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Romans Leave Britain 410 AD
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Author |
File Description |
ENOTH |
Posted on 02/13/01 @ 12:00 AM (updated 02/15/01)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
410 AD Romans leave Britain.
RPG campaign inspired by 'A History of the English Church and People' by Bede
Historical background:
Between 410 and 420 A.D. the Roman government, no longer able to support large armies in its numerous provinces, withdrew Roman legions from Britain. The Britons were left to their own fate. Spoilt by three centuries of the Roman rule, they were not ready to defend their land against the barbarian neighbors. Soon, however, leaders were found, armies built, and the war went on for many years.
Here is an attempt to reconstruct one of the initial episodes of this long war between the Britons and their numerous enemies (Picts, Scots, later Jutes and Saxons).
Characters:
Flavinus, Roman cavalry officer, Christian, born in Britain. He is 32, of which 15 years he served in the Roman army. He took part in many campaigns in Gaul against the Franks, fought for and against several self-styled Emperors. Now, when the remnants of his legion are disbanded, the Roman case in Gaul lost, and Romans are going to evacuate Britain, he decided to return to his native country. There is a slight chance that some of his relatives are still alive there. In a port-tavern in Bononia he met monk Peter, a well-disposed and witty man, also a Briton.
Peter, a monk, about 50. Of his past it is known only that he traveled a lot, then settled in a monastery in Gaul. After his monastery had been looted and burnt down by a band of mercenaries, Peter decided to leave Gaul. By chance he met Flavinus, who suggested that they could go to Britain together.
Peter and Flavinus are now leaving Gaul, waiting for a ship to take cargo and other passengers on board. Meanwhile the Roman government evacuates what is left of the Roman army in Britain. Only few civilians and old soldiers are left behind.
The main task of Flavinus is to put his country, at least the place where he expects to settle, into some order. First, he must establish his own position: provide himself with an estate, start some business, accumulate wealth. His next task is to clear the land of brigands. Finally, being a soldier, he can help to train local militia and build a small army of his own. Now, when Roman legions are gone, barbarian raiders can appear at any moment.
Hints:
If the Britons, your allies, are defeated, your case is lost.
Surveying the land may be very useful. Holy relics, as it is well known, add to soldiers' fighting-spirit. Be generous to your allies, do not reserve everything you find for yourself.
Flavinus can buy staff from some of the local markets (the ones marked with flags). He has no workers, but he can get slaves from the slave-market (look for one). To use the market you have to bring one of your units close to it and click on the market. To sell a slave (if there are too many) you have to bring him (or her) to a small square on the right of the slave-market.
There are some other things you can click on...
It would be better for the heroes to atay together and not to part for too long. Travelling alone in the early 5th century is a sure way to be murdered on the way.
Being a cavalry officer, Flavinus is not experienced in naval warfare and therefore can not build warships. For the same reason he can not train monks (monk Peter is probably too lazy to do that), build siege engines, towers and fortresses.
CREDITS: almost all ideas, parts of AI and sound files have been borrowed from different contributors to aok.heavengames, to whom we are most grateful.
Enjoy
ENOTH DESIGN TEAM
mailto: nikitin@iatp37.spb.org |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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The Conquistador |
Posted on 04/30/01 @ 12:00 AM
This scenario, Romans Leave Britain, is exactly what it sounds like... a scenario that shows you how the Roman legions evacuated Britain. It was extremely boring, but it had some nice things in there.
The playability is downright awful, as you watch the Roman legions (3 groups of two handed swordsmen, 1 group of archers and a group of cataphracts) leave Britain. They literally walk across the map and borad some ships... and you watch just that for about 9 minutes. This, IMO, will destroy any mood that you had in the day and will make you want to quit the scenario.
The balance is bad, as you are just doing business, which also adds to the boredom.
The creativity actually wasn't that bad, I mean, few people can think of having a cutscene with the Roman Legions marching. But, one creative thing only gives a 4.
The map design was ok too. The map looked good and a good terrain variation existed, but it could use a lot more eyecandy.
The story was ok, as you are a Britain tying to settle in well, Britain. However, the instructions were extremely poor. The author gave you a long text to read which tells you the story, but no instructions. Also, it's a lot harder to find instructions in an essay than it is to find in a point form format. So, I will just give a 2 for the story.
