You get to play as player two in this difficult scenario. It is a build up and destroy scenario against a large and well-defended fortress. You start with a moderate sized army and you can attack with them until repulsed. Both players start in the Iron Age so when you use your villagers to build up, you can go straight for the good stuff. The computer won't just sit back and let you build either, he will press the issue repeatedly so defend your stuff. Of couse, he also continues to build up his army. Naval units also play a part in the battle. I would say that this scenario is not for beginners since it takes a lot of work to build up an army large enough to conquer the computer's excellent defensive position.I did notice something odd as I played, though. None of the units on either side would automatically attack even if the enemy was immediately adjacent to them. I would ignore a piece of the battle since my five guys could obviously take out the one computer guy, but they all just sat there and watched. I had to manually command them to attack. Also, the computer towers would only fire if fired upon. I could stand in the midst of 6 ballista towers without fear unless I hit them first. Really bizarre. I don't know if other people will experience the same thing with this scenario but I did. Even so, it turned out to be a very tough scenario. Victory condition was conquest which gets mighty tedious after catapulting the 50th tower or so, but I did enjoy playing it. Nice job.
[Edited on 12/30/04 @ 01:48 AM]
skald
Posted on 01/27/10 @ 06:23 PM
I just finished playing a scenario where the same thing happened. My troops and the enemy just milled around together in a big furball but neither side would attack unless given a direct order. I changed my diplomacy from Enemy with them to Neutral and voila! Instant mass attack. Dunno how that worked, but worth a try if it happens to you.
skald
Posted on 02/21/10 @ 03:12 PM
Rating
2.4
Breakdown
Playability
3.0
Balance
2.5
Creativity
2.5
Map Design
2.5
Story/Instructions
1.5
Invasion
Playability: 3. This was a quite engrossing, likable scenario with well chosen and balanced forces which was at the same time made more intriguing and also more disappointing by the fragile cease-fire which appeared as some kind of fluke. We have landed all our invasion forces and secured the beach head. Our transports have departed but our warships line the beach providing extra protection. The designer put more thought into this than most people do. We actually have medic priests and combat engineer villies. And --
even though we are Greek, somehow we have my favorite unit, the Horse Archer. Must be contractors. Now things get real squirrelly. For some reason the enemy has declared a cease-fire. I can ride up next to his units and they don't attack. OK, I'll play it as it lays. I strengthened my beach head position to the point where I was surrounded by a wall of towers and fairly secure. At any time I wanted to, I could break the cease-fire by either attacking the enemy or by resetting my Diplomacy to Neutral. After about 30 minutes the enemy decided to attack. But I had strengthened my position so much that now he could not push me back into the sea. This continued for several hours as the enemy kept switching from attacking to cease-fire seemingly at random. At first it was fascinating but later it became disappointing as I would blast away at one of his units without taking return fire, if he was in one of his pacifist moods. I noticed one other thing--the priests did not automatically go on to the next wounded warrior after healing the first one, I had to micromanage all the healing. I didn't find anything strange in the victory conditions or diplomacy or strat and per that would explain this behavior.
Balance: 2.5. At first the enemy had superior forces and fortifications and might have done some serious damage, if he had only decided to. Later after I teched up to ballista towers it was too late.
Creativity: 2.5. A random map improved by a rather convoluted fortified city. If the designer had invented the cease-fire effect, wow, an automatic 5.
Map: 2.5. Random map but nice fortified city. However, as one of the hints implies, you don't necessarily have to go in the front door since eventually he lumberjacks the entire forest off the rear of the city and opens up the back door.
History etc.: 1.5 Not much here, one pertinent hint.
Comments: For some reason he took a perfectly plausible scenario with a very sensible selection of invasion forces, and added cheat units. I had one medusa which I deleted and then decided to keep the resulting horse archer to add to my existing HAs. I was doing a cav arch sweep and bumped a Flying Dutchman. This was so jarring and out of character I got upset, created my own Photon Man, and took out the Flying Dutchman and then deleted my Photon Man. Two can play the cheat game. Later I ran into invisible priests who tried to convert my platoon of horse archers. Thwack! Instant pin-cushion.
Recommended for download just to investigate the cease-fire phenomenon.