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.
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.
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.
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.