While en-route to your homelands your vessel encounters severe storms and is wrecked against the rocky shore of an unknown coastline. The survivors of your weary and battered crew are aided by a local peasant who tells you that this is the Isle of Clangore and of the tyranny and oppression of the local rulers, Duc de Puce and duc Truffe, known to their mothers as the Rat and the Pig, half brothers who rule by fear and extortion. You explain to the peasant that you are lost, far from home and in need of food and shelter ...
The peasant offers you all he has in return for your pledge of assistance to rid his farmlands of de Puce's interferrence. After a moments thought you see little option but to agree, there is no way home from here, you must therefore secure food and supplies to improve your position. Act quickly, for the peasant informs you that Duc Truffe is currently overseas and upon his return in a few short years will be prove to be a far greater adversary than his bumbling half brother.
This map is quite heavy on the economic side and hopefully will be a challenge, it is the first Isle of Clangore map and I suggest you play the second straight after, as it is an immediate follow on.
There will probably be more in the series but I will have to do them yet, hope you enjoy the game ...
Playability - Excellent. All in all a fun map to play. It took me several tries to beat it, but I had to finish it. The only thing lacking is re-playability. This scenario is very straight-forward, and plays out the same way every time.
Balance - Excellent. Quite challenging. The invasions themselves are small but they do make it difficult to meet the economic goals. The only downside to the smaller invasions is that there is almost no chance of losing militarily. Probably the only way to lose is by not meeting the economic goals.
Creativity - Excellent. It is obvious that the author put a lot of thought into this scenario.
Map Design - Excellent. The map is a realistic presentation of island geography. Normally I am not very interested in small maps but the size also lends itself to the "island feel".
Story/Instructions - Outstanding! After reading the story I just had to play this scenario. I like a story that my imagination can run away with, and this is it. The only thing that could be improved is grammar. There are a couple of run-on sentences in the story.
Posted on 12/15/02 @ 12:00 AM 