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The City of Columbar (Map 7 in Saviour of Léugìm)
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Author |
File Description |
Dougleass |
Posted on 12/12/07 @ 08:20 PM (updated 12/15/07)
File Details |
Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
Difficulty: |
Normal |
Made with version: |
1.1 |
Minimap:
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Other uploaded scenarios in the Campaign:1. Mardonton - The siege
2. Bealaigh Hill -The Ambush
3. An Unlikely Saviour
4. The Lost Estate
5. Mountain's Fist
6. The Pilgrim's Progress
The City of CoumbarMap No.7 in The Saviour of Léugìm Community Campaign.
Short Description: You play as another Scout Party to try and convince a rich coastal Estate to help defend the Kingdom that is under siege.
Story
Ah, Columbar, the beautiful coastal city. The people were so lovely and friendly, the view, charming. If it only wasn�t because of that credulous lord, it would�ve been a perfect city. Lad, I got up early today to make breakfast, so I�ll go and take a nap, while you take your time reading this letter the scout leader sent to me, after he had a talk with Edward, the lord of Columbar.
The parchment started:
- Greetings, Gregory, I hope you are fine and already on the way to visit Ithélâ. I must tell you that I have negotiated successfully with Edward. He has agreed to ship in from the docks of the city everything we need to win this war, from ale to weapons and supply. He has also given his consent with sending some men to the battlefront and sending some supplies.
But, this victory was not won easily. I�ll tell you from the beginning how everything happened:
- Before we arrived to Columbar, we passed through this small town that looked like punished by something. I thought this was strange because it was a fact that Dayon could�ve never reached this part of Léugìm. After studying the wreckages we went on to the city. We were at the top of a hill, when we saw something stunning: Columbar was being attacked. Have the Black Army passed our defenses without us noticing? We camped in a place I thought we could not be seen, and I went off to take a closer view.
-I noticed the attacking soldiers did not have Dayon�s insignia, which was something good� But now, I didn�t know who the attackers were. Were they from another kingdom? Were they taking advantage of our weakness and were attacking us to take Columbar?
I couldn�t do anything until the end of the siege. If I approached at this moment, the defenders would think I was an enemy and die. So I had to wait�
My men and I were a week in our camp waiting for some improvement on the battle. Until one day the besiegers left. We made a small white flag and approached the city. Though the guards thought twice before letting us in, the gates were opened and we entered the city...
Full story follows the map in the zip file!
Campaign Map
Click thumbnail pic to see 250k JPEG
Objectives
On Normal Setting:
- Survive until the enemy invasions end and the enemy army is dead.
- Acquire 75 pikes
- Game starts June 1085
- Game ends around 1093-94)
Author's Note
I hope you enjoy it, as always. This map has been finished for over year too, just like my other map for this campaign! It was also first intended for the Crusader Campaign, which is now dead.
Zip Contents
Map, and story by Lord Michael 1.
Acknowledgements
Authors who worked on this map were:
Lord Michael I for writing the story, Ericgolf and Lord Michael I again, for playtesting this map. Ericgolf also made the maproom thread for this map, which I appreciated alot.
Also Thanks to:
FroobaChoob for starting and organising the campaign;
Younghappy for taking over from FroobaChoob when he had to go offline;
Sir Ravenclaw for the campaign logo graphic;
Younghappy for creating all the campaign maps and submitting news articles;
SHH staff for posting up the news articles;
Ericgolf for the DL page template. |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Battle Mage corp |
Posted on 12/25/07 @ 04:33 AM
Before I start I’d like to say that throughout the campaign so far The city of Columbar has been my favorite map. I’m a sucker for port cities and since the first glimpse of the minimap I have wanted to try it out. A truly outstanding piece of work. One more thing- I apologize that my rivew won’t be that detailed, but my family has plans for today and I have to help them. I’ll look over problematic areas and give you my opinion about them, but unfortunately I can’t explain my experience in full details.
