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Author |
File Description |
Gordon Farrell |
Posted on 06/10/99 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Climate: |
Desert |
Difficulty: |
Hard |
Minimap:
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In 43 B.C., a year after the murder of Julius Caesar, three powerful Romans signed a five year pact to rule Rome jointly. Marc Antony, Octavius Caesar, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and after defeating the last Republican army at Philippi, Marc Antony began his campaign to pacify and occupy the Eastern portion of the Empire. His journey led him through Syria, Judaea, Palestine, and finally into the Kingdom of Egypt. There he formed his famous alliance with the last great pharaoh, Cleopatra VII. But even though Cleopatra had become his unfailing ally for life, Marc Antony was surrounded by enemies. In this scenario, you will be faced with waves of unrest that embroiled the East as Rome's traditional enemies rise up to test her new rulers. Foremost among them: The Parthians. In 39 and 36 B.C., you will face major conflicts with these well-organized descendants of the Persian Empire. And in 34, you will meet the treachorous armies of the King of Armenia. Throughout all of this, Upper Nile tribes and indigenous natives will keep your armies scrambling around the desert. But Marc Antony also had a deep, personal interest in building up the glory of Alexandria, as well as doing all he could to enhance the power of his consort's kingdom. Consequently, a population of 6000 is required to win, as well as prosperity, culture and peace ratings of 40. And watch your relations with Rome. Octavian will make numerous annoying requests for armies and weapons, in order to keep you weak and off balance. He is also engaged in an elaborate economic war against you -- undercutting the value of your most valuable exports. By 32 B.C., the nephew of Julius Caesar had declared war on Marc Antony -- at all costs, you must avoid this fate. Vivat Roma! Vivat Marc Antony, Imperator!
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"Marc Antony in Egypt" is part of my trilogy, LEGENDARY CAMPAIGNS, which is intended to recreate the great military exploits of Rome's most famous commanders. The scenarios "Julius Caesar in Gaul" and "Pompey in Africa" complete the set.
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Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Gweilo
Staff |
Posted on 09/06/05 @ 04:11 PM
This is another superb military-oriented scenario.
Playability: 5
It's very rewarding to build Alexandria on a desert map representing the northern nile region while simultaneously defending yourself from attacks on all sides.
Balance: 5
A high level of challenge is maintained throughout the scenario. Good replayability factor.
Creativity: 5
Mr. Farrell's trademark tricks in scripting once again rise to the occaision.
Map Design: 5
The map is a beautiful representation of the actual region and offers many interesting choices for the player.
Story/Instructions: 5
The background story, based in true history, brings the scenario to life.
Additional Comments:
This was probably the most fun I ever had playing a desert map in C3. I highly recommend playing this one. Here follows a detail account of my playing.
--------S P O I L E R A L E R T--------------
The map is a beautiful representation of the Nile river valley and surrounding desert. There are plenty of native villages and interesting map details. There is plenty of farmland, but it is located around native villages or at the edges of the map, along the invasion routes, so be careful.
I chose the east bank of the Nile to build my city. This was done for defensive purposes; the Nile shielded most of my western border, and there were fewer potential invasion routes to the south on that side of the river. I was not worried about being too far from the farmlands because I set up fishing for my food supply.
The map is rich in minerals. Trade is not a problem. You can sell weapons, marble, and pottery. Native trade will make you rich, and you will find you don't need to build very many mission posts. There are also other cities eager
for your trade. So money is not a problem in this scenario, as it never really was for historical Egypt.
The invasions and uprisings are varied and interesting. Sometimes more than one attack will occur almost simultaneously, so be careful. I built walls, towers, and ballista at "choke-points" I noticed in the line-of-march of the invaders. These worked well to slow the enemy while I force marched my legions from one side of the map to another (the map is huge).
You need to build 6 forts as quickly as possible, and use 3 barracks to generate the troops. You are warned of a "distant battle" in the FIRST YEAR of your arrival in Egypt ! Fending off the early invasions is the most challenging aspect of this scenario.
During the development of your city, Rome will make requests of weapons and marble, sometimes in significant quantities. You will also be asked to defend nearby Roman cities. These requests are an interesting design feature that Mr. Farrell incorporated into the scenario to represent the historical growing animosity between Marc Antony and Octavian. Octavian's requests are his subtle way of weakening Antony's position in the Triumvirate II. These requests should not be taken lightly; especially in the later years when you are asked to defend other cities while hostile armies are marching on you !! Once again, don't hesitate to build plenty of walls and towers, since they will prove their worth.
There are some other events that occur. Worker wages will rise and fall. Storms will effect outside trade. There is also a Gladiator revolt, but in order to save some surprise I won't tell you the year (and this revolt is NOT mentioned in Mr. Farrell's scenario notes file).
[Edited on 09/08/05 @ 03:05 PM]
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Naghite |
Posted on 10/02/05 @ 04:59 PM
Playability: 4
The first attack comes from an area whereby you must build a bridge for the armies to attack your city, for me, this is always a drawback unless by that time you would have been required to have built the bridge already (to complete a request where the only place you can get those items is in that area for example).
Balance: 3
Starting funds of 25K. 40 for all ratings, except favor, which is 0. You need to send armies for two small forces (one legionaire outfit is more than enough) and the requests are generally minor. I suppose zero favor was for the storyline, while 100 is achievable within the first winnable year, which seems at odds. Overall the military was done alright, but the balance for the rest of the map is non-existant.
Creativity: 4
Based on actual events, it is more of a re-creation, but still, good overall.
Map Design: 5
A nice looking map, typical of those maps by Farrell.
Story/Instructions: 4
Pretty good here.
Additional Comments:
This is the 4th map by Farrell I have tried (this and the three part Sulla series), and all have some characteristics in common. They all start with a huge amount of money (up to 40K) which makes the financial aspect pretty much moot. They all have beautiful maps, with large amounts of natives (this was the only one where a mission post could be built however) but also lots and lots of water/streams, rocks and trees. While these add to the map design, the battles become trivial with javelin forts (I never needed anything but a few javelin forts in all the maps) as the armies have to single file snake into your waiting javelin armies. This map had one exception in that the second attack was large enough and early enough that it at least, was not trivial (although again 25 javelin men were enough, but hard to get so early in the game). They all require mid to very low ratings. As a result they are all easy to finish from a city building perspective. Difficulty of this map, 7 out of 10 due to one large attack early. I played most of the maps time at 100% speed waiting for peace to be reached as all the other aspects were (essentially) met within the first few years. I used the one land trade route, and opened up one sea trade route to let the natives buy marble, but never built a dock as everything you need can amply be found in the province.[Edited on 10/02/05 @ 05:15 PM]
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Antonius Hadrian |
Posted on 04/06/08 @ 08:49 AM
Playability: 4
Can become too easy, too much money to start with (my opinion)
Balance: 3
No real challenge in the economic part (maybe higher culture and/or prosperity), the military is rather fun
Creativity: 5
I liked the idea :)
Map Design: 5
This one is nice, very nice
Story/Instructions: 5
Wow, just wow! I like the trilogy idea, I hail your effort
Additional Comments:
The trilogy (pompei/marc antoniu/julius caesar) is a very good idea, the only drawback is that economic part is too easy |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.5 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.3 | Balance | 3.7 | Creativity | 4.7 | Map Design | 5.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.7 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,842 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 58.59 KB |
Added: | 06/10/99 |
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