An isolated peninsula, with waves crashing on the rocks from nearly all sides... four lords constantly at war in their kingdoms, each seeking to rule the others. Who will win?
I've marked this as unbalanced since the players don't all have exactly the same amount of space. However, everyone has access to stone, iron and animals, and there are 4 estates up for grabs which will provide additional valley floor. I've purposely left lots of room for economic development, for those players who enjoy building up their castles before going to battle.
Wow, Kester goes to war! Normally representing an advocate of economically influenced maps, she created a nice and entertaining kingmaker map where three opponents are competing with you for predominance. You are on an almost flattened peninsula with wide plains and building areas to expand. Four smaller rural districts located in the middle are available to be purchased for honor by each competitor. The rough and simply modeled steep coast reminds me of the Bretagne in France, for instance.
All basic resources (wood, stone, and iron) are evenly balanced on the map. The player and the (AI) opponents start under equal circumstances. After throwing the dice in order to define my adversaries I had to deal with the Bishop, Olaf the Viking leader, and the King himself. Surprisingly, the Bishop turned out to be the hardest rival repeatedly launching several attacks and persistently disturbing my economic development until I found out how to get that annoying situation under control. Olaf and the King however kept defensive and were busy to beat off the aggressive assaults by the Bishop’s forces.
After a long period of setbacks, I finally succeeded in conquering the Bishop’s castle by regular counter attacks with catapults, crossbowmen and some smaller task forces of swordsmen. Olaf deadly wounded in struggle didn’t cause any problems to finish by a handful of pike men. The King himself didn’t bother me at all. Therefore, I was able to prepare accurately my siege. One siege tower, three catapults, about 20 archers, 20 crossbowmen, and 25 mace men cleared the walls and towers as a dozen of swordsmen fought their way up to the King’s stronghold against persistently defending enemy pike men.
Overall, it’s a well playable enjoyable map, and you are able to upgrade your Lord’s ranking in time and keep abreast of your opponents. This map is also ideal for beginners to learn more about the new features of SH2, and to test the functionality and complexity of various military/civilian buildings or units.