I think walls are generally confusing a lot of people at the moment, so let me give a little bit of clarification on how they should be used. It is true that they are expensive, but when used properly they are insanely valuable and their costs needed to reflect that.
Enemies can not move diagonally. They will travel north, south, east, or west by a single tile when it is their time to move. Any manner of trees or rocks serves as an impassable barrier, just as it did to the Goblins, so you must imagine that the only places they can walk are the empty tiles of land. If trees existed at say, A2 and B3, enemies can not squeeze diagonally between them. The walls you place only affect that single tile they are built on. There are Many! places around the map where blocking a single tile would force enemies to travel back and around some clump of trees or rocks, these are the kinds of tricks you will want to employ. It would be prohibitively expensive to just pick an open field and build 5 walls side by side to block off that way in. Plan carefully so that you can block off the maximum number of ways in, while building the fewest walls. If done properly you could eventually block in your entire base so that no enemies could ever march upon it again! The reason you have to build 12 cheap catapults instead of 1 expensive ship is actually due to the power of walls. I needed to require at least 12 empty tiles to build catapults on, so that when walling in your territory you need at least that much space. I had to make sure people couldn't block in a tiny 2 by 2 area and actually win the mission that way. I have been adjusting my initial settlement placement each time I play, because there is a huge trade off between being farther from the map edges (where enemies appear), being close to resources, being close to water for fishing, and being in a spot that I can defend with walls as easily as possible. It is a Lot! to juggle, and I would actually love to hear some other people's strategies for picking spots on the map. I'm currently on the look out for the best spot to build so that I can defend it with the fewest number of walls. > Movement: Do enemy units move > diagonally, or only up and down? Will > scattered trees and the rock equivalent which is escaping > me at the moment > stop their movement, or does it have to be at least forest > and stony fields? > > > > I haven't built any walls in my first attempt at mission > three, their cost > seems prohibitive. Is this just me, or is this a > common perception? > > > > Also, be aware, there appears to be a bug in the shift-g > code that is > identifying pikemen as cavalry. I've submitted a > saved game file > demonstrating this to Jeremy, but be aware of it when > checking out your > enemies. > > > > > Chris Bartlett --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
