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Scenario of the Week Club: 1884v7
I thought it'd take a bit more time for everyone to play it, but Stefan already has a review, so here it is:
<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font>Negative Parts of the scenario:
I'm personally of such kind that I like to write negative things first, so that the positive ones
have more effect
First of all, when I first started this scenario I thought it was unplayable. This was because the
governments of the three most interesting civilizations, the British the Central Powers and the
French were all of either Democratic or Republican government. This meant that there was a 50-50
chance that war declarations would have effect. Of course, there was the option of declaring war
through negotiations with a third party, but this practically only had effect with the Free Peoples.
The distribution of colonies was historically inaccurate. In 1884, there were not as many colonies
in Africa and Asia, the Philippines were still Spanish and so on. Furthermore, the selection of
civilizations was fair. For my part, I wouldn't merge the Turks, Norwegians, Danes and Swedish with
the Germans, Spaniards, Dutch, Italians Belgians and Austrians. At least not in 1884. I would rather
put the Turks in one civilization together with the Persians, merge the "minor" colonial powers
(that had little importance in Europe) together with neutral states, such as the U.S. who came
into the imperialistic race only after the Spanish-American war of 1898 and leave following European
civs:
British, French, Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy), Russia and Minor Powers.
This would also prevent the Germans for example from intervening in Dutch, Spanish and Turkish
territories.
The most important factor there is that the Turks should not be allied to any European civilization,
since one of the points in the Berlin conference was to prevent the Turks from becoming too powerful.
There would be two "leftover" civs, such as the Japanese and the Free Peoples.
Cities were sometimes misspelled and terribly misplaced. For example, Istanbul's official name in
1884 was Constantinople, and even Istanbul is misspelled in the scenario. The largeness of the cities Tsingtao and Hong Kong somehow gave the impression that most of the Chinese coast was under control of the British and Germans. There should be fortifications and such to show that all this was Chinese territory.
Apart from that, the author seemed to have problems in which language to make the map. There was both an English and a German version (I installed the English one), but many city names were spelled in German, like Vladivostok, Astrakhan, Tehran, Rostov. The author tried to give local cities their local names, which sometimes succeeded but sometimes didn't and thus gives a bad impression.
Some of the artwork was terrible. The "cowboys" or whatever they were meant to represent look ridiculous. A lot of the artwork wasn't changed, so that British and Spaniards ran around the territory with American cavalrists, while the French and Americans defend their cities with British redcoats (the British having their individual infantry having no red in their uniform).
Now to the positive parts:
The game was very challenging and original. It is hard to find a scenario that covers both territorial expansion in Africa and Asia by the European powers. I had a great time trying to drive the Americans out of the Phillipines in the name of his majesty Wilhelm of Germany, or giving a shot at re-uniting South America in the name of Spain's conquistadores until I was in a two-front war between Russia and France, realizing I should have done more preparations.
It was, at least in some way, well-balanced, making it difficult to intervene in Persia or Russia without the neccessary amount of units. The Russians, for example, were not as highly advanced, but had a large empire and a big army, while the Central Powers were highly advanced but not as large. The Americans were highly advanced and large, but too isolated to rip this game under their control.
It is hard to find a good 19th century imperialism scenario that covers more than the colonization of Africa or other single territories. This one is at least a good shot but should be "modernized" in some ways. With the mass of good new artwork and scenario-designing developements this one could become excellent.
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>
<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font>Negative Parts of the scenario:
I'm personally of such kind that I like to write negative things first, so that the positive ones
have more effect
First of all, when I first started this scenario I thought it was unplayable. This was because the
governments of the three most interesting civilizations, the British the Central Powers and the
French were all of either Democratic or Republican government. This meant that there was a 50-50
chance that war declarations would have effect. Of course, there was the option of declaring war
through negotiations with a third party, but this practically only had effect with the Free Peoples.
The distribution of colonies was historically inaccurate. In 1884, there were not as many colonies
in Africa and Asia, the Philippines were still Spanish and so on. Furthermore, the selection of
civilizations was fair. For my part, I wouldn't merge the Turks, Norwegians, Danes and Swedish with
the Germans, Spaniards, Dutch, Italians Belgians and Austrians. At least not in 1884. I would rather
put the Turks in one civilization together with the Persians, merge the "minor" colonial powers
(that had little importance in Europe) together with neutral states, such as the U.S. who came
into the imperialistic race only after the Spanish-American war of 1898 and leave following European
civs:
British, French, Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy), Russia and Minor Powers.
This would also prevent the Germans for example from intervening in Dutch, Spanish and Turkish
territories.
The most important factor there is that the Turks should not be allied to any European civilization,
since one of the points in the Berlin conference was to prevent the Turks from becoming too powerful.
There would be two "leftover" civs, such as the Japanese and the Free Peoples.
Cities were sometimes misspelled and terribly misplaced. For example, Istanbul's official name in
1884 was Constantinople, and even Istanbul is misspelled in the scenario. The largeness of the cities Tsingtao and Hong Kong somehow gave the impression that most of the Chinese coast was under control of the British and Germans. There should be fortifications and such to show that all this was Chinese territory.
Apart from that, the author seemed to have problems in which language to make the map. There was both an English and a German version (I installed the English one), but many city names were spelled in German, like Vladivostok, Astrakhan, Tehran, Rostov. The author tried to give local cities their local names, which sometimes succeeded but sometimes didn't and thus gives a bad impression.
Some of the artwork was terrible. The "cowboys" or whatever they were meant to represent look ridiculous. A lot of the artwork wasn't changed, so that British and Spaniards ran around the territory with American cavalrists, while the French and Americans defend their cities with British redcoats (the British having their individual infantry having no red in their uniform).
Now to the positive parts:
The game was very challenging and original. It is hard to find a scenario that covers both territorial expansion in Africa and Asia by the European powers. I had a great time trying to drive the Americans out of the Phillipines in the name of his majesty Wilhelm of Germany, or giving a shot at re-uniting South America in the name of Spain's conquistadores until I was in a two-front war between Russia and France, realizing I should have done more preparations.
It was, at least in some way, well-balanced, making it difficult to intervene in Persia or Russia without the neccessary amount of units. The Russians, for example, were not as highly advanced, but had a large empire and a big army, while the Central Powers were highly advanced but not as large. The Americans were highly advanced and large, but too isolated to rip this game under their control.
It is hard to find a good 19th century imperialism scenario that covers more than the colonization of Africa or other single territories. This one is at least a good shot but should be "modernized" in some ways. With the mass of good new artwork and scenario-designing developements this one could become excellent.
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>
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