SOG is a build and destroy scenario, not especially great, but pretty good for a first try. You have a tribe to the north to defeat, the Hittites, before you must travel east over the sea and besiege important buildings in the enemy fortifications
Playability: 3.5
You’ll have to invest a little time playing; you start off slow and must build up to the Iron Age to be much of a chance of winning. It is still quite fun though, classic B&D action with a few twists.
Balance: 3.5
Although the island enemy is no real threat, and the mainland one too weak, you’ll still have to power up your civ before you can really do much damage. A nice touch is the addition of the diplomacy option, where you can ally with the northern tribes instead. I never got this to work, since they changed to enemy right away. Perhaps it works on lower difficulties. The island is well protected so you will need a land force, as your navy cannot get near the majority of their base.
Creativity: 2
Creativity was a little lacking. There was one cool task: you had to convert an enemy transport to get onto their island. Alas, I just built a dock. Placement of some deep water would have made this possible or disabling dock and giving the player just a Gaia dock or some transports. Also you can use a priest to convert units there, although they die fast, are replaced, and the priests are cat’d, so it may not be the best option. The objectives were semi creative, much better than standard conquest.
Map: 2.5
It looks like a random map was used, and not changed much besides the basic land forms. The buildings were just placed here and there, in no spectacular fashion, and there were plenty of resources to spare. Having said this, the map is quite functional for the scenario, and the island enemy fort well placed. Not much eye candy, if any, but there are a couple of little Easter Eggs if you look for them.
Story: 2
Instructions and hints, and a one line filler story, which is a lot better than nothing, but a lot worse than having a real story.