Re: Olympia Question

From: morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)

Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000

gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
>This is true, and I actually think this is a design flaw. Hades has a
>limitation that makes it not useful for moving armies, but it's still
>better than gatecraft for moving rapidly -- I don't think anyone has
>spent much on Gatecraft. Faery, on the other hand, is one thing that
>blows the game wide open. The major difference between a fantasy and a
>space game, in my eyes, is that it takes a long time to cross the map
>in a fantasy game, but a short time in a space game.  Faery allows a
>stack to go between most 2 points on the board in about 6 turns.

I've always been an advocate of slow travel.  I'd personally prefer
that no unit be able to move more than 5 or 6 locations per turn
(e.g. make sea movement and, perhaps, flying take 5 days).

I like the idea that you can take a risk, get on a boat, and sail for
some far-off land to carve out a place for yourself.  I really hate
the idea that as soon as you get there, a large army (created by a
player who has spent time building instead of travelling) can march
out of the nearest Faery Hill and toast you.

>All this would be moot if Faery were "big", which is my prefered
>solution. Or if Faery acquired a limitation similar to what Hades has
>(100 gold per man or creature to enter).

My preferred solution has several aspects to it:

o  Only the big contenents should have gates, graveyards with links
   to Hades, and Faery hills all at once.  Smaller continents should
   missing one, two, or all three of these so none is an effective
   solution for every travel situation.  The small "dot islands"
   should have either one or none of these things.

o Require an elfstone for every noble or controlled unit that enters
  Faery.  If you don't have one, you can't enter.  Limit the number of
  men that any single elfstone can cover to a reasonable number (between
  10 and 30 is my guess).

Size is a good solution early in the game (as is hidden locations).
It becomes much less of a factor later on, once things are mapped
and people have things like ways to fly...

>Indeed. There's no "safe area" in Olympia, and lots of global warfare.
>BSE suppressed warfare too much, but Oly is really dangerous for the
>small guy. I don't have any brilliant solution for that one, though.

Oly would be better if it went back to erring on the side of the
defender to flee (like Oly I) instead of erring on the side of the
attacker to attack (as has been discussed, you can't really escape
someone who is in your location and attacking you -- they just keep
doing it until they get you or kill you).

>Well, 2 turns from now I expect to have virtually nothing. Until now,
>I was doing OK, with about as many noble points as a new faction.

I could either wind up with a mini-empire or get wiped out.  I'm not
sure which.

John Morrow

References

Olympia Question
CTSO17@email.mot.com (Mark Common)
Fri, 28 Apr 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia Question
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Fri, 28 Apr 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia Question
morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)
Fri, 05 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia Question
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Mon, 08 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000