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The author suggest playing as the Loran only if experienced. I say that if you want to lose play as the Loran. I won't say it is impossible to win as this tribe but it is extremely difficult. After thousands of games and thousands and thousands of hours playing civ only on Deity level this is the first time ever I have lost. Having said that the other tribes are not as weak as the Loran and the scenario is a nice difficulty. I would suggest playing as the Grevian. They are close to the action early and while not powerful they do have a standing army. The Malcans are also interesting although they do not possess a powerful military they are the only tribe to possess the ability to construct boats. This is a difficult scenario so the choice of difficulty level should be chosen with respect to this and to the player's ability. |
GAME OBJECTIVES: The game objectives are fairly clearly illustrated for each tribe. Depending on which tribe is played the objective ranges from destroying the Ninkian to simply surviving. Not that surviving is a satisfactory goal for any game and so consider the destruction of the Ninkian as the goal of this scenario. BALANCE: This scenario is a rarity in that the balance of the game is in the favor of the defensive units. There is no attacking unit that will win all the time (Not in the human players possession anyway). In most scenarios and in the normal game itself there is a unit that will win most battles and so you can just concentrate on producing these units and conquer the world. Crusader in ancient times, howitzer in modern, Usually there is a unit with movement two that will either ignore city walls or is powerful enough to discount them. Not in this scenario. The odds are definitely with the defender. However this is in the favor of the scenario. Most scenarios are too easy and one dimensional. They quickly degenerate into a conquer the world situation with a single unit. The lack of a single powerful unit forces a more diverse, difficult and therefore more interesting game. The Ninkian have extremely powerful units that cut a swathe through the AI's defenses. An intelligent defense can defend against the Ninkian. Just a little luck is needed. TECH TREE: The tech tree was hardly changed at all. Only the necessary changes needed to restrict certain units to specific tribes. The scenario may be improved by the addition of an altered tech tree, perhaps leading to a more powerful unit for the human tribes.(But not much more powerful as the balance is fairly good as it is.) It might be a good idea to make it so that techs important to the balance of the game cannot be traded rather than just saying don't do it. A large part of my game is the use of spies and diplomats to bribe cities and steal techs, so I shouldn't have to worry about if I steal a tech will it ruin the game. If I can trade or steal a tech it should be allowable as part of the game. Also, why is it possible to research Industrialization and why do I have Automobile (Grevians)? At one stage I was able to build transports. This is easy to fix just by changing the prerequisites. WONDERS: The wonders have been distributed evenly, named too fit in with the setting and have appropriate icons. Overall the wonders are aok. Although without a civilapedia it isn't possible to actually now what they are. MAP: The map is ok. Needs to have some of the map covered. Especially the Ninkaa territory. Unexplored area of evil, etc. Thats half the fun. Discovering new lands etc. Perhaps the inner sea could be connected to the outer ocean to allow the Malcans access. Also I think an island refuge for the Loran might be a good idea. CITY IMPROVEMENTS: Largely the same as normal although there were a couple of new additions. CITY NAMES: Obviously a bit of thought has been put into the city names. All have the authentic fantasy city name feel. I like the addition of places such as Two Peaks with two mountains in the city area. Rayue's Pass in a gap in hills etc. EVENTS: The events.txt could be utilized to a greater extent. Presently it is used to generate bad guys, text informing of the demise of a hero or villain, keeping wars going and a couple of others. While the events.txt is adequate for this scenario an expansion could only improve it. Especially since the scenario is largely (I think) straight from the authors mind. MISCELLANEOUS NITPICKING and IMPROVEMENTS:
EXTRA IMPROVEMENTS:
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CONCLUSIONS: I enjoyed this scenario and for me that's all that counts. A scenario could be brilliantly edited with a completely new tech tree, new units, graphics, events.txt fully used etc but if its not fun I won't play it no matter how good it looks. All the tribes except Ninkaa can be played. I recommend the Grevian since they are in the action straight away and have a pretty good army to start off with. The battles you have with the Ninkian at the start are epic. It provides a good balance to the game. The first time I played the Mulcans got pounded from all sides by the Grevians, Ninkians and Shirahad and were down to their one island city very quickly. When I played as the Grevian. They still got pounded by the Ninkian but I helped them out a little and they even started bribing their cities back. They bribed one of mine at one stage. By attacking straight into the Ninkian lands I was able to halt there march against the weak AI. Then I was able to capture the Ninkian cities that they had taken from the AI. The Malcans are also interesting although the lack of a really good defensive unit is difficult to overcome. The Malcans are the only tribe to be able to construct boats, so if that is a priority then the Malcans should be chosen. An advantage of this is that one of the more powerful attacking units, the Flame Catapult, is amphibious. All tribes can build this unit but only the Malcan can utilize it amphibious capabilities. For an extreme challenge choose the Loran. Simply surviving is very difficult and winning is near impossible. The Rindon would also be interesting but be prepared to lose a few cities. I think the author wants
the Noble tribes to be the human player however they are too
far away from the action. Same goes for the Shirahad. |
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