Scenario Review Scenario Title: Defense of Madrid: Spanish Civil War Author: Jesús Balsinde Reviewer: Andrew Hoekzema   Historical scenario. Lead the Spanish Republicans and the International Brigade against the authoritarian Fransisco Franco and his Nazi-backed military. Download at csc.apolyton.net

Overall Rating 23.5/30 COMMENTS/SYNOPSIS: The infamous prelude to WW2. The Republicans, backed by socialists fight off the facist Nationalists. Lead the Spanish Republicans and the International Brigade against the authoritarian Fransisco Franco and his Nazi-backed military. The map is medium sized and the scenario runs from 1936 to 1939.

Playability Rating 9 / 10 COMMENTS: I really enjoyed this scenario, and I always enjoy playing it as a prelude to playing a WW2 Scenario since it was part of the conflict as a whole. The scenario is challenging, and accurately portrays a wartime situation; the player needs to find a way to improve the infrastructure in his territory, improve his industrial base, and build a decent economy in order to gain an advantage over the Nationalists by increasing the speed of mobilization. I found the scenario plenty challenging; I think that it is balanced enough. I think that there could have been a bit more versatility in terms of buildable units, perhaps more tank and soldier options. The atmosphere is okay, except perhaps for the standard city improvements. There is a recycling plant in one of the cities, and there are some other problems with the atmosphere, but really only in terms of the cities. Other than that, atmosphere is great. I thoroughly enjoy this scenario as it stands, but I am also impressed at the potential this scenario has. I think that new terrain, a more versatile arsenal, more city taken events, and perhaps more of a capacity to improve domestic policy would really serve this scenario well.

Level of General Care 8.5/10 MAP: The map is great, it covers no more or no less than it needs to. DOCUMENTATION: I thought is was alright, but personally would have liked to see some more documentation on it since I find it to be such an interesting conflict. I think that more pop up text could help this. TECH: Yes, the tech tree is fine, and it adaquately fits the scenario. It could have been a bit more extensive, but it was okay. DETAILS: Details seemed alright.

Art and Originality 6 / 10 NEW IDEAS: All the units used are new, as are all of the wonders. I felt that the International Brigades was recreated in a very effective way. The ideas were decent, but were not enough and not big enough to make much of a difference in gameplay. This is a really great scenario to teach someone how to play civilization because the strategies are so similar. However, as far as innovation goes, it wasn't that innovative. This was a very fun scenario to play, and will give novice designers a good idea of how to create a military conflict, but doesn't have enough new ideas to be an asset to experienced designers. In short, this is a scenario for the players. ART: Artwork for the units and the wonders was great, but I was quite disappointed that there were no city, terrain, or city improvement modifications.

NOTES: None.

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