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In Defence of Byzantium, 1090AD-1110AD
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Author |
File Description |
Zjorghammer |
Posted on 08/01/08 @ 10:31 AM
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Build and Destroy |
Roman government and administration continued in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire almost a millenium after the dissolution of the Western Empire in 476AD, although this Eastern Empire is popularly recounted as the Byzantine Empire.During this period the Byzantine Empire and it's capital Constantinople were important centres in regional economics and politics.
The Byzantine Empire was rarely short of dangerous adversaries however, and Byzantine armies often confronted Arab or Slavic counterparts. By the 11th century vast quantities of Byzantine territory had been invaded by moslems and many of it's finest soldiers were lost in the 1071 battle of Manzikert against the Seljuk Turks.
It is against this backdrop in which this scenario is set; The Byzantine armies are with their back to the wall as numerous and savage hordes of enemies close in. Tactical and economic skill will be required by Constantinople's next generation of leaders if the Byzantine empire is going to have a hope of surviving and maintaining the traditions of Roman greatness. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Woad85 |
Posted on 08/06/08 @ 02:55 AM
Good campign...
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Hailstorm65 (id: hailstorm65) |
Posted on 08/07/08 @ 06:05 PM
Very good level! I hope to see more of your work!
One thing though; Crete wasnt properly placed in accordance to where it should be. |
Acrosticgroove |
Posted on 08/10/08 @ 03:10 AM
Playability: 4
After their first wave of attacks, the northern folk stopped attacking. The Crusaders were also easily slaughtered while they begged for an Alliance, but I have no problem with their attack on the enemy. After all, they did manage to reclaim several places.
After a bird's eye view of the game, I make another comment: fair enough.
Balance: 3
The beginning was shocking because of the number of units I was facing. Ironically, I won against all of them by facing their armies head-on. The Bulgars' stopping of attacks also cuts this down .
Creativity: 4
As stated above, the scary amount of units was rather... Creative. However, adding at least some more strategy would have helped.
Map Design: 5
Map design was great! A lack of islands and(in my opinion) the seas that were slightly out of proportion were the only things that bothered me. But it didn't bother much.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story and instructions seemed accurate enough, but the fact that I could not lose any town (without retreating my armies) makes me believe that some other hints or instructions are incorrect.
Additional Comments:
I am an avid fan of the Byzantines, and I give a big thanks for doing this. Despite my small need for more strategies and complications, defeating hordes of people with a fourth their size was enough to convince me that I liked the map.
In other words... I LOVED IT![Edited on 09/24/08 @ 10:25 AM]
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Cataphract887
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 10/06/17 @ 04:09 PM
"In Defence of Byzantium, 1090AD-1110AD" is a rather simple B&D with huge standing armies that takes place in the area surrounding the heartland of Byzantine power, roughly western Anatolia combined with Greece.
Playability 2
The first thing I did ingame was to simply sit back and watch events unfold. The player has command of a massive empire with huge armies, and is being attacked by even larger armies from three principal enemies. While this sounds entertaining, the game was marked by many large lag spikes and actually attempting to play and defend is quite awkward due to a cluttered and busy map. Eventually while still simply watching, the Bulgars to the north were defeated without any action being taken, while something similar took place in Anatolia. The stock UP AI put in a stellar performance, transporting the crusaders stationed in Greece to northern Anatolia and disposing of the Seljuk Turks AI singlehandly. After this I landed the remainder of starting troops that managed to survive upon the shore and proceeded to eliminate the Arab army. Keep in mind this is a full on B&D with a complete tech tree and many resources, and yet the game was won on autopilot with me only needing to transport over units I started out with to win. After this the game is even more awkward, as the player must defeat the crusader allies to win, and its quite simple to backstab and wipe them out without them fighting back.
What the game needs is an AI that can actually gather resources and train units, but that's not feasible with the map unsuited for AI players with cramped positions and walls getting in their own way.
Balance 2
Considering the game won itself on autopilot with the player only needing to perform mop up duty with his standing military, its quite absurdly easy. The enemies lack technology upgrades while the player is in imperial, and can soon enough obtain full blacksmith technologies. Combine that with many walls and plenty of resources for big booming and its a cakewalk. The crusaders don't even put up a fight, even though they are the last enemy. I simply landed villagers on their islands and made some bombard towers around their TC.
Creativity 2
The concept is interesting but it hasn't been fleshed out in any way. I'm not sure any triggers were used, which is a missed chance to inject life into the game. The story elements at least had some effort put into them, but its quite a simplistic affair. Its quite similar in nature to those maps which simply have thousands of units crammed into them without any thought or care taken in design.
Map Design 2
The map is roughly random map quality and\or perhaps Real World ES Map quality. Some eyecandy was added, or rather dumped unceremoniously about the map, with haystacks and ruins getting in the way. Forests were taking up a bit too much space as well. The map was also poorly suited for the AI, having palisade walls blocking off woodlines with cramped positions for their TCs, ruining their ability to play.
Story\Objectives 3
While there is no ingame dialogue due to lack of triggers there is a goodly amount of historical text and scouts report info. This was fairly well written and interesting enough to read, but its quite simple stuff that mostly explains the setting without adding much to gameplay.
Final Thoughts:While I had some mild amusement watching events play out and the AI goof off, there really isn't much gameplay here.[Edited on 10/07/17 @ 01:02 PM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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3.1 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 3.0 | Balance | 2.5 | Creativity | 3.0 | Map Design | 3.5 | Story/Instructions | 3.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,044 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 37.55 KB |
Added: | 08/01/08 |
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