Rui's review for "Stockades", a melee map by Ogre_Bob
Yet another decent melee map, though I don't like this one as much as "Reaper's Hollow" for reasons I have written below.
Starting with the terrain, I don't think there's any serious imbalance on the structure. The beautification with the ground textures is similar to what I mentioned in "Reaper's Hollow", including occasional masses of grass standing out in a bad way. It's a pity, though, because the Village tileset is probably one of the best to terrain with.
I didn't find the neutral buildings as brilliantly located and guarded as in the author's other melee map. I have always defended that Mercenary Camps should be easily accessible; after all, the units they sell are only significant early game. I doubt anyone's going to hire an Ogre Mauler or a Mud Golem late game.
The creeps' drops are also strange: why doesn't the Dark Wizard just drop a random lvl5 permanent item instead of having different chances to drop each one? Same goes for the Gnoll Brutes at the Merchants: what is wrong with the Tome of Experience? On the same camp, a lvl2 Permanent seems a little low.
My rating for "Stockades" is 3,5 / 5.