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Fictional Scenario Reviews

Playability Rating

7 / 10

COMMENCEMENT: A very lengthy introductory text and opening title graphic ('borrowed' from the Microprose Ice Planet scenario) lead you through the plot and towards the recommended selection of either the Helluland or Greenland tribes. These two newly formed republics are allied with (the 'less than co-operative') Iceland in forming the Arctic Alliance. They are surrounded by three antagonistic forces; the Russian Federation, Canada, and the European Union.

Thankfully a manageable number of cities and units are provided to the player, allowing enough scope to begin working towards implementing a cohesive strategy, while not so unwieldy to create 'micro-management headaches' from the outset.

Both of the recommended tribes are researching advances that they already possess, and due to lack of science-related city improvements and a tight budget, are unable to quickly progress onto the more futuristic technologies. The A.I. tribes are however in the 'same boat', also initially going over 'old ground' in the technology stakes.

The scenario author has locked both tribes into the Republic - a difficult form of government to manage in a war-oriented scenario. While the recommended tribes have plenty of 'none' units (i.e. units not supported by any city), shield upkeep becomes a trial in attempting to establish a larger invasion force of increased strength.

The Greenlanders are in a better position than the Hellulanders in that they possess the 'Ivigtut Cryolite Mines' (King Richard's Crusade) in a city also furnished with a factory and a manufacturing plant. It can therefore support plenty of troops, and two forms of energy plants are also available for construction. The Greenlanders, while receiving some opposition from the Europeans, don't endure quite the level of conflict than the Hellulanders do from the neighbouring Canadians. Another point of difference is that Greenland's terrain is generally more fertile than the island chains that the Hellulander Republic is founded upon.

Happiness is also a problem at Deity level, with several cities commencing the scenario in a state of revolt.

One course of action that the player is likely to take in the first twenty or so turns is to make the terrain around the cities more fertile, while attempting to get a cease-fire or peace agreement with their aggressors. There is a good chance that the Americans will agree to an alliance, which should prove to be of great use later in the game.

City production schedules should also be examined. Many cities have no production surplus at all (indeed some Greenland towns begin with a production deficit), and often the building choices are well worth changing. Greenland possesses the Thule Strategic Air Base (Sun Tzu's War Academy) and in spite of difficult citizen contentment problems, most Greenlander cities are constructing barracks in preference to more immediate problem-solving improvements such as stadiums (coliseums). There is no penalty for changing build orders from units to improvements to Wonders, so players need not concern themselves with waste from production-type switching.

MAP: It is assumed that the map was created by the scenario author, and if so, it is well done and imaginative, with a 'top down' layout of the Arctic Circle. It's a flat map of 130 x 110. The author has done some good work with the terrain types and special resources - 'Cryolite', logging, cattle, and dairy are just a few examples of new resources, each presented with an appropriate image icon.

The recommended-for-play tribes' cities are typically surrounded with plenty of tundra terrain and ocean. The author has provided both tribes with quite a few constructor units (engineers) that can begin work on terraforming the tundra directly into grassland. Grassland squares further terraform across to forest. These changes differ from the typical terraforming sequence (tundra to desert to plains to grassland to hills), and do allow the player to quickly strengthen their position by providing food-rich grassland and shield-rich forests. A railroaded forest square that may be created from a generally unproductive tundra square counts for a lot in the scheme of things where shield productivity is a particularly acute issue.

The tribes however are very much 'off the pace' in that there is a desperate need to access the offshore platform city improvement, and are very much reliant upon one of their allies accessing miniaturisation so this technology may be traded or given.

GAME OBJECTIVE: The author has used the objectives system with no less than 99 objective points for the taking.

Although it is stated in the 'Read Me';

"You have only 355 turns to conquer the entire Arctic"

…victory is possible by spaceship. Indeed, it is more likely that one of the principal adversaries will get to Alpha Centauri than the scenario reaching 200 turns. This is an issue of some significance from a game balance perspective, as it is unlikely that the recommended tribes at the default Deity level (particularly the Hellulanders) will be able to compete in the space race, or capture the capital of the Russians, Canadians or Europeans in time to prevent a spacecraft in flight from landing.

FINANCES: Despite the Republican government and no particular shortage of trade-arrow terrain (generally from ocean squares), money is far from abundant. There is usually a need to rush-buy city improvements due to production shortages or happiness difficulties, and with no initial trading routes or banks, the economies of the two Republics are usually under some stress, particularly in the first fifty or so turns.

