Okay, I took a quick look at "The Crusades: Book I" and played the introduction scenario. Earlier I said it would look a lot like the
"Ancient Warfare" series, but I was wrong - it's much worse.
The Muslim Alliance cavalry glued itself to my mixed line of spearmen and archers and started pointlessly moving around in the adjacent hexes, causing all kinds of reaction fire from archers and vanished in a few turns. I've managed to break the fortress wall in 3 different places - the defending side didn't assume it was a threat and didn't move a single unit in order to counter the breakthrough attempt. Even after my infantry moved inside the besieged city, the Muslim Alliance troops just stood in one place - some of those Aleppo garrison units are "fixed" and some are not - doesn't make a difference.
I know this scenario is "programmed" for one side, but just to look at how it works for the other side, I started the same scenario on the Islamic Alliance side and found one "awesome" feature. Archers can use "indirect fire" - okay, nothing wrong with that, right? But get this - archers can also "see" through the fortress wall and shoot exactly at enemy units! I must say - this is a stroke of genius! WDS morons managed to break their own game rules! It doesn't matter if the fortress wall "breaks" the "line of sight"! I guess those crusaders managed to hire clairvoyant archers!
Also get the logic of this game mechanic - is it possible to send a volley of arrows over a fortress wall? Yes, but that's it - it goes over the wall to the unknown and most likely unsatisfying result. Well, those arrows certainly won't be wasted if you stick to them a dead rat full of bubonic plague carrying fleas!
One more "great" feature. After the cavalry seized to exist, their honorable leader, Mahmud al-Affa, just stood in one place spending his turn in quiet mourning. Works the same for the other side too. I captured the crusader leader who simply skipped his turn. He was just chilling right next to my mounted archers! This game rewards you with victory points for capturing an enemy leader? Why don't we make it real easy for ya fellas - it's gonna be a freebie! Whoever "programmed" this - kudos! A job well done!
On top of that, there's something amiss with the melee/cavalry charge results calculation, because in this relatively short scenario I lost two leaders, despite pretty low leader loss values set in the Parameter Data. Melee wound probability is set to 4% and there were not more than 12 cavalry charges in total and let's say only half of those involved my leader. Even a lesser number of infantry hand-to-hand encounters resulted in another leader loss.
So, I got myself a "major victory" - not because I'm smart, but because "programmed" enemy side behavior didn't make any sense. Verdict: PBEM - yes, single play - nope, not even close.
