Abandoned Kingdom [9.0] is submitted for review.

[Moonknight]

New map: Abandoned Kingdom [9.0] by Moonknight.
Map editor link: Abandoned Kingdom [9.0]

[Moonknight]

Some major changes since the last version including:

*Additional city on the two main islands in the West.
*Increasing value of income sites in the West.
*Additional ruins in the West.
*Additional income sites in the dwarf/giant city in the mountain.
*A lava walkway along the entire map.
*2 Wizard guard on the level 2 ruin in the abandoned kingdom (reward also got decreased to 2 wizards).
*Level 3 ruin in the abandoned kingdom got moved into the lava area behind the main city.
*The main city in the abandoned kingdom got a devil added to it.
*Strength temple now has 3 medusas guarding it.

[KGB]

You should give some thought to setting the initial L1 ruin by the capitol to have a 'set' defender. Maybe 1 or 2 skeletons.

I am finishing a game on this map where I lost my initial hero there because the defenders were 2 Ghouls and my 11 UL hero died. It was a low gold start (600ish) and the loss of the hero meant no gold from ruin, no way to take cities (could only afford Lt inf on turn 1) and no item pickup. By the time I got a replacement hero it was turn 10 and game was over.

Since that ruin contains gold and holds an item on top it's a huge target that you don't want deciding the game if the player loses out on a fluke UL battle.

KGB

[Moonknight]

Or, you could say that you shouldn't risk your first hero in a low starting gold game and should have gone with the Ranger to be guaranteed safe.

[KGB]

You could say that. But then you can say that about every battle that you lose where you are 85%+ likely to win, that you should have added just 'a bit more'.

The reality is that the first 3-4 turns of every game are THE most important turns because if anything goes against you in an 'unlucky' sense the game can be over long before the players even meet. So as a map maker your job is to make sure the 3-4 turns don't decide games. That's why I prefer maps that have 'poor' cities by the capitol (trivial to conquer) and either no ruins or ruins with set defenders/rewards.

What Warbarons really needs is the ability to select gold starts (poor, average, rich) instead of them being random AND much larger initial starting armies (6-10 would be ideal). Until that time map makers pretty much have to have easy start spots and let the rest of the map be the interesting part.

KGB