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SYNOPSIS: The ongoing struggle to repossess Northern Ireland splits into widespread conflict in the first years of the 21st century. The British Unionists take on the Irish Nationalists in a short yet ferocious conflict.

PRÉCIS: This scenario is concise, yet surprisingly engaging. It lacks many features that many seasoned scenario fans expect, however its good game balance and a few interesting design approaches give the scenario an appeal despite this melancholy theme that plagues both the United Kingdom and Ireland today.

Playability Rating

8 / 10

COMMENCEMENT: There are no hitches from the outset, although it should be noted that quite a bit of micro-management needs to be undertaken on the first turn - citizens are often working tiles that do not offer the maximum resources to cities, while frequently their building choices need to be changed to offer a more strategic advantage.

While there is not an opening visual, the scenario does begin with a well-written introductory text box that is the only real attempt to explain the theme. The leaders' names of "Billy" and "Paddy" could have been a bit better considered, but there has been some effort to enhance the theme with a range of factors including a good list of city names and customisation of the Wonders of the World.

Both tribes are locked into Fundamentalism, which cannot be replaced by an alternative government form. The scenario is set for 'total war'.

MAP: The map would appear to be custom created. On the positive side, there has been quite a bit of effort in city placement and creating terrain improvements (mines and farmland) and infrastructure (roads and rail), while on the other hand it is pretty 'chunky' with clumps of hills or mountains on a grasslands-dominated base. There would appear to be lots of opportunity to introduce new terrain types such as 'marshes' or 'woods', and a few special resources a little more suited to Northern Ireland, such as 'peat'.

GAME OBJECTIVE: The scenario uses the 'objectives' system. There are 36 objectives in total (9 to the Loyalists, 27 to the Unionists) at the game's commencement - although a few cities carry multiple points, including the jewel in the crown, Belfast.

The game duration is very short (three years with monthly turns), and not really enough for the Loyalists to get much beyond a stalemate. For them, the game focus is to seize Belfast, which is both difficult to get to (despite, or at times because of the rail-connections that lead through it), and heavily defended. Most cities with walls are fairly well assured of remaining in tact given a few defensive forces.

Objective points accommodate for Wonders, and there has been some good work in distributing these in a fairly sensible fashion in that they have been renamed with several new icons to support the setting.

FINANCES: With both tribes locked into Fundamentalism, money is not a problem, each with a moderate bank balance at the start with about 100 gold per turn coming in. Generally these funds are used to rush buy city walls and defensive units in newly acquired cities. There are no diplomat/spy units, nor caravan/freight units.

BALANCE: Game balance is one of the highlights of this scenario, although noted elsewhere, the game duration is perhaps too tight to make total conquest a probability. A lot of attacking units must be used to take out any large city, and despite a not inconsiderable starting force and plenty of funds, troop replenishment can barely keep up with the demands of the game.

There have been some pretty clever approaches taken with units. The Unionists have access to a Helicopter unit that will be able to defeat almost any unit with the exception of the Loyalist Rocket Launcher, which has the 'x2 vs. Air (AEGIS)' flag. Unfortunately for the Loyalists, while they have this very effective defence against Helicopters, the unit is still somewhat vulnerable against attacks from ground troops. Both sides have other customised units that each offer their own strengths - be it 2-move, good offence, or good defence.

GOVERNMENT: As earlier noted both tribes are locked into Fundamentalism, which is a sensible enough choice given the theme and conquest-focussed structure of this game. It would have been of some benefit to remove the religious overtones of the leaders' titles (High Priest), with something a little more akin to political revolution - if not for the Loyalists, at least for the Unionists

Level of General Care

4½ / 10

COMMENT: The general care taken is skeletal. The scenario is technically sound by-and-large, but there are a few difficulties that would benefit from more attention.

REFERENCE: A missing pedia file is a poor start, while the 'read me' is basic at best and would well served by some fleshing out with information on the conflict, more on the units, strategies, artwork credits, background sources, author's views, etc. Given that the Unionist faction begins the game with a Marginal Victory, perhaps an alternative game objective could be discussed in this section.

SUPPORT FILES: There are no settler/engineer units in the game, so there's no need for cities.txt to be included in the zipped package to accommodate new village names.

