Shark's Tooth:
A Heroes of Might & Magic II  Map by Mark H. Smith

																				Here it is at last, Shark's Tooth, my first foray into the scary world of XL-sized maps. It took months longer than I had originally intended, but then I wasn't counting on nearly dying via major illness or having my computer melt-down on me. Even if everything goes well, things like populating a map of this size take ages. And let's not even talk about the amount of time spent test-playing and tweaking the darned thing. Or maybe I should; this map would never have reached its current stage of polish and playability without the invaluable comments of my legion of online test-players, many of whose suggestions have been incorporated to some degree, and whose input was helpful even in the instances where I disagreed with them (rarely). Give yourselves a collective pat on the back. So what's this crazy map about you ask (particularily if you've played any of my previous ones)? Ah, there's the rub; it actually has a storyline of sorts (if only at first- then my unusually obtuse sense of humor kicks in, as usual). The original intent of this map was to start you out in a relatively peaceful and  prosperous land where you would drop your guard just long enough for the Very Bad Things to show up. To some degree, this is still the scenario, though you should be able to attain victory in time. Always be suspicious when I start you off with decent stuff- at some point you'll need it. In some ways, in spite of the size of Shark's Tooth, it's really an exercise in reduction. You are allowed only to play Feeblepate, the wizard vassal of Lord Scarlet (yes, this means you play Red), who is expanding his territories into a strange new continent that is shaped like the tooth of a shark. Lord Scarlet's imperialistic leanings are not unopposed, however. Far to the south lurks Lord Scarlet's mortal enemy (and all-around nasty people) the Violet Alliance. Of more immediate concern are Rriot Grrl, agent of Blue , and Pheenwort, subject of Orange. They will harass you, though neither is life-threatening... unless they make it to your castle or town before you do. You see, Feeblepate starts the game off a ways away from his home base, which is pretty much undefended. Worse yet, Feeblepate has no magic spells to begin with! As is always the case with my maps, mastering the sea is something of a key to victory. The Envy Collective (Green) and the King in Yellow start off on faraway islands, though they do tend to spread. There are also several treasure islands, which are nice- if  you get to them first. For those of you playing the game on a PC, the feedback indicates that you'll probably get the spell Dimension Door at some point and, thus, likely be able to retrieve the Ultimate Artifact without the necessity of a major battle. For those of you using Macs, the way will be more difficult (which is pretty much as I intended). As I have a Mac-clone, I've seen Dimension Door maybe three times in all the times I've ever played the game. In any event, have fun and play hard. If you wush to pass on any comments (though I can do without "hey, man, your map sux and so do you"), you can e-mail me at mrmorden@aol.com (or AOL users just to the screenname Mr Morden). Thanx and enjoy!