WHOLE STORY IN THE GAME
You and rat! Enemies to death! Probably two most stubborn lords in the whole kingdom. With your little province lying next to his smaller one, you always have problems to deal with. Because you was happy when your castle was diseased, because at the same time Rat has been defeated in some unimportant bourgeois battle. When he built a new toilet, you have established a small spa. When you executed a thief, he martyr zed three killers and finally when your mother in law died, he killed his, than married again and killed the second one.
Now… will you try to write this tale with him?
It was the story that provoked my interest in this scenario. I have to say that I enjoyed the humor Best Willis put into it.
While the story is funny, playing the map is quite serious and quite a challenge. The author has done an excellent job of balancing resources, events and invasions. I found it very hard to maintain popularity at 50% or better and also generate units to defend the castle. One small criticism here would be that I sometimes found myself stuck with a low popularity and all I could do was wait and watch until things improved and people began returning to the castle.
The terrain is very well done with natural looking contours and no "bare spots". Vegetation and rock features are well placed. And this is all packed nicely into a small format map.
Nothing fancy about the castle but it is quite suitable for this scenario where a palace and lots of eye candy would be out of place. Your defenses are just strong enough (maybe) to keep you from defeat.
The overall scenario is not so unique or original. But anyone who likes a good economic/invasion challenge will enjoy this. The Ragtime Tale has to be very carefully managed to avoid ruin.
One thing I would suggest for improvement would be to expand the story as it is short. This could be a 4 with a little more work.