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DtS07 Barbarians at the Gate
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Author |
File Description |
Madhu |
Posted on 12/05/07 @ 07:24 AM
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Fixed Force |
France ,as always is in war with British. John Fastolf and his men try to hold off the invasion |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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John Mendl |
Posted on 12/20/07 @ 11:02 AM
'Barbarians at the gate' is a B&D scenario with a cutscene at the start. A few lines of dialogue tells about Sir John Fastolf who is fighting the British.
Playability: 3
This scenario is moderately enjoyable. But the 'defeat the enemy' objective wasn't much interesting. It is good that the enemy has some economy to build up forces. But the computer needs some more economy. I kept creating a few knights and navy in the start. I went up to the imperial age and flooded the western castle area with paladins and some trebuchets and researched heresy so that those red monks do not get my paladins. I kept flooding paladins and some trebuchets continuously and finally defeated both the enemies and won.
Balance: 4+
As the designer hinted, I played hardest and won the scenario. It took for me little more than 3 hours to complete this scenario. It is a good challenge, provided you play hardest. Moderate was too easy and since there is no difficulty regulation done for hard, hardest is the only challenge. On hardest, I could somewhat easily defend from the enemy at the start because I had ample resources to build some castles and a good military force (Since all computer players receive extra resources on hardest, the yellow recieved its part which it tributed to me). Soon, I trained a good army of knights. The Red and Purple attacked providing some challenge but was not enough. I went to the Imperial Age and kept training knights and improving them, also build a good navy. I built 2-3 trebuchets and destroyed an outside castle of the red and moved on, destroying the Western Castle of the Red (where the starting cutscene shows the final part of a battle). The red put forward a good defencive challenge with lots of swordsmen, pikemen, monks and some warships. After clearing a good portion of their army and navy, I built up an offensive castle there, which greatly aided my attacks. The Red didn't stand much long to my army of trebuchets and paladins. But some time after red's fall, purple began attacking with a lot of navy which posed a great trouble. I had to fight strategically, using monks to convert the ships to withstand the enemy navy. Purple stayed on for two more hours. I built up lots of paladins and trebuchets again and attacked, finally defeating them and won. The enemy suffers in economy on moderate and hard, but on hardest, it is better due to regular supply of resources.
Creativity: 3
This scenario isn't much creative due to lack of detail. The objective is to defeat the enemy which is not much interesting. There were not much of Defend the Spot aspects for the game since the enemy attacks weren't much of a trouble. However, there were some things which I liked. The design of the land and water body provides a strategic defensive position for the red player who is located on a western edge of the water-land meeting place. Add more detail to the scenario to make it better.
Map Design: 3
The quality of map design is average. As I told, a strategical aspect of the map design shape provided a quite good gameplay. But there are many places which are undetailed. More detail to the map design and usage of more map to provide better gameplay would improve the map design. Perhaps, place another computer opponent - there is ample space for it. Also, I found that the walls of the western castle area of red has a gap that allowed me to slip through the shoreline. Place the walls at the end of the shore to fix that problem. I appreciate the designer for his effort, but the map needs more detail.
Story/Instructions: 3
A fictional story is conveyed through a few lines of dialogue at the start which tells about Sir John Fastolf and his fight against the British, but it was too undetailed. There are proper instructions that tell the player what to do. I advice to include a history section and use it to write the story briefly. Also add more dialogue in between the game to improve the conveying of the story.
Additional Comments: This scenario is moderately enjoyable and is a good start for a beginner-designer. I advice the designer to make the scenario more detailed, including that of map design. Perhaps, use more map and add enjoyable gameplay. That would greatly improve your scenarios.[Edited on 01/14/08 @ 10:45 PM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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3.2 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 3.0 | Balance | 4.0 | Creativity | 3.0 | Map Design | 3.0 | Story/Instructions | 3.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 412 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 31.74 KB |
Added: | 12/05/07 |
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