Scenario Review Scenario Title: Spanish-American War: Cuba Author: Andrew Hoekzema Reviewer: Michael Daumen   Historical scenario. Rival powers Spain and America clash over the indepenence of the Caribbean. Download at csc.apolyton.net

Overall Rating 25/30 SYNOPSIS: The map is huge. It includes the Greater Antilles plus Florida and some other areas for gameplay. Cuba is enlarged and the naval units have a lot of movement, so you probably won't notice the size of the map. The scenario has 100 monthly turns starting in April 1895. All the units are new with the exception of a few settlers. There are quite a few novel ideas, but you'll have to read on or play the scenario. My only comment here is to watch the coastal cannons. Don't move them from your cities!

Playability Rating 8 / 10 COMMENTS: This scenario is fun, but only as the Cuban rebels. The authors recommend both, but in my games as the Spanish I mopped up the rebellion prety quickly and sat around for the American attack to take place. As the Rebels the game was more challenging. The AI doesn't play the Cubans very well as the Spanish. Two things I was left wondering about were the sugar terrain and the concentration camps. The readme file cautions me to guard the sugar squares because they do provide a lot of trade, but as the Spanish I never had them threatened. Maybe some of the unused terrain could have been made into plantations that engineers would transform into more useful squares. Or a plantation city improvement could have been placed in Cuban cities that rebels could capture and sell off. The second thing is about the concentration camps. They were hated by Cubans, but there seems to be no bonus to destroy one. Also, since they are the best defenders in the game I built them in all my cities! Maybe an event giving money or a unit (freed workers) to the Cubans when they destroy one would make them better. Also, I think they needed to be weaker, and only placed in the countryside (via events, the scenario places a few; maybe they need more) where they would require extra guards out of the cities. As a minor note, I may have considered making some of the naval units unable to bombard shore targets (by using the submarine flag). A very effective strategy is to pick off troops from the sea, and the computer does this well. By not allowing destroyers, cruisers and even men-o-war to do this it would make a great difference. FAULTS/ATMOSPHERE: The only weird thing I saw was a German torpedo boat run aground off Puerto Rico. No problems about the atmosphere. Hoek has a great grasp of late-19th century dynamics in his scenarios.

Level of General Care 8 / 10 COMMENTS: The map includes the Greater Antilles, and parts of Florida and Mexico. My only complaint would be that it is not possible for Spain to create a "war scare" by threatening the Eastern Seaboard. Maybe putting in some Spanish cities and New York and Washington would have done that, but it would have changed the map drastically. The documentation is fine, and leaves a lot of discovery to occur during play. There should be some read me information about how to use coastal cannons, for an unwary player could lose them without thinking. Tech is not a factor here, although two things are worth noting. First, after some of the Nations get Future Tech, some old knowledges are mentioned (in my game the British got Code of Laws and the Neutrals Pottery). Second, because Spain could make the unit in the nuclear spot, all the other nations treated me as if I was nuclear. This took getting used to but wasn't an obstacle to overall play. Except for not having new names for the wonders used, everything fits well within the scenario.

Art and Originality 9 / 10 ARTWORK: The artwork is great, both the original units (the turn-of-the-century ships are my favorite), and many modified units as well. Terrain has been altered slightly. ORIGINALITY: One of the neatest ideas is the coastal cannon, which is an air unit with a move and range of one (like a very weak fighter). It has the submarine flag, so that it can only attack ships that move next to cities. Its a great way to make a "land" only naval gun -- not only an innovation but a feature which was very important in real-life to the events that this scenario portrays.

NOTES: None.

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