Warlords II Scenario Review

BEARER.ZIP 123,018 bytes, 70 cities, 8 players, 30 ruins (incl 4 temples).
"This scenario is based on an old role-playing campaign world."  And quite
a richly-detailed world it is, interesting and rewarding.  This is one of
my favorite scenarios.  Author: Cory Ridgway.

Rating summary, scale of 1 to 10:
Wt Area          Score Comments
10 Army set          8 (well balanced with thought given to trade-offs)
 7 Map design        9 (very detailed, diverse areas, excellently done)
 5 Army pics         8 (well done modifications of default army pics)
 5 City pics         9 (SSG's excellent default cities fit very well)
 3 Background info   9 (excellent explanation of the world, plus notes)
 2 Cities/ruins     10 (all interestingly named and described)
 2 Items/heroes      5 (half new items, default hero names fit well)
   OVERALL RATING  285

"The Nan [demon priests], Great Nhalor [knights], Thure, Arnisea, and The
City States.  Dwarves, elves, and Harpies (more bird-men than traditional
harpies) also dwell in the Southlands.  Orcs, goblins, giants and trolls
can be found in the wilder areas."  There's a side in this battle for just
about any temperament: reclusive elves, barbarian raiders, defenders of
civilization, slave traders, and so on.  This scenario is rich in detail,
rich in replay value.  The rating I gave it edges out Norse and Dante, my
two previous favorites.

The army capabilities are very well balanced, with only a few unit types
that are useless.  There are some changes I would make, however: I don't
think Raiders need the -1 to enemy strength, since their strength, speed,
and production time alone make them worth their cost.  It also seems very
strange that heavy and light infantry are equal strength.  Overall, I like
an army set where armies take a bit longer to produce and move slower.  It
allows more room for strategy and makes for a longer and more interesting
war.  I also like the fact that units adding bonuses, such as Physicians,
Wizards, and Harpies, are weak units by themselves and are best used WITH
normal fighting units, to strengthen them, rather than being used alone to
destroy any enemy troops in their path.  This army set fits my ideal as
close as any army set I've seen yet.  (The fact that the computer AI is
too stupid to count an army's bonuses when deciding what to produce and
what order to send them into battle is a criticism of Warlords, not this
army set; however, it does make it more important to have a human opponent
when using this army set.)

In addition to an excellent army set, there is an excellent map.  Those
who have created their own role-playing campaign universes have a head
start in creating a Warlords scenario universe.  This map benefits from
all the earlier creative effort that went into his universe.  I have no
real complaints about the map, and I would call it a "perfect 10" except
I'm reserving that score for a map that feels *absolutely perfect*.  So
maybe this one rates 9.5 or something.  The map is fleshed out with full
names and descriptions of all cities and ruins for a perfect 10 score in
that minor, but still valuable, category.

The default cities and hero names fit this world very well, so there would
have been little gained by replacing them.  The army pictures are small
modifications to the default armies.  Some of the modifications could be a
bit more distinctive, since the results make it a little hard to tell some
of the unit types apart unless you can see them side by side.  Other than
that, I like these pictures, and most are perfect for their unit type.

The background information file is huge, telling about the people of this
world, their lands and cultures and personalities, and about the different
unit types used in the army set.  He discusses options to use when playing
the game, and his discussion proves that he actually took the time to test
this scenario before releasing it.  Thank you, Cory!  The designer's notes
will be useful for other scenario designers.

After installing the scenario and before playing it, delete the file
CITYNAME.DAT in the BEARER directory.  It points to the 'Bearer' city set,
which is not included.

This scenario is partly to blame for my long delay in writing more reviews
of other scenarios.  I kept playing this one over and over from different
sides.  I think you'll like it.

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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
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