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The Anarchy - Knight Forsaken v1-1
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Author |
File Description |
Frostius |
Posted on 02/17/01 @ 12:00 AM (updated 03/24/01)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
It is the Year of Our Lord 1136
King Henry "Beauclerc", youngest son of William the Conqueror, has now been in the grave almost a year. In his place reigns his nephew, Stephen of Blois. His succession to the Throne marks the smoothest transition of power England has seen in over fifty years. However, there are many in both Normandy and England who dispute his right to the Crown. Even now they plot to take it from him - if necessary, by way of bloody civil war ...
Yet for some the high politics of the Anglo-Norman realm are of little concern. Thus whilst his father and brother try to plan a safe course through the violent political turmoil, William de Poitou, youngest son of the Baron de Poitou, has other things on his mind.
Having persuaded his father not to send him into the clergy, William, now less than a year from knighthood, is impatient to leave the family's fief and seek a name for himself. The family possess lands in both Normandy and England. However, as these will all go to his elder brother, Brian, upon his father's death, William will have to make his own fortune.
Yet for one more summer William must endure the humdrum monotony of life on his father's estate. Thus he kills his time as best he can; with the thrill of the hunt, good wine and the pleasures of the village. But such revelry is not destined to last ...
With a weak king on the throne, powerful Norman barons are keen to exploit the situation for themselves and none more so than the Castellian of the Tower of London, Geoffrey de Mandeville. Calculating that the King's Law will not be rigorously enforced, de Mandeville decides to expand his domains by the sword. And if that means that others lose out ... then so be it.
William de Poitou's life is about to be changed forever!
Scenario Description
- "Knight Forsaken" charts the beginnings of the reign of King Stephen up to the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. During this time the seeds of discontent begin to bear fruit as a reign which began with such promise slowly decays into lawlessness, treachery and, ultimately, civil war.
- You play William de Poitou, youngest son of the Baron de Poitou. Guide him through these troubled times as he seeks to regain his fortunes and destroy the man who robbed him of his world. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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waldo |
Posted on 02/21/01 @ 12:00 AM
This was very difficult to complete, but very well done!
I was hoping there was a part two. I hope you do other campaigns as this was one of the best that I have downloaded! |
CerberusXXL
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 04/14/01 @ 12:00 AM
I have to admit that this was a pretty good campaign overall, and it is obvious that Frostius have invested some time and effort. Of course, there are little bugs and issues, which hurt this campaign, but overall it is worth downloading.
From the moment you start up this game you are prompted with a long and detailed history about England’s past. In “The Anarchy-Knight forsaken” we assume the role of William de Poitou who will go through quite a quest. Unfortunately the story doesn’t flow very smoothly for the following reason. The dialogues are displayed way too fast, so it’s very hard to read all the dialogues. The instructions are pretty straight forward, and I have no complain in this area.
In my opinion the playability is fundamentally the weakest area in this campaign. Although this campaign can be fairly enjoyable, I have encountered some bugs, which really hurt the playability. At the beginning if you move William de Poitou, you may not be able to continue through the campaign because Hamo the Steward may stay in the castle and die which prevents you from reaching the next objective. Also, if William is not upgraded to Knight, you will probably get stuck in Oxford-London, so I had to restart the game. In brief, a little more attention to certain triggers could have made a world of difference.
As far as the balance is concerned I have to say that it is on the difficult side. This campaign is definitely a good challenge to anyone. I will highly recommend saving often. I think hunting the boars wasn’t fun, since William is so weak, so I had to do a lot of micromanaging, and I didn’t feel that it was fair. I think William should have a longbowman rather than a simple archer.
I think this campaign is average in terms of creativity. A variety of triggers are used to the players benefit, but it could have been done much better. As an illustration, hunting boars was a pretty good idea if you haven’t played the regular AOK to death.
The map design is very well designed. The countryside and towns are definitely nice to look at. I always appreciate when people take the time in designing a map because the map can really draw the player into the game.
All in all, this is a good and challenging campaign. This is indeed worth downloading and playing. |
Kor (id: Derfel Cadarn) |
Posted on 08/20/01 @ 12:00 AM
This campaign by Frostius is certainly one of my favorites!
I downloaded this looking for a challenging yet fun map, but I got a lot more!
First, the playability.
When I started this campaign, I immediately got in the 12th century feeling Frostius wanted us to feel.
You are William de Poitou, a young boy, whose family gets killed by a strong baron, and he has to try to survive, gain some money, help other people etcetera.
As soon as I finished the campaign, I loaded it up again.
It's simply so fun! Therefore a 5.
Balance: the campaign is well balanced.
You can beat everything, nothing is unbeatable.
However, there was one thing I couldn't win, which was capturing the terbuchet.
I stayed too long in the camp there and got flooded with knights and crossbows. In the end I had to restart an earlier saved game and do it again.
So a 4 will do.
Creativity: Well, the creavity definately deserves the 5!
All the quests are unique (destroying food carts from the enemy, capturing horses to sell them to a horse merchant, etcetera).
A well deserved 5.
Map design: Imo, the map design was the worst part about the campaign.
It could use a lot of work, the author could use more eyecandy for example, or made the forests a bit more good looking.
It didn't look bad, but it didn't look good either.
A 3.
Story/instructions: The story at the start was clear, I had no questions after it.
The campaign developed very clear.
Never was I at a loss of what to do.
The insturctions were good, although they disappeared a bit fast, but that was no problem because I could look them up in the chat screen again.
The hints were helpful.
Pros:
* Great fun playing!
* Well balanced
* Creative!
* Very clear instructions
Cons:
* Reasonably weak map design
Overall, the pros outweigh the cons, so what are you waiting for? Download this campaign at once! |
Blaxx |
Posted on 08/22/01 @ 12:00 AM
This is an excellent work by the author of The Year of Three Kings and I really applaud his effort.
The storyline and dialog are perfect, clever trigger tricks are used and while the beginning is a little boring, and there are a few bugs here in there, it's all quite forgivable. There's even a trick to killing the boars(use the hound ;).
I enjoyed the map design quite a bit, Frostius has improved significantly since his last campaign.
Even though we haven't heard from him in a long time, I encourage him to keep designing, because the way I see it his efforts really payed off here. |
laz123 |
Posted on 12/08/06 @ 09:25 AM
Very good game. Thanks. But where's Scarborough castle? |
dikaios |
Posted on 06/07/12 @ 06:35 AM
I have to admit that this was a pretty good campaign overall, and it is obvious that Frostius have invested some time and effort. Of course, there are little bugs and issues, which hurt this campaign, but overall it is worth downloading. From the moment you start up this game you are prompted with a long and detailed history about England’s past. In “The Anarchy-Knight forsaken” we assume the role of William de Poitou who will go through quite a quest. Unfortunately the story doesn’t flow very smoothly for the following reason. The dialogues are displayed way too fast, so it’s very hard to read all the dialogues. The instructions are pretty straight forward, and I have no complain in this area. I really liked this campaign because of it reminded me the series "The Pillars of Earth" which was in some points the same story with this one. I hope you will make a continue of the scenario I really liked it.
To laz123:
Scarborough castle is under the Scottish rule, so it is in the northern part of the map, not above the sea, but in the same land where you are. More definitely it is north of the city where you bought William's armor and horse.
~ dikaios[Edited on 06/07/12 @ 06:36 AM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.3 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.0 | Balance | 4.0 | Creativity | 4.3 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,372 |
Favorites: [] | 1 |
Size: | 212.44 KB |
Added: | 02/17/01 |
Updated: | 03/24/01 |
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