The player may opt to forgo all research and rely totally on the goodwill of the alliances formed to prop up not only the player's technology status, but also the bank balance, with occasional requests for gifts. This may open the door to population growth through 'We Love You Days' preceded by the purchase of improvements that rectify citizen discontent.

Despite there being no active trading routes at the game's commencement, the author has created a good range of trading commodities that are fitting to the scenario's futuristic Arctic theme; from plutonium to pumice.

BALANCE: There are a few game balance issues that are some cause for concern. Whether these are done as a deliberate move by the scenario author to counterbalance the imperfections of the A.I. and create some well considered scenario-building twists, or whether these are design slip-ups is a little hard to say. Two worth mentioning (albeit one being repeated)…

As already noted, the possibility of an Alpha Centauri landing does allow the game to be finished well ahead of a conquest / objectives-based victory.

The absence of Strategic Defence Initiative (SDIs) for much of the early phase of the game can cause havoc, with most of the A.I. tribes wielding a nuclear arsenal that they're quite enthusiastic about using. On the other hand, the scenario author has cut back the paradrop range for paratroopers from fourteen to seven squares. As such, despite some cities being the subject of several atomic bomb strikes, the 'double drop' manoeuvre was never done by the A.I., as the target city was always out of paradrop range.

There are some further game balance matters that have already been touched upon, such as; protracted difficulties with shield productivity in most cities, excessive reliance on exploiting alliances, and the Republican government being generally war-unfriendly.

One game balance issue that did appear to be handled well was that of unit attack vs. defence statistics. It is not uncommon to run into scenarios where even the best defended cities become obliterated by a very powerful unit, or conversely units that can take almost any punishment short of a nuclear missile. In the case of The Arctic 2045, generally a good balance was achieved.

Level of General Care

6½ / 10

REFERENCE: A 'read me' file has been included, and is reasonably comprehensive, covering the game plot in quite a bit of detail fleshed out on a tribe-by-tribe basis. Furthermore, there are some credits given to some of the 'borrowed' artwork, notes on new elements including advances and Wonders, and an explanation of the 'minor cities' that appear on the map. Despite being a fairly well written document, (again, particularly in examining the scenario's theme), it does contain a few minor errors of both punctuation and spelling (tsk tsk!).

The pedia.txt file is included (yay!) however does not appear to have received much attention in terms of updating the information. While the 'bare bones' explanations are covered, further commentary on the Wonders would not have gone amiss. Regardless there are few concerns other than the occasional oddity such as the description of the 'Auyuttuk National Park' wonder; "When you first obtain control of the Eiffel Tower….".

SUPPORT FILES: The game works successfully enough without much needed in the way of 'window dressing'. A few minor points of note;

It would appear by looking at the rules.txt file that the scenario author attempted to change the nomenclature of the levels of difficulty from 'Chieftain to Deity', to new terms 'Constable to Consul'. This could have been implemented by amending the game.txt file (not included in the zipped package).

Another missing file was city.txt - and as such, any newly founded cities took the name of their corresponding default game's tribe's city list (Japanese city names in the case of the Greenlanders, and Spanish city names for the Hellulanders).

THEME: One of the great strengths of this scenario was the theme, and it was particularly well embraced through a good map, and well considered Wonders of the World. While the idea that Canada will unleash an avalanche of atomic weaponry on a rather undeveloped Greenland in fifty years may be a little far-fetched to some (it is Civ - after all!), the plot seems to be well considered and capably addressed in the 'read me' file.

As will be noted below, there are areas where the plot development could have worked a little harder, and the unit choices were generally pretty contemporary until the technology 'orbital weaponry' entered the scene, but nonetheless the overall set up is commendable.

Art and Originality

6½ / 10

COMMENT: Unfortunately overall the graphics appear to be almost entirely second-hand, and while the plot itself is good, the events file and the technology tree only go part of the way towards supporting the story line.

UNITS: The author gives credit to ten scenarios and modpacks for unit graphics that have been 'borrowed' for this scenario, and it is assumed that practically all images therefore have been copied from either these or official Microprose scenarios. The 'marines' image is the only one from the default game.

