cairnswk wrote:...my bonus calculator (same as from templates available) gives +2 for 4tert/2def/2att/2neighbours
koontz1973 wrote:But once you hold those four stations for a +2, you are giving an easy extra bonus with the hat for +3.
koontz1973 wrote:The bonuses from the hats should reasonably reduce the line bonus on lines like K (if not reduced rounding down any decimal point to the lower whole number to make those lines fairer).
the K line with the hat is a 5-region +3 bonus, while the bonus calculator gives +2.1 for for 5/2/2/2.
cairnswk wrote:what if i only have that line as my only bonus and am threatened by building armies on either J or U lines.
If someone already has either end J MCP or U GEO, then i am going to be really hard pressed to defend this K line and hold it.
this argument is fallacious, since it can be used for virtually any bonus that is next to another good bonus. the logical extension of the argument is that, if good bonuses are nearby, then this bonus ought to more than calculated, so all bonuses in this area must be more than the standard values.
cairnswk wrote:because the hat bonus only applies if i hold both stations on GEO...
if the hat is causing the trouble, then how about keeping the +2 for the K line, removing the hat and reducing the GEO neutral to n2?
cairnswk wrote:we have H line as +1 which i can understand since there is only one connection to O PAC.
we have D line in ecuador as +1 also, however, that is OK since there are only 2 stations on D Line (for me)
If we apply any logic here, D LIne should be worth +0 since it gets the hat bonus if taken while H line has no hat bonus but is worth +1
then it might make sense with +1 for K LIne.
we can certainly do something equivalent by removing the UIO hat and reducing its neutral to n3.
cairnswk wrote:but i simply think for defense purposes K line should be +2 since there are 2 ends to defend with 4 stations in total.
also if we don't have some +2 bonuses in the north, the south argentinian lines would make the entire map unbalanced
and it would be too easy to lose the small bonuses in the north and defend them against larger bonuses when gained.
there are already 4 northern bonuses of +2: D line with hat, PVH hat, M line and Q line; K line with hat becomes a 5th. the three best hiding-places (being corner bonuses that can be attacked by only 1 or 2 stations) in a large multi-player game are also in the north: H line, D line (with or without hat) and K line (with or without hat). it's a basic design principle that corner bonuses must not be comfortable enough for players simply to sit there, stack and watch their opponents weaken each other. +3 for K line plus hat crosses the line between adequate and comfortable.
cairnswk wrote:the south argentinian lines would make the entire map unbalanced
the larger northern and eastern bonuses do look low. increase U line (venezuela) from +3 to +4, O line (colombia) from +4 to +5, B line (belem) from +4 to +6 and R line (rio) from +7 to +9? i'm using a modified bonus calculator with multiplier of 3 instead of 1.5 for number of regions and deflator of -2 instead of -1, in line with an earlier comment about having to raise some many-station line bonuses to compensate for having to give at least +1 for holding a 2-station hat bonus.
ian.