AWBW Global League - Mapping Analysis general thread

[Best Sakuya NA]

I'm going to do a mapping analysis of the current AWBW Global League maps, why they are good, and why other maps that are not them are generally bad.  I think that with the current situation, it's pretty important to maintain knowledge so we don't have to start from square one if and when we migrate to a different AW game. I don't know much about programming or networking, but I know my game design when it comes to mapping and balancing.  It pains me to think about an AW based game with a competitive scene with less than stellar maps, which is often the case.  It's an often overlooked, under-researched, and misunderstood part of what makes AW good.  

It pains me to think about an AW based game where the average new player still doesn't know what "FTA counter" means.  We're looking down the barrel of that potential situation, and as I get older I'm getting less and less free time to help educate people on stuff like this, and that's scary.

So I'm going to do that at some point, likely going with the format of 1 map per post.  When I have the time.  In the meantime, have a look at the current AWBW Global League maps in simple picture format.  All of them are solid, and none of them should be forgotten, especially some of the older ones.  All of this information will be fairly applicable to most AW based games.

LINK HERE YAY: AWBW Global League Map List

Edit: I love that people are actively posting their own analysis on maps here! That's genuinely great news, and it's always great to hear from the AWBW community.

 

[the FANG]

Distant Memories
I think that it's too easy to build rockets and start defending on this map. Also, because of the two ports in the middle part, it's very likely to become a b-ship game. Though it's a map looks pretty, I don't think it can be a GL map.
rockets:tanks=29:335~=1:11.6
(This value may show the problem roughly)

Sandland
This map has the same problem as the above-mentioned one. All roads on this map are too narrow and there are many defensive terrain, such as pipes, rivers, mountains. I hope this map can be improve to makes it more interesting.
rockets:tanks=31:385~=1:12.4

Stormiest Glen
Honestly, I really like this map, which provide us 4 choices at the beginning. Many players showed interested on this map, but after many games, we found that in these 4 choices, actually only 1 choice are available to players.
>Choice #1: 4 cities. This can provide 4000 incomes in the shortest time. But you will loss the airport on the island, and have no income advantage in long turns.
>Choice #2: 1 city, 1 port (and your opponent's airport). This is the best choice to most COs. Firstly, you can certainly capture your oppenent's airport, which means you decrease 1000 incomes of your opponent and have 3000 incomes in long turns. Which can be considered as a choice which provide you 4000 incomes. Also, you can build a lander(12000G) and have a Anti-air(8000G).
>Choice #3: 1 city and 1 airport (and your opponent's airport, and the resources of choice #2): This choice is for Sami and Sensei, whose T-copter has 7 move points, which ensure you capture your opponent's airport.
>Choice #4: 1 city, 1 com-tower, 1 missile. It's too hard to attack on this map. Rockets can defend all the cities with a perfect position within 1~2 turns after built. Also, it's not very necessary to have 2 com-towers.
Three suggestion: 1, set sami too top or broken tier. 2, Adjust this map to balances this four choices. 3, remove some mountains and provides more chances to attack.
rockets:tanks=82:840~=1:10.2

Enuma Elish
I don't like this map personally. But I think this map is rather more playable than the 3 maps above. I think this map is too hard to defend on the 2 side roads, which makes the vast central part useless. Also, the incomes is low on this map, so it's not easy to buy a T-copter or a blackboat to capture the tower. I think it will be better if the weak side have more "depth" to defend, and at least have more chance to capture the cities.

[Everdan]

http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=58352
My comments on Sandland:

Okay so I've played a couple games on the map, which isn't a lot, but I've noticed some things about how the map plays out. It seems like the map is basically about controlling the centre right from the start and doing everything possible to keep control of it, largely because the top and bottom fronts have no other good way to communicate, allowing the controlling player to divide and conquer his enemy. From my limited experience, this will give the occupying side a near-decisive advantage since he has substantially more flexibility in troop deployment options.

Because the HQs and towers are also located in the centre, I think the map heavily favours central deployment over deployment to the sides, where there's maybe just one realistically contestable city on the top front. It helps that both top and bottom have easy routes to access the centre, unlike some other maps (e.g. Battle of Thermopyrae) where one base is cut off from the others. I've spoken to Walker about this, and he also thinks that even if the map was redesigned to favour side deployment, it would stale because the sides are too cramped.

Since this strategy of central occupation is fairly universal I think the map should be removed from the League rotation, because I believe you will see fairly uniform and uninteresting openings, unlike some other truly good maps (say, Mori's map Baelor.) And I think that kind of defeats the purpose of having rotation maps in the first place.

Here's a game for reference.
http://awbw.amarriner.com/game.php?games_id=223327

Evidently, Amber Blaze's strategy of occupying the centre with tanks and dividing the enemy forces in half paid dividends, as AB was able to assign copters to the top front where PL lacked AAs, and assigned tanks to the bottom front where PL lacked sufficient arties and mechs. As a result, PL's
forces were rendered ineffectual. Ultimately this proved decisive.

So in conclusion, it's a decent map, but not worthy of GL status.

//Posted upon request by Walker.

//On a minor note, Rachel should be moved up a tier on this map, because her missiles are going to hit super-hard in that cramped fighting area in the centre. Lash will love fighting from all that heavy terrain in the centre, and can be moved up a tier as well. The terrain also makes footsoldier + indirect a good combination, making Sami very good as well, especially since she can mech spam from the base near the centre.

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