Messentia or Shadizar?

[Style]

My two cents.
Shadizar is better to read, but Messantia is a better gaming supplement.
For an Howard fan, I would suggest the first (with the correct map!), for a city campaign I'd advice the latter.

I plan on (at least initially) running the campaign out of Messantia. The PCs will leave to go on various adventures, but then return "home". Messantia seems like a pretty good fit for that style, especially being a port city and major trade center. With no effort at all you can come up with a countless number of story seeds, not to mention there are a million in the Messantia box. There are just so many possibilities.

Having said that, as mentioned earlier, Shadizar "feels" more Conanesque. I'd love for some tips to keep Messantia feeling more Howard-like and less generic-fantasy-city-like. Any pointers?