Summary of Review Results
(Written by Dirk Pellet)
This is a collection of the first few reviews of Warlords II scenarios
that I have been writing. The files here are NOT exactly as posted
on newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (where I will continue to
post more reviews as time permits). The changes include the correction
of typos and a number of other errors noted below.
Here is a list of scenarios reviewed herein, along with their ratings:
DANTE 282 A 243072 Classic battle for the underworld....HELL.
NORSE 282 A 176001 Norse Mythology; 8 players, 47 cities
AMERICA 246 A inc/SB Union, Confederacy, Canada, Mexico in North America
RAINWAR 242 A 150491 Rain Forest War (version 1), South America; 8 players
LLORD 230 B inc/SB A City Take-Over game
RAIN2 219 B 162285 Rain Forest War (version 2), South America; 8 players
BRITAIN 208 B inc/SB Arthurian Britain - The Battles of King Arthur
BROKENB 201 B 155531 Broken Barriers, fantasy (Beholders, etc); 8 players
DONUT 179 C 25485 Donut Island, 9 cities, 5 sides, by Steve Fawkner/SSG
HOBSON' 177 C 41174 Hobson's Choice; 8 players, 100 cities
PIRATES 167 C 156153+ Pirates, (175k bytes more with a useless PCX file)
MINARIA 163 C 186240 Battle for the fabled continent of Minaria
GREECE 161 C 122676 Based on ancient Greece, Greek mythology
ISLANDS 148 D 96033 Island-hopping modern air warfare scenario
MEDIT 129 D 148432 The Fall of Rome, ca. 300 AD, plus mythology
SHOGUN 119+F 179252 Feudal Japan (700-1868 A.D.) (score 219 w/o shields)
ILLURIA 117 F 36760 [LOOSELY] Based on the original WARLORDS "Illuria"
The ratings translate into a "letter grade" many people will understand:
at/above 240 = A Must play!
200 to 239 = B Excellent
160 to 199 = C Enjoyable
120 to 159 = D Unrewarding
at/below 119 = F Irritating
The large numbers generally reflect the size, either of the SZP file or
the complete ZIP file with best compression as of now. This can vary, but
should be fairly close to reality. A size of "inc/SB" means it's included
when you buy the Warlords Scenario Builder, and you cannot (legally) obtain
it any other way, so size doesn't apply.
=========================================================================
I make mistakes from time to time, and here is a list of corrections
from the original postings:
Dante's Inferno copies most of its army pictures from the Spectra army set
included with the scenario builder. I had said they were mostly original.
I reversed the ratings for city/ruins and items/heroes, for the same total
score.
Norse Mythology has 21 ruins, not just 14 besides the temples.
I called the map in Hobson's Choice a "random map, edited ONLY production".
This was before I saw the scenario builder myself. It's not random, and I
should have said "random-looking with some interesting strategic features".
The rating for the map is still 7, though. There are a few descriptions
for cities, but only the major ones, so the rating for cities/ruins should
be 2, not 1, and the overall rating is 177, not 175.
Some people have noted that they experience no noticable slowdown when
playing the Shogun scenario with the shield set it includes. More power
to them, they probably have a machine fast enough so that it makes no
difference, but on mine the difference is VERY noticable and irritating
to the point where the scenario is unplayable with the shield set in use.
Some 4 people 6 don't 5 mind 4 numbers 7 stuck 5 on 2 every 5 army 4
picture 7 so 2 if 2 this 4 applies 7 to 2 you 3, then 4 my 2 rating 6
of 2 the 3 Shogun 6 army 4 set 3 should 6 be 2 raised 6 to 2 8 1.
=========================================================================
Many people asked me to upload these reviews to an FTP site, and I
considered what form would be the best. Obviously individual TXT files
for each review would be unworkable, so a ZIP file is required. But
then I had to decide whether to release them as volumes, with a different
set of reviews in each volume, or as versions, where each new release
would include all previous reviews. I chose versions for these reasons:
Firstly, I make mistakes, and when I correct them, I would have to release
updates to past volumes anyway. Who wants to keep track of which version
of each of several volumes they have? Secondly and less importantly, it's
just plain easier for people to get one file, and if they don't see it,
they don't know they're missing any pieces, and there's no anguish over
getting the missing volumes. I don't want to cause any anguish!
So, if you have the ZIP file this came in, you have all the reviews as
of the date it was released. If you happen to see a later version of
these reviews, you can get it and safely delete this version. (Please
do, since it may have mistakes in it which are corrected later.)
=========================================================================
All reviews are copyrighted by myself, but may be distributed in any
UNMODIFIED form as long as NO CHARGE is made for distribution (such as
a per-minute charge for online time) and they are not included in any
copyrighted "compilation" (such as claimed by certain online services
I will not name).
In case this isn't clear, anyone may redistribute these reviews as long
as 1) they don't change them in any way, 2) they leave this copyright
notice intact, 3) they don't claim ANY copyright of their own on them,
and 4) nobody owes them any money as a result of reading, accessing,
or downloading these reviews (either a per-minute charge or a per-file
download charge or any other such fee). If you obtained this file from
some place that charged you money for it, please let me know, and I'll
flame them completely.
Dirk Pellett
dirk@gorn.iuma.com
27 January 1995