Description : After Fordian's demise (refer to Fight Over Trade), you decide to capture a ruined castle inhabited by bandits. Take the castle with help from outlaws and be prepared for massive attacks from Fordian's friends.
Desert Trouble is a fairly straight-forward ecovasion scenario, with a cede castle event at the start. It's generally a good map and was quite fun to play. Once the cede event has been completed, you have a small invasion to deal with, and then a large-scale battle at the end of the map. What lies in between is a lot of time to build up your economy and strengthen your defences, with one or two events, such as +ve bandits. The map plays fine, everything works well but could do with a bit of spicing up in between the cede at the start and the final invasion.
Balance: 3/5
Taking the small caslte isn't too much of a problem. Nasty flame throwers on top of the keep can decimate your attack though, so be careful. Once taken, there is an abundance of stone and iron on the map, and selling these at the market will bring in a huge amount of gold. As a result of this, I didn't find it at all difficult to recruit new troops (from a mercenary tent, my choice of units). The running of the economy is another side that will virtually look after itself. Balance could be improved by making it more tricky to extract stone and iron. With so much scattered around the map it's hard not to beat the scenario given the gold you can generate.
Creativity: 3/5
Cede events usually win favour with me. The map has enough to do to keep you interested and it's a pretty well put together scenario. My only gripe is the lack of anything to really grab you and make you think you're playing something special. Not bad, though.
Map Design: 2/5
A little disappointing, as the gameplay is fine. The terrain modelling takes on a strange appearance and looks a little confused, not sure what it wants to be. A small map such as this should allow you to concentrate the landscape skills and result in a good looking map. Another scenario that performs just fine functionally, but isn't too appealing to the eye.
Story/Instructions: 2/5
With only a small paragraph to introduce you to the map, with no real story and/or author's thoughts/instructions, I can only give a 2 score for at least providing some content rather than nothing.
IN SUMMARY
Desert Trouble has the makings of a great little map. It has all the elements there for a good scenario, but could really benefit from a better landscape, a good, involving story and tweaks to the game to make it a little more difficult. Spiced up with some events in between the cede and the last invasion, I can see this getting a good score. Not a bad map, just a bit rough around the edges, thats all.