Transylvania

Scenario written by Steve Ford

Review written by Eric Pommer

Cities: 100
Ruins: 39
Players: 8

Army Set: Dracula (new)
City Set: Ice
Terrain Set: Grassland

Although this scenario doesn't rate highly in the atmosphere department, I had one of my best campaigns using it; it was a challenge right up to the end, and there was never a time I felt as though the ending was inevitable.

The Army Set:

A number of powerful units, but in general they were well balanced. There are six flying units, all but two of which are allies. The weakest flying creature is the Str 3 Harpies, which are a decent unit, and a little cheap at 50 gold. They became the computer's typical exploration unit with the Hidden Map, yet were powerful enough to take a number of cities. This tended to result in the computer players taking cities far from their capital, drastically expanding their area of influence.

Graphically I found a couple of the units confusing. Most are recycled or variations on standard Army Sets, but there were times I had trouble keeping Men at Arms separate from Footsoldiers (not really the designer's fault since these are from the original Army Set), as well as mistaking the Frankens for the much more powerful Nosferatu. A little more distinctiveness in the pictures of the units would be helpful.

Map:

This was Excellent. Plenty of mountains, with channels of hills running through them, leading to cities, ruins, or the occasional dead end. The mountains did a tremendous job as barriers between different sides, while still allowing the occasional sneak attack by flying units. The designer also added the occasional mountain pass which was guarded by a city, allowing one side or another to control the pass for all but flying units. A very nice strategic touch.

Roads were used well, allowing quick travel throughout most of the map. There were still plenty of hidden and hard-to-reach cities, however, especially in the north.

Sides:

The eight players were nicely spread out, and nicely balanced with the number of cities each had access to. The two capitals with the least number of nearby cities (yellow and black) were provided with powerful flying units to compensate.

Atmosphere:

Nothing to speak of, though it wasn't a detriment to the game. The scenario is only marginally related to the Dracula mythos; the army set was pretty standard, with some unrelated creatures (Frankens?). Playing the scenario without the Transylvania reference wouldn't have affected the game at all, as I see it. I assume the designer chose to focus on strategy over atmosphere, and here he succeeded admirably.

Playing Experience:

In my game several sides held dominance at one time or another. I began as the red, and quickly went to war with the yellow. For a time the yellow was the most powerful force in the game, and we were at a standstill. Another computer player went to war with the yellow, however, and they began to drop.

While I had been fighting the yellow, the white had taken a number of cities, and had become extremely powerful. Soon I was at war with them and the yellow, and I began loosing cities. Fortunately I had prepared for a battle with the white, and had sent a number of ships to their unprotected areas, and began a massive razing mission (which was also important because I was nearly out of money...note that the powerful units are expensive to maintain).

The white's influence began to decline, and the dark blue, who had been fighting them in the north, started taking more and more of their cities as I hit the white from behind. Soon the dark blue was quite strong, and they went to war with me at the same time the light blue did.

Actually, at this point everyone but the orange, who had been wiped out by the white, were at war with me. I suffered a number of losses, but luckily a few of the other computer players continued to squabble amongst themselves as they fought me. I continued burning cities with my heroes (the computer was burning some of mine as well), until the computer players had lost all their powerbases. Only then did things turn in my favour and I was able to win the game.

Throughout most of the game, up until turn 100, I was convinced that I was on the brink of being completely destroyed. It was only around turn 130 that I started thinking that things were in my favour. This was a welcome change from the games that offer about ten turns of uncertainty before the outcome is obvious.

Recommendation:

Try this scenario! I'd suggest starting as either the Red or the Dark Blue, or the Orange if you want a real challenge. Play with a hidden map, and you might want to keep the razing option on.
Review by Eric Pommer