The Settlers IV: The Trojans and the Elixir of Power
Quintessential bliss
Hardly any other title in the history of add-on titles describes its content as aptly as The Trojans and the Elixir of Power. The only more explicit title would probably have beenThe Trojans and the Elixir of Power, which they find at the end to defeat the antagonist from the main game'. And that says it all in terms of gameplay content, so let's take a quick look at the soundtrack part.
The score
The score treats the Trojans as another faction from the main game and also gives them six tracks, two of which are about "Kampf" ("Battle"), two titled "See" ("Sea") and one about "Siedeln" ("Settling"). In the game, the faction is characterized by its inventiveness and is only very loosely based on the historical-fictional people of the Mediterranean region. This is reflected not only by warriors with backpack catapults, but also musically with a certain joy of experimentation in instrumentalization.
Dabei kommen die Fight-Tracks noch am konventionellsten daher und ähneln den Motiven der Römer aus dem Hauptspiel, wenn auch mit etwas östlicherem Einschlag. Besagte Instrumentenwahl zeigt sich dagegen zum Beispiel durch den Einsatz von Bouzoukis bzw. vergleichbaren Zupfinstrumenten in Trojaner (See) 1 (Trojans (Sea) 1)Haiko Ruttmann, oder der Kombination aus Streichern und Ziehharmonika in Tronajer (See) 2 (Trojans (Sea) 2), wodurch endlich mal wirkliche Seefahreratmosphäre aufkommt und der Track seinem Namen gerecht wird.
In general, the tracks have a kind of swaying character when they're not marching, which means you always find yourself involuntarily tapping along. For me, this is a successful extension of the music in the main game and a worthy conclusion to Haiko Ruttmann's work on the Settlers-series. Which is not to say that no more worthwhile scores were ever composed for Settlers-games afterwards. But, like this review, this distinctive, playful charm (unfortunately) comes to an end with the Trojans.
