Map Strat: Road War

Road War I have seen a couple of games of Starcraft played on. It is another 2 Player Map of my favorite size 128x128. Road Wars is another map in which two players are connected by a major land bridge to get to each other. This map also has several different passage ways that you can take to move around the map to the expansions which are located far away from the major battle area. This is one of the downfalls of this map but it also makes strategy more interesting as well.

Map Notes:

This map changes the common course of the 2 Player Map theory. Each of the two individual players are located in opposite corners from each other. One is located in the top right, the other in the lower left. Each player begins the game with the moderate average of 7 mineral patches and 1 gas geyser. Both players are connected to each other through 3 large passageways that can be traveled through in approximatly 3 ways each. This thus means that a player can take 9 different paths through 3 different entrances meaning that unknown techniques and flanking attacks would be highly recommended.

The mineral situation on this map is interesting as well. Most of the battles will be occuring through the larger stretches in between the two bases. Every one of the 9 different paths leads to 1-2 expansions each. The expansions on this map are all of different sizes. The central two expansions that are located at 3:00 and 9:00 respectively are small and bleek with 3 Mineral Patches but the 1 valuable geyser. Located more closely to the center are what I call the "Dangerous Expansions" because they are most likely to be detected and killed. You can use these expansions as a scouting force as well. These two expansions have 5 minerals and 1 Gas Geyser for the riskier position. Finally each player recieves a "Mineral Supply" expansion at 12:00 and 6:00. These expansions both contain 7 Mineral Patches.

An offensive mastermind can have some fun on this map with the 3 expansions thus meaning a more agressive attitude will probably be necessary to keep yourself from dying quickly. However, the best type of defense that you can run on this map would probably be a more centralized defense. The Zerg do this through their sunken colonies around their base. The terrans should place their bunkers close to their base to keep themselves defended better from the three possible locations.

A protoss player can also do the same as the Terran concept. Flanking attacks are most efficient on this map. A flanking attack is simply an attack from the outsides. A player will generally send in one attack to have their opponent converge on that attack and then send in another force from one of the other two choked locations and attack from there as well sending their opponent into a tailspin on defense. This can be done with a variety of units. Generally when I look at a flanking attack I will send in one group of units that have one purpose. Then the other group will have something else to add to the attack. (Example: Zealots from the Right Side, and Reavers from the other).

Even though there are only 2 primary choke locations for an opponent to worry about I consider the three openings as footholds to these two. A player can also sneak in his units around to attack his opponents economy very easily. This can be done through the 6:00 foothold pass and the 2:30 Pass up north.

Strategies seem to be able to be varied on this map as well. You do have a decent economy to begin with but expansions are necessary for success and if you can't control your central expansion(s), a low tech game can come into the mists. However, what I feel that will be the most successful on this map is the best Micromanagement player. Rushing won't necessarily work all the time but on this map I'd give it a better then average chance for working. The more micromanagement that can be done will open up the possibilities for destroying economic stature and an opponent's entire base from the outside.

Strategies That I feel Will Work:

Flanking Attacks- As I stated a couple of paragraphs above, I feel that Flanking attacks would be a viable option to anyone who is interested in trying it. It involves a two level attack from both of your opponents choke points.

Micromanagement- If you like Micromanagement like myself, this map has some nice advantages for us. A person can sneak in an attack against an opponent very easily and destroy their economy from the back end. Strategies That I Feel Won't Work:

Map Control-

Even though this map is 128x128, attempting to control more then 75% of this map would be fairly uneducated. With the little amount of money that is already on the map having a way to manage to control the map with that would be challenging. There is enough money for a game of great technology to occur but trying to waste your time with Map Control on this map, will just clearly not work!

Turtling-
Turtling is a tactic that won't ever win you a game but a Turtler will have an even more difficult time on this map trying to defend all of the different locations around his own base. This won't work. Don't try it, unless your like me and want to lose.

Road War with it's multiple land bridges, multiple possibilities and it's great possibilities with Micromanagement makes this another great 2 player map that people need to check out! I've played it before and won one game on this map. I did it through the above tactic of attacking my opponent from the 12 O clock location and sneaking in around his base doing the damage to his economy destroying any hopes from him.