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2v2 Khyber Pass: Battle for the Ali Masjid Fort
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| Author |
File Description |
| As_Saffah |
Posted on 04/28/08 @ 12:41 PM (updated 10/12/08)
| File Details |
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| Game Version: |
AoE3+TWC+TAD |
| # of Players: |
4 |
This large skirmish map is based on the opening event of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Play style is normal supremacy, with a boost to whomever captures the Ali Masjid Fort.
Historical Background:
In 1879, Sher Ali Khan, amir of all Afghanistan, opened diplomatic relations with Imperial Russia. The British in India, gripped in mortal fear of Russian imperialism on their Northwest frontier, immediately made a counter gesture. Sher Ali shrugged it off.
Unmindful of the vicious tenacity of the Afghan front from 35 years before, the British and their Punjab and Bombay support regiments pushed westward, into the forbidding Hindu Kush range along the Khyber Pass. The Ali Masjid Fort was the key to the pass. Taking it was foremost on the minds of the British to open up a route to Kabul. Along the way they hoped to win the support of the local tribes.
Civilizations and Strategies
Play as British Punjab, east of the Indus, or Afghanistan and its allies, in the plateau to the west. Ally with any of four local tribes and use alternate passes to the north and south, to conduct early raids on enemy home towns. Solid versatile decks for 7 different civs let you sample the historical rivals in the "Great Game" and give you a wide variety of strategic options. This version supports 2v2 team, 2v2 compstomp, and 2v2 comp-ally team play.
Hold the fort with 10 or more units to get resource boosts and shipments of native allies.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Gen_John_Ross for original concept and deck help, and to MosheLevi and Koltedkead for multiplayer triggers.
Update: Due to pathing issues, the courtyard north of the Fort has been expanded and units may now move freely around and away from the Fort. If you already have a version of this map, the version 3a is meant to replace it.
Update 14 May 08: Players get a faster start with more resources. Map is visible (but in Fog of War mode) on start, to show where chokepoints are. More treasures are available closer to the starting TCs. Destroying the forts after getting the first shipment of reinforcements and resources was a problem. To discourage this, destroying the forts instantly causes that player to lose the game, so DON'T DO IT. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. This version (v3b) is intended to replace all previous versions.
Update 4 Jun 08: Gaia guardian units no longer randomly attack villagers in/around Kandahar. This version (v3c) is intended to replace all previous versions.
Update 12 Oct 2008: Fort reinforcements and resource tributes balanced for more fair gameplay. Countdown to next reinforcements added. Basically, players must hold the Fort for a little while before getting reinforcements, and won't get them instantly as before. Version 4 is intended to replace previous versions. |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| FenrisWulf |
Posted on 06/29/08 @ 07:10 PM |
| FenrisWulf |
Posted on 06/30/08 @ 03:51 PM
I found the game to be very playable, and enjoyed my 2v2 that I had when playing it. If it wasn't for the balance (see below) I would be more than happy to play it again. It still could use some improvement, though. I'm just not sure how.
Balance: 2
This is where I found the scenario to be lacking. The game itself seemed to be severly unbalanced. Whoever first gained control of the fort could just keep it forever and contunue to benifit from it untill the end of the game. The bonuses were so plenty and helpful that once I gained control of it I barley even needed to build an army afterwards. To make it even easier, I was playing as Russian and I advanced to the 2nd age first, built 10 sterlets, and was able to get the fort almost immediatly.
Creativity: 3
The game itself wasn't too creative, I found. It seemed to be like a combination of a king of the hill and supremacy game, both of which I've played plenty of times. I havn't seen a combination done before, though, and becuase of this I find it pretty unique. I also thought that the idea of putting real history into the game was cool.
Map Design: 4
I found this to be one of the highlight of the game. The creator of the map has obviously worked hard on the mixing of terrains and objects. I really found that the map looked beautiful in its own way, and also like how the area should look (I'm not positive on this, though, as I've never been anywhere near this area).
Story/Instructions: 5
The instuctions themselves worked out, and I found this game to score high in this category because of the story. Most games of this type don't have stories and don't requre one. This game went ahead and gave one anyways (although not directly stated in the game) wich I really enjoyed.
Additional Comments:
A fix to the balance would make me want to play this much more, but still, it was a very fun game. Thanks for letting me play/review it![Edited on 06/30/08 @ 03:52 PM]
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As_Saffah
File Author |
Posted on 06/30/08 @ 05:44 PM
Thanks for playing and rating my scn.
I've gotten 2 types of comments about the scn both in-game and in the forums.
The first type is by far the most common. "OMFGh4x" and "this map is ghey" and *resigns*
:(
The second is basically a uniform chorus of "fix the fort already!" So yeah, a lot of ppl had issues with the resource and mercenary shipments. It's indeed very strong, especially that first shipment of mercenaries which is easily twice what most people will have made from their barracs at that early.
My mate's been leaning on me to fix it so you no longer get resources, and the first reinforcements don't arrive until after a fair waiting period. Also, uncleeggs pointed out that there's no way to know that your opponent has the fort until you see a giant wave of elephants and chakrams coming down the hill towards your base.