Other files such as labels.txt have not been included which might have added some 'window dressing' to the scenario. With the short length and minimal opportunity to do much other than create units and charge into combat, this omission may not be a heinous as it might have been with a more development-oriented and complex game.

THEME: The theme is reasonably well embraced, although there are apparent opportunities to go some way further. Throughout there has been an effort to support the Irish feel, the strong points being the customised units, Wonders, and city names.

When compared to some other scenarios such as the highly-evolved Red Front designed by Captain Nemo, the variations in class however become apparent. Not only does the map fail to offer distinctiveness from the default game, but the lack of an events file and a meaningful advances tree are exclusions of significance - and the inclusion of both (working together) could build an effective plot.

Art and Originality

6 / 10

COMMENTS: As there is no credit given for artwork, it is assumed the author created all changes that differ from those seen in official scenarios or the default game.

UNITS: There are a few good things done with the units, and while many designs have been seen before, there have been some tailor-made graphics of note, such as the Loyalist unit, that is an enhanced version of the default Partisan image.

CITIES: The only other addition in the graphics department is the cities file. The author has opted to provide the default modern city designs in this scenario for both tribes, and the default green and orange colours have been used (presumably to reflect the Irish flag). The tribes have flag images that appear in style to be similar to Michael Raney's "All Flags" graphics.

OTHER GRAPHICS: No terrain graphics have been added, which is a little disappointing. Some effort to break the map up with appropriate alternative terrain types may have lent itself to improving the overall mood of the scenario.

ICONS: There are a few new icons that have been created for this scenario, although there is also a mix of default icons and images taken from other scenarios. Again, their quality is commendable, and the Wonders in particular work well.

EVENTS: The absence of an events file is one of note, and although the scenario is deliberately short and brutal, there remains some opportunity to enhance the theme with some political intrigue and interaction with the technology tree.

To begin with, a 'no negotiation' event would at least prevent the tribes from accessing technologies that should have been restricted and making short-term peace agreements.

There is ample opportunity to add further small twists into the game. Further support of the plot with a few 'if turn=' triggered text boxes may lend something to the theme, while capturing a key city could also provide Guerrilla Warfare and allow for the creation of Partisan-style units (as just one idea).

If the author was prepared to extend the length of the game over 80 or more turns and place an increased emphasis on development, then the opportunity to significantly build on the theme would present itself. With this would come a greater emphasis on strategy - in its current format this boils down to; "Which city should I next target? How many units do I need? What mix of offence and defence?"

Ideas abound, but could involve; the intervention of other nations, the creation of a spy unit that could unleash a nuclear weapon, or even the possibility of securing 'a lasting peace agreement' (alternate victory condition).

TECHNOLOGY: There has been placed a 100/10 paradigm on the rate of technological development, and there is effectively no technology tree. By and large this is disappointing, as the growth and direction of technology is one of the more interesting aspects of Civilization II play.

As noted above, the tribes may negotiate and access the 'Nationalism' and 'Unionism' advances, although this has no apparent effect on the game play.

'Obsoleting' advances have been added in the meagre starting technology lists, that include Ceremonial Burial and Monotheism that both allow tithes to be received.

As neither Electronics not Automobile have been given to both tribes, the Ancient set of citizen pictorials (happy citizens, specialist citizens, etc.) are used by default. Either inclusion of a modified People.gif or the addition of these two technologies would fix this inconsistency with the scenario's era.

Again, even a small technology tree plus some interaction with an events file could go some way to enriching the game's plot and providing another strategic dimension.

Concluding Comments and Suggestions: Despite a general concern over the simplicity of this scenario from a design sense, and the breaching of a few 'cardinal rules' (such as no pedia.txt, inadequate read me, no events), it remains quite a satisfactory, punchy little scenario due to some good game balance and a few smart moves with unit options. The division of the two factions with regard to tribe-specific units has been done satisfactorily, and although hardly a cartographer's dream (does Northern Ireland have no forests?), a customised map has some good features.

There remains a wide-ranging scope of opportunities to build this scenario into something more intricate with the inclusion of events that may better capture the political aspects of this conflict. Some consideration in how to enhance the strategic elements of the game would pay healthy dividends if well implemented.

This game could translate well to a short multiplayer conflict, while with some work it could embrace Test of Time's improved events possibilities to provide a game with a diplomatic emphasis.