https://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Peak+Knowledge

Peak Knowledge is a love story to my favorite maps, imitation is the highest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

It consists of capital victory conditions, menus with knowledge and mercenary contracts, structures on the map that benefit your menus, and the flexibility to play on several scenarios.

It is a work in progress, and I have a lot of scenarios that I am considering for future versions.

Capital System: Each player starts with a capital, granting access to corresponding menus. Losing a capital means losing access to menu benefits, which transfer to the new owner.

Continents: Controlling continents provides +1 troop placement bonuses, augmentable by related technologies.

Fortification: Players receive five fortifies per turn to reinforce across connected territories.

Menu Territories: All menu territories prohibit troop placement, except for mercenary contracts store(diamond), which allow placement.

Menu Node Persistence: Menu path territories (circles) reset to neutrals every turn, while nodes (squares) remain unless captured by enemies.

Structures: Map structures offer strategic advantages and are evenly distributed among players or as neutrals.

Fog settings default to Heavy but can be adjusted. Lower fog settings render vision nodes less relevant, while Total fog renders vision nodes to be more relevant.

Castles are capitals so if you lose all of yours, you will be eliminated. They provide +2 Knowledge and +1 Mercenary Contract per turn for their respective menus. They defend at +3 and attack at +2, with +2 range artillery, allowing them to reach their matching color bordered continent.

Castles start with twenty-five troops.

Mercenary Camps are structures that increase your Mercenary Contracts by +1, as well as spawn 1 troop per turn.

Towers are powerful structures that defend at +2, attack at +2, and have +1 range artillery. In most scenarios, each player starts with one tower nearby their capital.

Towers start with six neutral units, except for player towers.

Libraries (book icons) provide +1 knowledge into each knowledge menu you own. This is increased with knowledge tech.

Libraries start with four neutral units.

Each capital has access to knowledge and mercenary menus, offering various strategic advantages and offensive capabilities.

Each branch has a “store” represented by a diamond, “paths” represented by circles, and “nodes” represented by squares.

Both stores can be filled passively from castle ownership, via resources on board, technology, and for Mercenary Contracts only, able to be increased via placement troops.

Each store can attack down to the first path one-way, and every path and node can fortify directly back to the store if needed. You cannot attack a store, but if you capture an enemy capital you will take control of both their menus on your next turn.

All paths return to neutral each turn, refilling to their original neutral values, so any troops remaining in those spaces will be lost.

The nodes will not return to neutral, and once unlocked will provide their bonus unless they are lost to attacks. Remember you will be able to fortify troops to and from them via your stores.

Each of the final nodes on the menus offer the ability to attack into similar enemy menus. This can destabilize your enemies' bonuses, but you will not reap their rewards unless you are in possession of their capital. This can require them to have to fight through neutrals to re-acquire tech.

• City Bonuses, the first knowledge row empowers the continent bonuses for your capital city.

• Passive Increases, the second knowledge row increases the passive bonuses for the knowledge store and mercenary contracts.

• Green Bonuses, the third knowledge row, empowers each of the green continents. If you control two capitals and two sets of this technology, you can double your bonuses.

• Library Increase, the fourth knowledge row increases the knowledge that your capital will generate for each library. These only benefit thier own associated knowledge stores.

• Yellow Bonuses, the fifth knowledge row empowers each of the yellow continents. If you control two capitals and two sets of this technology, you can double your bonuses.

• Resource Spawn, the sixth knowledge row enables structures you own to spawn +2 troops. If you control two capitals and two of these knowledge nodes, you can double your bonuses. C&T - enables spawns for Castle and Towers; L&M - enables spawns for Libraries and Mercenary Camps.

• Illuminated Influencers, the last knowledge row enables you to view and attack enemy knowledge trees D6 vs D6. This can destabilize their bonuses and cause them to fight through their paths to restore their node. Attack node holds 11 max.

• Haystack Hackers, the first mercenary row allows for you to view and artillery attack any local space without a symbol, with D10 vs D8 bonus.

• Backyard Brutes, the second mercenary row allows for you to view and artillery attack any local structure, with D10 vs D8 bonus.

• Sniper Syndicate, the third row allows for you to view and artillery attack any unmarked space with D10 vs D8 bonus. Artillery node holds 11 max.

• Volume Vandals, the fourth row allows for you to view and artillery attack any library with D10 vs D8 bonus. Artillery node holds 11 max.

• Courier Corps, the fifth mercenary row allows for you to view and artillery attack any tower space with D10 vs D8 bonus. Artillery node holds 11 max.

• Mystical Magi, the sixth mercenary row allows for you to view and artillery attack any map space with D10 vs D8 bonus, castles D9 vs D8 bonus. Artillery node holds 7 max.

