King Aldwich and his treacherous brother, Prince Lupus, are finally defeated. The throne has been won for Sir William. Soon he will be crowned king -- and he will take a mysterious woman to be his queen. But in the back rooms of Thistlewort Monastery, deeper secrets are about to be revealed. The future glory of the kingdom has been secured -- but at what price?
Unbelievable! This is definately my favourite scenario of the 11 Usurper scenarios (and probably my favourite Stronghold scenario in general as well) and it's mostly because it's so unique and stunning. The first time I played it, I thought it was a bad joke as all the other Usurper scenarios are so devious that they almost make you cry. But then I played the scenario again and again and again and again and again...until I thought I just have to review this little thing that is supposed to be scenario. The Usurper Epilogue is not an ordinary scenario, it's actually a cut-scene and therefore cannot be reviewed using the normal review scores. Even though the scenario is over almost soon after it has started and there's nothing to do other than just watch it's incredibly fun and I can almost promise that you will want to replay this scenario numerous times. I can't really give a score for Balance, since you will automatically win the scenario and there's no challenge at all, but I still gave it the full score, because I can't allow one criterium ruin the average score. You do have to remember this is not a "normal" scenario.
The unique style of the scenario gives it the maximum score in Creativity. There's also the famous dock once again (filled with kegs of ale) and I liked the way how the small town celebrates the forthcoming marriage with inns and the travelling fair in a town beautified with flags and gardens. I personally value creativity in a scenario more than any other score and it was the unique style of the scenario alone that made me write this review.
While the map is not ugly at all, it just isn't any better than average. There could have been some more eye-candy, but like said, there is the dock and that is a very nice piece of eye-candy indeed.
The story of this episode was as good as in the other scenarios, which means it was just brilliant. I must admit that I did not believe Gordon would be able to tell such great stories in his Stronghold scenarios as those in his AoK scenarios but he has shown me that you can tell great stories no matter how much space you have in the instructions box to use. It is an epic story and not too exotic, it's more like the classic stories about kings and knights and things... Of course, there aren't many (hardly any) spelling mistakes, which is, in my opinion, just as important as the story itself.
The Usurper campaign has been great and I'm looking forward to more scenarios made by Gordon Farrell!