"Map Control" is the art of putting yourself in a position where you, and not your opponent, is in a position to choose where, when, and for what you fight.
I would remove the "when" part, because it could be the very opposite. It's very common to you to gain entire control of the map but can't break your enemy's defenses, in this game state you are trying to suffocate your opponent with map control but he is the one that chooses when he will try to fight you to regain map control, he is in a time pressure to fight you, but he still needs to make a proactive move while you are playing reactive. What you said sounds more like the definition of tempo.
@@iurifrazao454 A good point, well made, but map control gives you the freedom to then trade that control for time. If you're letting yourself get pushed back while prepping an alternate strategy you're still utilizing your control of the map to influence the game. Admittedly, "Map Control" becomes sort of an umbrella term at that point, but I'd argue it's still the umbrella under which your thinking falls.
Quantitative Answer: 100% Map control is when there is a 0% chance of getting a daut castle. Thus, map control and daut castles have an inverse relationship for each respective player. (MC = 1/DC)
Great video! THIS is the kind of content that I love to see from pro players: Breaking down the strategic aspects of the game that are commonly understood and automatic at the top level, but beneath that are missing or cloudy. Also, would love to see the inverse of this video (Things to do when you don't have map control). Other topic suggestions: Understanding civ power spikes & civ matchups. Deciding when/if to tech switch or add units to your comp vs doubling down on your current comp. Assessing when to invest in eco vs military (1 TC vs 3 TC). Using scouting info & map generation to inform decision making. Love the content man!
Map control can be in different levels. 1. You are safe on most areas while your opponent’s is constrained. So that you can pass freely while your opponent can’t. 2. You have more initiative on where and when to start a fight. So that you can move your army freely while your opponent need to respond. 3. You have scout superiority. So that you are more aware of map resources and enemy situation than your opponent.
Good one, but you may want to remove the "map" world from your point 3, cuz it really is redundant and it will fit the challenge to not use "map" and "control" in your definition ;)
Loving your new content Hera, so glad you came back to aoe2! Having insights into such a complicated game is awesome to help lower elo players improve, keep at it!
Venerable Day[9] defined map control as follows: If you can walk your grandma from your base to the middle of the map, and bring her back alive, then you have map control
The way i see it, map control is basically having vision over the map and making it yours by securing it with buildings/troops. This allows you to have the initiative and to choose where to attack and dictate the pace of the game, until your enemy decides to come out that is. So the player with map control always has the initiative to attack, and an easier time placing forward buildings, and can catch enemy units that try to counterattack more easily. It's far better if you force reactions from your opponent than having to react to whatever they're doing since: a) If your'e under constant pressure , youre more likely to fail to defend a certain area and this can lead to disaster. b) If an enemy push is coming, youre more likely to have time to react to it if you have map control, since you have all that space under your control between your opponent and you, which allows you to react better and prep. Whereas if you're in the dark (no map control) you don't know what your opponent is doing until right when it gets there.
Map control is your definition plus: having the material capacity (say defensive buildings) to intercept an ennemy army or villager when they come out of their base
MapControl - a quantifiable and qualifiable term represented in how much of the play space a person has a certain reign over to move about or to use the resources in and to what degree that reign is. The least most degrees being represented in a small amount of army, or a house or outpost and the highest degrees being castles and stone walls. This term has seen broad use in the RTS game Age of Empires II.
Map control is the localized superiority of force, defenses or positioning, and when achieved in multiple areas it creates a network of vision and resistance that gives one player a dominating position over resource ownership, game tempo and when/where combat will occur.
In the past I used to emphasise a lot on build orders, deer luring, transitions, etc. These days I don't care about any of those. All I care is how much map control I have and damage I can deal in a given time. I don't care in which order I put vils to res, all I care is whether or not I can drop the stable at 9:30 and engage with the opponent. I delay techs if I have to, and research extra eco techs if I have to micro a lot to gain map control.
Map control is the area in which you can protect, attack, and gather resources from. If you have an advantage in map control it means you are in a position where you have the ability to gain a lead on your opponent either through resources or through positioning from which you can attack and defend allowing you to set the pace of the battlefield and set yourself up for victory.