• Reaver's Reigment, the last mercenary row allows for you to view and attack enemy mercenary trees D6 vs D6. Attack node holds 11 max.

Peak Knowledge offers diverse scenarios with unique setups and rules, catering to different player preferences and strategies.

Each scenario has it's own map footer which helps outline the scenario rules.

The first section will display the scenario name and general details

If there are any changes to structures, they will be updated in the next section:

Royal Rumble is the base four player game:

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• Tower with fifteen troops.
• Randomly fill four troops on all unmarked spaces except for center spaces.

Neutrals:

• Towers start with six neutral troops.
• Mercenary Camps start with five neutral troops.
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• Center areas have various neutrals.

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.

Setup:

Logistical Limbo is Royal Rumble with return to attack from fortify.

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• Tower with fifteen troops.
• Randomly fill four troops on all unmarked spaces except for center spaces.

Neutrals:

• Towers start with six neutral troops.
• Mercenary Camps start with five neutral troops.
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• Center areas have various neutrals.

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.
• Return to Attack enabled.

Setup:

Barbaric Beginnings is a 2-10 player scenario. Players do not start with capitals. Libraries provide +1 placement troop.

Player Start:

• Randomly fill three troops on all unmarked spaces, except those in center area

Neutrals:

• Castles start with seven neutral troops.
• Towers start with four neutral troops.
• Mercenary camps start with four neutral troops
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• Unmarked spaces near city start with two neutral troops

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.
• Libraries provide +1 placement troop.
• Return to Placement enabled.
• Return to Attack enabled.

Setup:

Little Learned is similar to Royal Rumble except each player starts with their local Library.

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• Tower with fifteen troops.
• Library with seven troops.
• Randomly fill four troops on all unmarked spaces except for center spaces.

Neutrals:

• Towers start with six neutral troops.
• Mercenay camps start with five neutral troops
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• Center unmarked spaces start with various neutral troops.

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.

Setup:

Frontier Frenzy is an expansion scenario, where most spaces begin as neutral.

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• Tower with fifteen troops.

Neutrals:

• Towers start with seven neutral troops.
• Mercenary Camps start with five neutral troops.
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• All remaining areas start with various neutral troops, increasing as you get further from the castles.

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.

Setup:

Players start with all local towers in their quadrants, player tower troops lowered to 7 from 15.

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• Four towers with seven troops each.
• Randomly fill five troops on all unmarked spaces except for center spaces.

Neutrals:

• Central towers start with seven neutral troops.
• Gem mines and libraries start with five neutral troops.
• Center unmarked spaces start with three neutral troops.

Settings:

• D6 melee defense and D8 ranged defense before castle and tower modifiers.
• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.

Setup:

Entrenched Enterprises is Logistical Limbo with additional structures and additional player tower.

Player Start:

• Castle with twenty-five troops.
• 2 Towers with fifteen troops.
• Randomly fill four troops on all unmarked spaces except for center spaces.

Neutrals:

• Towers start with six neutral troops.
• Mercenay camps start with five neutral troops
• Libraries start with four neutral troops.
• Center unmarked spaces start with various neutral troops.

Settings:

• Five fortifies.
• Knowledge and Mercenary paths (circle nodes) reset to neutral.
• Return to Attack enabled.
• Increased structures on map

Setup:

Bordered continents and localities provide strategic significance and diverse gameplay opportunities.

Border heatmaps illustrate territory connections, aiding strategic decision-making.

All continents are worth +1 placement troop:

• Four Cities, represented by blue, orange, red, and purple borders. Home to the castles. Max bonus +4 with full first row knowledge for matching color.

• Twelve Farms, represented by green borders. Tech bonuses stack with multiple matching castle/node combos. With 1 castle and full third row knowledge +4 per farm, stacks up to +10 with 3 castles and 3 full third row techs.

• Six Mines, represented by yellow borders. Tech bonuses stack with multiple matching capital/node combos. With 1 castle and full fifth row knowledge +7 per mine, stacks up to +19 with 3 castles and 3 full fifth row techs.

Localities are important for the first two mercenary groups, as they are restricted to striking these areas within their own locality. Each corner has their own locality.

They consist of 1 castle, 1 mercenary camp, 2 libraries, 4 towers, and 22 unmarked spaces.

Connections represented by colors. Red are least connections, Green are most connections:

• Red - Two
• Orange - Three
• Yellow - Four
• Green - Five

Melee Borders:

Detailed dice odds tables aid players in understanding combat probabilities.

Axemen:

Bowmen

Courier

Wizard

Thanks to Dev Map Testers: Roohaa, doctorraptor, SlideRisk, Ozyman, M57, DTSLost, QuidQuoPro, Amidon37, phoenixinquisitor, H4u8G15o16R2ey34e2s, Abishai, Kjeld, ClemClementine, Landmaster.