Fun (and helpful) custom scenarios with friends

A little while back I posted about creating an unfair 2v1 map for me and my friends. Someone suggested I not change things too much so that my friends are still able to learn normal aoe2 and not get in the habit of activating custom triggers. So, for our now-weekly aoe2 sessions* I've been creating custom scenarios to help do just that.

Most so far have just been normal maps, just with a little tinkering to make them more digestible. For example, Arena with all but 2 straggler trees gone and deer moved around to make it easier to push them in and avoid situations where they're trapped or running all over the place. However, this week I've created something that pushed my boundaries in triggers and will, hopefully, begin their development in a key area: micro.

We haven't played it yet, but here's the idea: set up a space with a few military units that respawn somehow so that (1) we don't have to worry about eco or anything else in a game other than military, (2) we can replay the scenario repeatedly without loading new games, (3) micro is the predominant strategy, and (4) we have fun.

To that end, I created this (pics below). This was a huge learning process for me, and there are lots of things I would do different trigger-wise (and map gen wise) for next time, and I learned a bunch of stuff along the way. Each player's villager is only capable of creating palisade walls. They can build a wall in between their colored flags to choose that unit. E.g., player 3 builds it by the archers and then gets 5 archers spawned every round in the arena in the center. After the round is over, all units in the center are killed, and players can choose either different units, or in round 3 they can start upgrading their existing units. Options are 4x militia - two-handed swordsman, 5x archers - arbalesters, 3x scout cavalry - hussar, and 2x spearmen - halbedier. I did code an end which is manually triggered (object not in area + only one player's units left on the field = that player wins).

What do y'all think? Any comments or criticism are gladly welcomed. And if you have any ideas for future scenarios I'd love to hear them. I will say the one major downside of this scenario is that player 1 (me) has to manually trigger phases (e.g. start round, proceed to unit/upgrade selection for next round, remove object to initiate final round).

*I haven't played weekly aoe2 in probably 10 years. It's great to be able to say this again.

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unit/upgrade selection

fighting area - each round a new bear and boar spawn. there is also a looping trigger to task units behind the gates to move toward the center.