[{"TitleName":"Sword and Shield","Publisher":"Black Knight Software","Author":"Tim White, Eddie Knight","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0005094","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 31, Aug 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-07-31","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nStaff Writers: Tony Flanagan, Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, Rosetta McLeod, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Gordon Druce, Tony Lorton, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"SWORD AND SHIELD\r\n\r\nProducer: Black Knight Computers Ltd\r\nRetail Price: £5.95\r\n\r\nSword and Shield is a mediaeval strategy game concocted by the same team that brought you Seventh Cavalry. A king of somewhere lost in the mists of time has allocated control of one of his territories to you. Your orders are to make 1000 groats (local currency) from development of the crop farms. However, there are more than natural disasters to contend with. Invading knights and their infantry can cause trouble and rebellious farmers, known as the masked men, are set on making your life impossible.\r\n\r\nA number of parameters end the game should they be exceeded. If you ever have less than thirty crops, or your own contingent of knights becomes .exhausted or you take over 200 years to reach the objective, the game ends in defeat. The only way to win is to amass the groats and avoid any of the above.\r\n\r\nThe game turns are one year long, and the player can order forces to keep the enemy at bay, send knights out to look for treasure in neighbouring castles and set the tax rate. The player can select a short or full length game and the facility to load and save unfinished ventures has been thoughtfully included.\r\n\r\nThe game isn't a purely historical saga however. BLACK KNIGHT have gone down the fantasy road by populating the wilds with up to four rather unfriendly dragons. These dragons have an inverted hibernation habit in that they only appear in the winter (though they remain in play unless dealt with). They are also the strongest of the player's possible adversaries.\r\n\r\nKnights are a major asset - they are strong and fast, adaptable, and can conscript peasants to create infantry. At the end of the year, when treasure chests appear (for some strange reason), only the knights can venture to get them. Movement and orders for knights and others are carried out with a cursor (known as your 'shadow') and eight directional scrolling of the landscape can also be achieved with this.\r\n\r\nAt the end of the year three summary screens appear. The first is the obligatory SAVE option. The second tells you the current tax rate, the quantity of crops grown during the year, how much income has been made and the balance in your treasury. The final screen displays the number of knights, farms and infantry you have with another reminder of your balance. At convenient points in this sequence are the options to change the tax rate (arbitrarily set at 20% at the start of the game) and purchase new knights, infantry and farms. Play then continues to the next year.\r\n\r\nPlay is simple and straightforward. There's no obvious flaw in the game it's just that there isn't enough game there. The trouble with products like this is that they are immensely difficult to get anywhere with until the correct balance is found. After that, all the challenge disappears. Enter yawn mode.\r\n\r\nIf there was something of interest to look at on the screen, it might have been more bearable. As it stands, the visual aspects of the game are bland and unimaginative, with smooth scrolling being the only saving grace. The price adds insult to injury. It costs at least two pounds more than it's worth. The company probably don't have the resources to bring the game out more cheaply, but they should have gone for an improved product to justify their pricing. They stand to gain little from overpriced mediocrity.\r\n\r\nIf you're really stuck for a new strategy game, then this one will provide a challenge for a while. But play becomes as predictable and hackneyed as the plot itself before long. The game is a throwback to the days when strategists couldn't afford to be choosy. Nowadays we can, of course, and I suggest you choose to leave this one alone.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50,51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Sean Masterson","Score":"35","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A knight moves into the fray to protect frontier farms from the terrible masked marauders."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"39%","Text":"Passable title screen."},{"Header":"Rules","Score":"40%","Text":"Not bad - what there is of them."},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"45%","Text":"Easy to play if you can take the monotony."},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"33%","Text":"Good scrolling but little else to catch the eye."},{"Header":"Authenticity","Score":"10%","Text":"I don't think this game is true to anything - itself included."},{"Header":"Opponent","Score":"37%","Text":"Difficult to beat at first."},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"36%","Text":"Two years ago this might just have been reasonable, but not nowadays."},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"35%","Text":"Very mediocre."