Scenario Review Scenario Title: Golden Age of the Netherlands Author: Allard H. S. Höfelt Reviewer: Gothmog  Historical scenario. The scenario covers the wars in the Netherlands between 1588 and 1688 between the Dutch Republic, Spain and others. Download at csc.apolyton.net

Overall Rating 26/30 FEATURES: The games lasts 100 turns, each turn representing 1 year. The map is a huge, 100 by 200, map of Holland and Belgium. Scoring is by objective city with wonders counting as objectives. Tech tree huggers won't like this, but there is no research! The events file does grant advances every now and then, so that you can build some new unit types. There are five countries: Dutch Republic, Spain, Germany, France, England. The game may be played as the Dutch Republic or Spain who hold most of the cities at the start of the game.

Playability Rating 8 / 10 COMMENTS: The Golden Age of the Netherlands is set in the Musket and Pike era. There are only a few ground units that you can build: pikemen, musketeers, cannons, cavalry, and scouts. Some nations have stronger versions of some of these units, but mostly everyone has the same forces. You cannot build caravans, freights, diplomats, spies, settlers or engineers. At first I was annoyed by not having settlers to build roads and forts, but after a while I didn't miss them. However; there is a greater variety of ships and each tech advance granted by the events file allows you to build a new type of ship. Managing the war effort is what makes the game fun. On one front you may be attacking, but on another front you might be hanging on. Even when defending, you need to have some attacking units on hand to destroy the enemy cannons. Each unit has its role and you need a good mix of units to succeed. Moving troops to the action also takes some thought. That's because the distances are vast, there aren't a lot of roads, and you can't build roads. Movement by sea can be faster, but it's also more hazardous. A few units are worth mentioning. The scouts are useful for their ability to see 2 spaces, so you won't get bushwhacked too bad. There is a burning ship unit is destroyed after attacking. Unlike the cruise missile in the CIV2 game, one of these can actually sink a ship. Then there are some personality figures, which while useful don't dominate the game. The scenario was somewhat easy at the King level where I achieved a decisive victory as the Dutch, but not completely without difficulty. More than once, I took a city only to lose it a few turns later. Negotiations between the Dutch and Spanish are not allowed, so there's no time to rest between city conquests. At the end of the game, I was at war with nearly everyone and was wondering if I'd be able to hold onto enough cities. City development is only somewhat important. In secure areas, it is helpful to build market type improvements, to pile up cash and do those quick build jobs in threatened cities. It was too easy in fact to pile up cash! That's due to the fact that you can set your science percentage to zero. Managing happiness didn't seem to be much of a problem either.

Level of General Care 8 / 10 COMMENTS: This is a carefully constructed and well thought-out scenario. Each city has somewhat different improvements and hinterlands. There are just the right amount of units placed on the map. Not every city is equally well defended. The read me files have unit specifications, notes about improvements, historical background notes and strategy hints. The military units show up in the Civilopedia as well. The only technical problem I had was that I could not see the objective value of enemy cities by placing the cursor over them. How are you supposed to know what to attack? The reason for this was that no one had discovered trade. If this were granted to everyone at setup time, it would remedy this problem. There also were some confusing messages in the events file such as: "Dutch West-India Company (WIC) founded. The Dutch can now build a new wonder." I couldn't build any wonders. There were two other similar messages about wonders. "A cease-fire has been signed between Dutch and Spanish troops. Dutch and Spanish human players are allowed to make peace for a brief period." With negotiations blocked between the Dutch and Spanish, I saw no way of making peace. Either the text has to reworded or the way wonders and negotiation is handled has to be changed.

Art and Originality 10/10 COMMENTS: The unit and city graphics are excellent. A good deal of pleasure in playing the game comes from just looking at the units. The artistic contributors include Harlan Thompson, Jesús Balsinde, Jesús Muñoz , and Alex the Magnificent and I assume Allard himself. Although this scenario has a fairly simple design, it employs a few interesting scenario creation ideas. Who would think there would be no settlers in a game lasting 100 years? Yet this idea is justified by the historical fact that this was a period of population decline in Europe. Having no tech tree at all, but granting advances with events helps the token powers such as the French and English keep up.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS: This enjoyable scenario shows that less can be more by employing a simple yet effective design. The game is well balanced and not too long. The scenario has been constructed carefully, but some of the event messages need to be rewritten so that you don't think you can build a wonder or make peace when you can't. The graphics are excellent.

NOTES: None.

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