Scenario Review Scenario Title: Indian Wars Author: Andrew Hoekzema Reviewer: Blackclove   Historical scenario. Plains indians fight for their homes against American westward expansion. Download at csc.apolyton.net

Overall Rating 26/30 SYNOPSIS: The United States is embroiled in the Civil War. During the chaos, the indians band together to fight for the great plains. Overall, the scenario is very good and original. In some ways it is one of the best scenarios I have played.

Playability Rating 9 / 10 COMMENTS: This is a very well-done scenario that is really fun to play. Several indian tribes begin the game allied (and unable to negotiate to break the alliance). They are all fighting the United States Army. My suspicion is that this scenario will be studied by aspiring designers for some time. Andrew has done an amazing job of working on the pacing of the scenario. First off, as the indians you have very fast units which allows you to concentrate your forces more quickly than is typical. However, the units are not as tough as the Americans' units are, so this quickly becomes a war where you must sacrifice units to get rid of threats in your backfield. Second, Andrew has a clear dividing line in the map that changes the pace - the Mississippi river valley. The initial part of the campaign is fought on the great plains and involves wiping out enemy forts to prevent them from sending units against you. The latter phase is a battle for the forests. Because the indians mostly ignore terrain, the forested region enhances the strengths of both sides: the Americans get slower, while their defensive advantage grows due to the cover of the woods. Third, Andrew deftly controls technology. Research is not really a factor; you get technologies at the historically appropriate times. When you get plains riders, you get a quick shot to gain some territory. However, all too quickly the Civil War ends and the Americans get a lot of tough veterans and new types of weapons heading west to deal with the threat of the indian uprising. Thus, you move from an offensive war to a very defensive war. Fourth, Andrew includes rail lines but makes them accessible only to the Americans by including invisible "rail" units that stop indians from using them. This lets the Americans move units from their backfield very quickly to the front, although invading the open plains is still hard. It really enhances the defensive ability of the Americans, though. There are only a few problems that should be fixed. First, the indian tribes are not adequately balanced. Because killing caravans nets you money, and most of the caravans come along the northern rail line, the Sioux get a fantastic bonus to money virtually every turn. Some of the other tribes are doomed to suffer as their holdings are less expansive and they can't "buy" as many units. Either caravan creation should be spread around more evenly using events or the number of caravans should be reduced somehow. Second, there is no warning that the rails can't be used by indians anywhere. It took me a while to realize that I was dying because the rails were killing me. This would only be a minor problem if the rails were not attackable; maybe they could be turned into air units or something? I found my allies spent a lot of time splattering themselves against the rails, for no obvious reason. Third, war chiefs, when they die, are immediately replaced. This sometimes led to the weird effect of trying to get the guy killed so you could weaken a lot of units by repeatedly striking with the regenerating war chief in the same turn, and then taking the units out with your other units. Some kind of penalty needs to be implemented for losing the war chiefs, or at least they need to be generated far from the action.

Level of General Care 8 / 10 COMMENTS: Overall the level of general care is adequate but if the scenario falls down anywhere it is here. City names are included and the tech tree, such as it is, is in the proper order. The main problem here is the civilopedia. A lot of units are not in the pedia, while other units that do not actually get used are there. This is simply a matter of cleaning up the tech tree and setting the prerequisites for units correctly. The map is great. I would have liked to have seen some more customization of the individual tribes. Maybe just some tribe-specific events or characters would have helped. The text events are a bit shorter than necessary, I think; some more colorful detail would have made the scenario better. The only unique character is Sitting Bull. Why not at least include Little Crow? Geronimo was also historically very important. I also wondered why the Apache were not included here, as I believe they were very important members of the uprising. I could be wrong about that, though. Wonders do not seem to play much of a role for the indians. The Americans have some weird looking wonders - maybe these should be changed to be more suitable. Women's Suffrage is already built at the start of the scenario, even though this didn't happen until midway through the scenario in real life.

Art and Originality 9 / 10 NEW IDEAS: The concept itself is very original, and lends itself well to telling in Civilization II. I was also impressed by his control over technology and his use of events to alter the flow of the war. Blocking the rails with hidden units was also clever and I have not seen it done before. ART: The art is very good. Andrew has included a lot of indian units that we have not seen before. I should also mention the "indian cities" that look like teepees; these are cool. If anything, some more work on the terrain and city icons might be nice, but generally the art is superb.

NOTES: None.

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