This map is based on a creek that has dried up. The stream was very deep, and now that the water is gone, there is a deep trench which is perfect for hiding and moving around.

Mechanic:
Squares next to the trench (purple) block line of sight into and out of the trench (gold). To target the trench using line of sight, a krosmaster must be standing on a purple square.

Map Features:
Deployment spaces do not allow for any pushing.
30 kama, 6 RD, 8 trees, 8 bushes, 2 boxes

At least a map favorizing melee fighters.

You did not mention the attack without line of sight, Are they affected by the trench?

Can a melee attack touch someone outside the trench from it ?

Isn't the turbo at the 4th tiles from the left a little bit to much powerful? Providing a relatively safe spot ?

A really good idea that could become something interessant.
- Missing a melee rules,
- if you push 2, and the trench is 1. Are you going in the trench of "flying" over ?
- Not a big fan of the get one dice less in close combat when flleing.
- a rule about getting in and out of the trench ?! costing 1 more MP to get in or out ?!
- love the aoe changes ^^

didn't look at the "turbos" :/

I haven't decided about meelee attacks yet, but I think if one is above and one is below, even if they are next to each other, they are not adjacent. So they cannot attack. Range attacks will work though. So there are pros and cons of using meelee in the trench. You can get stuck, and then be attacked by Bill Tell and not be able to attack back.

Lose one roll for dodge only applies if you are trying to move out of the trench. I don't like the idea of costing additional MP to move 1 space. Some people do, but I think it slows down the game play too much. Giving additional power to lock seems realistic to trench warfare. Its close combat, and hard to escape.

There is no "flying" over the trench. If Srammy or Luk pushes 2, you fall into the trench and are up against a wall. You stop when you hit something.

Turbo's were left intact in some places on purpose. Having turbos available in select spots makes the game competitive. Stopping them also becomes harder, because Queen of the Tofu's cannot send Tofu's over the trench. If you dislike turbo, play to the other side of the map where there aren't any.

idea good
explanation good
little too much trees and bushes for me but a really good map i'd love to try

I made 1 change to starting placement. This reduces the the push to once instead of twice in one spot, but I'm leaving the double push intact along the side. I don't think it is usually too much of a problem. As long as both sides are the same, both can use the same tactic. Since it is not directly in the center, there is less of a chance of stealing all the kama by going first. Compared to the pit, the advantage of going first and getting most of the kama goes away.

Just to simulate the turbo on the left and be sure that you know it.
you go for example with merka, luk, srammy
srammy pushing merka 1,
luk move 3 and push merka twice,
merka gaining just 6 pm from his start spot can go and make 2 cross area effect (4 piercing armor) and potentially kill 2 kros without a turn played.

Merkators attack could not kill 2 krosmasters in this position due to the AOE being limited by the terrain (see AOE mechanic). Gaining 6 PM is excessive, but there is not much reward for this because he is in a limited position on the side of the board, and there are only 2 Kama for him to collect there.

Worst case scenario, he is able to kill a low level Krosmaster, but they must give up center control to do so. 6 +2 +2 level characters all stuck on the side and in their own starting corner. The opponent can easily sweep up a ton of Kama and buy the GG back if it was only a lvl 1 and take controlling position of the board.

Its a cheap tactic and may work on a newbie sometimes, but I doubt it will affect an experienced player.

I may look at reworking it later so he cannot be pushed that far. That is after all why I'm sharing it here, so thanks for your input!

Looking at the original base set boards, both of them allow the same exact same thing, except they don't have a mechanic that would stop Merkator from targeting multiple figures. I have never seen someone push the same figure 3 times in a row. Even if it is possible, I just don't see it happening. Maybe you guys have, but I don't see the point. I think most players prefer to go after Kama than the first attack like that.

totally forget the aoe mechanics there ^^
I agree with you, not worth it in that case

Excellent idea, excellent map, (altghough still focused on itty-bitty, gotta a problem with'em ? ^^) but the rules for the trench seems too complicated. Continue digging, you'll find it !

Nothing against itty bitty really. To me it just seems that when it comes to getting over obstacles they should be limited.

The most complicated thing in my opinion is calculating line of sight. That's why I made a diagram to show how it works.

Everything else is designed to be intuitive. Think about how something would work in real life. That's how it should operate in the game too.

I'm thinking of going the other way too. Maybe a mountain in the middle of the map?

