Marmot
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Recently, I completed the map “The Rise of Power”. It’s an old map (2001), “classic” in nature, and very easy (but this became clear only after some time), and today, it only interests beginners. But due to a couple of interesting moments, it’s still worth talking about it a little.
The gist of what’s happening: Necromancers have captured the capital of the kingdom, but loyal people managed to take the sacred relic, the Grail, and bury it in the ground. Your task: find the Grail and return it to the capital. This is the first condition for victory.
The advantages of the map are that the author has thought a little about the backstory and the topography of the world, and there is a choice of which faction to play (you can even play as the “bad guys”).
The disadvantages are the very weak guards (with one exception) and the random location of the Grail.
I chose Rampart (Green). The game is played in alliance with Tower (Blue) and Castle (Turquoise). At the start, we have Jelu and a number of sniper dwellings. Blue has Wizards, but he frees the Dragon from prison a little later. Attacks from enemies can be expected from several directions. Necromancers can attack from the Dungeon, but a purple border guard blocks their path.
I immediately had to remember how the AI searches for and digs up the Grail. Obelisks, visited by any of the allies, reveal pieces of the puzzle map to all allies. Soon it became clear in which player’s zone the Grail was buried: it turned out to be Red, who has Inferno. I need to get ahead of him. As soon as I was sufficiently prepared, I went to Red and captured 2 of his cities. The surviving hero sailed across the sea. I relaxed, and in vain. Important tasks arose: I needed to repel attacks from enemies from the sea and from the north. I repelled 2 Turquoise Castles from the enemy, but he, left without cities, soon disappeared.
Blue’s second Tower turned out to have a Dimension Door! After a while, I got there and learned it. Resurrection and City Portal appeared in the second Castle. And in the central Tower, the capital captured by the Necromancers, there was Flight (surprisingly, they didn’t use it)!
The Blue ally was performing some strange actions on the lava. It wasn’t immediately clear to me that he was digging up the Grail. And soon he dug it up! And brought it to his Tower, placing it there. Victory according to the first condition became impossible, but a view of the entire world opened up. Now all that remains for me is to defeat all the remaining enemies. Blue helped me with this: I can see where they are and where to go. He didn’t want to fight the enemies, only later did he capture one enemy city.
After that, I simply went around the lands of the remaining enemies and defeated them. Only before the finale, after breaking through the anti-magic garrisons, I captured the “secret” neutral Castle in the Dungeon, next to which lay many valuable artifacts. Here I first saw another interesting moment (for mapmakers to take note!): if the garrison belonged to an ally, we could freely pass through it, but if the ally was destroyed, the garrison becomes neutral, and we will have to fight it to pass!
After capturing the Castle (its guard was simply funny, especially in comparison with the passed garrisons), I finished off the last enemy, and I was congratulated on my victory. This happened on the 101st day (4-3-3). I wasn’t in a hurry, otherwise I could have easily set a record for completing the map.
Despite the lack of serious enemies, my main hero was able to level up greatly by visiting upgrade locations, and because he was an intelligence specialist, Ellezar, he had a lot of mana: initial skills 43/48/66/51, 3774 mana after visiting a magic source.
So, conclusions: the map could have been much better if the author
1) had placed adequate guards everywhere;
2) had prevented enemies or allies from digging up the Grail;
3) had made it impossible to simply learn Flight and Dimension Door in the players’ cities (they could have been given, for example, in a seer’s hut next to the “secret” Castle).
The gist of what’s happening: Necromancers have captured the capital of the kingdom, but loyal people managed to take the sacred relic, the Grail, and bury it in the ground. Your task: find the Grail and return it to the capital. This is the first condition for victory.
The advantages of the map are that the author has thought a little about the backstory and the topography of the world, and there is a choice of which faction to play (you can even play as the “bad guys”).
The disadvantages are the very weak guards (with one exception) and the random location of the Grail.
I chose Rampart (Green). The game is played in alliance with Tower (Blue) and Castle (Turquoise). At the start, we have Jelu and a number of sniper dwellings. Blue has Wizards, but he frees the Dragon from prison a little later. Attacks from enemies can be expected from several directions. Necromancers can attack from the Dungeon, but a purple border guard blocks their path.
I immediately had to remember how the AI searches for and digs up the Grail. Obelisks, visited by any of the allies, reveal pieces of the puzzle map to all allies. Soon it became clear in which player’s zone the Grail was buried: it turned out to be Red, who has Inferno. I need to get ahead of him. As soon as I was sufficiently prepared, I went to Red and captured 2 of his cities. The surviving hero sailed across the sea. I relaxed, and in vain. Important tasks arose: I needed to repel attacks from enemies from the sea and from the north. I repelled 2 Turquoise Castles from the enemy, but he, left without cities, soon disappeared.
Blue’s second Tower turned out to have a Dimension Door! After a while, I got there and learned it. Resurrection and City Portal appeared in the second Castle. And in the central Tower, the capital captured by the Necromancers, there was Flight (surprisingly, they didn’t use it)!
The Blue ally was performing some strange actions on the lava. It wasn’t immediately clear to me that he was digging up the Grail. And soon he dug it up! And brought it to his Tower, placing it there. Victory according to the first condition became impossible, but a view of the entire world opened up. Now all that remains for me is to defeat all the remaining enemies. Blue helped me with this: I can see where they are and where to go. He didn’t want to fight the enemies, only later did he capture one enemy city.
After that, I simply went around the lands of the remaining enemies and defeated them. Only before the finale, after breaking through the anti-magic garrisons, I captured the “secret” neutral Castle in the Dungeon, next to which lay many valuable artifacts. Here I first saw another interesting moment (for mapmakers to take note!): if the garrison belonged to an ally, we could freely pass through it, but if the ally was destroyed, the garrison becomes neutral, and we will have to fight it to pass!
After capturing the Castle (its guard was simply funny, especially in comparison with the passed garrisons), I finished off the last enemy, and I was congratulated on my victory. This happened on the 101st day (4-3-3). I wasn’t in a hurry, otherwise I could have easily set a record for completing the map.
Despite the lack of serious enemies, my main hero was able to level up greatly by visiting upgrade locations, and because he was an intelligence specialist, Ellezar, he had a lot of mana: initial skills 43/48/66/51, 3774 mana after visiting a magic source.
So, conclusions: the map could have been much better if the author
1) had placed adequate guards everywhere;
2) had prevented enemies or allies from digging up the Grail;
3) had made it impossible to simply learn Flight and Dimension Door in the players’ cities (they could have been given, for example, in a seer’s hut next to the “secret” Castle).
Воскресайте, камінні душі, Розчиняйте серця і чоло, Щоб не сказали Про вас грядущі: їх на землі не було…
(Василь Симоненко. Люди – прекрасні)
(Василь Симоненко. Люди – прекрасні)
