Warlords II Scenario Review

ALTAIR.ZIP, 137,216 bytes.  Battle for control of a distant planet with
futuristic weapons; 8 players, 70 cities, 40 ruins (4 temples).  Author:
Jeremy Reaban (same author as the Greece and Mars! scenarios.)

Rating summary, scale of 1 to 10:
Wt Area          Score Comments
10 Army set          7 (reasonable balance but some units are too good)
 7 Map design        5 (nice-looking, interesting roads, some flaws)
 5 Army pics         7 (well suited to scenario, interesting)
 5 City pics         4 (two nice cities duplicated many times)
 3 Background info   4 (brief designer notes, not much about Altair)
 2 Cities/ruins      3 (several named and described, the rest are drek)
 2 Items/heroes      5 (all new items, many new heroes)
   OVERALL RATING  188

"This scenario takes place sometime in the distant future, on the planet
Altair."  The Terrans run the Starport, the other sides represent the
corporations, natives, and I'm not sure what else since there's very
little info about what this Altair is like.  Very few cities and ruins
have futuristic or science-fiction names or descriptions, they're just
random drek mostly.

The army capabilities are fairly well balanced except for double-speed
griffons (called Bombers here).  Three turns and a bless for a strength
9 unit flying at 36.  I'm sorry, that's too much.  At least they're
expensive, so it's not as bad as it could be.  The other units are all
nice, and fit the scenario well.  The pictures add flavor and fit the
names so well you could almost do without names.  Too bad the Native
Infantry unit is *SO UGLY* it makes you want to disband them.

"The map is very unique. I had a lot of fun making it."  Yes, it's cool,
the road patterns are highly amusing, and it's a fairly good-looking
map with some details added for effect (besides the roads, that is).
Strategically it's nothing special, and there are details that should
have been added that weren't, like foothills around the mountains.  It's
not bad, and has no serious defects, but it's not great either.

The city pictures fit a futuristic scenario well, but I really hate it
when every side has cities that look the same except for the paint job.
You'd think the Altair natives would live in a different type of city
than the rest.  A great scenario conveys differences between the warring
factions so that the player actually cares who wins.  When the cities
all look the same, it rather spoils the effect.

Overall, this scenario is better than his last two, but it's still not
up there with the great ones yet.  "Don't play the Terrans (White), or
Red, or Yellow, if you want a hard game."  I'll second that.  I'd say
light blue for a hard game, or use Quick Start to even things out some.
Turn on diplomacy, quests, and hidden map, set other options at your own
preference.

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This review is copyrighted by myself, but may be distributed in any
UNMODIFIED form as long as NO CHARGE is made for distribution (such
as a per-minute charge for online time) and it is not included in any
copyrighted "compilation" (such as claimed by certain online services
I will not name).  Dirk Pellett