Warlord: Britannia

[Jarhead0331]

i know the graphics of this one will be an immediate turn-off to some folks, but this game is surprisingly deep and it has been a very engaging and historically satisfying game so far.

You play a Roman Senator appointed as Legate to a Roman Legion by Emperor Claudius. Your mission is to support the invasion of Britannia. You start off with only a handful of legionnaires. You must set up an encampment and construct tents, storage points and fortifications for your Legion and go out into the wilderness to harvest resources.  You attack settlements, raid convoys, sack fortified villages and attack VIPs in order to raise gold and silver.  When you capture a settlement, you have a lot of options  as far as what to do with the buildings and populations...loot, raze, enslave, murder, etc.  Gold is used to recruit new troops and silver, or denarii is used to pay troops and acquire better weapons and armor. As Legate, you can promote legionnaires to officers and appoint them to important roles within the legionary officer corps. It is all based on actual military roles from the legions. You can also improve their armor and weapons, which all looks really cool in game. Before you know it, you'll have outfitted your first century and will be on your way to filling out your entire legion of nearly 1,000 men.  You can control them on the march and on the battlefield and take part in direct combat yourself. The units are cutesy, but damn is there a lot of blood and severed body parts.

I'm still learning the UI and controls, but so far its all pretty kickass. I love these indy sleeper hits that come out of nowhere, but have such surprising depth in gameplay and features.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops.   

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1970980/Warlord_Britannia/

[Gusington]

This popped up in my Steam queue and I got psyched until seeing the graphics like you said - but now looking at them again they don't look so bad.

Zoomed out the graphics are probably more tolerable - damn you now I'm interested again.

[JasonPratt]

 :o

My money just tried to leap out of my pocket. Or maybe I was just happy to see it.

Come to think of it, Expeditions:Rome is on sale through the 30th, too.

[W8taminute]

Oh man, now I gotta go to Target and get a 20 dollah Steam card.  This game looks good. 

Note: Steam cards are great for making purchases that are not easily detectable by "The Warden".  I've been busted before when using my credit card for unauthorized purchases.  But keep this between ourselves.   ;)

[Jarhead0331]

Oh man, now I gotta go to Target and get a 20 dollah Steam card.  This game looks good. 

Note: Steam cards are great for making purchases that are not easily detectable by "The Warden".  I've been busted before when using my credit card for unauthorized purchases.  But keep this between ourselves.   ;)

You should do what I did...form a corporation, write off the expenses and call it work. When my wife walks in on my playing, "but babe, I'm busy working!"

[Gusington]

'Working'

[W8taminute]

Working?  Gotta try that one sometime. 

But seriously this game looks intriguing.  Mixing first person with strategy elements to it?  I like the sound of it.

[Senex]

Note: Steam cards are great for making purchases that are not easily detectable by "The Warden".  I've been busted before when using my credit card for unauthorized purchases.  But keep this between ourselves.   ;)

You're right.  All but two of my too-many Steam games have been bought with Steam cards.
And it hasn't caused so much as a ripple in our thirty-five years of marriage.
What my wife doesn't know won't hurt me.

[Pete Dero]

Note: Steam cards are great for making purchases that are not easily detectable by "The Warden".  I've been busted before when using my credit card for unauthorized purchases.  But keep this between ourselves.   ;)

You're right.  All but two of my too-many Steam games have been bought with Steam cards.
And it hasn't caused so much as a ripple in our thirty-five years of marriage.
What my wife doesn't know won't hurt me.

Do they sell Only Fans cards  O:-) ?

[FlickJax]

Note: Steam cards are great for making purchases that are not easily detectable by "The Warden".  I've been busted before when using my credit card for unauthorized purchases.  But keep this between ourselves.   ;)

You're right.  All but two of my too-many Steam games have been bought with Steam cards.
And it hasn't caused so much as a ripple in our thirty-five years of marriage.
What my wife doesn't know won't hurt me.

Do they sell Only Fans cards  O:-) ?

