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Campaigns » The Foundations of The Empire v2 (English version)
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The Foundations of The Empire v2 (English version)
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Author |
File Description |
zampi69 |
Posted on 11/01/05 @ 01:46 PM (updated 11/17/05)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
Number of scenarios: |
2 |
Finally translated in a decent English, The Foundations of the Empire, thanks to Luke Feanor,Jeremiah and jake nash, good thank you in general to the DGDN
A scenario by Zampi
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EMPIRE
In my first campaign "The Foundations of the Empire", you will descover 2 mignificent scenarios based on the glorious history of Spain. Discover how I start to lead Spain, the political order and military of an epoc where the adventure was possible.
In the first scenario of presentation we are in the year of 1469. Princess Isabel(18 years old) of the kingdom of Castilla and Prince Fernando(17 years old) of Aragon are going to meet to marry.What should be a cold and burocratic story is going to change into an adventure. The other way around that in the real history, here is Princess Isabel who moves to the territory controled by Fernando and
then aviods some dangers and manages to flee with him.
In the Second scenario,the king and the queen marry the 18th of October in 1469 in a small monastery of Valladolid. From then on they should fight a hard battle to unify Spain. Aviod the rebellion in Catalonia,destroy the ciminal bands that operate in the peninsula which make up The Brotherhoods in the North of Spain.The year 1481 is the most travelled for our kings crossing Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia.
In 1483 the Canarians are conquered thanks to Alonso of Lugo, not very well-known hero, that the Catholic kings grant him the supreme command of the royal expeditions.
In the same year Boadbil is captured, son of Abú-l-Hasan which sells Granada and with it,all Al-Andalus. When permitted,the Christian Soldiers enter with the real keys to the city.
On January 2, Granada surrenders.
This year is the year que Colon starts off from the port of Palos,course to India coming up against the unknown.
In 1504 Fernando inherits the kingdoms of Sicilia,Sardinia(Cerdeña in spanish)and the rest will be in my next scenario which you will be able to download very soon "A Spanish Italy".
Possibilities of the game:
Among other things in "The Foundations of the Empire" you will have the following possibilities:
- More than 30 general objectiives that you will have to do if you want to finish the game.
- Many optional objectives that will give you a chance grow stronger.
- Queen Isabel is considered a hero (heroine) and she recovers from wounds, but her husband, Fernando, since he is a powerful warrior, he should recover as well.
_ More than 10 historical notes that will inform you on how each battle ended or on each discovery of real history.
_ An active lash of hints that will inform you in the moment and will congratulate you when you complete the objectives that you have in that moment(this active lash will only play if you play on easy or standard setting).
- In this scenario of presentation there are several effects that only a few can have in their scenarios, discover them.
- You can activate the possibility of using tricks in the most complicated parts of the game. When the moment arrives and if Fernando is on the scene you will hear 2 whines, which will mean an object selected nearby will apear extra units.(if you get to the last of the scenario, they will explain how)
- You know how to move in the desert, and in the African jungle, then you should demonstrate it crossing a volcano, defeating terrifying rigers and meeting the people tuareg in a desert.
In the end, I assure you that you are going to have a good time
Download here and enjoy.
Translated by jake nash. Thank you jake, you are a friend. |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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RacingCoin |
Posted on 12/11/05 @ 08:22 AM
Playability: 4
Incredible to some extent. Some problems with triggers going off, where i don't know what's happening; but superb none of the less.
Balance: 4
Maybe not too hard but a challenge none of the less.
Creativity: 5
Extremely good. A superb use of triggers, maybe a bit overload at times, but exellent. And a very good use of terrain.
Map Design: 5
The map design is second to none; you always experience new parts with something happening; the map feels very much alive. Also extremly good.
Story/Instructions: 4
A bit confusing but never the less very good. It made me want to look more into the history about these events.
Additional Comments:
All in all one of the best campaigns i have EVER played (or playing, because i'm not finished with it yet)[Edited on 12/18/05 @ 04:00 PM]
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Stephen Richards
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 12/23/05 @ 06:59 AM
This is a two-scenario campaign set in 15th century Spain featuring Isabel, Queen of Castile, and her husband, Fernando of Aragon, in their quest to unify Spain and defeat their enemies in north Africa. The first scenario is a relatively short semi-interactive cutscene whilst the second, which is the substantial (B&D) scenario, will almost certainly take you several hours to complete its numerous objectives. I enjoyed playing the campaign and I played to the end but there are a fair few bugs and frustrations and on a couple of occasions I nearly gave up, and probably would have done if I hadn't been reviewing. I'm conscious that the more ambitious and creative a designer tries to be, the more scope there is to make mistakes and hence the more scope for a reviewer to find fault. I have a number of criticisms but I would stress that this campaign shows a lot of creativity and effort, it is well above average overall, and my criticisms are, I hope, constructive ones. Most, if not all, of the problems mentioned could be ironed out.
