Ice Age Math

[Eregnon]

With the ice age format, the raise food/lower gold HC action suddenly becomes more viable. I've been doing the math, and it looks like you get more bang for your buck by raising food in cities instead of villages, since the effect on cities is doubled due to winter. So assuming 75 villages, we get:

Food raise for villages: 18,750 global food increase, 37,500 global gold decrease
Food raise for cities: 24,000 global food increase, 6,000 global gold decrease

This assumes nobody has thrown Fertile Fields on any cities.

Just thought I'd pass that along.

[JonDoe]

Cities are only double while making negative production.

[Eregnon]

Cities are only double while making negative production.

Exactly. So if you have a city producing -10000 food, increasing city food production by 1000 means that city will be producing -8000 food. Multiply that by 12 cities, and you have a net food increase of 24000.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm in an Ice Age game and can see getting my butt handed to me by a kingdom that has the Hidden Cove advantage. I mean, this kingdom has an automatic 20k of food coming in every turn, not counting the 2 regions he controls. I have 2 regions and am only pulling in 21k. There is no way I can have a military force that can compete with that type of advantage. I could double tax the cities I control to drop the -10k food in each, but I'll have to forfeit the gold production.

I guess my point is that there needs to be more discussion on this latest type of landscape. Too bad there isn't a Primeval version of Ice Age. I believe a lot of people dropped from the game I'm in because they didn't take into consideration the impact of playing a lot of these kingdoms would have. Imagine playing a high food or gold consuming military kingdom from the start!

[unclemike]

There are some favored kingdoms in the Ice Age format (like a political kingdom though it seems that no one wants to play them in this variant) but having a bit of extra food/gold isn't as important as how a kingdom is actually played.

For example, even though the Nomad may get Hidden Oasis which provides an extra 10k food and 10k gold, their troops are kind of crappy compared to a stronger-based kingdom like the Rangers which will have fewer troops. Combine better troop types with the correct spells being cast in battle and you can change the outcome of a rather lopsided battle against a superior-numbered foe! During Ice Age, a smaller-sized force could still come out ahead if it's played well against a larger opponent that has the numbers. I've actually done this twice in the two Ice Age games that I'm in and I'm playing two different types of kingdoms.

So there are other aspects to the game that needs to be considered than just the basic food/gold production of a kingdom. Ice Age is a different kind of game and certainly more challenging than a normal one but it doesn't unbalance any kingdom. All can survive and succeed in the Ice Age format. You may have to adjust your strategy to the new format but that's the whole point! A different kind of gaming experience than just building up a massive group and attacking everything with mindless glee (though that's fun too but not very challenging).

Don't forget that fire-oriented spells are enhanced during an Ice Age so something like a Firestrike or Meteor Storm which wouldn't do much damage in a normal game with a low level wizard, works well during an Ice Age. Be merciless if you want and destroy all the villages in a region with meteors/pillages and you'll knock down your foe by some amount.

So every kingdom really has a chance at being successful in the Ice Age format. You just have to change your strategy a little and understand your kingdom well for things to work out. It's a challenge though so don't expect things to go your way every time...

[DuPont]

I am very much enjoying the ice age format. I took a Kingdom that I usually avoid because I felt in Ice Age, one of their biggest vulnerabilities would be blunted. I like how it changes the equations.

[Drogo]

I agree. The shortage of resources makes things interesting.

[unclemike]

I think Ice Age is awesome! Glad Rick gave it his approval because it's an interesting twist to the game.