The land you own has been devastated by powers that you cannot control. Nature has rebelled against you and has caused much hardship. A devasting flood destroyed most of your town and took many lives. Many are left homeless. You have sent rescue teams to help and supply everyone with food. Most of your castles outer defenses have been destroyed. Only your inner keep area and some remaining wood palisades remain. To make matters worse a rock slide occured and crushed many homes. People are still trapped under the layers of rock. Most of your people left and only a small force defends the castle with most of them employed to save lives. The rockslide without your knowledge opened up many paths through the treacherous mountains that lead to your castle. A local chieftan named Orok Krov has taken it upon himself to unite the tribes and attack you. With the tribes united it will be hard to stop an all out attack. Orok rushed his men into battle to catch you off guard and did not prepare to make seige weapons in his haste. He figures since your castle was destroyed it will be an easy fight. He marches by night to remain undetected. The attack came out of nowhere in the early mornning. Men are still trying to rescue people out in the open. The battle begins whenever you like it or not. You must win this battle to bring back your people's favor. The defense of Barokon has begun.
Tips
-Bring your men into defensible postions in the keep area
-Hurry the men outside the walls are in danger
-The catapults are useful for armored units but the engineers are outside the walls.
-The wood tower is a good vantage point for
archers
-Mass infantry is a good tactic
-For a challenge play on hard
Comments and Constructive criticisms are appreciated
I eventually added win/lose conditions myself, with that said, on to the review:
Playability: 5
I'm actually not really into sieges, but this one was a true amusement to play. The fighting is quick, the castle is small, so is the outer defencelines, which gives you no time to rest.
Balance: 5
The map was quite easy at Normal, but as write-up states, it gives a nice challenge (yet a beatable one) at Hard.
Creativity: 5
I like the wooden castles with low walls, the outer defences with cleverly constructed entrances to the wooden-walkways were very nice. Also, the Lord is on the retreat at the opening of the map, this has been done before, but I always appreciate such creative features.
Map Design: 4
Very nice! Your best map this far. Close to a 5, I personally think that perhaps a little more dirt should be used, but the only thing that reduced this to a 4 was the marshland, it wasn't at all bad, but it didn't really fit in with the rest of the map. Other than that, the map was a 5.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story was nice, although somewhat short, and the hints were useful.
Additional Comments:
Another great siege-map from Stretch, your best this far. Hope to see some invasions or economics missions from you as well. Keep up the good work.