Caerphilly Castle is considered one of the finest medieval castles ever built. I took very few liberties with this design keeping it as true to the real castle as possible. The map was designed to be defended or attacked and played on any difficulty level.
Playability: 4/5. In keeping with the other maps by this author, once again you have a monumental siege on your hands. Caerphilly is a huge castle including the defensive works surrounding the main body of the keep and this map really grabs the scale of the construction. There are many options available to you and different troop combinations will give you very different results. Addictive and thoroughly enjoyable, yet frustrating at the same time, this kept me coming back for more and more.
Balance: 3/5. Possibly the only bad part of this map. Balance is okay overall, and this is a huge challenge to take the castle. Defending on very hard, to allow the maximum number of troops to attack you, isn't too difficult and the enemy AI weren't able to break through to the main castle area. As an attacker I opted to play on easy and then later normal difficulty. The main problem here affecting balance is down to three issues: crossbowmen, killing pits and pitch ditches. The castle is very well defended as it is and the crossbowmen & archers will really pose a problem. On it's own this would have been a fine siege map. However, there is an overuse of killing pits that will cut your troops to shreds once inside the barbican area. Combined with copious amounts of pitch, I had real difficulty in progressing here and it took me several attempts and many expletives hurled at the screen before I won (at which point I had a celebratory dance around the room!). It certainly is possible to beat this if you are attacking, but tends to lean towards being a bit too difficult. Still, this is another credible effort and another very tough map to beat for the average tactician.
Creativity: 4/5. A faithful castle reconstruction, Caerphilly is a beautiful stronghold set in stunning surroundings. The defences take your breath away and the sheer scale is impressive. The author has done extremely well to capture the feel of Caerphilly and produced another quality map based on a real life castle.
Map Design: 5/5. It may be lacking in terrain modelling and look rather angular, but I personally rate this map very highly given the amount of time invested into the design as the reproduction here is second to none. An extremely good attempt that deserves recognition. All the major features of the castle and it's considerable defences are here, which I feel adds to the presentation.
Story/Instructions: 5/5. A taster of the historical facts are presented in the download description page, but a much more detailed write-up is available on the screen before the map launches. Very well written and an intriguing history and castle design make this worth reading, for ideas and inspiration if nothing else.
IN SUMMARY: Difficult siege. Play as an attacker for a real slog. Quality castle reconstruction, definitely a recommended download. Good work, UnikUnok!
Jasper Tudor
Posted on 11/12/05 @ 06:09 PM
Rating
4.2
Breakdown
Playability
5.0
Balance
3.0
Creativity
4.0
Map Design
5.0
Story/Instructions
4.0
Playability: 5
Fun, all the way through, especially as defender at very hard, lighting that pitch sure is fun.
Balance: 3
I only play this map as defender, as attacking this castle is way too tough for me...
Creativity: 4
A historical castle, good use of the map tools though.
Map Design: 5
Great! The only good version of Caerphilly that I've seen...and what a great one...almost exactly following the original ground plan. And although the huge castle leaves little space for landscape, the little there is looks all fine.