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ESHotAC - Arthur, Dux Bellorum: The Siege of Mount Badon
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Author |
File Description |
svede |
Posted on 05/26/01 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
Arthur, Dux Bellorum: The Siege of Mount Badon.
Svede's Submission to:
ENSEMBLE STUDIOS "HEROES OF THE AGES" SCENARIO DESIGN CONTEST
To Install: Unzip into Age of Kings Directory.
History:
Following the departure of the Roman Legions from Britanny, during the first half of the fifth century AD, Scots and Picts began to raid the British Settlements, coming from the West and the North. In the year 446, the Britons appealed to the Commander of the Roman Armies, Aetius, in "The Groans of the Britons." No help came.
In the year 449, the British Ruler Vortigern, hired the Barbaric Jutes, from across the sea, to drive the raiders out of Britanny. This practice of hiring Barbarian mercenaries was common among Roman generals.The men leading this group of mercenaries were known as Hengist and Horsa. Thus, the Scots and Picts were soon driven out.
Meanwhile, the Jutes began to to grow in numbers upon the shores of Britanny. Soon afterward Vortigern was overthrown by these Barbarians.
Ambrosius Aurelianus succeded Vortigern, driving the Jutes back. In 465, the British army was finally defeated, the remanat retreating to western forests and hills of Wales. Soon following this, the Saxons joined the Jutes in their Pillage. Among these Saxons were the Gewissas, who combined forces with Jutes to form the West Saxons.
The Britons were slowly driven back until a new hero arose, Arthur. He was twelve time voted the Dux Bellorum, or Duke of Battles (General of the Armies). He fought twelve battles, the last being the siege of a great Roman fortress on Mount Badon.
Thus, the Siege of Mount Badon had begun...
Historical Notes:
**Arthur gathered the forces of Britanny against the heathens...
**Arthur led mail-clad cavalry , far superior to the Saxon infantry...
**The Saxons preferred a special land setup for farming, which took some period of time to prepare. Therefore, they used Briton Slaves to grow crops first...
**The Battle of Mount Badon has no confirmed spot of occurence. I chose the popular Badbury Rings in Dorsetshire England. For pics goto:
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/eng/badbry.htm
http://www.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/england/sites/mtbadon.htm
http://members.aol.com/felisculpa/bad.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4186/Arthur/htmlpages/kingarthurplaces.html#Badon%20hill |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Cataphract887
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 02/02/17 @ 05:37 PM
ESHotAC - Arthur, Dux Bellorum: The Siege of Mount Badon
The Siege of Mount Badon is an interesting fixed force hybrid scenario where you control villages to gain resources and your villagers are limited to making military buildings. You then have to storm a citidal and slay the villian while protecting your villages from raids. It turned out to have some glaring oversights that kind of ruined a potentially good game.
Playability 2
As mentioned you control villages, get resources, fight off raiders, and conduct a siege. There is some problems here;first is that the map is enormously large for this situation. Theres a ton of walk time between bases for no real reason. I dont see why the player needs to gain control of them at the start;you just spend time running your hero to each and get them converted without any further complications. After that the raids of the AIs only targets one of the villages for attack, so if you know where they are going to attack every single time it kind of defeats the point of having multiple bases.
I had quite a bit of lag at the midway point and beyond.
I also had a bug that won the scenario instantly;constructing a castle near the final fort seems to trigger-switch control of the monument inside, and owning that monument is the scenarios main objective. Despite the objectives say i had to raze all enemy castles, etc.
Balance 2
The main failing though is that this scenario is way to easy even with the hard mode. For one thing, you get alot of resources. It shouldnt be hard to just out muscle the enemy, and you can get blacksmiths with a lasting upgrades advantages. Another thing is with the enemy only raiding one village, its easy to spend all your effort fortifying that one spot as a death trap zone. Finally there is the problem that the human can make castles, and has enough stone for 3 right near the start. The AI isnt so good at coping with castles, and they dont have any siege component in their forces at all. You start with some siege onagers yourself, and these are pretty potent weapons, especially considering the AI has to come out of the fort at one narrow chokepoint.
The biggest problem is the citidal has locked gates all round. They cant get out and you can do whatever you like to dispose of those enemies who are outside before you open it up at your leisure. You can castle push right up on those gates and massacre the defenders with little effort. It turned out i had the military muscle to kill anyone inside even if i hadnt built the castle anyway.
Creativity 3
Its a good effort and the author put some thought into making a nice scenario. Unfortunately i think a lack of time prevented him from executing the concept.
Map Design 3
Its a normal map with adequate terrain detail. The forest is a bit plain and the waterways quite lacking, and i find that swamp to be strangely....squared up somehow. So many of the gaia objects are lined up evenly it looks boxish. The map is simply too large and doesnt really serve the authors intention that well.
Story\Objectives 3
Its a normal effort objectives, hints, and scouts that is acceptable. I do find it confusing that you cant even see where to go to find the villages, but its not an issue once you do scout them.
Final thoughts: With some playtesting, getting the AI to raid more than one spot, and some balancing to make it tougher, it could be a good scenario. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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2.6 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 2.0 | Balance | 2.0 | Creativity | 3.0 | Map Design | 3.0 | Story/Instructions | 3.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 963 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 196.64 KB |
Added: | 05/26/01 |
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