So, a few fixes I agree with you. I still want to make the fort control important for the scenario. Otherwise people would just skip the fort and go straight for the undefended side paths. Any suggestions would be helpful, in addition to what my mate says. |
| FenrisWulf |
Posted on 06/30/08 @ 06:04 PM
I totally agree with what your mate is saying. If you make the first shipment take a while longer (3-5 minutes, if not more) then the initial army would be much easier to hold off. In fact, you might be better off increasing the increments between all of the shipments as well, so that you don't have such a huge army if you just wait a while. |
| MrMario |
Posted on 07/14/08 @ 06:38 PM
Playability: 3
No lag, and need to take away the blockade and the spies, so that you don’t cheat and see everything. Plus there was a problem that some players will take there vill’s and then make a base right out side the Khyber pass and it would make it so that the player would cheat and the game would not be fun. So I would suggest to make a tr that you cant build on.
Balance: 4
Balance was not all bad, most of the civ’s where balanced and should of made some building blocked so you couldn’t build them. Plus there was a problem that some players will take there vill’s and then make a base right out sid e the kyber pass and it would make it so that the player would cheat and the game would not be fun.
Creativity: 3
Good job, But it was just like MosheLevi’s game that he made. I don’t know if you or he had the idea first but it just looked like you copied the idea and then turned the idea around to make it yours. But other then that I liked how you had to capture the native villages and they will give you a hint in the game. I’ll give you a 3 on this for a great game that you made. =)
Map Design: 4
Nice looking map and layout. Like the mountains, hills and the water crossing.
Story/Instructions: 4
No Story why you needed to capture the Khyber Pass. Instructions where good for the most part even know you knew what do if you played MosheLevi’s Game. But there was some stuff that was new that I liked. Liked that part if you capture a native village you will have secret Passage.
Additional Comments:
Nice game to play and have some good time with your friend’s and to meet some new players.
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| danno_canuck |
Posted on 07/18/08 @ 04:22 PM
Wow This was a very fun CSO. I only noticed one bug, occasionaly when i was trying to get my troops out from inside the walls off the fort the gate would get congested and i would have to move my men 3 or four at a time otherwise they would just stay there when i told them to move. The whole concept of a capureable superfort that gives reasourses made this very entertaining.
Balance: 2
This was the only real minus on this CSO. The initial units that i got from the fort were enough to really hurt one of my enemies. i would significantly reduce the number of men you get from the fort. all i had to do was do a super fast age up and grab the fort and that was GG eventually. I think the reasorses from the fort were about right though. they map balance was good too.
Creativity: 4
I like the idea. The history of this war isnt something i know much about so it was nice to learn something. the idea fort was excellent. The use of Natives and secret passes was also nicely done.
Map Design: 4
NIce looking map. the Mountains looked really good although some of them were a bit too high IMO. the For looked cool and the rivers making a "no mans land" in between was cool too. i liked the twisty trade route throgh the pass as well.
Story/Instructions: 4
Nice story. HIstorical CSO are always the best storys. It had decent Cinematics, Your instructions were clear and too the point. I liked it.
Additional Comments:
YOu are one talented designer that is for sure. If you fix the fort balance you could have one fine CSO. nice job and keep up the good work. [Edited on 07/18/08 @ 04:24 PM]
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| danno_canuck |
Posted on 07/18/08 @ 04:24 PM
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As_Saffah
File Author |
Posted on 07/18/08 @ 04:34 PM
Thanks for the review.
I know that people do build forward bases and that's unfortunately part of the game. I wanted the map open in some areas, so if someone wanted to rush, they could.
Actually, the story behind this scenario is that my mate (Gen_John_Ross) was playing paintball on campus at UT-Mississauga and found a discarded paperback book on the North-west Frontier. At that time TAD was still just in rumour and we brainstormed how we could make a battle based around the Ali Masjid Fort. This was before anyone knew about KOTH mode in games. So initially we had the Fort a giant destroyable behemoth that spawned endless units that you had to kill.
As you can imagine, this quickly became boring so we were hunting around for ways to make the fort more important than just an obstacle. Moshe then designed Annihilation KOTH and I borrowed his trigger set, but did NOT want fort control as a victory condition. I opted for a normal supremacy game with a boost from the Fort, but if you didn't get the Fort, you could still win by recruiting natives and aggressively using the passes to the south and north. You get resources from the Fort to encourage you to grab it quickly, and you get reinforcements because some civs do NOT have the ability to create units from the Fort buildings, and need a garrison there.
As it turned out, both the garrison and the resources were OP so we're tinkering with nerfs. To discourage early forward building, we may decide to put guardians aroudn the fort, but this again is a Moshe idea, and I favor having to complete an objective first then go take the fort.
I hope I've credited Moshe with the appropriate amount of credit for using his trigger set.
If anyone has any ideas to discourage blocking the Khyber Pass, I'd be interested in hearing them. It seems odd that people are able to build directly on the trade route. This should not be possible. I can see if they were building a bit off to the side, just before the Pass goes through the mountains, like in and around Peshawar. That's a favorite spot to send dorks and control of Peshawar and sometimes Jalalabad is clutch. Maybe I should relocate them further away from the route so people can't camp out there. I don't want to block off the entire flanks of the Pass. For one, that's where Player 2 and 4's secondary hunts are at.
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| danno_canuck |
Posted on 07/19/08 @ 12:38 AM |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 3.6 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 3.7 | | Balance | 2.7 | | Creativity | 3.3 | | Map Design | 4.0 | | Story/Instructions | 4.3 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 424 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 2.07 MB |
| Added: | 04/28/08 |
| Updated: | 10/12/08 |
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