This is a consolidated thread from other areas.

Topic is to be able to create specialized territories with regards to unit placement. So far the proposals can be split into two groups:

Barren - these territories would NOT be able to accept unit placement from player bonuses each turn.

Spawning - these territories WOULD be able to accept unit placement from plaeyer bonsuses each turn.

Within the Spawning group, one type would be:

Factory - Application for A&A/supply-line-style maps; these territories would "produce" a certain percentage of the player bonus each turn, with the remainder of the bonus units able to be placed freely. Example: Player A gets 60 units and occupies two Factory territories. Factory production % is set to 10%. During turn 3 units (5% each) are automatically placed in each Factory territory.  Remaining 54 units are freely placed by player.

If Factory has a Max units and that max is already hit then units are discarded?

Yertle wrote:

If Factory has a Max units and that max is already hit then units are discarded?

I can think of no other reasonable alternative.

M57 wrote:

Yertle wrote:

If Factory has a Max units and that max is already hit then units are discarded?

I can think of no other reasonable alternative.

I would think yes, they'd be discarded, but the "non-Factory" % of your units would still be placed freely. 

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Spawning - these territories WOULD be able to accept unit placement from plaeyer bonsuses each turn.

The above definition describes how the system works now.

Spawning was originally conceived of as being more like what you think of as "factory".  E.g., a spawning territory automatically creates armies for it's owner.  It could even be optional for the designer to want the territory to spawn neutral armies if it is unowned, but obviously this would not be the default.

I don't really care what they are called but in this category I would like to see created the distinction between:

1. Territories that accept all bonus armies (what we have now).
2. Territories that create armies for their owners.
3. Territories that are linked to specific bonuses.

Using these definitions b. (spawning/factory) is a subset of c. (what I would call "fertility"), and this should enable the designer to implement spawning without having a specific tool/button for that task.

Here's how fertility works:

Any territory can be linked to any specific bonus.   For instance, I could set the ownership of  territories A, B, and C to be "Continent 1", worth a +1 army bonus.  I then set each of those territories to be exclusively linked to that bonus (or perhaps I would link the Continent 1  bonus to go only to those same territories.

The obvious use for this is that if I am able to capture the North America bonus, it seems reasonable that my bonus armies should only be placed on the newly "fertile" North American continent.  These armies should originate only there, creating supply-line implications.  The creation of barren territories would serve to further enhance this effect.

A spawning territory can be created by simply making a 1 territory continent.

There are many interesting things that can be accomplished with such a set of tools.  For instance imagine a  territory whose fertility is linked to a continent of which it is not a member, yet it is the sole "factory" for that bonus.  What this would create is a continent that creates a bonus that cannot be utilized until it's "factory" is controlled.

Overview of proposed army placement rules:

Territory Default:

• Standard Bonuses can be placed
• All continental bonuses can be placed unless they are specifically allocated elsewhere

Fertile (territory is linked to a continental bonus by the designer):

• Standard bonuses can be placed unless the territory is also designated as Barren.
• All unallocated continental bonuses can be placed unless the territory is also designated as Barren.
• Specifically identified continental bonuses can be placed.

Barren:

• Standard bonuses can not be placed.
• Unallocated continental bonuses can not be placed.
• Specific continental bonuses can only be placed if the territory is also designated as fertile.

So each territory can be configured four different ways

1. Default/None
2. Barren
3. Fertile (linkage required)
4. both Barren and Fertile 

I believe this is quite comprehensive in its scope.  I can't think of any scenario that can't be created with these two options.

don't forget if you are earning huge bonuses, you probably own more than 1 factory.

Gimli wrote:

don't forget if you are earning huge bonuses, you probably own more than 1 factory.

Not necessarily.. Factories don't have to be the only place where all armies can be allocated, but they could be.

Here are some scenarios for a board with factories (spawning/fertile.. whatever).

Limited factories on the board and all other territories could be designated as default.  Continental bonuses are set up as normal, but factories are continents unto themselves.

Factories are linked to the continent in which they reside.  All territories are left default.  All (or some) continental bonues are allocated to their respective factories.

Same as above only all non-factories are designated Barren. (in this scenario, if you don't control a factory you have no place to place any bonus armies.

hi guys - I'm looking at adding this feature next - these are my thoughts:

Barren territories - fine, this is easy to implement. I can see this adding some great gameplay features - e.g. not being able to place units on the seas between continents.

