Terrain Overview
From Gamedozer
Contents |
Introduction
You can’t be a good map maker if you don’t have a complete grasp of the terrain in the game. So here is a brief outline of the various types of terrain that you are able to place, and what some general philosophies behind their use are.
Plains
Plains are the most basic tile in Battalion. They offer no special bonuses in terms of movement and they also offer the standard defense of 1. Infantry, tanks, and vehicles all travel over plains with relative ease.
Roads
Roads offer zero defense (the lowest in the game) but provide the lowest movement cost in the game. Tanks and vehicles all get movement bonuses over roads, and roads are often the only viable way to get very slow units such as artillery to the desired location. Infantry receive no movement bonuses on roads, since their movement is the same except when traveling over mountains. In general, most primary paths in a map should be created with a road tile, since it allows commanders to get their troops to hot spots quickly and not be burdened down by needless delay.
Forests
Forests hinder the movement of every ground unit except for Infantry. However, they also provide an important defense bonus of 2. This means that forests should be laid carefully on a map near tiles with less defense in order to present strategic locations for commanders to place troops. Instead of a big block of plains, try laying some forests throughout them to create areas for troops to move through without compromising defense.
Mountains
Mountains are a unique tile in that only Infantry units can travel over them (except for air units). Mountains provide an extremely high defense of 4, rivaled only by Capitals and Reefs. They can be used to force land units to go the long way around areas on a map. In addition, mountains can be placed to encourage the use of infantry units in an attacking sense.
Cities
Cities are the basic building in the game. Cities, when captured by a commander, provide an income of 1000 per turn. They provide a large defensive bonus of three and will heal a friendly ground unit on top of it by 20 HP for free. The placement of neutral cities on a map greatly affects the strategy of the map. Map makers should carefully plan where they will place the cities that are “up for grabs” in the beginning of the game so as to not give the first player a clear advantage, but also keeping in mind that there does need to be some mechanism for offensive advancement on to these cities.
Factories
Factories are generally the most important terrain in the game. Control of an essential factory means that a player will be able to increase his ground unit production at a pivotal point on the map. This can often mean the difference between victory and defeat. Like all buildings, factories must be captured. They provide 200 income per turn and heal friendly ground units by 20.
Airports
Airports allow commanders to build air units. Like most other buildings, they provide three defense, but they only heal air units (ground units on them do not get healed). Air units can be very important in a game, so if you place a neutral airport somewhere you can expect both players to usually rush to that area. Airports provide an income of 200 when captured.
Harbors
Harbors allow a player to build naval units. Harbors provide three defense and can heal naval units on them. Naval units can also transfer through them, so as long as there is legal sea tile on either side of it (such as a shore or just sea itself) naval units can just pass through a dock. This allows a map maker to use neutral harbors as a sort of land bridge that both land and sea units can travel over (see the Bridges section for more information). Harbors provide 200 income when captured.
Capitols
Capitols have several uses in the game. First and foremost, they are the property that commanders need to defend the most because if they are captured the commander loses and the enemy commander who captured it gains possession of all of the defeated commander’s buildings. Capitols provide 4 defense, the highest for any building in the game, and heal any land unit on them. They provide a large income of 3000 a turn, meaning that capitols can be placed in unreachable places on some maps to increase the income for a player. They are great tools for map makers to give a commander some extra funds for a map where lots of air or sea units are required.
Deserts
The desert tile is the only tile in the game which every ground unit except Infantry can travel over. Desert tiles can be used to promote the use of Transports and to create a map with a lot of vehicle combat. Surrounding a factory with desert tiles makes that factory invulnerable to capture but also only allows a commander to create non-Infantry units.
Wasteland
The wasteland tile is a rather unique tile in that it provides 4 defense for any unit on it, but it also hurts units by 20 health each turn. Wastelands are good tiles to place in certain choke points in order to give a commander the option between taking the defensive position or saving his troops’ health.
Shore
The shore tile is the only tile that every unit in the game can pass over. Ground units, navies, and air forces all can pass over this tile without problems. Shores provide 0 defense, so units on them are particularly vulnerable. Generally, shores must be placed in order for transports to be able to land their troops (although they can also unload at harbors). Shores can also be used on maps with sea to give some extra room on the edge of islands for land units to maneuver. One interesting thing about Battalion is that a land unit can move across two adjacent shores, even if there appears to be a large amount of water in between. See the bridges section for more information.
Sea
There is not much to say about sea tiles except that all naval units can travel over it without problems. Sea provides only 0 defense, so it is risky to keep sea units on the open sea.
Reefs
Reefs are essentially the mountains of the sea. They are difficult for units to travel over (Frigates can not move on to them at all), but they provide a large defensive bonus of 4. Reefs also make large sections of sea look more visually appealing and can add strategy to naval warfare.
Bridges
Bridges are a lot like roads, except that they must cross over water and they do not provide the same movement bonus that roads do. They offer 0 defense, so units on the tile are at risk. See the bridge section later in the guide for more information.
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