"The Old Man of the Mountain dwelled in a most noble valley shut in between two very high mountains where he had made the largest garden and the most beautiful that was ever seen in this world ... and into this garden entered no man except only those base men of evil life whom he wished to make Assassins."
Marco Polo: Travels in Asia (edited)
Deep in the Alborz mountains of northern Persia, the famed castle of Alamut was built on a narrow ridge on top of a high rock, dominating an enclosed valley.
According to legend, the Order of the Assassins was founded in 1090 by Hasan-I-Sabah, known as The Old Man of the Mountain, who turned this mountain fortress into a training ground for Assassins. From the walls of Alamut, he sent these killers throughout the region to murder the leading political and religious figures.
The reign of the Assassins came to an abrupt end in 1256 when the Mongols, sweeping through Persia, erased Alamut for good.
Now, almost 750 years later, you get a chance to defend the castle against the invading Mongol hordes.
A simple but appealing map. Not overly fantastic and creative but well worth playng. There are a few things i liked about this map. Yor bridge design was rather attractive, the water feature and also the way you placed the keep so that it needed to be reached by steps although that is a problem as well. When playing stronghold i think of macemen as the stupid units. They destroy anything and yes on the odd occasion they destroyed the only way to the keep. The AI also don't know how to get in the castle and dig the moat in a different location. Therefore the balance isn't so good. All i had to do was place the archers on the tall tower and sit back. Apart from that though, a all round entertaining map. Well done
Lord Arthus
Best Willis
Posted on 02/17/04 @ 12:00 AM
Rating
4.0
Breakdown
Playability
4.0
Balance
4.0
Creativity
3.0
Map Design
4.0
Story/Instructions
5.0
Playability: 4
Normal on defending but hard to attack.
Balance: 4
When you know how (after few restarts), enemy has a little chance to kill the lord when playing on normal.
Creativity: 3
I would appreciate if it will be lil bit more interactive.
Map Design: 4
I really liked tha castle. Small and nice.
Story: 5
Really interesting. That assasin training:)
NAT
Posted on 02/18/04 @ 12:00 AM
Rating
3.8
Breakdown
Playability
4.0
Balance
3.0
Creativity
4.0
Map Design
4.0
Story/Instructions
4.0
Great looking map and great fun to play - reall good to see a wel designed small castle. The catupults are good - wrecking the fron wall - fo not know quite how much this adds though as there is now way of climbing up to the mid plain - it is a problem with the map. The AI do find it a bit of hard to attack the castle and lets the score down a bit, you could have used men to dig the moat and then siege towers to scale the wall. Just a little idea. The map only became hard on very hard as their crossbowmen kill all the defenders! The castle and the surounding map design are stunning - very nearly a 5 - I especially liked the gardens next to the castle. So good work here - very neat castle work. There is some nice soryline and instructions - enough or a 4 here, especially as it is a very creative idea. So overall this is very nice little siege - I would recommend it to anyone! Good work!