Basic Timed Release

(Updated: August 26, 2002)

The concept of ambush can add surprise to a game. Other than using Guard Area mode on concealed units, the second way of doing this is using a fire and a teleporter. What is written here is the most basic way of going about this. This technique is not at all new to the AoW community and has been widely used in many user-created scenarios.

What is time release?

This means that the map maker has set a number of units to appear on the map after a specific number of turns and at a specific location. Usually with the use of fire set to go off after a certain number of turns and a teleporter set to the location objective.

So: if you want Unit A to start appearing at location B at X no of turns, this is the basic way of doing it.

Here’s the typical example:

This here is a picture of unit all ready to go once the fire goes out.

The teleporter has a set location.
The fire has been set to a number of turns (with fire properties window, see below).
The unit can be set to scout, raid or suicide – whereby it will move towards the teleporter when the fire goes out and teleport itself out of it’s confinement.
(Do note that when setting AI to raid there is a chance that the teleporter may get razed, therefore place the unit at the teleporter and put the ‘timed’ fire at the destination – a tip by Fingers.)

To access this window, right click on the placed ‘fire’ graphic and select Edit. As you can see you can select or key in the number of days you like the fire to be active.

Warning: Make sure that this set-up is well away from any players view at anytime during the game for real surprise effect. This set-up is usually done in the underground levels away from ‘everything’ else.

Time release has been used for many purposes:

1) A lot of raiding units appear after a fixed number of turns if the game is not won (e.g. victory by X number of turns or face an overwhelming monster invasion)
2) Anticipating the player’s movement and timing, and creating an ‘ambush’.
3) Ensuring that there are constantly ‘random’ monsters appearing during the entire gameplay.

Warning: Fire-time release does not work for fire-resistant or fire-immune units such as some of the Undead units and Orc’s Red Dragons. They will walk right through it.

Tip: For other story purposes, map makers have used fire to block passageways and cave entrances for a certain amount of turns for story purposes. In some cases, Pestilence Clouds have also been used as blockers instead of fire.

Important Note:

If adjacent Earth tiles were to catch fire and hurt your units waiting there, the releases may be triggered prematurely. This can be prevented by having a water tile in between the teleport and the tile where the units are waiting. A bridge is used to connect over the water, or in the case where an Ice Queen Unit is used, an ice tile will do the job.

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