Warlords II "Classic" Scenario Review

       File: WOTR.ZIP (164,902 bytes)             Author: Fabio Musciatelli        
       Name: Conquest of M.E.                Terrain Set: Grassland
    Players: 8                                  Army Set: WOTR
     Cities: 69                                 City Set: WOTR
      Ruins: 37                               Shield Set: Erythea 
    Temples: 3                                 Text File: Yes
       Desc: "It is about the world of Tolkien and let[s] you fight for the
             control of the Middle Earth"

Reviewed By: Will Michael
             72623.630@compuserve.com
             May '96

Rating summary, scale of 1 to 10:
Wt Area                 Score   Comments
10 Army set                 6   standad Tolkien fare; slow; many bonuses
 7 Map design               8   best Tolkien map so far; well proportioned
 5 Army pics                6   some excellent, some average
 5 City pics                8   most raized pics same; orange tower great
 3 Background info          0   none in text file       
 2 Cities/ruins/signs       9   complete; a few grammar & spelling mistakes
 2 Items/heros              8   repeated names & items
   OVERALL RATING         220
   Adds to scenario designer's toolbox: NO

I should say right from the start that I have never read Tolkien.  I cannot 
judge how well this scenario recreates the War of the Rings.  The review 
criteria is this: does it make an enjoyable Warlords II scenario?

Let's start with the army set and graphics.  We've seen most of the pictures
before in other scenarios with the possible exception of the Bombadil unit 
which, to me, looks like Super Mario of arcade game fame.  I was told by the 
designer that the Bombadil unit represents a strong man from the story.  If
background information had been supplied in the text document I wouldn't 
have had to ask.  The values assigned to each army unit are appropriate, 
except for a lack in variation in movement allowance.  The slowest units 
have a movement allowance of 10, while the fastest units only have a 
movement allowance of 17.  This would be a very s  l  o  w game if 63% of 
the units didn't have a movement bonus.  If you think the movement bonus 
assigment is liberal, over 70% of the army units have a combat bonus of one 
form or another.  It works, though.  Two of the design commandments were 
ignored: there are no Temple Allies (which effects quests) and the army 
units are not listed in order of increasing strength (which effects the 
computer player's production).  

I've downloaded all of the Tolkien based scenarios at one time or another
and, in my opinion, this has the best map so far.  The western portion of 
the map is coastline and there are many navigable rivers but, surprisingly, 
there are no ports so embarking/debarking can only take place at cities and 
bridges.  Musciatelli has done a great job of placing these strategically so
that the port symbols are not missed.  Sometimes you will have to assault a 
city to cross a bridge or debark, othertimes not.  Cities have also been 
used to control most mountain passes.  The bigest problem comes from the 
placement of some of the capitals.  Two pairs: Gondor (White) and Rohan 
(Lt. Blue), and Moria Dwarves (Yellow) and Lorien (Orange) are too close.  
This will definitly limit their growth in the early game, or result in the 
early demise of one of the players in many hidden map games.  Elrond's Elves
(Blue) will also have a tough time expanding as their capital is caught 
between The Shire (Red) in the west and the MirkWood Elves (Green) to the 
east.

In the last five categories, the scenario lost points for some of the 
folowing "picky" reasons:  The city pictures had the same graphic for razed
cities with one exception.  The included text file spoke only of the
designer and not of the scenario; zero for that effort.  After spending
"several weeks" putting the scenario together, Musciatelli could have scored
an easy 30 more points by taking one more evening to put together a 
comprehensive background file.  The city, ruin and signpost descriptions are 
first rate, but I had to deduct one mark for the occasional incorrect 
spelling or gramatical mistake.  The hero names/items lists had several
repeats.  Do not repeat hero names; leave them blank instead.

As predicted above, the four players with adjacent capitals tended to fare
poorly in my playtesting of revealed map games, while The Shire (Red), 
Mordor (Black) and MirkWood Elves (Green) outperformed the others.

In summary, this is a pretty good scenario.  If you like the subject matter
then it has a lot to offer.  If not and you have access to the Scenario
Builder, I would be tempted to alter the scenario by changing the army set
to something more interesting.  Some of the starting positions might be very
challenging for experienced players, especially the adjacent capitals in a
eight player email game.  I can hear the negotiating already.

W. Michael
May 96