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REFERENCE: No pedia.txt file was included in the zipped package #, and the 'read me' file is light on detail as to descriptions of units, city improvements, and Wonders of the World. GAME OBJECTIVE: Regrettably there was no game objective spelt out for the player, although it is assumed that it would be either the destruction of 'The Fanatics' tribe, or an all-out 'bloodlust' victory. It would be of benefit if this was clarified in either the supporting documentation or in the events file. BALANCE: Generally the game was well balanced, which in itself is a commendable achievement. The units by-and-large showed a fair equilibrium between offence and defence at any one stage prior to the introduction of the 'Armageddon Void', while the 'blitzkrieg' approach to attacking cities remains an effective strategy. Perhaps the direct path to the 'Fire Dragon' unit for 'The Children' tribe allowed this strong unit to be obtained before the other tribes could catch up (provided their scientific priorities were not so focussed on this particular pursuit). The specialist units, particularly the 'Dragon Mother' and 'Pessaphis' (Serpent Goddess), had defensive statistics that were arguably excessive. # The technology tree measured development with fair progress, and 'tech by conquest' was toggled off, so the easy seizure of newly planted enemy villages did not distort the technology tree adversely. GOVERNMENTS: Government switching is not permitted. There are two tribes that have been recommended for play; 'The Children' (in Communism) and 'Aranoth' (in Monarchy). There have been changes to the global settings to make these forms of government more harmonised. # The other tribes vary between The Republic and Monarchy, except for 'The Fanatics', which unsurprisingly are in Fundamentalism. The decision to turn off government switching does remove an element of the game from the player's strategic options, which is a little disappointing. In spite of this, Monarchy is perhaps the most appropriate form of government for the scenario, which allows a moderated rate of trade and growth once the empire has expanded and becomes well established. Communism, with its zero-corruption proved to be too profitable to a sprawling warring empire in this instance - spies operating at veteran status with a cashed up treasury can cause havoc. WONDERS: The author has decided to have all available Wonders never to expire. Perhaps while not making the game exceedingly lopsided, some tribes may manage to obtain some fairly potent combinations, which as the game progresses through conquest of Wonder cities, tends to further drive the momentum to victory. There are several 'happy Wonders' available, which makes play at Deity level a possibility. The renaming of the Wonders has been done with imagination and to good effect. Several Wonders are distributed amongst the tribes, and their allocation is sensible enough. The fact that such Wonders are the possession of the A.I. tribes should give further motive to the player to consider taking an offensive stance with a view to capture. TRIBE SLOTS: An observation; the two allied tribes of 'The Children' and 'Aranoth' are in the Roman and Greek spots respectively. While this has probably been done to capture the most fitting tribe leaders' graphical representations in the diplomacy screens given the theme of the scenario, ultimately these rather aggressive tribes veer towards a less than enthusiastic attitude toward each other, despite their alliance. The author has changed the tribe characteristics, however the Civ2 mechanism ultimately takes over. Little can be done on this relatively small point without significant "back to the drawing board" changes. COMMENCEMENT: The game commences well, with enough units to get the scenario going, while not a ludicrous number of cities to become too unwieldy. There is ample room to progress with a strategy of early expansion, while as elsewhere noted, loads of 'goodie huts' to provide some quick money and units. CONFLICT: Despite the intention of the 'good versus evil' theme, it soon becomes apparent that the player must also go into battle with tribes with whom the nation has had an extensive history of peace with, thereby compromising the theme somewhat. The Civ2 'engine' will inevitably draw large tribes to resent the largest tribe, while the small ones tend to live in fear of getting 'stomped'. This will 'muddy the waters' of setting up a game with the intended theme in mind. |
While reasonably large in total size (8,000 squares) the bulk of the map is ocean. In order to contain the AI, the player would be well served by placing towns at the points where the landmass funnels to a single square-width across, thereby limiting the movement of the A.I. tribes, even your allies. REFERENCE: Documentation was underdone in some respects. The 'read me' contained several spelling errors #, and could have addressed the following points more comprehensively;
