Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 03/28/02 @ 12:00 AM
This story is fictional, it plays 1050-1052, during the reign of Edward the confessor. You are Brendan, the author and you travel back through time to fight Lord Monmoch, Celtic bandits and the Viking invaders, to save earth.
PLAYABILITY: The first scenario starts and is interrupted by cut-scenes, which are well done and pleasant to watch. I enjoyed playing this campaign, but the playability rating is average, because it is too easy, the building phase unnecessary and the end disappointing. With marco polo I
realised, that I missed fighting units and Belesarios, who is enclosed between rocks. 3
BALANCE: The balance is weak. After the optional fight, I have 160 units left with a population limit of 75, including 5 siege weapons. For the final objective you only need two rams. 2
CREATIVITY: This is the strongest part of the campaign. Brendan’s impressive arrival from the future, the interruptions by cut-scenes, you gain HP by killing bandits and change from villager to Militia and back to villager again. Appearing, disappearing, tricks and triggers. 4
MAP DESIGN: There are not many elevations on this map which is correct if a campaign plays in the middle of Europe. Southern England, Holland, Northern France (Normandy), Northern Germany and Denmark are quite flat. The map is well done and definitely better than a random map. 4
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: You have a bitmap, a “history” section in the instructions and hints. The story is quite confusing, as it transfers events from the 5th and early 11th century to the period of 1050-1052. The Romans are deserting an island off the coast of France, which is Britain, as Aberdeen is mentioned, in 1050, leaving it vulnerable to the Vikings, the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons to take rule. In the first scenario you learn that Merlin had two sons Iman and Friar Horace, but not from the same mother. Iman is amazed to see his father, as he killed him 1000 years ago. In the second scenario, you meet King Edward II, the Confessor. 3
-You have “to maintain the standards of historical accuracy established by the creators of AoK.” (I could not have phrased it better, so I quoted Gregory Koteles on Author’s Description Single ID 503).
The Romans left Britain by two stages. The first migration was done by the 383 proclaimed emperor Magnus Maximus, called the Spaniard (no, he was not a gladiator), who got beheaded in 388. The second and final by Constantine III, who withdrew the last Roman legion, the Second Augusta in 407, the year he became emperor. Britain got officially independent from Rome in 410, at the fall of the Roman Empire. Merlin is said to have had a daughter but no son and lived in the 5th century, he is based on the historical figure Myrddin from ancient Celtic mythology. Play As Britain Lay Bleeding and the The Coming of the Unborn King by Gordon Farrell.
Edward II The Confessor, born 1000 years ago, King 1042-1066, son of King AEthelred II and Emma of Normandy. He fled 1013 with his parents to the Normandy, because of the Viking invasion 1013-1016, where his father died 1016. Canute the Great of Denmark became also King of England, 1016-1035. Emma returned 1017 to England to marry King Canute, with whom she had a son Hardicanute, who became King in 1040 and recalled Edward the Confessor back to the court. Edward took the crown in 1042, when his half- brother died of convulsions at a drinking party. The only fights, which took place during his reign, was a family fight against his father in law, Godwin of Wessex and father of Edith, Edwards wife. Godwins sons or Edward’s brothers in law Tostig and Harold Godwinson landed 1052 with an army in southern England and the Earl of Wessex became the most powerful man in England.
As Edward II The Confessor had no children, there were four candidates for the thrown, the legal heir Edgar Etheling, Harold Godwinson, William Duke of Normandy and Harald Hardrada. The wing decided in favour of Harold Godwinson Earl of Wessex, a decision which led to the battles of Stamford bridge and Hastings, but this is another story… |