"South of the Alps" is a showcase scenario that seems to be a teaser for the authors upcoming campaign, "Barbarossa".
The appearance of the dreaded snow map is usually cause for installing no-snow mods, but i found this wintry landscape to be quite appealing and enjoyable. The player tours his knightly manor, talking to the residents and exploring various little locations that contribute to creating a living, breathing world. It quite well communicates a rural, rustic feel you might expect from a region during the medieval era.
The map design is excellent, with good snow mixing, nice foresting combined with elevations, and a good amount of details and grass added to the landscape, utilizing the gaia objects to enhance the visuals but never abusing them to the detriment of the map. The villages as it were, are nicely detailed and layed out convincingly. One thing that stood out to me was the spot with a roman mile marker;this village was disconnected from the maps cobble road network, when it seemed like a path connection of some kind was called for. One thing id like to suggest, which is a debatable and subjective point, is that the forests could benefit from having some more solid interiors. This would give more shape and flow to the map and the player in an actual playable scenario could better see where the playable areas are as well, for strategic and tactical decision making.
As far as creativity goes, the author of course cannot be credited for inventing the chivalry assets but has made good use of a wide variety of new stuff, mixing it with the old tricks and techniques in a seamless way that makes it look like they belonged together all along. I quite like the focus on creating a historical environment, its adding to the immersion and i was quite impressed to see the list of literature the author was consulting, its clear he has a real interest in the area and that should serve him well creating a more atmospheric, historical campaign than you would expect moving forward.
In conclusion:Im looking forward to what comes next! If the author manages to wrest enough time away to finish the campaign, i would eagerly click and download the moment i saw it pop up on the blacksmith.
[Edited on 09/06/17 @ 04:08 PM]
Paul_TD File Author
Posted on 05/12/17 @ 03:53 PM
Thank you very much for the positive review Cataphract. I hope I can manage to finish my other project. Barbarossa is probably too ambitious to pull off But there's another scenario I may get around finishing soon :)