PLAYABILITY (3)
The campaign opens nicely with a busy river gradually revealed and sound effects, all nicely done. The second scenario is enjoyable because there is a variety of objectives, played out on a big, mainly quite attractive map, and there are all the usual AoK features - building up armies, fighting, exploring etc – with a few twists (be careful where you try to expand your base). I feel there's an epic intent on the part of the author (this campaign continues in another two-parter to be reviewed soon). There are two excellent bitmaps and many other creative touches which I'll outline later.
There are some trigger bugs (e.g. in scenario one the stonemason does not blow a hole in the rocks so I had to go the long way round; in scenario two I collected both relics but nothing happened; the taureg was blocked by orange soldiers). There are a number of problems arising from the objectives. Some were ambiguous (e.g. there are two Portugese town centres), others appeared for no apparent reason (e.g. go somewhere to get married when I thought I’d already got married), and sometimes disappeared when as far as I could tell I had not achieved them (e.g. kill an orange leader). I was left with a considerable sense of confusion as objectives flashed up and vanished, which wasn't helped by the fact that I wasn't always sure of where I was supposed to be going. The scouts section is very comprehensive, but it would be better to simply state where on the map each place is located, and not assume a level of knowledge of Spanish geography which, to our eternal shame, many of us do not possess. It took me ages to find Seville!
One major irritation was that for no apparent reason purple suddenly changed to enemy, stormed Barcelona with a large army of rams and destroyed my town centre. This triggered defeat which, as far as I can see, is not mentioned anywhere. I was ill-prepared and had to restart several times before they suddenly retreated for no apparent reason. I'm not against random factors, but I think a player should have some warning, or at least be told that destruction of a specific building causes defeat. Later I found that on Standard there is a hint that purple will change to enemy in certain circumstances but why not on Hard?
The first time I played, having landed at the Canaries I received no further objectives. I played on for a while but then went back to an earlier saved game whereupon it worked OK, and I received objectives which had not appeared the first time (find a king, and destroy an orange castle next to the palace) – this may have been a random bug, I wonder if it has happened to anyone else?
Some problems are caused by language. The campaign has been translated from Spanish and the author and his translaters have done sterling work for which they should be commended. The objectives are largely comprehensible, but some of the other messages and hints left me scratching my head (see below).
A minor niggle was throughout the game I received change diplomacy messages, usually neutral to enemy and back again. This may be an AI problem. Also, there appeared to be a faulty looping change ownership trigger on Juan of Aragon which didn’t stop.
BALANCE (3)
I played on hard, and on standard (though not right to the end). Most of the obstacles I faced were not due to the strength or size of the enemy, but due to features of the campaign referred to above. Fending off purple was tricky but only because it was so unexpected (if you have built up a reasonable army I don’t think they would pose a major problem). The wildlife is quite aggressive (on hard, at least) and defeating the Islanders was a good challenge. However, there is plenty of gold on the map, and the main enemy, orange, do not actively attack you. In fact I found them curiously passive even when I attacked them. As I approached the final castle battle, aside from the very powerful cannon galleons and monks, their cavalry just stood there barely attacking at all. It was very odd, I am at a loss to understand why this was the case (could it have been a trigger problem?). For this reason, it was slightly anti-climactic, although the enhanced ships and monks do require a degree of tactics to overcome.
CREATIVITY (5)
There is a lot of creativity in this campaign. There is good use of sounds, a number of walkable buildings, I liked the birds flying from the roof of the abbey, the man feeding his pigs, and the renamed town centres. Isabel getting on a horse was well done. Also, the volcano and the sand traps were creative touches. As mentioned some of the objectives were original, most notably gathering the wild horses although I have to say this was also rather exasperating and may need rethinking (a bigger corral perhaps?). It was also a pleasant change to have a female protagonist (who wasn’t Joan of Arc). All in all, a good showing on this front.
MAP DESIGN (4)
The design is definitely better than a random map, there is a good variety of terrains and features, and the whole nicely depicts the Iberian peninsula and north Africa. It is not quite of the highest quality as the terrains are not always blended as well as they could be, there are a number of instances of elevation across cliffs, suspiciously straight edges and right-angle turns in roads and rivers, and even a river with sloping water!
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS (4)
There are two excellent bitmaps. There is a good history section. Most of the objectives are clear, although as I've already said, there is some confusion with other written elements. The author's first language is not English and the campaign has been translated from Spanish. Whilst the objectives are largely comprehensible, some of the in-game messages and hints are a little baffling I'm afraid (e.g. one about the difficulty levels and one about lumber camps). As mentioned, the scouts section is detailed, but I think would be improved by being cut down to the basic layout of the map.
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.1 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 3.5 | Balance | 3.5 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 4.5 | Story/Instructions | 4.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 3,651 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 1.93 MB |
Added: | 11/01/05 |
Updated: | 11/17/05 |
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