+ Points
- Good map design
- Points
- Extremely boring
- Confusing instructions
Final Thoughts: This scenario is just bad in concept, not bad in the mechanics (bad in concept is a lot worse than bad in mechanics, mind you) so I would just recommend that everybody avoid this scenario. I think that a good idea is one of the most important things in scenario design, and that is exactly what this scenario lacks. |
Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 05/23/03 @ 12:00 AM
410 AD Romans leave Britain is a single scenario, a mix of B&D, RPG and FF. It is part of the five set Early Medieval England series of Enoth. The story is fiction, inspired by "History of the English Church and People" by Bede. You play Flavinus, a Roman cavalry officer, returning to his British homeland and Peter, a monk, who met in Bononia. Bononia was a common town name in the Roman Empire, foundations by the name of Bononia were Vidin, Bulgaria; Banastor, Hungary and Bologna, Italy. Here the today town Boulogne, France was meant, from where Julius Caesar started his two failed attempts to conquer Britain in 55 and 54 BC. The events take place in 410 AD, the Roman occupation is history apart from some garrisons and the country was invaded by Picts and Scots.
PLAYABILITY: The scenario starts with an impressive cut-scene, showing Roman armies moving in formations and boarding their ships, leaving Brittania. I enjoyed the scenario a lot, the mysterious atmosphere at Britains doorstep to the dark age, scouts vanish without being attacked, others appear where you did not send them, slaves trade like any good and relics played an importent role in a time where most people believed in miracles and the supernatural. It is fun to explore, fight for relics and trade goods during the build up. Your population limit is fourty, which makes it imperative to get rid of your villagers before attaking the invaders base. I liked the aspect to sell them instead of deleting, which also helped to build your army up fast. You might encounter a random bug at the end of the scenario, where not all enemies arrive at their destination. Load a saved game, the bugs propability is less than 10%. 4
BALANCE: The scenario was played on moderate and hard, the balance was above average, partly challenging, but overall too easy. The increasing difficulty conquering the relics was well thought, as well as the added AP and HP of the later invaders, but with your allies increased attack and hit points I wished they had left some more barbarian raiders for the player to hunt down. 4
CREATIVITY: Enoth’s creativity is far above average. Armies moving in formation, using a patrol trigger, were known for about a year. Impressive is the way Enoth developed the trick further. Here they do not return to their starting point after they arrived at the Roman garrison, they cease the formation to board their ships, probably by a looping task object trigger. Creative the slave market, purifying a church, upgrades with relics, units disapearing, "forbidden" or blocked areas that task your units away and a deadly marsh with a sound, that will set your teeth on edge. 5
MAP DESIGN: Above average map, terrain mix and variations, well done settlements and places of special interest, but needs more input to score higher. 4
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: The good impression starts with an exhaustive author’s description page, so the player knows exactly what awaits him before he downloads. In the introduction screen you find history, where the author placed his informative historical background to explain the situation of the Roman Empire and Britain in the early fifth century; objectives, where the author starts his story, which will develop in game and gives us a description of the main characters, Peter and Flavinus, as well as their personal stories; hints, where the author provides on top easy to find clear objectives and further down the hints. I can’t see anything wrong with putting objectives and hints together and especially not because ES did not give a special box for story. I always knew what to do and where to go, the objectives changed and developed flawless in game. The scenario has an introductory bitmap which I saw in other of Enoths’ work and IMO a designer should provide a different BMP for every upload. English is not the designers’ first language and I did not realize spelling errors. All of this is very good but there was not much of a story apart from the character description. 4
OVERALL: An enjoyable and highly creative scenario.
IN CLOSING: Great download. I recommend all of Enoths’ work; just enter his name in the search section. If you are interested in the Early Medieval England series, the other downloads are: The Martyrdom of Saint Alban; 429 AD The Life of Saint Germanus; 449 AD Hengist, Horsa and Vortigern and 635 AD Aidan comes to Northumbria. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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3.3 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 2.5 | Balance | 2.5 | Creativity | 4.5 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 3.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,880 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 504.57 KB |
Added: | 02/13/01 |
Updated: | 02/15/01 |
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