Blacksmith Features
October 25th, 2014 by Lord Basse

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Heroes of Meadowkeep

By Cespenar

Heroes of Meadowkeep by Cespenar is a fixed force fantasy scenario that packs quite a lot more of a punch than its humble description gives away: the author promises an average story, a decent bitmap and a special slow motion effect (aka lag), and more than delivers on the first two; whether or not you get to experience the slow motion effects depends on your own computer, but personally I never got to see it!

Originally the scenario was just one of the author’s a side projects, which he worked on while taking a break from his bigger project “Eternal War“. Unfortunately, “Eternal War” has never been released, and thus “Heroes of Meadowkeep” is the only release from this undoubtedly very talented designer!

The scenario takes place in a fictitious world and centers of the town of Meadowkeep, a haven for travellers and traders in the dangerous borderlands between the nations of Udia and Efrana. The region has long been plagued by orcs, but for the past ten years the orc tribes have kept quiet… perhaps even too quiet.

At the start of the scenario you take control of Xarwinder, a renowned assassin, who has been hired by the orc chieftain Stormaxe to assassinate Meadowkeep’s leaders. After he kills off the head of the guard, the perspective changes to our two real main characters: Lady Thea, daughter and heir of Lord Kelvin of Meadowkeep, and a common soldier called Belder, who has been in love with Thea for years. Following a fight with her father, the young Lady Thea flees to a ruin outside the city. Belder follows her, intending to man up and talk to her for the first time, and arrives just in time to save her from Xarwinder, the assassin. From a document that Xarwinder carries, they learn that the orcs are on the march and they have only a few hours to prepare the defences.

The second half turns the scenario from a simple RPS into an epic battle: you are tasked first with defending the city from the orcish hordes, and then with defeating Stormaxe’s army in the field. The final part is particularly well made, as the nature of the battle forces you to always pull back to high ground, lure out the enemy, and keep your casualties to a minimum (lest your remaining troops will flee the battlefield), all while keeping your warrior princess Lady Thea on the frontlines to increase the morale of the troops.

At about 90 minutes of gameplay, Heroes of Meadowkeep is a pretty short scenario, but a very entertaining one. It’s set in a fantasy world but it never tries too hard to explain all the intricate details of orcs, elves and men. It cuts to the action quickly, while still managing to set up pretty believable (if a tad clichéd!) characters.

This is a scenario I strongly recommend that you download. Give it a whirl and, if you can, try it with the Orc Warriors and Orc Archers Mod as well; for those of you with modern computers this can be a hassle, as Mod Pack Studio, the tool used for the mod, doesn’t work with 64-bit operating systems, but if you can find a workaround it might just bring another level to the experience!