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Battle for Vengeance, 513
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| Author |
File Description |
| masked_pretender |
Posted on 08/23/17 @ 08:51 PM
| File Details |
|---|
| Difficulty: |
Hardest |
Battle for Vengeance, 513 ~
Fight as the defiled Partricians against their ever so powerful enemies, the Hleeans,in the fictional world of Braavin. After decades of enduring the humiliation of defeat, the Partricians retaliate against their enemies in a battle that decided the fate of both Empires.
Features the History of Braavin, explored of course in the history section. Each scenario will be focused on one of the Braavinian Empires, and in each one you will relive an important part of their history. In this scenario you learn about one of the most impactful battles in the early history of Braavin, the main focus being the Hleeans, with a little Partrician history explaining the events that led to this battle.
Braavin is a world made up by me, inspired by my need to simulate battles between foes that never lived in the same timeline. It will have it's own introductory scenario and brief history in the future. For now, enjoy this story and the events that are unraveled in it. :)
The scenario is a typical Build and Destroy, though you will be faced with many pressures. I have to admit that the game hasn't been tested thoroughly, which is why I tagged it as Hardest; it is a hard battle indeed, and it will take strategy to live through the first onslaughts, and strategy to live through the others. In a way, some of you will be my first playtesters, which is really unprofessional of me for sure, though I couldn't wait to release this scenario, I couldn't wait so here it is! My complete intentions were for it to be a hard battle indeed, though it still needs rebalancing, and some work on the introductory map too. My laptop is not rendering the bitmaps correctly, and I'm still trying to find a way to highligh areas.
Until then, enjoy this map (hopefully), mind its difficulty, and by all means comment on how I can improve it! As I said in the short description, this is me testing the waters. Also, don't worry about the objectives being simple; more complicated scenarios will be made in the future, this was just a tribute to my ever so fiery love for classic B&D type of gameplay :) |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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masked_pretender
File Author |
Posted on 08/29/17 @ 04:43 PM |
Fisk
(id: Fruktfisk)
Staff |
Posted on 06/12/20 @ 05:26 PM
Preface:
Masked_pretender submitted his first campaign, Chronicles of Braavin, in 2014. At the time I stated that he had a lot of potential as a designer, but despite the guy asking for a review I wouldn't give it to him, as I felt his submission, despite showing some impressive features, didn't reflect a finished product. Battle for Vengeance 513 however shows this designer living up to that potential, and although it is just a single scenario it is thoroughly made and a joy to play.
Playability: 5
What's so great about this scenario is how intuitive it is to play. The moment you get into the game and you see your villagers and Cho Long Swordsmen standing on the beach you know, you've gotta do Cho stuff! Choson isn't exactly a civ which comes with a lot of options, you can make quick choices about which buildings to smack down, and you'll need that, because those enemy horse archers will not relent. Similarly as the layout of the five cities becomes clear to you, it is apparent that you'll have to start planning some precision strikes to bring down the amount of resistance. The opening really creates that feeling of a rising power disembarking on hostile shores. You can always find your little nitpicks about any scenario; Starting out housed is a bit of a bummer and the resource placement and elevations at the landing site do make it a bit hard to get your buildings down at a safe distance from the enemy (the latter might even be intentional), but the good in here outweighs the small irritations by a massive margin.
Balance: 4.8
While I beat this on my first play, it was certainly no walk in the park. This scenario is intense from the first few minutes in, the starting resources just enough to get you set up but not enough to last you through the game, and the unit combos executed by the AI offer up a welcome challenge, even if it is possible to do a fair bit of hiking behind your towers. Iron Age Choson has to be one of the strongest civs in game, but also due to the lack of catapults they struggle a fair bit laying siege to fortified cities. The timer imposed by the wonder being constructed in the background didn't stress me all that much, but the scenario definitely feels richer because of it.
