It has been clear to you now that the task that your lord has given you would not be filled just by any other knight; not many has risen to the task, as you have suspected. This may be one of the most complex and demanding task that could have been given to you. Your goal? To conquer the Islands North-East of your new settlement. There is no doubt that your ennemy will be strong. There is only one consilation that you can think of at these times: You are very limited in your space and your economy, as they are too. You must be quick, swift and precise to be able to conquer these lands before your men's moral reaches new lows.
Great honor awaits your return, completing this task. But failure is not an option. You will be accompanied by your brave ally, but do not depend on his charity - you are far apart, seperated by a river. You must rally togheter to plan an attack, but do not be suprised to be alone to defend your castle, and your men.
Playability: 5
Played Lollard vs. Caesar in a 1 v 1 battle on gamespy. After several attempts to get four people for a 2 v 2. We went with the standard starting 2000 gold and resources. I quickly grabbed the stone and iron on the map, hoping that Caesar wouldnt notice. But he did and planted all wheat farms and bakeries wherever he could to make up for his slow resource grab. That proved rather a good strategy for him, he had the bread rolling in and he quickly sold it and made horsearchers. I worked on manufacture of bows and spears, finally making some armorers late.
Caesar didnt wait for me to build up and attacked quick with everything he could get together. His horse archers were quite deadly and could range all the other center islands once in the middle. I had spread out tight formations of a dozen archers here and there by my iron and stone. They were small potatoes and I had to run them back to assemble on the island just out front. We beat back the horsearcher army, along with Caesars starting spearmen and about 20 merc archers he threw in. It was a good attack, but as each squad of archers retreated back, they fired first. This cut down the horse archer numbers enough to toe to toe it in front of my castle. I kept sending in spearmen as fast as I could make them and finally I saw just my color on the minimap! Then I beat back a second wave of horsearchers and built a quick tower with braziers to reinforce.
But then I became the greedy sucker that I always do and counter attacked before I was ready. I threw all my archers and 45 horsearchers, with about 30 macemen. Because the islands are separtated by river crossing, charging horsearchers will get you killed. That is what happened to me. Slowly Ceasar made horsearchers after that and I didnt have enough to counter. Caesar showed poor sportsmanship at the end and took 30 mins to kill my king...fight with honor I always say.
Balance: 4
Balance is ok for farmland and first come first serve for iron and stone. You cant get the 2000 number armies together on this map, but you have enough to have a good fight.
Creativity: 5
Its a whole new design with islands and two shared bases. I didnt get to play it with four people, but I dont see any problem so this makes it a useable map too.
Map Design: 4
Not over done with boulders and other useless eyecandy that blocks view during battle and slows down some games. Good map for multiplayer. Cant use comps so I took off one.
Story/Instructions: 5
Long interesting write up that is long enough to meet the minimum for a 5. The stories could use a little more creative writing. But good for a 5 so dont be bummed.
Additional Comments:
Thumbs Up from me for this map.