Despite this, credit is given for having a 'read me' in the first instance that reinforced the story setting and did address some game-play issues (somewhat briefly). TECHNOLOGY: For 'my money' the technology tree was the strongest aspect of the scenario. It effectively intertwined a large number of civilization advances from the default technology tree with numerous mythical advances. By-and-large nothing appeared to be horrendously out of synch, and was extensive enough to allow the player to advance a considerable way through the game before reaching the end, although it is likely the tree will be fully researched well before the conclusion of the 300-turn scenario. The government type significantly affected trade levels and consequently the technology progress. CITY IMPROVEMENTS: There were two pollution-curbing city improvements included in the game, however the 'no pollution' option had been toggled when the scenario was set up. Additionally, no defence improvement is provided for attack by the 'Armageddon Void' (nuclear missile), which means the first tribe able to build this unit should make easy work of obtaining a speedy victory, albeit with a significant pollution penalty. # Other issues of note include several admirable examples of renaming of city improvements and Wonders of the World to suit the setting. CITY NAMES: The city.txt file was also addressed to provide several names for each tribe's new cities. This list proved to be comprehensive, although not quite comprehensive enough before running into the default 'Extras' list. |
Several icons seemed to be original, and if they were, they were well handled, and appear to be more than suitable along-side the ones taken from the default game or Fantastic Worlds' scenarios. There was clear opportunity to change the artwork of the civilization advance icons (credit cards, hammer & sickle, rifle, etc.) as was done in 'Master of Magic, Jr.' Instead, the default graphics were used. Likewise, while the bulk of the units also were 'borrowed', there may have been some original contributions. City designs too were changed, and may have had some authored additions. Again, if so, these were competently addressed. While there's nothing particularly wrong with the default colours or flags, there were no changes to these despite the city design graphic file being included. Perhaps a point of difference could have been made here. An excellent opening graphic placing the theme and mood of the scenario squarely in front of the player. It depicts orc-like creatures trudging forward in a harsh and dusky setting. EVENTS: An events.txt file is included, however is underdeveloped. This mechanism allows the author to better guide the progression of the scenario beyond the starting point, while also extending the chance to reinforce the theme. One of the clear benefits of authoring a fantasy scenario is that there are generally fewer 'rules' that need to be adhered to than historical scenarios. There is no requirement to recreate past events or relationships, unless based on a specific fantasy work (e.g. 'The Hobbit'). This extra freedom permits even more opportunities to build interesting events and introduce unusual technologies. The events file in this scenario covered the necessary basics, such as ensuring that 'The Fanatics' ('forces of evil') tribe could not negotiate with the others and remained in constant war, and when specialist units were killed, an announcement text box eloquently proclaimed the unit's demise accompanied by a music track. There did seem to be significant scope to press this aspect of the game much harder. A couple of proposed additions could be; if the Serpent Goddess was killed, or The Fanatics' capital city was taken, then a 'kill civilization' plus "victory" text box event could proclaim the game's completion. Several opportunities were apparent to add 'give technology' actions to the specialist units' slaying events, so the aggressor would be rewarded for their enemies' assassinations. GOOD IDEAS: The originality of the scenario is enhanced by an author-created story #, although admittedly it is not too divergent from other mythical scenarios such as 'Midgard' on the F.W. CD-ROM. The struggle between 'good and evil' is managed by having 'The Fanatics' at ceaseless war with all tribes. The units file is used to its fullest extent, with no spare spots for units (other than the Partisan unit, omitted for good reason). One unfortunate side effect being that the availability of the unit in the paratrooper spot ('Braves') triggers the game's information box pertaining to paradrops. The inclusion of 'specialist' leadership units is good, and it's pleasing to note that these units are usually potent without being indestructible. The inclusion of 'Armageddon' warfare without any shield of protection from the 'Armageddon Void' means that all units are conquerable, although with enough effort, they can all be taken by 'conventional' means. Again, the technology tree was extensive and implemented with adeptness. |
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CONCLUDING COMMENTS: The scenario is a good alternative to the existing mythical scenarios about. It draws together elements from 'Midgard' and 'Master of Magic, Jr.' with the inclusion of an original story and map. The strongest features include the thorough technology tree, and tribe-to-tribe variance in the forms of different units, governments, and city styles. The game is 'easily accessible' from the outset with a striking opening graphic followed by a manageable level of cities and units. There are several imaginative elements, such as good lists of city names and titles of Wonders and city improvements. Several Wonders have been judiciously been distributed at the game's commencement, that extend a fair starting point to the various tribes. In a nutshell, the scenario may benefit from:
POSTSCRIPT QUALIFICATION: It should be stated that this review was the version downloaded 13th December 1998 (Version 2.0), and the author has consequently made some changes as a result of discussion on the Scenario League message boards (creating Version 3.0). As such some of the more 'carping' comments in this review have already been addressed by the author, and these were flagged in the review with the '#' symbol. Changes brought into the scenario through Version 3.0 included:
The author has additionally advised that:
The final word on these points:
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