One map move, and what it it means

[quantum_mechani]

It's obvious what map move one represents in many cases, mostly troops with heavy armor. But with commanders things get much stranger. After noticing some oddities with ME Agatha commanders, I took a quick survey of other commanders with map move one, and also those with old age, and there seems to be very little pattern currently.

For instance, compare ME Man's crone of avalon with the deep seer of ME Atlantis. The crone is much older both in absolute terms and in being farther over threshold, not to mention fitting the standard archetype for old age, yet she has map move two while the deep seer has one. Human earth readers are map move one despite being far under old age threshold, and being the exact same age as attendants of the oracles with map move 2. Oracles of the ancients have 14 action points but only 1 map move. The list goes on for almost every commander with map move one.

I've attached a text file with the values of the commanders I examined, in case someone wants to look them over. No doubt some of them already have some kind of thematic explanation for the odd values, but it is difficult to imagine all of them do when taken together. So unless I'm missing something, it seems at least some commander tweaks are in order to bring some consistency. I suspect the path of making more commanders map move one would result in substantial backlash, so that only seems to leave bumping up the move value in many cases.

[Gregstrom]

To an initial glance, the only one that looks badly out of step is the Oracle.

I'd expect some troops and commanders to have a map move inconsistent with their APs for thematic reasons.

As a quick example: Witches are generally seen as outdoorsy types, I believe, and so it seems reasonable that Crones would get a better map move than an Arcoscephalian philosopher who's spent his life sitting around talking his head off in the agora.

It's a bit odd that the essentially immobile Guru has a map move when he apparently spends his live hovering cross-legged above the ground - perhaps he has a Marketa pulling him around on a length of string between battles?

[Sombre]

But the Crone pretender has mapmove 1.

I think it's largely impossible to work out the individual reasoning behind the mapmove of each unit. Not to say that some units shouldn't thematically be mapmove 1, it's just that you can usually argue these things either way. Witches are outdoorsy types vs witches are old, frail and typically depicted as staying put in their witchy hideout somewhere on the fringes of society.

[quantum_mechani]

Gregstrom said:
As a quick example: Witches are generally seen as outdoorsy types, I believe, and so it seems reasonable that Crones would get a better map move than an Arcoscephalian philosopher who's spent his life sitting around talking his head off in the agora.

The problem is there are plenty of academic types (for instance LE Man's mages, or loremasters), that do have map move 2.

It's a bit odd that the essentially immobile Guru has a map move when he apparently spends his live hovering cross-legged above the ground - perhaps he has a Marketa pulling him around on a length of string between battles?

The Guru is actually the one that just sits on the ground crosslegged. Such dedication that even when fleeing from battle they don't uncross their legs to run but slowly scoot toward saftey. The floating Rishi on the other hand can apparently glide at a brisk pace with a swift 10 ap (but not very far, 1 mapmove).

[Gregstrom]

Sombre: I guess that's my point, in a way. The mapmove values can be argued either way, and I don't think there is a strong enough link between AP and mapmove to justify many changes that way either.

The list seems to be mostly mapmove 2 types. A lot of the mapmove 1 units seem reasonable (Agarthan units sort of suit being a bit slow and plodding strategically, and it seems fair that the Arcoscephalians are a bit sedentary), and giving the mapmove 1 high mages extra strategic speed would be quite a balance change.

QM: EA Arco's philosophers benefit from a sloth domain - it fits that they take their time moving from place to place. My bad on the guru/rishi bit though. I still like the image of a hovering mystic being dragged around on the end of a length of string :-)

It seems to me that there's a difference between being able to hustle at high speed in a fight and being able to cope with a long-distance trek between two provinces. That's why longdead and soulless get their high strategic move, after all.

I don't see any terrible inconsistency in some types of mage being good at hiking around and others being less good.

[Sombre]

I only just realised that arco slingers are mapmove 1. Why? They are classic skirmishers / light missile troops.

I'm confused.

[Endoperez]

All untrained militia troops, and all independents, have mapmove 1. The Arcos slinger type is the independent slinger type. That's the mechanical reason. As for a thematical one...

[vfb]

It's because they've got rocks in their pockets.

[zlefin]

when was the last time you tried marching an army 500 miles?
Untrained troops may just not have the stamina (or will) to march that far that fast.
Just like the reason undead havea mapmove 3 often is cuz they can walk day and night literally, no rests, no meals, no setting up camps for the night.
Reading the descriptions for LA pythium iirc has some 1's and 2's separated by their ability to be trained to march well, not by major equipment differences.

[thejeff]

None of which really makes sense when you consider the mixed forces usually used.

Undead shamble on through the night while the cavalry ride far ahead through the day and camp for the night. The mage controlling the undead has flying boots, so he also has map move 3, but he has to fly on ahead to get his beauty sleep, not stay up all night and day controlling the dead.