}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 26, Feb 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-01-14","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Peter George, Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nActing Production Editor: Fran Husband\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Audrey & Owen Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Gwyn Hughes, David Jones, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, David Powell, Nat Pryce, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Mischa Welsh, Tony Worrall\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Power House\r\n£1.99\r\nReviewer: Owen Bishop, Audrey Bishop\r\n\r\nSword & Shield is a 'real time' medieval fantasy wargame. You're the ruler over a land ravaged by rogue knights, dragons and 'masked' men. At your disposal you have your own loyal knights and infantrymen. With these you must protect the peasant farmers and their crops. Furthermore, you must balance the treasury as the seasons pass, harvests are reaped and taxes collected. The unit of currency is the 'groat' and to win you must have over 1000.\r\n\r\nThe game is played on an impressively large map, which scrolls very rapidly. Good quality '3D' graphics depict hills, trees, farms, roads and castles. However, there seems to be a fundamental mismatch between the 'time' length of the game, which is in years, and the movement of the units, which surely must only take tens of minutes. This spoils any intended realism.\r\n\r\nThe major gripe is about the instructions. They are bad! You are not told the difference between the 'Epic' and 'Short' options at the beginning of the game. The latter makes losing nearly impossible, which is odd! Also the controls are poorly explained. Use keys 5 - 8 for moving the cursor. The other cursor keys do not always work.\r\n\r\nIncluded with the game is a 'free' track by the group HEX. It's okay, but rather short and somewhat irrelevant! Altogether, good graphics, but slow and a bit aimless. Still, it's worth it at the budget price.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"62","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Owen Bishop","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/10"},{"Name":"Audrey Bishop","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Strategy","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 59, Feb 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-01-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Andy Moss, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Jacqui Pope\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Stuart Hughes\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1987 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Black Knight\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Gary Rook\r\n\r\nSword and Shield is a fascinating wargame that looks at first glance like one of the old games that used to be hidden away in the deepest recesses of mainframe computers' memory banks.\r\n\r\nRemember the one - you rule an area of land, and you have to grow enough food to keep your population alive, otherwise they rebel and depose you? Well, this is that, but with knobs on.\r\n\r\nYou, Duke whoever you are, have to collect over 1,000 groats from the groaning, down-trodden peasantry. To help you, you have a force of knights computer-controlled duke - and he's going to fight you for control of territory. The map is green, with rolling hills, peasant villages, woods, roads and so on marked on Also shown are forts, either yours or the enemy's. Every year, you'll be told the amount of crops grown. You tax the peasants from 10% to 90% - but the more you tax them, the more of them rebel and become bandits. By moving one of your knights next to a peasant, you can conscript him as an infantryman, but the more peasants you conscript into your army, the less are left to till the land and grow crops - and pay taxes.\r\n\r\nYou move the troops under your control by giving them a direction and telling them how fast they should move. Until you order them otherwise they continue to follow those orders - unless they run into a tree, hill etc.\r\n\r\nWhen you try and occupy a square that already contains an enemy piece, a battle takes place. What happens is anybody's guess - I haven't worked out how to find out yet. There is treasure dotted about - you should try and collect this (obvious, huh?), but somehow I don't think it's going to be as easy as it looks.\r\n\r\nWhat else? Oh yes, the dragons. Dragons are bad news - they eat people. You can have up to four on the map at the same time, and you really should avoid them like the plague.\r\n\r\nAt the year end, you use some of the cash you've your treasury to buy new troops, either knights or infantry. You can also buy a farm - which doesn't refer to the American euphemism for dying - but means simply that you add one agrarian smallholding to the list.\r\n\r\nAnd that's it. Quite a lot of information to digest in a review, and far more to digest when trying to play the game the first couple of times. I suspect it's going to be a long time before I get anywhere near beating this thing. But at the same time. It's pretty compulsive - you always believe that next time you can do it - until you try, that is.\r\n\r\nAny real complaints? Well, the only thing that bothers me that much is the fact that it's very difficult to tell the various pieces apart. Yes, I know that the instructions say that your troops, being good, always face to the right, but sometimes it's tough telling exactly which way a character is facing.\r\n\r\nYou can save games either to tape or to Microdrive, so you can resume a long game you've had to abandon later on. This isn't the sort of game you're likely to finish in half an hour. The final verdict is a definite thumbs up. The graphics are good, although a little unclear at times, and the gameplay works really well once you get the hang of it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Terrific wargame based on a sort of Kingdom variant. Very addictive in a strategic kind of way. Not for arcade fans.","Page":"70,71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Gary Rook","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]