Well this is my first map, and like the title suggests, there are many choke points in this map. The challange is not to find them, but also to hold them long enough for you to gain a tactical advantage. There are also some places in which a player must decide, whether to defend a cliff with towers or place an unguarded quarry.
While this map is not exactly realistic imo, I think I've managed to get the basics down.
-Some trees and shrubs, close to water but not right next to it.
-Stone from ruins, iron on high ground
-Fords from islands at narrow points in the river
-No cliffs popping out of nowhere.
To get the game running, each of the 8 players has a small force of troops, in addition to the base starting troops.
-Base troops +
-25 Spearman
-5 Archers
Choose where you want to start off carefully, as the bigger your land area, the harder it is to keep it safe from invasions. However, you would have more space to expand.
Another point which I like about this map is that each player has an abudance of only a single resource. For example, the cyan(light-blue) player at the bottom right has lots of stone, but barely any farmland. He has to decide where he should place farms in order to feed his people. Heading to the west would leave him open to an attack from purple. However, if he is able to defend himself well enough, he should be able to survive.
Similarly, the yellow player has lots of farmland, but is in danger of losing it to the orange and green player. With no stone or iron at hand, his defense will be pretty weak. A quick build up of his economy, on the other hand, should ensure that he can buy stone to protect himself.
Finally, I've not tested this map with bots yet. They should be able to cope though.
Updated this map due to a small bug. It should work fine now.
Lord Karpathea
Posted on 12/23/08 @ 11:26 PM
Hmm....well, it doesn't work with bots. The starting troops throw off their production and the small spaces screw up their building. Going to try it with a few friends then let you know.