When I first started the map I was going for a full five without even playing it for five minutes. I spent a couple of minutes to look around the terrain and it seemed OK. But what immediately caught my eye was the river. It just didn’t seem natural the way it flowed suddenly changing the color from light blue to dark blue. You should have placed a bit more rocks or grass, some kind of swamp terrain so that the terrain shift wouldn’t look so sudden. Another thing was the cliffs around the sea. I like that you went for a high approach (not elevating them to sea level), but you should have placed some rocks, stones etc. because it looks unnatural for a cliff, constantly battered by the sea to miss chunks of stone beneath it. But all in all the terrain looked great so it’s a small 0,5 from the map design. The playability and balance were the biggest issues however; I played the game on hard, and found the difficulty really easy. On my first try I started to gather swordsmen and knights, but later noticed that production of ranged units is much more bountiful and effective. So on the second try I started selling swords, armor and buying wood and x-bows. The city was still unstable so I started making churches and inns (that way I could sell the least amount of food and still have popularity pts. for high taxes) I used the dairy farms, mainly because I needed them for leather armor, but they contributed significantly to the granary. One mistake in the playability was that there were absolutely no side attacks, just one massive at the end. That was a mistake, because I had no rush or problems and just needed to deal with popularity issues now and then. I saw where the two signposts were placed and moved all the x-bowmen to the front; also I made some tower catapults in the front of the castle as a surprise. The feeling during the making of soldiers and pikes was awesome. Sweat music and hundreds of people running around in this massive city. An excellent job with the atmosphere, mate.
When I finally got attacked I almost had the pikes raised around 60 I think. The enemy was in front of the castle so I maneuvered most of my troops to that position still leaving some on the side because there was a second invasion. Even though the enemy x-bowmen were hundreds they died pretty quickly. I have to say that the height effect contributed as did the mangonels. I didn’t target anyone, my archers were firing at will and most of the non-ranged (enemy that is) units died quickly. Suddenly a couple of engineers greeted me, but I had some woodcutters huts there and ironically, while trying to get to a tree the workers killed most of them. And after a couple of minutes I killed all of the remaining troops and continued to raise provisions. And after that the victory sound rang.
All in all a nicely made map, but with little events. Again I’m sorry for the short review, but I hope you learn from it what you want to know.
BM corp.
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Sulis |
Posted on 01/07/08 @ 08:49 AM
Playability: 4
Chapter seven in the campaign sees you preparing for a large battle and accumulating a substantial amount of pikes in order to win. The pre-built city of Columbar is mightily impressive, taking on the impression of a well established and long standing settlement that can hold its' own in any battle. Again, a simple enough scenario is presented and the focus lies on defending against the invasion which is very large, very potent and determined to break through your defences. The scenario plays out well enough and whilst the economy largely looks after itself, with only minimal inout needed on your part, do not neglect those defences! Your thriving economy will manufacture a huge supply of weapons, and you'll need it because the invasion needs careful management or you can easily suffer an embarrassing defeat. Good stuff once more, the lull before the storm is eerie and the AI works well here.
Balance: 3.5
Yes, there is a lot to do, and the first time you play you never know what the invasion will represent, where it will strike and how easily it will break through your defences. As it happens, those strong walls and large gatehouses do pose a problem for the AI but they did break through without too much fuss. The ease at which victory eventually arrived was something of a surprise. Several attempts later and the same result ensued, which leads me to believe that whilst the map is fine as it is and the battle sufficient to whet all but the most hardened tactician, ultimately the map would have benefited by either several smaller invasions spread out over a longer period of time or possibly one good-sized attempted siege mid-way through the map. Still, the scenario is yet another tasty offering and does the campaign justice.
Creativity: 4
The score here goes largely to the fully functioning city and the established economy. It is very, very impressive as large settlements don't often work in Stronghold, yet this performs beautifully and poses a visual feast. As with previous chapters in this campaign, it is pleasing to see what is essentially a basic scenario modelled exceptionally well and working exactly as it should. Full credit to the designer. Quality always wins for me!
Map Design: 4
Touched on above, but that city is mightily impressive. I was concerned at first when I saw the exposed armoury and considered relocating it to the keep area for added protection. I needn't have bothered as the AI had one job in mind.. to kill my Lord. Looking at the city from afar, everything about it just seems to fit perfectly, and it really does resemble a large settlement ready to take on the world! The terrain is equally well done and once again gently rolling hills and a smooth landscape is littered with outcrops of stone, trees and other shrubbery to take on a realistic appearance. I wasn't too convinced by the harsh boundary between sea and river but it is diffcult to design a junction without it looking clumsy. This minor gripe aside, and given that all of the maps in the campaign are of an exceptionally high standard, the map design in general follows the work done by previous designers. Good work, high quality and perfectly functional.
Story/Instructions: 5
All of the stories presented as part of this campaign are top drawer, but this one seems just that bit better once more. I never tire of seeing the developing campaign map and the relevant thread to support these campaign maps in the forums continues to interest me. Lots of content, very well written and a perfect way to support a great invasion map.
Additional Comments:
Not quite as difficult as the other maps in the series, but just as impressive in its' own right. Good fun too! Congratulations to the Design Team once more! |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.4 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.3 | Balance | 3.8 | Creativity | 4.5 | Map Design | 4.3 | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 1,791 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 828.17 KB |
Added: | 12/12/07 |
Updated: | 12/15/07 |
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