Best if played with the two castles in the north allied against the two in the east and the two in the west. Not as easy as it may look- pandemonium reigns here. I found it very interesting to watch how the five opponents I selected reconfigured the existing structures. If you play it a different way and it works, please let me know.
Lord Robert Dudley
Playability: 3
This map plays ok, but there is alot of slow down because of the amount of deer, with the way the gatehouses are set up, and that you are playing with 5 other memory draining computer AI's. Two castles are built under control of one player (player 5). This causes problems with gatehouse control and choosing demolition targets. But I beat the four other lords (I teamed with snake, and his AI jammed in the lower right corner). And the map kept my interest up.
Balance: 4
Didnt seem a issue, because you have some starting buildings that seem to cover all the basics. There are too few houses to start with, building up enough peasants to work all your starting buildings take time and wood. But this is a small prob and you are quickly building archers to defend the thick walls you start with. Good work on the computers!
Creativity: 5
Like I have always said, if someone can make a 6+ player map that works - its at least a 3. This has some good terrain work and getting the castles to work with computer AIs is frustratingly difficult sometimes.
Map Design: 3
I taking off here because the inner roads are owned by one player (5?), and once that king is taken out, the roads are gone and so are all the gatehouses. My troops seemed to get stranded on the upper plateau when player 5s castle self destructed. The raised ground under the gatehouses is too steep to climb.
Story/Instructions: 2
Some good basic instructions, but no story which I like.
Additional Comments:
This map is worth the download and its a fun map with multiple computer AIs to fight a huge battle. Watch for the gatehouse issue and be ready to move up assassins to take the gatehouses.