The vbros pack 1 includes 4 factions, pirates, Western, British, and Canada factions.
give me your feedback!
Review:
Firearms:
Although I personally admit a certain weakness for melees with cold steel only, guns get the upper hand as regards sound. A battle with dozens—-or hundreds-- of shots and the boom of cannons is satisfactory in itself, no matter what happens with the contenders. In these battles, units without firearms look a little pitiful, with their role limited to being cannon fodder.
Authenticity (for the historical minded):
Both British and Pirates are credible, although I would say that British are the absolute champions. Infantrymen carry muzzle-loading muskets, grenadiers and sabermen fit perfectly the epoch, cannons are also muzzle-loading, there are cauldron-like mortars (presumably firing grapeshot), and a curious weapon called Puckle gun. This was an advanced semi automatic gun that had no success at the time because of production problems. In the game, though, production goes flawlessly and it is a very useful unit in battle. Still keeping in good terms with history, if britishers want to fly they resort to hot-air balloons. Everything strictly in order.
Pirate units are also within logic: wooden legs, knives, cutlasses, all the firearms of the time, we can even believe in their improbable glider. There are no animal lovers among pirates, so we don't find any beast here-—not even the occasional parrot. And we have to accept their stranded ship by imagining that a tempest has run it aground and wrecked it. The history is not bad: without a ship they have to adapt to a life of plunder on dry land.
The other factions are not so strict. Gatling guns should be machine guns, but in the game they work as cannons. And I would lower the range of their six-shooters: the Colt was always a short-range weapon. The main AA defense is, of all things, a bush weed, and hardly visible at that. On the plus side, the outlaws: it is credible that, faced to upcoming battles, westerners open the jail and let out the prisoners expecting them to give a hand. And also plausible that those prisoners are kept with a steel ball chained to their ankles. We don't want them to flee, do we. Pity that with the ball the poor jailbirds are so hampered that they fall easy prey to any enemy with a firearm.
Canadians are not absolutely unbelievable, but, well, a little strange they are. We see them pictured here as exceedingly friendly: they not only have allies like iroquois indians and inuit, but have been also capable of convincing grizzly bears, geese, seals and beavers to help them (besides the more conventional horses and dogs). By the way, bears are really useful in battle, and it is the Inuit who tame them.
Relative strength:
In my tests, pirates seem the strongest, while canadians come out as the weakest faction in this pack.
British:pirates:Canada:Western: