The Crusaders have built a fortress on the hill on the river after destroying the arab fortress that previously sat there. Further up the river hpwerver there lies a smaller arab town. The Crusaders besieged that town untill it crumbled before them. Little did the crusaders know as they exausted thier resourses that massive reinforcement were on thier way to defend the town by destroying the crusaders. They will not stop untill they have have crushed you. After that you must rebuild your devastated economy. How can you possibly survive.
Playability: 2.5
I took off because the buildings are not worked at the start and dont seem to have any organized function or layout. "Wherever it fits in" looks to be a major designing strategy here. There is a enemy fort that is vastly underprotected across the split river. The enemy lord looks to have alot of assassin protection, but he is easy to kill. The one invasion of 50 slaves + a few others are easily mowed down by your huge standing force of armor and crossbows in towers. Economic goals are easy to reach and arent really thought out or linked to the story (example 50 stone).
Balance: 2.5
Large standing force of armor and crossbows. The castle appears to be able to defend against a force about 20 times as big as the one that actually invades! Long pitch pits and multiple tower mounted ballista make this fortress almost comical. Sadly you dont have any placed archers to light the big pitch pits, even if the enemy could run all the way to the pits (which they dont). Work needs to be done on the balance of invaders (of all types). Also the goals are not balanced. 50 stone is not hard to get, but 50 iron takes much longer to mine. Also the market availablity is not turned off, so you can buy the economic goals with enough gold.
Creativity: 4
I like the look of the mini map. It looks cool enough to get a 4. Unfortunately thats about the size of it. Once played, you see that the terrain is large terrain tooled and quickly done. There are parts of elevated water that are clearly mistakes or just carelessness. But the mini map looks cool and original.
Map Design: 3
Standard cross the river and climb up a steep grade towards your death from tips of 100+ crossbow quarrels. Been done. Map also not very detailed or creative in landscape (see above for more info on that).