Westeros Risk

[SpaceChampion]

March 2012 Update: Domination has a new Map store where you can download the Westeros and Game of Thrones maps from within the game itself. Seems another guy made a Westeros map that's in there. None of the territories are named properly, and the dimensions seem somewhat arbitrary, so while visually appealing, I think mine is better. Try them both!

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REMOVED LINKS since the new version of Domination allows you to download the Westeros map files from its internal Map Store.

You'll still need to edit the game.ini file with a text editor to change the player names.

Domination game files. Written in Java so is cross-platform.

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Below is my original post, but some facts have changed:

1) It is possible to get the map bigger than the default size by manipulating the greyscale GIF and map PNG with a graphics program. (just stating this to indicate what I did, not that you have to do it to play it. The hi rez version above is for a 1600x800 map, which plus the game menu area and controls fits on my 1920x1200 screen well. If you want to customize the maps for a different screen size, just scale the GIF and PNG files to the same dimensions you want.)

2) I'm not pursuing development of a mobile version for Android or iPhone.

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Domination, which is a direct rip-off of RISK, has some maps available for Middle Earth (I always win on Middle Earth starting from Mordor -- Mordor is like the Australia of Middle Earth), Randland (difficult map to win playing against the computer) and other fantasy worlds, but I haven't found one for Westeros.

So I decided to make one.

I've completed the portion of the map for the North, now I need to make the rest of Westeros. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to get the map image size bigger than 677x425. Zooming the image on a big screen is possible, but the resolution is horrible. Supposively the version of the software I have should be able to do any size maps, but it's not working for me. I'll email the guy who wrote it to see what I have to do to get it working.

On a higher resolution map I was going to make it so that all castles were situated in a territory surrounding them (like Greywater Watch completely surrounded by the Neck) so one has to take the territory first before you can attack the castle, or vice versa you can hole up in Greywater Watch and attack anyone in the Neck) but the resolution is not good enough for that.

I will complete this map unless someone out there knows of a Westeros map for Domination or other Risk-clone already done.

If there is interest, I might run this game on a server to allow you guys to play against each other.

Some questions -

I've listed each of the kingdoms as their own "continents" to get the troop bonus if you own all the territory within them. Here are the numbers I picked, if anyone disagrees let me know your reasoning and I will adjust.

The North - 7

The Iron Islands - 3

The Vale - 4

The Stormlands - 5

The Reach - 7

The Westerlands - 5

The Riverlands - 4

Dorne - 5

The Kinglands - 4

Should I have the Iron Islands with a troop bonus of only 3? I figure the Iron men don't have a lot of troops, but their ability to attack up and down the coast and up the riverlands makes up for that.

I've also been thinking about boosting the troop bonuses of all the kingdoms so there are in the 15-20 range for most, just to make it more bloody. Or if there is an online reference for relative military strength of each of the Houses I will consult that.

For the north I have Skagos and Bear Island each can attack the Wall, but the Wall can't attack those Islands since the Night Watch has no fleet. The only adjacent land the Wall can attack is Last Hearth which covers the area immediately to the south. I might add a Wilding territory north of the Wall.

I don't see any ports on the west side of the North, so for Bear Island I've made it one-way attacks possible on the Wall, the Stony Shore and Cape Kraken. I didn't want Bear Island invulnerable so I made it possible to attack it from Deepwood Motte (two-way), and of course once I create the Iron Islands and the Arbor those territories with ports will be able to attack it two-way as well.

For Skagos I had one-way attacks possible on the Wall, Widow's Watch and Karhold, a two-way with White Harbour, but I am not sure what to do about the Dreadfort. Dreadfort is not a port as far as I know, so can't attack Skagos, but I'm not sure if Skagos can attack it. Dreadfort seems like it ought to be protected from coastal attacks. I guess I'll keep those two territories unjoined for now, and see how game play goes.

Next: The Vale. I'm going to have to look carefully at some maps of the Vale to divide up that territory. I imagine it has some ports in the Fingers but other than that I don't see where. I presume White Harbour has trade with the Vale, anyone know what port it ships into?

[red snow]

This sounds cool. Good luck with the design. I guess not enough is known beyond the wall to include them at this juncture but it could make be used as a time limit on the game or a mission based game eg have the wall prepared for an onslaught come turn 10.

I'd have to have a "game map" to help out with the bonus scoring because the bonus should reflect the number of sections within a kingdom, although looking at this map http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5414/westeros1yj8.gif I'd argue the riverlands would require a higher bonus as it can be attacked on 6 fronts. I think the north is too big a bonus as it can only be attacked from the iron isles or the riverlands making it relatively easy to defend, unless you have multiple points of entry from those other continents. The kinglsnads maybe deserve an extra 1 point troop bonus just because it's the capital and would reflect the books a little better in that it would encourage players to try and win it? It might also be nicer to try and boil it down to the Seven kingdoms of Westeros too, although i can't really see which 2 to cut from your list as they make good sense.