Fertile / Factory territories - I think the units would have to be automatically placed at the start of your turn, i.e. the player is not going to be able to choose where they are placed, they would be placed in predefined locations (set by the board designer). So you would be able to define a continent and you could then specify on which territories the continental bonus are automatically placed.

Otherwise it's going to cause an issue because there will have to be several rounds of placement where you place the units that you receive for each fertile area. This because both the player and the game engine have to be able to distinguish between the units available and placeable within each fertile area. If you hit territory maxes then the engine would also need to discard units after you have completed placement within each fertile area - you would not be able to carry these units into reserves as the reserves won't differentiate between regular bonuses and fertile area linked bonuses.

I don't think this is the right approach to take - it will lead to a slowing down of gameplay, it will be confusing for newbies and it will take a lot more work to implement as there will need to be multiple Placement phases.

So how I see this working instead is the designer would designate the territory as a factory and set which continental bonus it is linked to and the number of units from that bonus which it is allocated. Any excess continental bonus units would be available for free placement as usual.

So it's not quite as flexible a system as you envisage M57 but hopefully gives most of the benefit.

I'm assuming these would be automatically allocated as soon as a player opens the Flash Player for his/her turn, so the process would be opaque.

My first thought would be that excesses (over the max territory limit) designated for fertile territories should be discarded.  I'm thinking that most boards that would incorporate this feature wouldn't put a cap on fertile territory(s) in  the first place, and if they did, it would be for the express purpose of controlling the number of armies that can emanate from that region. Or perhaps auto-discard could be a designer option (this would not be my choice but..)

BTW, I think auto-placement is a great compromise.  Are you thinking that it would be such that if you had multiple fertile territories tied to the same continental bonus that those armies would be allocated evenly?

It should be possible to set which fertile territories get the units - so if there were 10 territories within the continent and a bonus of +5 for holding the continent, you could specify 2 territories to get 2 of those units automatically at the start of each turn and the excess 1 unit you could place anywhere you like (even outside the continent).

tom wrote:

 the excess 1 unit you could place anywhere you like (even outside the continent).

M57 wrote:

My first thought would be that excesses (over the max territory limit) designated for fertile territories should be discarded.  I'm thinking that most boards that would incorporate this feature wouldn't put a cap on fertile territory(s) in  the first place, and if they did, it would be for the express purpose of controlling the number of armies that can emanate from that region. Or perhaps auto-discard could be a designer option (this would not be my choice but..)

These two comments are opposing right?  Indicating a possible Rule to Discard Excess Fertile Unit Yes/No?

This all sounds real cool and I think will lead to some real fun boards.

Some ideas that may/may not be related and may/may not be fun, but I thought i would bring up -

1) Carnivorous territories - that at then end/beginning of your turn you lose x units on. 

2) Ability to set higher minimum units on a territory - right now it is 1 (standard) or 0 (abandonment)

I have more, but will wait to see how far these fly -

tom makes a good point.  The Bonus can be structured to be allocated in a pre-determined manner. For instance you could make it such that owning a continent comprised of 5 territories gives a player a bonus of 5 armies  to be allocated 1 to each territory.

Yertle, I think you are right about the inconsistency.  Tom is OK with overage (assuming caps are in place) being added to normal bonus - I would prefer that  they didn't. In my mind, these are dedicated bonuses.

M57 wrote:

Yertle, I think you are right about the inconsistency.  Tom is OK with overage (assuming caps are in place) being added to normal bonus - I would prefer that  they didn't. In my mind, these are dedicated bonuses.

I think there are two types of overage being discussed - one is if you nominate a particular factory territory to receive 1 unit per turn and it runs up against the territory max - in this case the unit should be discarded.

In the other case the continent bonus could be configured so some units go to factory territories and some units are free to be placed anywhere (including outside the continent as per a regular bonus unit). e.g. if the continent bonus is +5 and a single factory territory gets +4 auto deployed, the other +1 unit can be deployed to any territory the player owns. This gives the designer flexibility to combine factory and regular continent bonuses.

Carnivorous territories sound fun - I think EN first proposed this.

Higher minimums would be doable but horrible from a coding perspective so will probably have to wait.

Tom just checking on some specifics..

Will it be possible to create territories that are both barren and fertile?  I.e., The territory receives an automatically allocated bonus of 3 units because a player holds the required continent, but the player is not allowed to place any additional units on that territory because it is also designated as barren (and not because of cap on the # of armies allowed on the territory).

Also (just to make sure), will it be possible to designate a territory as fertile even though it is not part of its associated continent?

Yes to both - thanks I need to consider both those conditions.