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Historical Scenario Reviews

Overall Rating

24/30

SYNOPSIS: The map size is 160 x 120, although quite a bit of it is not used. The scenario lasts for 40 monthly turns starting October 1917, the eve of the second Russian Revolution. Just about every unit is new. The author took great pains in embellishing the unit flags for the many nations involved. There are seperate scenarios for the two playable nations to even out the game, though it may not have gone far enough.

Astute readers will notice that my scores do not add up. The intangibles of both scenario versions deserve a few extra points. This is easily the best scenario on the topic you will find and one of the better ones available on the net.

Playability Rating

7 / 10

COMMENTS: The playability score is really split - read it as "8 as Whites, 6 as Reds."

The game is enjoyable as the Whites, providing a good challenge and many fronts that change the scope of the game as it progresses. One question I had was the utility of the White Guards, which cost as much as Infantry while being far weaker. I ignored them altogether while spending most of my time building courthouses to stem rampant corruption (though techumseh intended this). To oppose me, the Reds did not make armored trains (which looked like was intentional) or cavalry - just a sea of artillery. I would recommend that Gunpowder be eliminated from the tech tree altogether, for I think this affects the computer's choice of units.

I suspect that playing with the Reds is far easier than the author intended. First off, they have many more cities than any other nation (certainly more than they contolled in the real world in November 1917). I spent two tedious turns selling off useless city improvments to buy powerful armored trains. Although I had eliminated the Central Powers and secured 67 of 69 objectives, I was only afforded a marginal victory (in fact it is impossible to score a decisive victory as the Bolsheviks - you need more objectives than are available). I was also surprised about building the Eiffel Tower (renamed) because a lot of the diplomatic twists of the game are event-controlled and it doesn't matter what your reputation is.

As I mentioned before, the atmosphere of the game is well-done. It is obvious that techumseh delved into research not only of the Russian struggle, but also into the side conflicts that arose because of it. I would have liked some more changes to the improvments, but this does not affect play. I also thirsted for more railway workers to repair damage done by pillaging, but again I suspect that was purposeful. Techumseh could also have considered combining several of the Allies (at least the US and Britian, and probably France) into one civ to better tell the story of the emergent nations, as Finland, the Ukraine, and Poland all play a significant part in the scenario under control of the Whites.

The biggest thing I felt was out-of-balance were the armored trains. I built these to the exclusion of everything else while it seemed my opponent could not in both versions). Although a house rule confines them to the railroad tracks, I still used them to conquer all of Europe except France -- and of course the computer sent them wherever it pleased. I have thought about how to limit them but came up with no better answers. Perhaps they would work better appearing via the events file only.

Level of General Care

7 / 10

COMMENTS: While the map is adequate, I thought it was a bit too big, since there are large swathes of empty land ignored by everyone. Control of the railroad is vital since that is the quickest way across Asia.

The documentation is fine, with no glaring omissions. The readme has a lot of historical data as well.

I never worried about technology in either scenario (except when my Whites got tanks from the Allies) because the number of turns is so small. I don't think technology could have played a more important part without increasing the number of turns.

Apart from a few misspellings city names are appropriate. The pedia does not have data on the two Soviet wonders (though ALL other wonders are listed) but this info appears in the readme. There are also some units missing from the pedia.

Art and Originality

7 / 10

COMMENTS: Techumseh modified many existing unit pictures to good effect, especially with the addition of flags. The Armored Trains are a bit long and at times I had trouble keeping them on the tracks. All new units are done very well.

Two problems struck me with the artwork in general. First, there is no color coordination between both maps. On the strategic map Red cities are white and White cities orange, while in the game map they are red and white, respectively. Both maps should have the same colors. Second, the colors of happy and unhappy citizens are switched (so happy citizens are red - get it?). It took me a while to realize why some of my cities were unhappy.