John, take a look: Sorceror handling in ToT (fantasy) - killer bug or clever tactic?

[tobyr]

In the fantasy game, the sorceror is one of the most powerful units you can build early to defend cities. The sorceror is 6/4 and has 6 moves per turn, but must end each turn in a city (or the equivalent of an airport) or die. I like to have one or two in each of my cities.

The real importance of the Sorceror is that it can switch maps (at no move cost) almost anywhere, to any of the four maps. Therefore, your sorcerors should almost NEVER "fortify". Each turn you should bring each one out and have it check the nearby territory on all the other maps, looking for suspicious activity and units that are easy to kill. You can really slow the other tribes down this way, while adding MINUTES to the time to play out each turn.

This valuable technique is a pain to carry out, and really slows the game down. It is entirely legal, but may be better regarded as a bug that might unbalance the game, making it too easy to win. (The AI, as far as I know, does not use this technique; if it did, it could do it far better and more consistently than people can, and MOST of your settlers would be killed.)

- toby


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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[John Possidente]

Actually, that's exactly the tactic I use with my Sorcerers. To me, they're an airborne early warning and defense system for every city, much like Fighters in the original game.

It's not a bug, it's a smart tactic.

[tobyr]

But it takes up so much time. I called this tactic a possible bug because it seems to me the game should make it easy to streamline your play and move quickly. Instead, we have a capability that really requires you to add a minute or three of (usually) boring repetition to each turn. I'd rather this capability were partly automated, or quite impractical.

- toby

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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[William Keenan]

I've noticed that you call everything a bug, Toby.