Shield concealment is a problem. While no units appear to suffer total shield concealment, there are a number of instances where partial concealment is evident. Conversely, in several other cases shield placement is at a remote point from its unit, and it may take 'two looks' to work out which tile the unit is actually occupying - this is particularly so with ocean faring units where tiles are less clearly defined.

The player is given a wealth of options when addressing the production schedule for units - and arguably the choice is a little too extensive with over 40 unit choices available…

While there are small variations between the units, often within groups the differences are so minor that the availability of so many versions of the same general unit type is hardly warranted. A case in point is 'infantry' vs. 'arctic troops' vs. 'mechanical infantry': all 50 shields to produce, but 'mechanical infantry' is clearly the superior unit, and should make the others obsolete upon discovery of its prerequisite (labor union - a starting advance for all tribes as it happens).

As noted earlier, the paradrop range has been cut back for the 'paratrooper' unit, which may have a deleterious effect on the A.I.. It may attempt the 'nuke and paradrop' combination attack, however fails to recognise that the 'paratrooper' cannot jump the distance and the attack does not result in city capture.

ICONS: Much like the unit graphics, many (if not all) of the city improvement and Wonder icons have been copied from elsewhere (indeed, this scenario contains two of my own icons!). Despite this duplication, the overall standard of image is good, and supports the Arctic theme.

The default technology/advance icons have been retained.

OTHER GRAPHICS: The author has used some terrific flag images for the cities, although in a couple of cases the flag image and the tribe colour aren't well matched.

There is a wide use of the default game's icons and terminology for city improvements, whereas it might have been more effective to continue in the same vein as that of the 'naval yard' which replaces the default 'port facility' and the 'geothermal plant' that replaces the 'solar plant' with new names and icons.

An admittedly small point, however The 'Moscow Project' (Manhattan Project) Wonder is depicted with the flag of the former U.S.S.R., and is used as a graphic when any nuclear related activity takes place (i.e. advice of any nuclear missile attack or any nuclear plant meltdown). An alternative graphic with a 'nuclear focus' (e.g. depicting a molecule or a nuclear blast) may be more fitting for these pop-up windows than the Soviet flag.

EVENTS AND ADVANCES: An events file is included in the scenario and it works without a hitch. While the theme is lightly supported, the file is arguably not used as ambitiously as it may have been. It covers the necessary 'do not play Wonders' and 'no schism' events, generates a few text boxes that relate to the plot, a number of 'create unit' actions on certain turns that give some of the smaller tribes some extra firepower, and some 'make aggression' events to break any treaties that may distort the game's intended theme.

One good idea was to create 'minor cities' - being stationary units that are scattered around the map designed to represent small settlements. On the seizure/razing of these 'minor cities' the attacking tribe is rewarded with 500 gold.

It could be suggested that more could have been done to integrate the events file with the technology tree. The number of un-researched advances is relatively few given that the tribes have already secured most of the default advances, but perhaps there was the opportunity to 'free up' a few of the slots for the purpose of plot development in some manner by utilising the 'give technology' action. Rather than creating a new technology tree brimming with futuristic possibilities or plot-developmental ideas, the author has opted to include the default tree and added a few advances using the extra 'user defined' slots that lead to more potent units. The Microprose scenario "The World of Jules Verne" is a good example of the thoughtful application of an events file that meshes well with the technology tree, and perhaps there was some opportunity to adopt a little of that approach to scenario design here.

Of particular concern is the (twice previously mentioned) possibility of one tribe launching a spaceship to Alpha Centauri well before the Greenlanders or Hellulanders have made much progress within the first 100 turns. The events file could have been used to ensure that (for instance) the Apollo Program wonder was not available before 200 turns in the game had elapsed by linking it to a turn-triggered event.

SOUNDS: This game comes with a range of some of the common machine-gun, space gun, bomb blasts, and other war-based sound files, delivered in two zip files that require quick installation to a 'Sound' sub-directory within the 'Arctic45' folder.

Concluding Comments: The scenario is founded on a good plot concept, and provides the player with quite a challenge. The unfolding of the game sees the player rely on some of the less traditional strategic approaches. The map and Wonder names are a couple of the strengths that support the theme well. While the events file is arguably under-utilised, it is technically sound and too lends something to the plot. Military conflict is fairly well balanced between attacking and defending units, and all three types of combat (land, sea and air) play a role.

More original artwork, a slightly more creative and interactive events file, and moves to address a few distorting aspects that affect game balance would arguably see this scenario become even more engaging.