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| Map Reviews
Map Name:
When Darkness Falls Defining Features:
It’s a rich little map with single-choke
starts and expansions everywhere. Basically the map is divided by high ground
ridges, which direct the movement of ground troops into the center of the map. Balance/Terrain: The start positions seem to be well-spaced
and expansion points are equidistant from each start. The 3 o’clock, and to a
lessor degree the 9 o’clock, starts seem to have a bit of an advantage because
they can construct their first expansion to cover two mineral patches. There is
also a bit of a discrepancy in the distance to the choke points. The bottom
center start has a noticeably shorter distance to travel to construct a choke
defense, and its prime building territory is behind its resources (if the base
is attacked by ground troops). Each of the six large ridges that define the
starts also holds a mineral and gas expansion. The high ground causes a single
scout to take a surprisingly long time to check out all of the start positions
on a map this size. Gameplay:
I’ve played this map as a 1v1, 2v2 and a
three-player FFA. You start with eight mineral deposits and a geyser in your
base so it’s not necessary to expand immediately, but once economies get
rolling, you’ll see swarms of ground troops moving to the attack. Each game
that I played was fairly short and fairly low-tech. The proximity of your
opponents means that you can keep constant pressure on him once you find his
base. Strats/Tips: In all of the games I’ve played on this map, I
never randomed to terran which is a bit of a disappointment. The high ground
expansions seem to be made for an early second CC, and I can only imagine what
siege tanks on high could do for map control and choke defense if you float your
first factory to the high ground. The more players on the map, the earlier you
should scout (at least the neighboring starts). 128 square is fairly small for a
six-player map, so keep attacking or you’ll find it hard to get off of the
defensive. Use the high ground if you have the chance. In a 1v1 I played,
cannoning on the high ground made my opponent take great care in how he moved
his tanks and marines to the attack. (He couldn’t just select his troops and
click on the entrance to my main because his guys would either stop to attack
each cannon they ran across, or take unanswered hits.) It is possible to seal
your opponent into his base if you find him early enough. Most of the chokes are
a little distance away from the minerals, so cannons or bunkers at his gate can
keep him from finding you, and give you a little extra time to tech or expand
without having your main attacked. It is a single-choke, meet-in-the-middle map,
but the games were a lot of fun. The twilight tileset looks pretty good in
general, and the animated doodads are cool. Korang did a good job in mixing up
the tiles to give the map a lot of realism and texture. There are some places
where fairly long, straight, edges are evident, but you don’t notice them
during the game. I really like the little sunken expansion near the exact center
of the map, but I’d only try to mine there in an emergency. The wafer-thin
cliffs near the center of the map are a bit of a pain to construct, but look
really good. Just about every tile type except water and the basilicas are used. Strengths/Weaknesses: Even though there is a slight discrepancy in
the start positions, the map is still more balanced than Hunters, and, was more
fun to play. The size of the map, and the availability of high ground tactics,
make it more strategically interesting to play on. The easiest expansions to
reach are wide open to assault but, with less than six slots filled, finding
out-of the way places to mine are a definite possibility. I could play this map
a lot because it seems to allow for a broad range of strategies. -Dhavok
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