Your King has requested from you that you build a castle and farmland to produce armour and food for his army in his struggle against the Wolf.
This is my first economic map so forgive me if I have made a mistake somewhere!
Hint: Look to rid yourself of the wolves first!
Playability - This was a nice economics scenario I enjoyed playing most of the time. It had enough economical micromanagement, which I like and military action (bandits). There were plenty of events, which kept the scenario interesting. However, I found some of the events to be repetitive to some extent. Like most scenarios, which have slightly unbalanced victory conditions, Gawain County got a little boring in the end, because collecting the stone took a little longer than would have been necessary.
Balance - The economical side of the scenario was challenging, particularly in collecting all the stone. The events, like fires and plagues offered some challenge, but the hardest part was in trying to keep the invading bandits at bay. I think the bandit invasions were a little too frequent to my taste.
Creativity - Quite an ordinary scenario, which didn't have many creative features, but the Map Design did raise the score a little. The story wasn't very creative, but the lack of creativity didn't really bother me, as it was otherwise a good scenario. If the author, ghostdog, would have implemented some new and fresh ideas (and story), Gawain County would have been Best of Stronghold quality.
Map Design - Map design was mostly beautiful and I liked the coastline and the well-made river/sea connections. It was a detailed map with decorated terrain, but I did not find the river in the map either realistic or pretty. Use of the Min Height tool would have made the river better-looking. Some more eye-candy, better-polished terrain and a creative map structure would have raised the scores of both Creativity and Map Design.
Story/Instructions - The story was short and unimaginative. It was better than none, but below average. I recommend the author to work some more on the story side of Scenario Design, because when it comes to reviewing a scenario, you need to be equally good in each category in order to get good ratings.
Final comments: I recommend to download this scenario and hope that the author would improve even more in his future scenarios. It's sad to give an above average score to a scenario, which could have been a lot better, but ghostdog did a good job nevertheless.
Dianna125
Posted on 11/26/02 @ 12:00 AM
Rating
4.2
Breakdown
Playability
4.0
Balance
4.0
Creativity
5.0
Map Design
5.0
Story/Instructions
3.0
I had a great time playing this map. Bandits throughout of foil any hopes of stone gathering. Very challenging and fun.