Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)
Matthew Charlap, the Qurqirish Dragon proudly presents journal entry
#314, as recorded by the cleric Aylyra:
The land of the "Adventuring Gnoll" originally discovered by Roy
Ritchey at ritcher1@consultant.com
Date of land exploration: 30-March-2005
DESCRIPTION: Large, 2-layer, single player map of hard difficulty
Restoration of Erathia map
Win condition: standard
Loss condition: lose the hero "ritcher1"
# OF PLAYERS: 1H Stronghold vs. 1C Necropolis, 1C Dungeon, 1C Fortress
vs. 1C Castle, 1C Tower
COMMENTS: This map sends you adventuring through several areas, each
separated from the others buy border guards. If you are careful, you
can be certain that no AI players will get to the required keymasters,
and so will be able to progress at your own rate. One of the first
things you will notice is the lack of taverns. All heroes you get will
be released from prisons. Events early on will give you a rough idea of
where to find them. This restriction on heroes (the only way an RoE map
can do it) does have one important side-effect: the AI cannot recruit
any new heroes either. As a result, once you have eliminated all heroes
of any given color, it can be ignored, or eliminated as you see fit. I
believe that this made the map much easier, since once the heroes are
gone, the towns cannot possibly outproduce even your starting area of
three strongholds- much less so after you capture the castles or
towers.
Under normal circumstances, you will need to explore the entire world
to complete the map, but there can be ways around that (see "the
editor says" below.)
Timed events continue a humorous story as you go along, and were
apparently timed to go along with a relatively slow progression of the
player- this matched them up nicely with my playing, as I perform a
thorough check of a map while playing- even if unnecessary. An
experienced player will likely finish the map before all the events
play out, but the only logical problem with the events is if you
haven't progressed far enough by the time they appear, as they often
refer to heroes you released.
SOME TIPS: Take your time- you gain strength faster than the AI, so if
you take longer than you would normally like, it will only become
easier.
BUGS AND PROBLEMS: A few minor problems exist. One event says you lose
some resources, when in actuality you gain them. It is also possible to
get the two big transportation spells- dimension door and fly-
SCORE: On my first try at hard difficulty, I won on day 164 (month 6,
week 4, day 3) for a score of 314 and wyvern monarch rating.
PROS: Good story flow. No annoying clean-up phase.
CONS: Gets a bit too easy once you clear the first couple areas. Not
very challenging to an experienced player.
THE EDITOR SAYS: A few random artifacts can break the flow of the map.
For example, one AI got a tome of air magic, which I easily captured
with the help of a shackles of war. I didn't use it while playing,
but it easily would have reduced my completion time by weeks, if not
months. I also obtained fly from one of my towers, so I could have gone
even faster from that early point. The main advantage from these is
that you can avoid opening border guards, and so even a weak player has
nothing to fear from AI heroes slipping in behind the main force.
THE BOTTOM LINE: This map earns 8/10 for utilization and 5/10 for
rating, to earn *** on description. It gets 7/10 on appearance, 7/10 on
Story, 9/10 on Flavor, and 6/10 on style, to earn ***1/2 on
entertainment. It gets 10/20 for balance (due to the reversed ramping),
and 16/20 for placement (losing a bit for the artifact problems), to
earn *** on design, for an overall rating of *** (68 out of 100).
---------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. Any criticism is of the
map, not the designer (so if you are offended for some reason don't
complain to me!
Comments and questions on the review are welcome,
simply reply to this message.
This map is available for download at Celestial Heavens:
www.celestialheavens.com
and at Maphaven: heroes.mycomport.com
Want to know how I rate maps? Point your browser to
http://members.aol.com/qurqirishd/hommreview.html
Wonder which maps I liked most? Point your browser to
http://members.aol.com/qurqirishd/reviewlist.htm
Matthew Charlap, the Qurqirish Dragon proudly presents journal entry
#314, as recorded by the cleric Aylyra:
The land of the "Adventuring Gnoll" originally discovered by Roy
Ritchey at ritcher1@consultant.com
Date of land exploration: 30-March-2005
DESCRIPTION: Large, 2-layer, single player map of hard difficulty
Restoration of Erathia map
Win condition: standard
Loss condition: lose the hero "ritcher1"
# OF PLAYERS: 1H Stronghold vs. 1C Necropolis, 1C Dungeon, 1C Fortress
vs. 1C Castle, 1C Tower
COMMENTS: This map sends you adventuring through several areas, each
separated from the others buy border guards. If you are careful, you
can be certain that no AI players will get to the required keymasters,
and so will be able to progress at your own rate. One of the first
things you will notice is the lack of taverns. All heroes you get will
be released from prisons. Events early on will give you a rough idea of
where to find them. This restriction on heroes (the only way an RoE map
can do it) does have one important side-effect: the AI cannot recruit
any new heroes either. As a result, once you have eliminated all heroes
of any given color, it can be ignored, or eliminated as you see fit. I
believe that this made the map much easier, since once the heroes are
gone, the towns cannot possibly outproduce even your starting area of
three strongholds- much less so after you capture the castles or
towers.
Under normal circumstances, you will need to explore the entire world
to complete the map, but there can be ways around that (see "the
editor says" below.)
Timed events continue a humorous story as you go along, and were
apparently timed to go along with a relatively slow progression of the
player- this matched them up nicely with my playing, as I perform a
thorough check of a map while playing- even if unnecessary. An
experienced player will likely finish the map before all the events
play out, but the only logical problem with the events is if you
haven't progressed far enough by the time they appear, as they often
refer to heroes you released.
SOME TIPS: Take your time- you gain strength faster than the AI, so if
you take longer than you would normally like, it will only become
easier.
BUGS AND PROBLEMS: A few minor problems exist. One event says you lose
some resources, when in actuality you gain them. It is also possible to
get the two big transportation spells- dimension door and fly-
SCORE: On my first try at hard difficulty, I won on day 164 (month 6,
week 4, day 3) for a score of 314 and wyvern monarch rating.
PROS: Good story flow. No annoying clean-up phase.
CONS: Gets a bit too easy once you clear the first couple areas. Not
very challenging to an experienced player.
THE EDITOR SAYS: A few random artifacts can break the flow of the map.
For example, one AI got a tome of air magic, which I easily captured
with the help of a shackles of war. I didn't use it while playing,
but it easily would have reduced my completion time by weeks, if not
months. I also obtained fly from one of my towers, so I could have gone
even faster from that early point. The main advantage from these is
that you can avoid opening border guards, and so even a weak player has
nothing to fear from AI heroes slipping in behind the main force.
THE BOTTOM LINE: This map earns 8/10 for utilization and 5/10 for
rating, to earn *** on description. It gets 7/10 on appearance, 7/10 on
Story, 9/10 on Flavor, and 6/10 on style, to earn ***1/2 on
entertainment. It gets 10/20 for balance (due to the reversed ramping),
and 16/20 for placement (losing a bit for the artifact problems), to
earn *** on design, for an overall rating of *** (68 out of 100).
---------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. Any criticism is of the
map, not the designer (so if you are offended for some reason don't
complain to me!
Comments and questions on the review are welcome,simply reply to this message.
This map is available for download at Celestial Heavens:
www.celestialheavens.com
and at Maphaven: heroes.mycomport.com
Want to know how I rate maps? Point your browser to
http://members.aol.com/qurqirishd/hommreview.html
Wonder which maps I liked most? Point your browser to
http://members.aol.com/qurqirishd/reviewlist.htm
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