FTA Bonus on Highlevel Games means nearly Autowin

[Cookie]

(08-14-2012 06:54 PM)Alvendor Wrote:  I agree completely with everything said about the problem with FTA. But there are problems with the solutions suggested. To give the first player less wits severely limits the strategies available to P1 as he is forced to take the wit spaces. To give the wit spaces from the start to P2 certainly reduces the FTA but would far from eliminate it, remember that P2 still probably have to move units on them to defend them.

I am still curious about this assessment. This limitation only goes for the first turn, and P1 has a choice of doing something else if he wants to.

On the small boards, 2 wits on first turn means 1 wit on first turn, and 6 wits on second turn to do something other than taking bonus spaces.

On the big boards, 2 wits on first turn means 7 wits on second turn to do something other than taking bonus spaces.

There may still be a better solution out there, but limiting the wits for the first turn does not have any real problems in my opinion. Creating a single bigger turn for P2 is almost equivalent. Because it is kind of like P2 is the new player 1, getting a reduced first turn and then having wits for turn 2.

I think the problem here really lies in the bonus spaces, and how the players always want to guard them from the beginning. The battle seems fierce enough anyway, but there it is just a no-brainer whether to take them or not. On some maps, this makes the taking of wit spaces a bit scripted.

For new maps, this could be solved in many cool ways, like introducing a special unit for taking wit spaces, or by giving a player a wit space only when he leaves it But I guess that's another game...