🚀 go-pugleaf

Matthew Charlap, the Qurqirish Dragon, proudly presents journal entry
#353, as recorded by the cleric Aylyra:
The land of "Ashes and Sands" originally discovered by Zilonite and
Signe
Date of land exploration:

DESCRIPTION: Small, two layer map
Heroes V map
Win condition: standard
Loss condition: standard

# OF PLAYERS: 2HC random. Played as 1H. Random towns were Sylvan (H)
and Academy (C)

COMMENTS: This is a standard duel map between two similarly situated
players. One thing I noticed early on is that the resource mines
(other than wood and ore) are not located nearby your starting area.
This, I believe, gave me a larger advantage against the AI than I
would normally have- particularly since I could get extra resources
from my town, and sylvan is more wood intensive in the early game,
while the academy is more rare-resource intensive. Indeed, even though
I felt I was progressing slowly, I still had many times as many high
level creatures in my main army than the AI had in his whole kingdom
(compare: 12 emerald dragons vs. 5 titans; 34 Ancient treants vs. 10
Rahkshasas, for example). By the time I got around to attacking the AI
in early month 3, my main force was ridiculously overpowered. (a
secondary force almost half as strong stayed home for defense). The
exploration and expansion part of the map was not dull, as the terrain
was well designed, and it was fun to explore.

SOME TIPS: Nothing unusual in this map, so just normal, solid strategy
will work out fine.

BUGS AND PROBLEMS: None were encountered.

SCORE: On my first try at normal difficulty, I won on day 72 (month 3,
week 3, day 2)

PROS: Solid, well made map.

CONS: Lack of scripting means that there are few surprises for a
seasoned player.

THE BOTTOM LINE: This map doesn’t need a very detailed breakdown, so I
will just give the basic ratings: It is as advertised, so gets ****
for description. There was nothing spectacularly good or bad, so an
average *** on entertainment. No problems, but nothing special, so
**** on design. For an overall rating of ***1/2
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Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. Any criticism is of the
map, not the designer (so if you are offended for some reason don’t
complain to me! :-) Comments and questions on the review are welcome,
simply reply to this message.
This map is available for download at Celestial Heavens: www.celestialheavens.com