I just realized I have to make the mechanic even more complicated now. If you look at my line of sight diagram, in the top right view, I calculated distance diagonally. A big no-no in Krosmaster. So to fix this, when you are targeting a square in the trench from normal ground level, you gain +1 to range. If you are on a box and targeting the trench, you gain +2 to range.

I'm now designing a map with a mountain in the center. There will be 2 elevations for the mountain. +2 and +4. You will need to use boxes to ascend the mountain. Line of sight at the top will allow you to see over trees!

Your idea is good but i think that going to hard on making in it realistic will add too much rules only for a trench.
For me, you should be able to play easily without having to ask yourself if you get +2, +1, if you get a los or not.
As my prof said, KISS ! Keep It Short and Simple. The less rules you had, the better your gameplay will be. Not as realistic but more enjoyable.

Agreed. I made a mountain map, and the mechanic is getting way too complicated. I'm going to try and simplify it to make it easier, otherwise there is no way it has a chance in hell of being picked. As for the trench, probably better to forget about changing the range around for ground level vs below ground level.

I would say :
LOS normal from trench square to trench square, LOS normal from normal ground to Normal ground. That's kinda obvious. The only "real" rule would be "no LOS from trench to non-trench" (or from non-trench to trench of course)

Without any further explanation, this naturally leads to :
"HTH spells are not affected (no need of LOS)"
"X spells are not affected (the spells that ignore LOS don't care anyway)"
"AOE are determined normally (only the primary target must be in LOS)"
Thus, range spells would never target a different "elevation"


This would function, wouldn't be realistic, but who cares ? (not me ^^)

If you want something a little mor realiscti you can say for example :
- normal squares adjacent to any Trench squares block LOS when determing LOS from trench to non trench (or from non-rench to trench). As the caster's square and the primary target squares never block LOS themselves, it would kinda work. visually then, all thos squares adjacent to the trench should be higlighted for better reading.

Ruppin a écrit:

As my prof said, KISS ! Keep It Short and Simple. The less rules you had, the better your gameplay will be. Not as realistic but more enjoyable.

I prefer Keep It Simple, Stupid

ChaF

My prof name was "Short" ! That's why

Okay then, forget about LOS into the trench from any space other than one that is directly adjacent to it. You have to be next to the trench to target it with a spell that requires LOS. That simplifies things greatly.

Standing next to it and not being able to target it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think its too overly complicated that you need to be close to a hole in the ground in order to see inside it. I'll also change meelee attacks to be able to target inside and outside. As long as they're adjacent, it makes more sense to say they can attack.

Lock will function normally, no additional rule making it harder to exit the trench. If you are adjacent and one is in the trench and one outside, they can still lock.  

I still like limiting the AOE to one level to prevent attacks from hitting both inside and outside the trench. This in addition to LOS rules makes the trench a good hiding place. If you can target next to the trench using an AOE and hit inside it, then it greatly diminishes the value of using it.

Mechanic and map on original post have been edited to reflect all changes thus far. Let me know if you think the mechanic is simple enough now, or if it needs further editing.

Moo-Moo, thanks for the advice about highlighting. Should make much more sense now.

Purple spaces represent where you must be standing in order to have line of sight into the trench. All other purple spaces block line of sight. Just because you're next to the trench doesn't mean you can see all of it! This is a two way street though. So if you're inside the trench, you can only see the purple spaces as well. Again, if your line of sight isn't blocked that is.

I have given an accurate explanation of this in the mechanic (see original post), but a picture is much easier to understand.

way better, much more easier to understand and u still have a really good map and feature to play with ^^

Doing some play testing now. I recently picked up alternate terrain, and since the logs require 2 MP to move onto and block line of sight, I'm thinking the trench could work the same way. 2 MP to move out of the trench, but into the trench is normal (1 MP). This should discourage the abuse of popping in and out of the trench, and encourage people to move along it instead.

I may use this rule and discard the one about Itty Bitty not being able to move out of the trench. Thoughts? Does the itty bitty rule only apply to Tofus? I'm not sure if season 2 or frigost will be adding more itty bitty summons. I'd hate to have a rule that only discriminates against the Queen of the Tofus.

with S2 rules, you could say that your itty-bitty rule apllies in fact to all summons....

But the trench rule is thick enough, you don(t have to include this itty-bitty special thing.