his eyes on the Relic Hill... but a player going in for this tactic commits a stronger army to guard the Relic Hill. He then tries to gather the 5 Relics as quickly as possible, before the opponents have a chance to get through the heavy fighting in the Central Hill and challenge him.
[i][b]Strong Points[/b]: If timed right, the player shall be in Castle Age before the others. This enables him to build Knights & UUs. Thus improving his Army production Infrastructure. If a Player who has reached castle early is not checked in time, he will roll away with an easy victory.
[b]Weak Points[/b]: A player sending a large army to the Relic Hill, away from his base risks being completely overrun by a dedicated [b]Base Attacker[/b] who has timed his attack well. You may have the relics, but if you do not have a base, you are dead.[/i]
[color=maroon] [b]*+* Kill Based Win[/b][/color]
The player strives to keep total control over the central Hill, thereby denying the other players a chance to teleport their monks over to the Relic Hill. Meanwhile, he is raking in the kills and slowly improving his army. The Kill based technology upgrades tend to increase exponentially... you have more kills means that you have a better army which in turn means that you will get still more kills. The other players need to realize that after a while engaging a such a player on the Central Hill becomes harmful... as the un-upgraded armies are just "feeding" the stronger army of the Kill Collector. They need to shift their tactics... like go for the relics, or attack him at his base!
[i][b]Strong Points:[/b] A player practicing this strategy will hold a significant advantage over the one who chooses to go all out defense/offence.
[b]Weak Points:[/b] Raking in kills takes time. If an opponent is successful in collecting >5 relics before your army is sufficiently upgraded, you can be in for quite a bit of trouble... if you do not act fast.[/i]
[color=maroon] [b]*+* Defense + Strong Base Attacks[/b][/color]
The Player does not commit his armies to offence early on, and waits till he hits the pop limit of 50. Then he waits to strike the fatal blow... as soon as he feels confident enough that an opponent has sent his armies away from his base, he sends his army to his base and starts attacking his military buildings. If the opponent army is not close by, he can completely disable the army production of an opponent. Even a single barrack destroyed means death for the opponent if the battle ever boils down to a 1vs1, provided you
both are in the same age.
[i][b]Strong Points:[/b] This can really put the player going for the relics out of the game for good. Once you have the building advantage to your side, you can keep the pressure on the wilting opponent till youyr faster production rate makes it impossible for him to keep up... while giving you free kills in his desperation.
[b]Weak Points:[/b] While you are waiting to strike, other players are collecting kills and upgrading their armies. Moreover, if the opponent can hold out long enough against the first wave of your attack, he will gain the advantage as the battlefield is closer to his buildings that yours.[/i]
[color=maroon] [b]*+* Stupidity based Loss[/b][/color]
While practicing this strat the player safely ignores the reminders to read the instructions/hints ionce he starts playing. Therefore he is unable to fathom the whole point of the game. He is surprised why he cannot build anything except OutPosts, curses the game designer when his TC is destroyed immediately after getting built, feels very upset after his monk is killed & starts to shout when people attack his monastery.
He also swears when he sees his monks getting killed trying to reach the relic hill, and does it again when his monks die because he has too many monks. Finally he infers that the whole scenario is rigged by all the other players... an promptly resigns.
[i][b]Strong Points:[/b] Life becomes much simpler. Its always easy to just play the game like a machine without thinking about it. Such players have lots of other important things to do, like figuring out why 2+2=4, and cannot be seen wasting their time with such moronic scenarios where you have to think a lot.
[i][b]Weak Points:[/b] Such players will never be able to get hold of a wife with a Sports Car, and if they do... they will never be able to drive it, as they never bother to read the operating manual. ;)
[color=maroon] [b]*+* Balancing Issues[/b][/color]
[b]Civ balancing[/b] Nearly every civ is equal in this map, but there are certain strong ones:
Britons: Faster Ranges & Greater Range of foot archers
Vikings: Stronger Infantry
Goths: Faster producing Infantry
Turks & Byz: Excellent Anti-Infantry UU
Japanese: Faster attaking infantry.
Celts: faster Infantry
[b]Base Placement:[/b]
Players four and five have the advantage of being at the corners, and so they need not worry about getting attacked from both their neighbors together, but at the same time they are far from the central hill which takes away their attacking edge. They can also sneak past the central hill and send the army directly to the relic hill.
The other three players have to worry about getting attacked from two sides, but are closer to the central hill.
[b]All said and done, I do hope you enjoy playing this map on the zone, over and over again :)[/b]
[b][color=brown]Credits[/b][/color]
A big thanks to [b]Dead_Mythos[/b] and [b]iNsAnE_umm[/b] both of whom have played this map many times with me and always offered useful advice. Indeed, any of the features you see in this map now are a direct result of such "balancing" talks.
All the people who helped me playtest this map. I cannot hope to remember all of their names, but here is a sincere attempt: (In no particular order)
Vaidency
GoldChalice
ProvostB
Kyaia
tonto_Samurai
Confused_Saboteur
Celtic_Boru
Legion
Czarempire
The Hyper Duck (sorry ;))
MPC_Blackadder
NRK_HotPants
MFO_MrFixit
ironLotus (sorry;))
;)
Cheers!
:):):):):)
PS. I shall be very grateful if someone would review it.
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Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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War_SythVic279 |
Posted on 10/07/01 @ 12:00 AM
Pretty Good Map! Good EFFORT! When Your Byzantine the balance sort of falls apart because the cataphracts kill archers and infantry so badly. Still, this is a worthy download. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 546 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 119.09 KB |
Added: | 07/27/00 |
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