Pre-deployed maps

Here's another tutorial on pre-deployed maps. To begin, the definition of pre-deployment is you and your opponent(s) are given a set number of units with NO means of getting new units. That means there are no bases or ports.

Pre-deployed maps suffer from one major flaw: the COs. There are three COs that are favored in PD maps. The first is Kanbei. All of his units are stronger but expensive. Since there are no bases, Kanbei has no weakness. The second and third COs are Sensie and Hachi. Their powers allow them to make new units if they have buildings (Hachi is worse as he can make any unit for half price). There may be other CO's but they're cheep regardless if it's a PD map or not.

I'll be covering the four important (at least in my mind) points of PD maps: Balanced Deployment, Unbalanced Deployment, Terrain, and Buildings.

Balanced Deployment: Each player gets the same units. Firstly, try to vary what units you will put. An all infantry map (or any other unit) is bland and suffers from FTA.



FTA may not seem obvious at first, but whoever makes the first strike will win because the other player won't have the sufficient strength to ward off their enemy.



This map isn't perfect by any means but does add variety to the battle.

Unbalanced Deployment: Neither player has the same type of units. One example would be "TANKS!!!" from AW2 where Blue Moon has indirects, recons, and infantry where as Black Hole has a dozen Mid. Tanks



If you look closely at this map, Orange Star would be screwed without the pipes but since OS has pipes surrounding them, it gives them a few days of protection.

One last thing before I move on to Terrain. PUT APC'S! In most PD maps, you are given more units than buildings. So if you are in the need to refuel and restock and you don't have an APC, your only source for aid are the buildings. This becomes more apparent if you have sea/air units. Aside from their ports, the APC is the ONLY unit that can refuel sea and air units. You should have at least one APC for all teams.

Terrain: Since you won't have any bases, it is very important to use the terrain to your advantage. Certain terrain add defense to whoever is on that tile. Terrain bonuses go as fallow:

0 stars: Roads, Shoals, and Sea
1*: Plain and Reefs
2*: Forest
3*: Buildings
4*: HQ and Mountains



The center of the map is heavy in terrain while the outer part has shoals. Lets say you want to win by HQ capture. If you follow the roads, your enemy while most likely have his/her units in the forest, buildings, etc. If you try the shorter path, your units will lack any bonuses with the shoals.

Fun fact: Owned buildings do not discriminate. An OS unit can use a BM building and still get the Def bonuses.

Lastly, buildings. As I mentioned before, Hachi and Sensie get new units if they have buildings. Does this mean you should not have any buildings? Well...no. You should have a few buildings for the purpose of health and defense. Typically, having 3 owned buildings (that includes your HQ) is a fair number. And besides, you and your opponent(s) won't use Sensie or Hachi because of how cheap they are.

With that, we are left with only three types of buildings, HQ's (a must have since AW won't let you play a map w/out an HQ), missiles (in AW2 and DS), and Com. Towers (DS only). I really don't recommend having missiles, mainly because this gives the launcher a big advantage. Com. Towers...eh...I'm not sure. One is probably the most you will (and should) ever need. If you do plan to put missiles/com. towers in, put them in the center of the map.

Nice tutorial. Fortunately Days of Ruin doesn't have any CO issues so I recommend that game for PD maps.

People tend to shy away from PD maps due to the tendency of both players entering a ceasefire/campfest in which the attacker loses 99% of the time.

In other words: Stalemate issues. If there's a way to fix that, let me know. Best way of fixing that I can think of is to not have too many indirects.

The only solution is to play against the computer. They don't see the stalemate issue.

Another way is fighting an air/navel battle. STA anyone? Player one will want to attack because if all sides just wait, the last player is the winner due to the fuel issue air and navel units have.