Creativity: 4.8
There's nothing too original in terms of gameplay, the map is more of your typical Iron Age brawl with standard victory conditions, not that there's anything wrong with that of course. The worldbuilding present in the background, as we'll get into later, drives this score up a fair bit. Lastly this is probably where my main complaint goes: Why is everyone Shang? It works of course, but I don't think I'll ever really get why some designers like relying so much on the Asian architecture set. Personally I think it gets a little bland in the long run, and the way most enemies have to execute variations of the same unit combos strengthens this feeling. I probably would've liked it better if just one of the players was Hittites and rolled out a Catapult and an Elephant Archer at me, but that might boil down to personal taste.
Map Design: 4.9
The river delta in this map is among the best I've seen, and attention to detail has been paid even in the areas the player is unlikely to look at for long (if at all). The desert patches in the underbrush and terrain cracks for the dirt paths are excellently used, and even tactical resources are placed in a manner which feels natural and paints a picture of a lush and rich continent. Getting the same natural look inside built cities is always a challenge but this campaign makes nice use of stone paths and has a really good balance between buildings and space, and besides the cities sometimes being sizeable you never get that feeling that the designer just put down a block of the same building. Maybe a small complaint is that the underbrush doesn't seem to reach all he way into the edges of the map, but that has also been a limitation of this game for most of its existence.
Story/Instructions: 5
Spelling errors aside (I wouldn't really have reacted to them) the writing in here is actually pretty skillful. The scenario has a fantasy setting, but unlike so many of the genre it doesn't try to put you into the shoes of a particular character, but rather it is written as a historical chronicle, referencing events as if after the fact, and offering some geopolitical reasons behind the conflict. The writing is concise yet manages to instill the feeling of a vivid underlying world. The constant mentions of different years in this unknown timeline and these unknown cultures, rather than coming off as a bombardment of information, just gives a small taste of what is clearly a deeper and more thought out world beneath the surface. Better bitmap than I'll ever make too.
Additional Comments:
Good mapp. please download. I wonder if this guy still comes around, I'd love to hear an update about the full campaign.[Edited on 06/12/20 @ 05:29 PM]
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masked_pretender
File Author |
Posted on 05/11/21 @ 01:36 PM
I made this, and the account altogether, as a teen with broken English skills - all I had with me were some juvenile ideas and some pretty bad writing skills (regardless of your remarks, which are polite, but I can't accept them ahahah). The result was two or three pretty decent scenarios, I can't lie to myself.
Over time I'd worked on random scenarios whenever I had a flash of creativity - Age of Empires is a game that fits your schedule and mood like a glove, at least scenario creating does - I've gathered a bunch of scenarios, a dozen and a half probably, with varying degrees of quality, they're sitting there on my old computer.
I'd thought about continuing the Braavin campaign, but I'd remodeled it into an episodic "Rise of Rome campaigns" style, which I think is a more interesting concept anyway. If I ever get the chance to finish them, I'll post the campaign! The writing really is the only problem, I hate writing. But I'll make do.
In the meantime, I might post another bunch of unfinished demos (but playable and finishable IIRC) depending on what I'm working with.
I also have this bunch of random scenarios I made in the vein of classic AOE - mostly build-and-destroy with minimalistic design. Nostalgia feed, if you wish.
I cannot stress enough how amazing it is to see this review, even if solitary - thank you again for making my day so unexpectedly! |
Fisk
(id: Fruktfisk)
Staff |
Posted on 05/15/21 @ 03:52 PM
Haha I basically consider it my duty to dig out pieces like this from the Granary and highlight them with a review. This is one I must have overlooked quite a few times (I actually didn't recall you being the Chronicles of Braavin guy until I looked it up). I was actually super surprised to find a scenario which isn't just good but actually great. If you have anything close to this level of quality make sure to share it with us.
I think a lot of us struggle with the time constraints of having an external life these days, and I myself have been guilty of delaying the sharing of my work because I've wanted to show a "complete product". I in fact think the episodic release plan can be a good way to migitate this.
Either way, it's cool to know you read my review. :) |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.9 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 5.0 | | Balance | 4.8 | | Creativity | 4.8 | | Map Design | 4.9 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 339 |
| Favorites: [] | 2 |
| Size: | 301.25 KB |
| Added: | 08/23/17 |
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