Your game design on the whole suggests you are a fan of the northern rebellion ;)

The iron isles or Dorne should definitely be "the australia" though :)

[SpaceChampion]

It is fun.

That map you linked to is in fact the map I am using. Good thought on the riverlands bonus. I was thinking the bonus is based on how many troops one could raise if you are King on that land, rather than the bonus as an indication of difficulty for holding that land. But you're right it should be based on difficulty.

I'm making all coastal territories attackable from any territory with a port, so you can attack the North from Gulltown, Lannisport, the Arbor, or Dragonstone. I imagine this makes for a more difficult game in that you really can't take the traditional Australia strategy.

The Domination software is not sophisticated enough to impose time limits. The only missions I can do is set a goal of capture certain territories (ie. the capitals + ports) to win the game. I will probably produce at least two versions of the map, one with capture the capitals that is more realistic in that you can hole up in places (ex. the Mountains of the Moon where no one can attack you but you can attack the Bloody Gate.), and another version with the goal of capture every territory (where you can attack the Mountains of the Moon from the Bloody Gate). Greywater Watch is another such area that ought to be not attackable.

To make a Seven Kingdoms version, I could assume historical borders from the time before the Targaryns (perhaps with the Targs holed up in Dragonstone as an eighth power), with the Iron men holding the riverlands, and the Kingslands held by the Storm King (is that accurate to the books?).

But a War of the 5 Kings version is my immediate goal. Once I create the map it isn't any trouble to create mulitiple versions -- just have to adjust which territories belong to which kingdoms (continents) and who can attack whom.

There is a map of the land north of the wall here but I thought I've seen other ones that implied the area is a lot bigger than I imagined it -- almost as big as the North south of the wall. Which made me think of including that area as an Other kingdom.

Re: the northern rebellion -- can't make it too easy on the Starks, can we? :-)

[VorianGR]

Have you considered using castles like in Risk: Lord of the Rings? Westeros is made for things like that

[red snow]

This may be a stupid question but is it easy to play Damnation online with friends? I'm playing a facebook add on called attack! at the moment which isn't great but is easy to use.

I think you're wise to stick with the 5 kings setting and the idea of being able to attack anywhere via a port should make things a lot more interesting.

[SpaceChampion]

This may be a stupid question but is it easy to play Damnation online with friends? I'm playing a facebook add on called attack! at the moment which isn't great but is easy to use.

I think you're wise to stick with the 5 kings setting and the idea of being able to attack anywhere via a port should make things a lot more interesting.

I've never played Domination online, but the option is available. It is a Java based game. You start the game, click Start Server, and tell friends the details to join.

You'll likely need a static IP (which I have so I can host a game), and open port 4444 on your modem/router to allow connections. I don't yet know if it is any more than that. I read that if you host a game, you have to join the game last to get up to 6 players. Otherwise if you join the game first on your server you'll limit it to 2 players.

Another tip is to override the silly names given to the AI players by editing the game.ini file.

More info here:

http://domination.sourceforge.net/ [you can get free maps here]

and http://yura.net/projects/domination

The game also includes the software to edit and make your own maps.

okay, I hosted a game but noone joined. Gotta take off for the rest of the day. If anyone wants to play post in this thread, and we'll try to coordinate a time in the future.

[SpaceChampion]

Have you considered using castles like in Risk: Lord of the Rings? Westeros is made for things like that

I haven't seen that version of Risk.

[VorianGR]

I haven't seen that version of Risk.

Well it has some pecial features such as:

a)Mountains are impassable

b)Rivers as well except from bridges/crossings

c)Some regions have castles (for example Minas Tirith, Barad-Dur, Rivendell), which give +1 bonus to your highest dice

[TrueMetis]

The North - 7

The Iron Islands - 3

The Vale - 4

The Stormlands - 5

The Reach - 7

The Westerlands - 5

The Riverlands - 4

Dorne - 5

The Kinglands - 4

Think you made the troop bonus for The North and Dorne to high. Remember Robb was only able to get 20000 troops together maybe 30000 If he had waited and Prince Martell said they had 20000 spears max. Anyway I was think of making a risk map for Conquer Club but there map making forum is down.

[Piepai]

I actually love you for doing this dude. I'm down for helping in whatever way I can and would be down for playing it whenever too.

