Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 03/17/03 @ 12:00 AM
The tale of Arthur consists of five scenarios, three scenarios are B&D, the first a RPS and the fifth a FF. History and story are fiction, you play Arthur, uniting the Celts, fighting the Saxons to finally defeat them in the battle of Badon Hill.
The fun playing this campaign depended mainly from its balance and I will rate these two categories together.
PLAYABILITY/BALANCE: I enjoyed this campaign, to be precise scenario three and four where suberb, well above average, with a challenging game play. The last scenario was good, but a tad too easy, due to the fact that you could build towers. The author developed his designing skills while making this campaign. The first scenario was quite boring, due to the fact that it is unplayable on any level higher than moderate. On hard my allies attacked the Saxons early in the game and were eleminated, which made it impossible to get one unit of each kind to fullfill the game objectives. Unfortunately it was far to easy on moderate, no reload and I won with 44 units left. The following szenarios were played on hard and the second was also unbalanced, this time too difficult or rather too time consuming. It is not really fun to be confronted with many towers, attacking with woad raiders and town centres. Player 1 disposes of no siege weapons, while the enemy reconstructs destroyed gates and walls. Moderate is no solution, as you will miss the attacks of the Saxon army at your home base. 3
CREATIVITY: Above average creativity for a B&D. Some good triggers, creative design in scenario three and four, supporting game play and balance, the story, changing objectives, bowmen on a mountain and I never saw men at arms blocking a castle that way. 4
MAP DESIGN: No terrain mix, grass 1, clumbed trees, small elevations and too many straight lines. Even though this gets better with the later scenarios, the overall map design is below average. 2+
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: Each scenario comes with clear instructions and exhaustive, good hints so that the player always knows what to do. History and story are fiction, well told, keep the thread, develop in game, between the scenarios and come with a surprising twist. 4
OVERALL: A good campaign lacking in some aspects.
SUGGESTIONS: With Immobile Units AI or Passive AI the first scenario, the RPS, could be a great quest.
IN CLOSING: D/l and I also recommend "the Chronicles of the Warlords", which are in the best of AoK, of the same author. |