Smugglers is a wonderful example of creativity and excellent scenario design. It is a fixed force scenario and your main difficult goal is to take 4 artifacts deep behind enemy lines. However, you cannot use a direct approach since the main entrance is well guarded. Find the alternate entrace and your mission should go smoothly. Creativity here was really nice. You are given 3 tame lions and you should do most of your exploring with these since they do not get attacked. That only gets you about half-way through the mission though. From there, you must use your wits to complete the mission. The story is great and really sets the mood - although no intro bitmap was used. The map is well done and very effective. Playability and balance are superb - it's easy if you know where to go but impossible otherwise. Excellent job all the way around!
Chris Wilson
Posted on 04/20/98 @ 12:00 AM
This was a fun level. ; Lots of different objectives. ; You had to deliver drug chests (artifacts) to different places. ; One of your objectives was to bring 4 chests across an enemy boarder. ; It was hard to get the drugs across. ; The enemy kept on stopping me. ; I finally found 2 transports and that greatly helped me out. ; It was real easy after that. ; The map was nicely made. ; The cities looked like a real city might. ; There was one problem though. ; I did the level editor on this level. ; And in your objectives you have to bring 2 artifacts to a dock but in the level editor you only had to move one of them to the dock. ; Because of this, I would give this level 7 out of 10.
Macdady598
Posted on 04/24/98 @ 12:00 AM
Man, the one player scenario, Smugglers is freaking awesome! ; I enjoyed how this level was done and created. ; Whoever made this level has experience in Age of Empire's scenario creators. ; First of all, It was well planed, and thought out. ; Second, it is pretty tough, and it took me a few tries to finally beat it! ; Well in a scale of one to ten, I'll give it a nine! ; It wasoriginal, and the towns looked professional looking! ; A scenario worth downloading without a doubt!
pyle1197
Posted on 05/17/98 @ 12:00 AM
Overall, Smugglers was ok. ; The plot and objectives are interesting, but it is difficult to complete the mission goals. ; I put the "drug chests" where they were supposed to go, but I didn't win. ; Also, the hints about the cavalry being the decisive factor were true. ; I give this scenario a seven out of ten only because the goals were a little hard to complete.