[SpaceChampion]

That's cool, Piepai. Anyone who wants to help, I need some information on troop levels. How many troops can each of the kingdoms raise?

Since it is a Java application, I might be able turn it into an Android app. I might work on that next, though I don't have an Android phone myself yet.

[SpaceChampion]

Well it has some pecial features such as:

a)Mountains are impassable

b)Rivers as well except from bridges/crossings

c)Some regions have castles (for example Minas Tirith, Barad-Dur, Rivendell), which give +1 bonus to your highest dice

Yeah, the map is not high enough resolution to do that in Domination, nor can I give a roll bonus without digging into the code.

[VorianGR]

Oh, too bad then

[Chalky]

I've listed each of the kingdoms as their own "continents" to get the troop bonus if you own all the territory within them. Here are the numbers I picked, if anyone disagrees let me know your reasoning and I will adjust.

The North - 7

The Iron Islands - 3

The Vale - 4

The Stormlands - 5

The Reach - 7

The Westerlands - 5

The Riverlands - 4

Dorne - 5

The Kinglands - 4

I don't know much about "Domination" but if this is like risk then the northerners would win every time if the troop count is like this (imagine if australia got 5 instead of 2). I'd recommend giving the Kinglands more armies too, as they can be attacked from all over the place

[SpaceChampion]

It's ready.

Once again, the Domination game install files can be obtained here.

Download Westeros and Game of Thrones map files from the Map Store.

After playing it for several hours I've found it near impossible to hold onto any of the seven kingdoms for more than a turn, so the bonuses are mostly irrelevant.

It's limited to six players. If you want to change the default player names and difficulty levels, edit the game.ini file in the /Domination folder.

Let me know what you guys think.

[red snow]

It's ready.

Just drop the contents of that zip file into the /Domination/maps folder once you've installed it on your computer.

Once again, the Domination game install files can be obtained here.

After playing it for several hours I've found it near impossible to hold onto any of the seven kingdoms for more than a turn, so the bonuses are mostly irrelevant.

It's limited to six players. If you want to change the default player names and difficulty levels, edit the game.ini file in the /Domination folder.

I've create a default player set here -- Stark, Lannister, Martell, Tyrell, Arryn and Greyjoy. No Baratheons. You play Stark, or edit it to switch to another House.

Let me know what you guys think.

Looking forward to testing it. Have pesky work to go to first though.

[SpaceChampion]

I've figured out how to get a higher resolution map working. This one fits perfectly on my 1920x1600 screen.

I noticed that I messed up a few of the territories on the lower resolution map (I got Casterly Rock and Lannisport flipped, for instance), so this one should be better.

[Piepai]

Yeah, trying to hold a continent is like pulling teeth. =_= I think maybe the harbours can go to too many places and stuff. It would be a lot more fun playing against real people I'm sure anyway. With real people we can like talk and make and break alliances and shit so we'd have a bit more of an actual game of thrones :P

Also, is it something I did wrong or are the card settings meant to give you a massive ammount as the game progresses no matter what the cards are? Never mind I see the options thing. When can we get a pvp test run going? :)

[SpaceChampion]

Yeah, trying to hold a continent is like pulling teeth. =_= I think maybe the harbours can go to too many places and stuff. It would be a lot more fun playing against real people I'm sure anyway. With real people we can like talk and make and break alliances and shit so we'd have a bit more of an actual game of thrones

Also, is it something I did wrong or are the card settings meant to give you a massive ammount as the game progresses no matter what the cards are? Never mind I see the options thing. When can we get a pvp test run going?

It doesn't help that I accidentally indicated Oldstones was part of the North continent. I would hold the North for a round and not receive any bonus. That's fixed now.

Yeah, I'll probably reduce the ability of fleets to invade too many places.

[Piepai]

It doesn't help that I accidentally indicated Oldstones was part of the North continent. I would hold the North for a round and not receive any bonus. That's fixed now.

Yeah, I'll probably reduce the ability of fleets to invade too many places.

For now, I've started the server so if you want to organize a game go ahead. I suggest meeting in the Westeros IRC chat room or use Skype or some other IM client.

Server is: spacechampions.com

The key seems to be that people have to join the game but not create a player until all people wanting to play have logged on. Then you can create players. Otherwise, it prevents people from logging on.

I'm updating the first (small) map so people may want to redownload it.

Yeah, like in Dorne for example it shouldn't give much of a bonus because it should only be attackable from like 3 places. The thing that makes it impossible to hold is the fact that like everything on the east coast can just sail down into it. Im not sure if it would work out but I think harbours should only be able to attack a few of the closest places, so they at least have to hop harbours to get down, uknow?

Edit: Wanna give me you're skype details and stuff? Or the IRC details even,