Escalite might suck, but I'm not sure yet

[Shepherd]

I've had limited escalite experience, and I'm finally in a game that's gone long enough to be able to observe what happens when experienced players take Escalite into later rounds.

My opinion so far is not good. I'm getting the sense that Escalite might have the weaknesses of both Escalating and Flat Rate, with none of the advantages of either.

The trouble with Flat Rate is that games between players of similar skill can go on forever. Everybody digs in, collects what they can, and tries not to do anything dumb. This is also the case with Escalite: the increase per set is so small that it doesn't make a difference - the 26 troops you get this round isn't significantly more than the 23 troops I got four rounds ago. You don't even have to be strategic about when you turn sets in - who cares if you get 33 or 34 when everybody has 150 troops on the board. So since we've all been collecting troops at about the same rate, and everybody has too many troops to stage a meaningful take-out, we end up with an endless build game on our hands.

The trouble with Escalating is that bonus and map-specific strategy is almost entirely useless. You don't need to carve out a bonus for yourself so much as you need to stay alive long enough to start pulling in some big cash-ins. This is also the case in Escalite. Once you've gotten into higher reserve values a +2 or +3 bonus barely makes a dent in the board, and people stop caring about who has what.

What we're left with is a game that requires minimal strategy, yet last forever. Ick.

Maybe if the card values advanced by 2 the reserve rate would at least increase a bit faster than players' ability to build strength and we might see some take-outs.

 

[Badorties]

Blame Robinette, she invented it.

But i havent experienced this stale mate yet. Valvues in the 20's can swing most games i'm in.

 

[WidowMakers]

I agree with shep. I am in an evolved game where it is taking a while. If we all decided to dig in (it is fairly even) and just switch regions for reserves each turn, I don't see how it would break the stalemate.

Maybe instead of +1 each turn in we need to have it increase slower and then faster.

Here are a few ideas
-Increase the rate of change for escalite. Still not as big a cash as escalate but still esclating.
-Switch escalate to escaHUGE (see graph) and use current escalate for escalite

late   lite   NEW lite   huge
4	4	5	4
6	5	6	6
8	6	7	8
10	7	8	10
12	8	9	15
15	9	10	20
20	10	12	26
25	11	14	32
30	12	16	39
35	13	18	46
40	14	20	54
45	15	22	62
50	16	25	71
55	17	28	80
60	18	31	90
65	19	34	100
70	20	37	111
75	21	40	122
80	22	43	134
85	23	47	146
90	24	51	159
95	25	55	172
100	26	59	186
105	27	63	200
110	28	67	215
115	29	71	230
120	30	76	246
125	31	81	262
130	32	86	279
135	33	91	296
140	34	96	314
145	35	101	332
150	36	106	351
155	37	111	370
160	38	116	390
165	39	121	410
170	40	126	431
175	41	131	452
180	42	136	474
185	43	141	496

 

[Badorties]

hmmm, making this public for a wider discussion.

 

[ashr]

Here is an idea? What if Command Value increased proportional to Reserve Values? I am not saying get rid of escalite...just suggesting that
you could eliminate some drawbacks of escalate if you tied Command Values to a coefficient of Reserve Value.

a 5 Army Command would be worth 20% of Reserve Value
a 4 Army Command would be worth 16%.
a 3 Army Command would be worth 12%
2 Army Command worth 10%
and a 1 Army Command worth 8%

a 40 troop turn in could give an extra 4 troops for a normally 2 unit command.
And would give an extra

8 troops for holding a 5 Army Command.

just an idea, and not one that can be worked on soon, I know, but it's an option or something like it.

or for every ten units in the Reserve Rate, each command bonus goes up 1 extra troop.
40 Reserve Set generates 4 Extra for a 5 army command.
etc etc

 

[Spazm]

Hmm...I think basing reserve value on Commands would overweight the current leader of the board; escalite and escalate in particular seem to me to be games that give the underdog a chance to fight back; whereas flat rate is to help with an early edge and then basically prevent the underdog from coming back in most cases.