Map control is like air superiority. You can have it even if the enemy does have troops in the field. If you can oppose those troops with your own forces, and thus safely access the resources in the area with civilians, you've attained control of that area of the map.
Yeah this is the type of content I need, I know my civs pretty well (though its fun talking about them) but how to play in certain situations and decision making is where I need to improve most. :)
@@dirkauditore8413 On the contrary, Berbers can go archers which can really punish players going pikes, and they have solid infantry to deal with Goths late game. Sadly Hindustani kinda take away their shine atm but maybe some balancing soon.
@@gwensgaming Well yes you can technically go archers with them but their cavalry play in castle age is by far their strongest asset. You ideally wanna go for your strongest strat with a civ which in this case is their cheap cavalry... You don't really wanna go crossbows long term with berbers and their infantry is pretty generic so they end up losing vs civs with infantry bonuses. Agree Hindustanis are super good and look fun to use, sadly I don't have DE :c
you control an area of the map if your opponent will worsen their chances of winning by going in that area with their units. And conversely it is super safe for your units. And this is a rather dynamic thing. Both units and buildings exert control over an area. Who has control of the area at any moment depends on the strength of units and buildings that can influence that area for both sides. In dark age, the area around the TC is an example. If i have 2 scouts on the map and my opponent has 1, I can go wherever I want with those scouts except for their TC but they cannot go near my TC AND near my scouts. in early castle age, castles are very strong because no unit is strong enough to threaten their zone of influence. But in imperial age there are many things that can contest a castles authority over an area. Map control is always dynamic like that
Using the word "map" in the definition of "map control" does not result in a circular definition, since the meaning of the word "map" is already very clear in this context. It is the playing field. Someone who wants to know what "map control" means is not interested in learning what the word "map" means. They want to know how the control over that easily recognizable object (the map) is defined. Therefore I am just going to use the word "map" in my definition of "map control". If that bothers you for some reason, just replace it with "playing field". Definition: The sum of: Every single point in the area of the map times the degree of the unimpededness of the access a player has to the respective point in the area of the map times the degree of contribution the unimpeded access to the respective area delivers towards the win condition of the player.
Big question from this video. Loom is the worst upgrade in the game. So when is Town Patrol the right move to sacrifice a villager for? Is it ever worth it on 1 TC? Say when you have forward towers in feudal?
I would say that map control is the ability to restrict your opponents access to his objectives (i.e.: collect resources and damage your economy/production) through sheer numbers (large army at his wall) or through high tempo game states (such as an mobile small army with high threat to his economy that doesn't let him get out of base).
To be able to acquire and hold new territory without significant military investment so you can either extract resources or hold a position that is easily defended and protected.
Hey Hera, I notice that basically all of these (except the niche walling them in) are only available in castle age onwards. Even expanding to neutral golds and stones doesn't make sense in dark age or feudal age. I guess that's why scouts + skirms is kinda bad, because even if you invest into getting those units, you can't get into the enemy's walled base and the map control is worthless in feudal age.
Most of the time you want to use feudal army to give yourself an edge while getting to Castle Age, because thats when you really can make use of any advantage you might have (by booming, expanding, etc.). And like this the map control in feudal is just settting up the plays in Castle age. While you cant really make use of the map control by getting relics or doing castles in feudal, you can set yourself up for denying that map control from your opponent in the later stages. Also you can still go for the whole scouting aspect. The big problem with feudal age map control is that you can lose it in one moment to your opponent reaching castle age which you cant really deny. Thats at least my view on this.
The biggest advantage of walls is that fast melee units cannot kill your villagers. If people walled perfectly hussars would not do anything, even in the late game. Vision is such a minor part of that imo.
Map control is when you force your opponent to stay in a corner or it's original base, without letting an oportunity to expand it's base or even going to yours and attack
Really hard to define it without using map and control. Will leave it to somebody with better vocabulary. Nice video Hera. And congrats on the BoA tournament.
Map control is when your dominant position gives you a greater share of resources than your opponent and an upper hand in dictating the pace of the match.
If you can walk a vil around a considerable distance outside of your base with little or no risk of them dying, you Sir, have map control. Not so much a definition, as a test whether you have it or not.