Lately I’ve been preoccupied with the timewaster’s distraction of choice: computer games. Just one actually, an open source emulator for the classic Axis & Allies game. It’s called TripleA, and it’s plenty of fun by itself, even if the AI is no great shakes.
One of the great things about it is that it’s relatively easy to modify the game or create new scenarios based on the TripleA engine. I got the idea to try and create a TripleA version of an old wargame I love called Greyhawk Wars, based on the old Dungeons & Dragons campaign world.
Not being much of a techie I had to learn a few things and shed a few tears, but after a good bit of work I got it done and am pleased with the results (ongoing tweaking notwithstanding).
You can download the latest version of TripleA from SourceForge.net by clicking here. If you’re not familiar with Axis & Allies you might benefit from downloading the rulebook.
You can download the Greyhawk mod for TripleA by clicking here. Once you download it, unzip it. Copy the two .xml files into the Games folder in the main TripleA folder wherever you’ve installed TripleA. Copy the Greyhawk folder into the Maps folder in the main TripleA folder. When you run the game be sure to click on Help > Game Notes for the background info.
If you try it out, feel free to post questions or comments.
Holy Hell! This is just too rad for words. Greyhawk Wars as a videogame?! I am downloading this right now and plan to be playing it long after I should have gone to sleep!
I had to take some liberties. I hope you like it.
Great game. But there are a number of issues.
The map doesn’t seem like it was playtested thoroughly.
The two move for most land units, and the four for cavalry can lead to some unbalancing situations.
Also the Scarlet Brotherhood starts with WAY too many ships.
Whether it is the expanded or ‘unexpanded’ game there are a number of things they can do right off the bat to really screw over the other side.
So many that it is in fact unplayable unless the Scarlet Brotherhood player purposefully refrains from performing them.
Stuff like:
1) Taking Rel Mord 1st or 2nd round. Or forcing a ton of Nyrond forces to stay home. (non expanded)
2) Taking Irongate 1st round. (Expanded)
3) Or making sure Keoland falls in a hurry. (Expanded)
I really like the map, but in the triplea environment there are a number of problems.
I don’t know where you are playing but there are only a couple people in the triplea lobby that play this.
Fantasy maps are a hard sell, as it is WWII all the time there.
Needs a lot more play time to evolve to a balanced map, but where are the testers to come from?
Oh yeah, dragons are totally unbalanced. The other units work well, but dragons are total cheese.
I personally think the price should be higher, and they shouldn’t roll two dice.
Something like 15 cost, 5 attack/defend, 2 hit, and only a 4 move would work better.
And the ship move is totally excessive as well. Six move? If you are sticking with the increased move rate for all units, 4 move just like cavalry would be far more in line with the rest of the game.
Thanks so much for the feedback, sunbeam. I put this out there and haven’t touched it for a few months.
The map is a bit buggy in connections between certain territories. I’ve never been able to resolve it and I’m open to suggestions.
I had posted it on the old tripleadev.org forums but I guess those are defunct. I should probably post it on the forum at sourceforge to see if others agree with your suggestions on balance.
Dragons started out with a higher cost, but it was never worth buying them compared to buying 5 light infantry. Their current move is probably overboard.
I can see what you’re saying about the Scarlet Brotherhood–I may have been overcompensating for their being stuck on an island more or less. I’m wondering if placing Iron League before Scarlet Brotherhood in the turn sequence could help balance in the expanded version.
I took a look at sourceforge (since I didn’t know tripleadev was gone) and saw your post.
I hope you get feedback, but only 3 people that hang out in the lobby play your map, and I don’t know how often any of us visit sourceforge.
As to why only 3 people play the map, I can’t answer that. Probably 4/5’s to 9/10 games in the lobby are revised at any time. The others will usually be some version of the NWO map. Once every two days maybe someone will play Great War.
The Middle Earth map used to be played but I haven’t seen it in forever.
Basically if it isn’t WWII…
I think your idea about the Iron League going before the Scarlet Brotherhood would fix the problems with the Brotherhood’s ships.
But on the other hand:
1) There is a good chance the Iron League would take Idee, if not round 1, in a fairly short order. I think they run that peinsula very quickly if they go first.
2) The Great Kingdom has it’s hands full with Nyrond. When the Iron League and Nyrond can concentrate on the Great Kingdom, it usually falls quickly.
I’m not sure what you do about the Brotherhood. Either they are too strong, or they get stomped on. Funny situation for them.
I know you based the map on Greyhawk Wars (I hadn’t even known there was a boardgame like that), but the map and alliances make some bad combos for some of the alliances.
It really helps when allies can help one another. Looking at the alliances, Nyrond and Iron League can help one another easily. It is usually a long time before Keoland or Furyondy see one another. The Great Kingdom and Iuz are in the same boat. Scarlet Brotherhood and the Pomarj can help one another. But then again the Scarlet Brotherhood can’t readily fight two enemies at the same time.
Also, probably the biggest reason the 6 move ships make me uneasy, is that it is an advantage in this game to not have your capital accessibly by ship.
Iron League, Nyrond, Barbarians and Pomarj are vulnerable to this. While Iuz and Zeif are on the water, they aren’t really the way the map works. Great Kingdom, Scarlet Brotherhood, Furyondy have capitals that they don’t have to worry about an ally taking out a blocking ship and losing the capital, or having to keep 10 infantry and a giant in the capital at all times.
Well anyway I wish I had more, but that is all I have. I can tell you this map works far better with the ai than most. If you delete the factories on islands (Iron League, Great Kingdom), and make the Vast Swamp passable you can get a good fight going.
But when you do that, usually Keoland winds up fighting Nyrond and the Iron League. Keoland is probably the strongest country for some reason in that. I think it is because Pomarj goes after Furyondy (for some reason), and their is a load of money in the Sheldomar Valley.
You need a version of this map where everyone starts with just 1 terroritory and a base.
there are to many maps out there were u start with a board FULL of units..
y do i want to play an unfair and already played map?!
its much fairer on every1 if they all start equally..
add a few more units for variation too ^_^
oh and like that guy said before sum units need adjusting abit..
or keep them as they are but just up or lower the price so that, not alot or many of those units can be made easily in a game.
Hi bo,
I’m still considering what to do as far as balancing units, etc.
In the meantime, if all you want is a map with each player starting with one territory and a factory, I went through and just scrubbed the other factories and the ownership on the extended map to do that (without making any adjustments in starting unit deployments).
You can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?mdy2y2mnzh2
Enjoy