Your castle is situated on two islands. It started as an all woood fort and has been upgraded over the years to a stone castle. The rivers offers good protection and is a valuable trade route. A bridge is the only way into the castle. The waterfall supplies a continous water supply year round. Many different goods pass through here. Your family has been made extremely wealthy from trade. Many other Kings are jealous of you. The Snake has a grudge on you because you have made his Kingdom obsolete in the trade industry. To make matters worse people in the Snakes Kingdom have been cruelly treated and have come to your land for a new life. The Snake marches on your castle to kill you and take all your wealth. He promises 500 gold for the soldier who takes your head. Once he takes your castle he will force great taxes on all the people and make their lives horrible.You must hold out against him.
-Tips
-Time the use of pitch
-Slowing the game speed to 10 is important
-Troop placement is key
-Remember you have limited boiling oil
Comments and constructive criticism is appreciated.
Playability: 5
I played this a couple of times. Most of the time on a siege map I try to move the defending troops around, and concentrate fire in what I call a draw (where the attacking troops bunch up). Then I put infantry there with all the missle troops right behind (or above if close enough) them, providing missile fire during the close up fighting. In reality it would be impossible to shoot around your own troops, but the game allows this. Then I hold until the enemy come up, and then charge into them with all I got. With the pitch pits perfectly located lit in sequence, the enemy marched on through, and were quite weak by the time my troops charged. The bridge ended up being my holdout on the last game. It ended with the last dozen of my crossbowmen shooting the last enemy knights as they walked on to the bridge. So I will have to say this gets a 5! Well Done.
Balance: 5
Because I had to really try to beat this on normal, I'm giving this a 5 but other people may find this harder or easier. The author is giving good advice when he says to hold the oil until the very end. In my last game, macemen took out my newly positioned engineers and I only dropped half or so of the oil.
Creativity: 4
Siege map that everyone will like, because it uses a different way of of laying out the ground. If you walk the entire landscape you will see a nice ruins, some good water design, and a excellent mountain range.
Map Design: 4
Normally this would get a five, because of the oil placement, bridge, and layout of the castle. But I deducting one because even though I killed all the enemy, the game did not end and the eliminate all enemy box was not checked with the sword. So I searched ALL around for one last enemy soldier or something, but there was none to be found. So the game glitched at the end for me, but might not for others.
Story/Instructions: 4
Short write up but I had to laugh because it was Snake and Bandits just like the map I just posted. Good ideas!
Additional Comments:
"Thumbs Up" for this very evenly matched siege.
Lollard
STreTcH23 File Author
Posted on 11/26/05 @ 10:55 PM
Thanks for another great review Lollard im gonna rate your new map soon
Jasper Tudor
Posted on 11/27/05 @ 09:17 AM
Playability: 4
A short, but funny, map.
Balance: 3
You set this map to be Hard, but I think it should be Easy, beat it like nothing. Massed my archers and crossbowmen at the gatehouse, with all my melee-troops behind, waited for the enemy to breach, poured some oil over them and then let my swordsmen easily deal with them. Not much tactic required.
Creativity: 4
It's a siege after all, but there's no reason to complain.
Map Design: 4
The place where the castle "faded" into the hills didn't look very good, but the rest of the map was excellent.