Blacksmith Features
January 10, 2004 by Anastasia

Download Now!

The Battle of Lechfeld

By aMa

The Battle of Lechfeld by aMa is an excellent historically based singlescenario campaign portraying the siege of the Bavarian City of Augsburg, andthe events of the few days in early August 955 AD, when the Germans underKing Otto I expelled the invading Magyars (Hungarians).

The game play is a mix of strategy, and enhanced fixed force withlimited build. The one scenario is fast paced and challenging. Playersrelive the history through several objectives that place the emphasis onthe different main characters and events as they unfold. Players begin asMargrave Gero and set out for Augsburg with a message that King Otto’sArmy is on it’s way. The direct route to Augsburg is blocked by a largeHungarian force and so the small troop must make its way through thecountryside and that also has it’s dangers. Once at Augsburg the player isgiven the defense of the town with many special objectives to meet, whileplaying for time. The siege is intense and players must train units andacquire resources to counter the Hungarian attack and hold up until theGerman army arrives. Players then are given the King and Army to crush theHungarians on the Lechfeld. Historically the Hungarians attempted to encirclethe Germans and players are given yet another German hero Konrad the Redand King Otto’s main guard to employ a strategy of counter-encirclement.The history reveals that this cleared the way for an attack that broke themain Magyar force. Players must destroy the Hungarian main force andencampment on the Lechfeld. From this point the objectives are less ofchallenge and created to portray the subsequent historic rout. Thescenario remains entertaining and players will want to be sure toseek out the objective extra Brother Petarde for a very entertainingexperience. Since the player is given two objectives as a choice atthis point I suggest ending the game with an attack of the fortifiedcastle of Horka Bulcsu, and use the ‘Brother Petarde’ Objective extra.

The creative aspect of the scenario is second only to it’s excitinggame play. An impressive cut-scene firmly places the player in thehistoric past and spirits them into the game play. The audio extrasare superb and include great voice over messages. Designer aMa, is thevoice actor and his unmistakable German accent and professionaldelivery add to the realistic ambiance created. The exquisite mapdesign and creative effects combine to create one of the mostmemorable designs in AoK TC.

The Battle of Lechfeld is a must play scenario with phenominalfeatures. Remarkably it was originally a German design that has beentranslated into English. I did find one fault in the tribute featurethat is given at the defense of Augsburg. The constant racket of thetribute jingle left something else to be desired. However, fromresearching other player feedback I seem to be alone with that sentiment.Regardless of that, The Battle of Lechfeld is one of the best historicalscenarios that I ever played and one of the best single scenariocampaigns there is at the Blacksmith.

AOKH Official Reviewer Tanneur99 offered these interesting observationsabout the design and designer aMa in his excellent Review of TheBattle of Lechfeld; ‘It is an update of a 2001 Microsoft designcompetition winner.’ ‘Andreas Marscheider is the producer of the mostpopular German fan site of AoK, Age Arena (Age Arena – German languageonly) and its best designer. The dc version, the directors cut version,of Battle of the Lechfeld is an improvement compared to the winningcontest version, especially for balance.’