Blacksmith Features
May 9, 2004 by Anastasia

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Destiny of a Dynasty – Contest Nostalgia

Recently, I stumbled across these great campaigns from the old’Chinese Campaign Contest’ in the Blacksmith archives. I considered this agreat discovery, like opening a door to a forgotten era at Age of KingsHeaven and finding lost artifacts. It was also a bit of a sentimentaljourney too as the contest held in 2001 is what first attracted me tothe Blacksmith and the Scenario Design Forum.

The ten outstanding campaigns created for the contest, contain threescenarios each, and are all Age of Kings: The Conquerors (AoK:TC) designs.All are based on an event or series of events relating to the ChineseEmpire in the time period covered by AoK:TC (approximately 500A.D. -1600 A.D.). The campaigns are exceedingly creative and challenging andthe game-play is varied and unique. Each are complete with extensivehistorical research and captivating plots unfolding through the game play.Perhaps the most amazing thing that struck me about these campaigns wasthe remarkable quality of the designs created in a matter of a few months.The excellence of the scenario designs have endured, and these campaignsare golden.

Memories may be beautiful, but mine are rarely accurate. So I did someadditional research in the News Archives (2001) and the Scenario DesignForum for information on the contest and the way we were. Apparently thewinners and runners up are not given in the correct order on the finalresults page I found, and the ID numbers only add to the confusion. Thisis what I found:

Emperor Wendi – First of the Sui, by Zanzard Lothar was the winningdesign, and just barely edged out Glory of the Tang, by Stan (aka TheConquistador) in what was the scenario design contest equivalent to aphoto finish. Three Emperors and Two Dynasties, by Andres_age was a finalistand solidly placed third. Here is the entire list:

Emperor Wendi, First of the Sui, by Zanzard Lothar – 4.58

Glory of the Tang, by Stan(aka The Conquistador) – 4.54

Three Emperors and Two Dynasties, by Andres_age – 4.25

The Voyager, by Vertigo Extremist – 3.7

Dawn of new Dynasty, by Joe Gillum – 3.7

Rise of the Ming, by styrbiorn – 3.5

Ancestors of China, by Do_Japan2 – 3.0

The Dynasty of Tang, by Rickard Stenberg – 2.9

The Rebellion of An Lu-Shan, by Lord Lucas – 2.9

Emperor Wanli, by Therese Dumas and Stephen Dumas – 1.9

Have fun playing all the uniquely created designs and not to bediscouraged by the contest scores as each campaign is at least entertainingand playable with no game destroying bugs. In fact one of my favorites, Riseof the Ming by styrbiorn placed sixth, and so I’m sure Agers will enjoy thesegreat campaigns.