Your castle is ruined, your army felt in the last battle against Woolf. Your only chance to survive is to hide at a reliable place. Two times a year the Great River overflows widely and a few little islands becomes inacessible for your enemy. Build your fortrees on an island and prepare for the next battle. Be careful: you'll have a little time before the river returns to it's banks...
I played this scenario recently and found it to be enjoyable, but a bit lacking.
Playability – 5
This is the scenario’s strongest point. Goals are clearly defined and require a good bit of planning on the player’s part to reach. Placement of buildings is straightforward, giving a wide variety of choices for location and arrangement. Micro-precision on placement is unnecessary as the designer allows quite a bit of leeway to position structures, a welcome feature for the shaky-handed amongst us! This shows a marked respect for the player.
Balance – 4
This map was played on the Easy and Normal settings.
This was a mixed bag. The weapons requirements can be readily achieved provided the player carefully plans the order in which buildings are constructed. Gold, however, seemed a bit high for a scenario rated “Easy”. Some juggling around was required in many aspects of the game in order to prevent a catastrophe from occurring, yet make steady progress towards the goal. While an experienced player could probably handle it, it might prove a bit much for a novice. Overall, though, the scenario does present strong yet achievable challenges.
Creativity – 4
This was, on the whole, good, but not great. The idea of having to retreat to an isolated location and rebuild your strength is a fairly common one and the designer more than adequately covers this, but that was about it. There was nothing in the design or background information to make it stand out from other scenarios of this type. Nonetheless, the designer did put forth effort into this aspect and should be recognized for it.
Map Design – 4
This was a bit disappointing. The designer obviously put a lot of effort into the map, but it presented a haphazard, unfinished look. It appeared as if the designer placed a variety of well thought-out ideas on the map, but then strung them together without trying to blend them into a seamless whole. Nonetheless, the map is quite functional and serves its purpose well. A little more effort at making things look more natural will make your next map much more attractive.
Story/Instructions – 3
I thought that this was the weakest portion of the scenario. The download page description gave the barest hints of what the situation was, and the in-game instructions really didn’t offer much more. What was there fit in well with the appearance of the map and with the restrictions in building selection and force availability. Some aspects, however, seemed contradictory. For example, if the location is so isolated, how is the market able to trade such a wide variety of goods and at such high volumes? A more fleshed-out background would help eliminate such problems and make your scenario more attractive to download.
Bottom Line –
Despite its minor flaws, I enjoyed playing this scenario several times and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a break from the brain-bending missions found elsewhere on this website. Good job!