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Level of General
Care |
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8 / 10 |
MAP:
While overall an exceptional
scenario, there are some points here that should be made, and
I apologize to the creator for not noticing these during playtesting.
- Recylced title graphic,
we've all seen it before
- Barbarians map not revealed,
starving results
that last one is a biggie,
there are barbarians placed all over the map where the seven
main tribes are not, but because the map is not revealed to them
they starve to death almost immeadietly. So when you arrive in
Ireland, Scandinavia, the Baltic areas you find them empty, the
barabarians there have starved to death.
But there are many good
things about this scenario too
 The author's use of the Persians as an "8th
Civ" was well done. This is where the barbarians were used
well, many units mean that even though the map is not revealed
to them they can explore it quickly enough. The Persians
were a good choice as the one civ to leave out beacuse they are
isolated and could probably take out the Byzantines themselves
becase there is nobody else fighting them.
There was a good mix of
improvements. The designer has done a good job of brining back
the modern improvements so that there is more flexibility. The
Improved Mining, etc, all improve the atmosphere and make the
scenario better. One problem is that the Coastal Fortress
icon hasn't been changed and the cannons look a little funny.
Basically the seven civilizations
have been split into three categories:
1) The Barbarians: This
includes the Vandals, Visigoths, Anglos and Francs. They
all start out with small territory and great potential for expansion.
They all can build the Barbarian Warriors and Barbarian Horsemen,
and share many other units as well. Barbarian leader units
are the Barbarian Kings, very powerful units that keep gettign
reborn, wisely the build cost has been set high on these units
so that they can't easily be bribed. Randomly these civilizations
get "General" units, these units are good but not quite
as good as the Barbarian Kings. The Vandals have thier own unique
leader to start with.
 2)
The Romans: This
includes the Byzantines and the West Roman civilization, each
has the Legions, Centurions etc. Both them and the Barbarians
have the generic "General" as thier secondary leader
unit, the difference being the Romans get them about half as
often. Romans are led by Emperor type units that are likewise
reborn. The Romans have large amounts of territroy but
lose a lot to the Barbarians.
3) The Huns: The
Huns are in a class of thier own, they start out far to the Eastern
Frontier, with a very large army. The Huns have thier own type
of general, The Hun General, and they get more of these just
as often as the Barbarians do. The Hun General is quicker, as
it is a mounted unit. The Huns also have thier own unique commanders,
and unlike the others they aren't reborn. Huns field thier own
unique units such as Hun Warriors, Hun Archers, etc. |
This scenario is balanced pretty well, if you
attack one of the Roman tribes (the Romans or the Byzantines)
you can be sure of a vicious counterattack unless you wipe them
out. With the Francs, Anglos, Vandals and Visigoths this
is not the case, usually they are stuck between many tribes attacking
them on all sides and your attack can tip the balance.