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Finehair - The Conquest of Norway
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| Author |
File Description |
Filthydelphia
(id: Al_Kharn the Great) |
Posted on 01/01/20 @ 01:42 PM
| File Details |
|---|
| Version: |
Age of Empires II: DE |
| Style: |
Build and Destroy |
Screenshot:
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A woman's challenge unites a kingdom.
Harald was petty king of a small fjord in southeastern Norway. When his marriage proposal to the princess Gyda was scornfully rejected, he vowed to conquer all of Norway to prove his worth...
Features:
Unique and improved raiding gameplay
Pillage Norwegian fjords, battle sea kings, and raid the Scottish coast to unite Norway
Build Harald's legend by battling Saami tribesmen, finding a land of ice and fire, and recruiting the Varangians of Rus'
About the Author:
Filthydelphia (xbox: PhillySouljah) is the award-winning designer of historical custom campaigns and official content for the Age of Empires franchise. Part of the Forgotten Empires campaign team, his works include the Portuguese, Burmese, Bulgarian, Italian, and Indian campaigns featured in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as well as several campaigns in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
| kud13 |
Posted on 01/13/21 @ 01:58 PM
Playability: 4
The scenario is primarily an iteration of the "raiding" mechanic premiered in "Ragnar's Raids". The player has a small economy of lumberjacks and herders (as well as unlimited fishing ships), and the only reliable way to obtain gold is to destroy enemy buildings. Starting with a small band of Norse infantry and a respawning Jarl hero unit, the player must raid in order to afford holding "feasts" to gain renown and unlock additional technologies (similar to "Rise of Genghis Khan"), though each "feast" also offers additional Unique tech to bolster Harald's raids. Overall, I found the gameplay flow to be good, but the reduced range of Castle-Age longboats did lead to a lull in late-game stages where a small population cap combined with being under-teched against Elite enemies meant I had to focus on exploring to secure the extra gold needed to complete the Feasts (only once all 5 Feasts are done are the player's units upgraded to Elite). This meant there was a point when I had to sit back and tech up without being aggressive that broke the "flow" of the scenario a bit.
Balance: 3
Overall, the odds are fairly stacked against you in the beginning, as the player has limited tech tree access and little room to expand, with hostile Saami outposts that can shred the player's fledgling forces. There's an option to purchase additional Villagers to expand the player's economy somewhat, but the cost is prohibitive early on, and low starting pop cap means luring tactics and beating enemies piecemeal is the order of the day. The map contains several Gaia monks that can be found relatively early and became the backbone of my early strategy, as I aimed to convert, rather than kill most enemy forces.
The difficulty gets reversed sharply once the player advances in tech and gets access to crossbowmen and Throwing Axemen, 80+% of enemy armies are composed of unique unit infantry, and so a ranged composition shreds any resistance. The exception are towers and Elite Longboats that create another barrier in expansion in the late-game until the player can upgrade his own longboats and make up the deficiency. At which point, whatever enemies remain on the map are easy pickings. The difficulty can thus be best summarized as "stops and starts" or "uneven". There's an additional ability to recruit a number of UUs from Rurik's Varangians, but that felt like an endgame overkill.
Creativity: 5
While this is an iteration on a formula that's been done multiple times, there's several new things to make Finehair stand out. The ability to purchase extra villagers is a neat touch, but most importantly, the heavily modified tech tree allows the player to field truly impressive armies, combining Berserkers, Huscarls, Tarkans, Throwing Axemen, Boyars, Konniks, Kipchaks and Leitis under a single banner. Add to this convertible Woad Raiders and Skraelings and you've got an incredibly potent army combo that boggles the mind. There's a variety of optional objectives to keep the player exploring and this ties in well with the map design.
Map Design: 5
Honestly, this is probably my favourite map that this designer has made. There's an impressive amount of variety here, from the Western fjords to the Saami-filled mountains and the swamps in between. The map is compact, but layered and I found myself compelled to map out all of it, purely because it looks so good.
Story/Instructions: 5
The story was told through the intro/outro slideshow, as well as some in-game voiced text, outlining the scenario mechanics as well as optional objectives. The Hints and Scouts sections were useful, and although the overall storytelling was fairly sparse, the map did include an occasional Gaia hero, as well as extra points of interest, and overall it added to the experience and the exploration aspect.
Additional Comments: "Finehair" isn't exactly novel, but it provides a satisfying raiding experience, and features one of the most pleasing and diverse, yet compact, maps I've ever seen.
[Edited on 02/12/21 @ 12:56 AM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.4 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 4.0 | | Balance | 3.0 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 5.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 1,060 |
| Favorites: [] | 3 |
| Size: | 58.74 MB |
| Added: | 01/01/20 |
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