Scenario Review Scenario Title: 1884 (Version 7) Author: Matthias Pitz Reviewer: Michael Daumen   Historical scenario. Japan, America, and the European colonial powers try to carve up the globe in the late 19th century. Download 1884v7.zip from Apolyton. (future download link here)

Overall Rating 15/30 SYNOPSIS: Japan, America and European colonial powers try to carve up the globe in the late 19th century. The map is the large Earth map standard with Civ2. Turns are in months from July 1884 to July 1914, for a total of about 360 turns, which makes war drag out. Probably should be a shorter time period or longer turns. Each nation has custom infantry and cavalry units; in addition there are expeditionary infantry & cavalry, balloons and zeppelins, early tanks, biplane fighters and bombers, poison gas, riot police, stormtroopers.

Playability Rating 6 / 10 COMMENTS: I have a soft spot for the era in this scenario, so I enjoyed it. Some of the bigger powers fought amongst themselves, which is realistic, but most of the action was against the neutral countries. Fighting a protracted war against another developed nation took a long time. It seems the advantage in combat is tilted towards the defenders. It took many units of all kinds to take Mexico City after a protracted battle.

Level of General Care 4 / 10 COMMENTS: The map for a scenario of this subject matter has to be global, which is very difficult to pull off well. Other scenarios set in the same time period have more cities. A few cities should have had different ownership, but the designer explained one of these (Japanese in Korea). More serious sins are not giving Manila or more of South Africa to Germany/Spain -- as America I tussled pretty quickly with them and it would have been more like the Spanish-American war. The same could be said about the Boer War. The Pedia details most relevant info, and the readme explains some of the choices the designer made (whether you agree with them or not, its a good idea to include them). Since this is really more of a every-country-for-itself scenario, I would have liked to see victory conditions for each nation. Only problem with the tech tree is that Lasers are available; the designer just forgot to eliminate Nuclear Power as a prereq. Also, Amp was used as a "Special Technology" but without changing the prereq for Port Facilities. City names are in German (but hey, if I was writing a scenario in another language I couldn't do any better) but all easily recognizable. All existing wonders are placed well, but the remaining ones can still be built by the Neutrals. I would have liked the other wonders used a little more strategically to make certain cities better targets. Also, Darwin's Voyage was over 25 years before the scenario starts, yet the English discover it at the start of the action. The two biggest problems are the Neutral countries and the events file. The neutrals are a mix of different cultures and tech levels, and some units pop up in inappropriate places (Bedouins in South America and China, for example). The events file is way too small and simplistic. The only event depicted (besides the Congo conference, which could have been put in the briefing) is the completion of the Trans-Australian railroad -- any number of more important things could be used as well. The Boxer rebellion consists of two units, and there is no Boer War.

Art and Originality 5 / 10 NEW UNITS: Marines, Expeditionary and Central American units are original, and the rest are taken from other scenarios. Not that there is anything wrong with that; all units are timely and give a good feel for the era. I like the Marines in parade dress. For such a powerful unit, however, the balloon looked kind of goofy. OTHER ART: The designer changed the shield colors and city flags, except the shield colors don't match the flags or in some instances the city text. It would have been much nicer on the eye if these were coordinated. Only a few icons changed, but the changes help the atmosphere (esp. the Train Station for the Superhighway).

NOTES: None.

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