|
Playability Rating |
|
6 / 10 |
OVERALL: I
deducted most of the points in this category for the length of
the scenario and the diffuseness of its objectives. This scenario
is literally (in any reasonable terms) infinitely long. The designer
attemtps to establish objectives for winning in the documentation,
but they were not really clear enough to give me a definite sense
when I had won the scenario. I think these are the most fundamental
problems of the scenario; my suggested solutions would be to
add the scenario objectives (setting cities as objectives) provided
with the game, and to set a reasonable turn limit (100 or less).
FAULTS:
The largest
problem is the diplomacy. It would appear that the human nations
should focus on defeating the Ninkain, being that they are the
ultimate evil in the world. However, due to normal AI diplomacy
and the position of nations on the map, there were always subsidiary
wars starting. Moreover, because almost all players are denied
the ability to negotiate with each other, once war started, it
couldn't be stopped. Also, for similar reasons, it is almost
impossible to aid the Rindon, because they tend to go to war
when you cross their territory. Secondly, diplomacy units are
included in the game, and this is always a problem when hero
units exist (in my opinion, diplomats and spies should rarely
be included in games with hero units, unless careful precautions
are taken). While the powerful Ninkain heroes died before I was
able to bribe them, I did manage to bribe other Ninkain units
and other human heroes. A third problem is the huge starting
treasuries of several nations. I was able to employ this money
to quickly halt the Ninkain advance by buying the cities they
had captured, which contained their first wave of powerful units;
I got the units, and was subsequently able to hold the line.
Fourthly, the unlimited length of the scenario should have dictated
a tech tree, settlers, and aqueducts/sewers, none of which were
included. Obviously, these elements should be reduced in a war
scenario, but having no settlers at all made necessary improvements
like roads and fortresses impossible. Including a few NONE Settlers
at the beginning, ala Daggor Bragollach, would allow necessary
improvements to be made without introducing an orgy of city building.
A tech tree, even if small, would also be an improvement, or
at least all the civilizations should be set to produce zero
science at the beginning, and everyone should be researching
future technology (to help prevent the AI from wasting trade
developing useless science). Also, disallowing aqueduct and sewer
construction ultimately caps the usefulness of most cities in
the scenario; aqueducts, at least, should be included. A fifth
problem lies in the existence of units which are definitively
inferior (for instance, the Noble Warriors' archers, which cost
the same as their knights but have less movement and lower combat
strengths). Finally, two units (the spy and the giant) are ground
units, but have ranges designated as if they were air units,
and might trick some people into believing they were so. None
of these flaws make the scenario unplayable, but they tend to
make it less interesting and fun.
ATMOSPHERE:
The atmosphere
was fairly good; the graphics conveyed the world of medieval
fantasy the designer attempted to create. However, the atmosphere
could have been improved by more proofreading for the background
documents, and a higher level of story-telling and character
development.
BALANCE:
The Ninkain
units are much more powerful than anything else, but this to
be expected. However, their wraiths are one of the strongest
units in the game, and I ended up bribing these and supporting
with their other units, as well as my special units, in order
to conquer the other human tribes. The wraiths could easily take
out any of the human heroes, even behind city walls. Each human
civilization tends to have a number of similar units, which differ
only slightly in their strength between civs. Each civ also has
a similar special unit, which are the only units comparable to
the Ninkain normal units. Some of the "normal" units
(of the Rindon and Loran) are much more powerful than any of
the other normal human units, because they have 20 hit points.
The Malcan units all tend to be rather weak, especially since
they have low attack in a game where offense rules.
CONCLUSIONS:
While the
scenario is playable and mildly enjoyable, the various problems
can make it a very frustrating experience sometimes. Also, there
are ways a clever human player can abuse the set up to conquer
the world, even if not quickly and not easily. |