Bad man ;)

[JasonPratt]

Well, I haven't played the game per se yet, but I just booted it up and spent a good 30 18 minutes wandering around the "museum", set in a heavenly Romanesque fanum (itself set on a wide circle of marble, itself set on sky. Note, do not take 30 seconds to walk off the marble. ;) )

The museum showcases the art style, of course, but more importantly the kit the figures will be using, which has an impressive level of detail and research.

The fanum is vastly much larger than necessary to showcase the equipment so far, which suggests more are planned for expansions and updates in the future. Or possibly they'll be added as I run into them in the game (which seems likely).

[W8taminute]

Started playing this yesterday.  I like what I see so far.  Don't attack a hamlet sized village until you have a fully decked out legion though.  This game is a bit tougher than it appears to be.  On the other hand I was able to lone wolf attacking a convoy and steal it's gold. 

[JasonPratt]

I haven't played farther yet (about to do so before multiplayer this afternoon), but based on the dev's roadmap I already have some idea what ISN'T in the game -- yet. Frankly, this seems like a late alpha, by that standard, since these seem like pretty important things to be in such a game, not like useful extra content.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1970980/view/3302839954742476841

Still to come, in this apparent order:

* bug fixes will continue apace, with QOL improvements and balances -- and the initial first patch dropped a day or two ago.

* modular and interactive Legion menu

* independent Century control

* formation improvements and expansions

* using build presets for camp relocation (unsure if this also means camp cannot yet be relocated)

* non-citizen soldier recruitment options (for auxs)

* special aux-only Centuries

* unique ranks and armors for the auxes

* framework for future aux expansions will be included at this stage

* small outpost base establishment with garrisons

* more building options and structures

* logistic hubs and supply lines

* food and material requirements

* citizen and aux archer recruitment

* barbarian archers with ranged AI behavior

* manned watchtowers

* ballistas and onagers

* wandering civilians

* unarmed porters

* domestic animals

* farmers and shepherds at work

* more foliage and environments

* cit and aux cav

* barbi cav and chariots

* diplomacy with tribes

* drop-in multiplayer

* workshop support

[W8taminute]

Wow that's a ton of stuff. 

I'm finding the only thing I can complain about this game so far is not being able to manage all my troop promotions and kit ugrades in one central location.  I have to physically hunt down each soldier and either promote his rank or upgrade his kit, or both. 

[JasonPratt]

That seems to be one of the first things he'll be upgrading in the Foundational phase.

Played about an hour of it last night. Much bloodier than you might expect from figures that are basically dummies for displaying armor! I made the mistake of getting into a fight with an equivalent number of local VIPs on their way at night between one place and another, without even knowing how to set my troops into a proper battle line. We won, but I lost five troops more or less. Currently there seems to be only one formation in the game, but it can be altered to face directions, hold in place, and charge.

The concept is that you play a (currently unnamed) Senator who has been commissioned by Claudius (if I recall correctly) to be a Legate for the newly raised 13th Legion. Your job is to conquer and secure an island in the English Channel to serve as a logistic waypoint for the invasion of Britain proper -- although I suspect from the tutorial instructions that this little island (of Guernsey?) will turn out to look oddly like the main British isle with fortified highlands at the northern finale. ;) As far as I can tell, the campaign island is not procedurally generated: it has been the same one every time I start a new game.

Consequently, even though the game says you're landing with the partial first of ten Centuries for a Legion, you're really landing with the first partial squad of a Century, which is why going up against even a village will get you killed early on. But don't worry! -- you'll still be promoting your troops like they're in a Legion!  ::) (This is a game scale issue, of course.)

You have (invisible non-combat) scouts keeping track of the local couple of miles roundabout, including some pre-scouting reports so when you get dropped off on the beach you already have a map of the local area, and the scouts will let you know about targets of opportunity moving around the countryside and on the roads.

Everything (except some paperwork) is in 1st-person, and there is no fast travel (maybe never), which gives a nice granular feel to the proceedings.