"each territory you control that is completely surrounded by other territories that you also control grants you +1"

How does this work with Team Play?

Your teammates' territories don't count, sadly. There's been some talk of allowing "team continents" but as yet this feature is still on the waiting list.

how would the bonus armies be divvied up?

I think that was one of the sticking points. It would almost require a team reserve of available units to place, which would be a major change to the game mechanics. Or they would be divvied up evenly.

This was probably already discussed, but what about split based on % of the continent held (either by territories or unit count).

Rounding is an issue with percentage splits.  Take for example a +1 continent with two territories each own by a teammate.  Who gets a bonus?

Alpha wrote:

Rounding is an issue with percentage splits.  Take for example a +1 continent with two territories each own by a teammate.  Who gets a bonus?

Hw about a solutions where plurality margin rules. In the case of ties, the player who secured the bonus, gets the bonus.  If one of the other players wants to take the bonus, they can attack their teammate

Also if you split the bonus based upon unit counts instead of territory counts, the dominant player can fortify units away, or the other player can place units to try and get a higher percentage.   Could offer some new tactics for opponents also, you could weaken a particular player to keep them from getting the bonus, without having to take the entire continent away from that team, just shift the unit counts around enough to deny one player any share of it.

You could have a designer option where the possession of a continental bonus gives x units to all teammates.

So there could be a pulldown menu.

• Bonus goes to one player
• Bonus is split by percentage/then originating player
• Bonus applies equally to all Teammates

The second choice needs a few rules, maybe that results in something like..

a +2 bonus with 2 players splits 1-1 holding anything from 26-75% to 75-26% of the territories

a +3 bonus with 2 players splits 2-1 holding 84%-18 or closer to the 2:1 ratio

a +4 bonus with 2 players splits 3-1 holding 87%-13% or closer to a 3:1 ratio

etc.. 

The algorithm would need to be worked out but you get the idea..

Hrm.  I guess another issue, is when is the bonus applied.   If it is shared among several players, does each player get their share at the beginning of their turn.  If so the game state could change between players turns and the total continent bonus given could be greater or less than the actually total continent bonus.

Two thoughts -

a) Assign to each continent a "key" territory, whomever controls that territory is the one who gets the bonus   For pure HORDES! maps this is moot/somewhat easy since all the continents implicitly come with a key territory.  If you own a territory and you or your teammates own all the bordering ones, then you get the bonus for that territory.

c) Give the bonus to the player that secures the continent - so then the continent needs to be held for one full round before a bonus is given out.

Alpha wrote:

Rounding is an issue with percentage splits.  Take for example a +1 continent with two territories each own by a teammate.  Who gets a bonus?

rounding shouldn't be a big problem, require it to be done in integers and the excess goes to one of the teammates (could be decided by damn near anything: seat order, units, territories owned, biggest/littlest bonus, etc)

Ozyman wrote:

Hrm.  I guess another issue, is when is the bonus applied.   If it is shared among several players, does each player get their share at the beginning of their turn.  If so the game state could change between players turns and the total continent bonus given could be greater or less than the actually total continent bonus.

Two easy solutions:

1. Place those armies in reserve
2. Armies are allocated according to "present" board state at each turn

Amidon37 wrote:

Two thoughts -

a) Assign to each continent a "key" territory, whomever controls that territory is the one who gets the bonus   For pure HORDES! maps this is moot/somewhat easy since all the continents implicitly come with a key territory.  If you own a territory and you or your teammates own all the bordering ones, then you get the bonus for that territory.

c) Give the bonus to the player that secures the continent - so then the continent needs to be held for one full round before a bonus is given out.

These are good solutions too.

coren wrote:

"each territory you control that is completely surrounded by other territories that you also control grants you +1"

 

How does this work with Team Play?

to go back to answer this... I think it got carried away in the theoretical solutions.

First, check if teamplay rules are enabled... ie team transfers. Smart teammates will use the transfers to give you the armies with their transfer if you are strong in an area, so you can take it easier, and they don't have to kill armies of the same team. And you of course would be wise to give yours away in areas you are in the minority.

If there are no team transfers allowed, I will just attack the enemies with 2 to reduce myself to 1. Sometimes if I have armies to spare, I will actually add an army so I can attack with 3 to help my ally get the area.

If I am left with no enemies to attack (I happen to be completely surrounded by allies but I have to get rid of the units without a transfer) I will attack my team members 2+ stacks with my armies 1 at a time... suiciding my armies while minimizing the chances I actually kill his units. Most efficient way to let him get the continent in this instance.