England has just settled near the river Douro in Portugal. They have been there for about a year now. While scouting the area on the other side of the Douro River they noticed Portugal had a base camp there. Portugal knew England was there and they were going to attack and try to take over their country. Portugal asked for help, and was sick and tired of England trying to rule the world. While scouting even further along the other side of the Douro river they noticed that Portugal had help from other countries. Build up a good defense, save your outposts from the Home City for later, you might need them. Your going to have to fight it out and hope that a ship arrives from England with reinforcements. You are not sure if a ship will arrive or how long it will take. If you can beat this map on moderate, try it on hard or expert. Part 2 of "England Rules The World" will follow after this one has been played for awhile. Comments appreciated.
Playability: 5
Playing this on the default (moderate) difficulty, I thought it was pretty easy to defeat all the enemies (Portuguese, Spanish, French). Then I took your suggestion and played it on expert: Totally different story! On my first two attempts I got totally wasted.
Balance: 5
Again, on moderate it was pretty easy -- even though it was 1 against 3. The green reinforcements late in the game weren't needed at all. On expert, however, you are totally overwhelmed. I attempted my (moderate) winning strategy -- defend the river crossing -- but simply coulen't keep up and was eventually defeated. On my 3rd expert attempt, I managed a stealth blitzkrieg attack and wiped out all the enemy colonies while their armies were busy dismantling your beautiful fortifications.
Creativity: 4
Sorta like a super random-map skirmish, but you don't really have to build much -- just get strong quickly.
Map Design: 4
I liked the huge map, and especially liked the wonderful fortification that I started with.
Story/Instructions: 4
No story, but the instructions were clear.
Additional Comments: I look forward to the sequel.