The Groginati Sales Thread

[Gusington]

^I took that recommendation a few years ago and was not disappointed.

[Greybriar]

The Humble Store is having a Total War Weekend sale. Everything from Rome: Total War for $1.99 to Total War: Rome II for $19.99.

[-budd-]

 thx......picked up medieval 2 and Rome 1 for total $5.50

[Shelldrake]

thx......picked up medieval 2 and Rome 1 for total $5.50

Lots of good gaming there with many play worthy mods once you get tired of vanilla!

[-budd-]

there's lots of good gaming in my backlog ;D...which just got longer.

[JasonPratt]

Gamersgate has a 75% Warhammer sale this weekend, though what they mean is WH40K properties.

Still, a ton of singles and packs if you haven't gotten everything yet. http://www.gamersgate.com/games?prio=relevance&q=warhammer&aff=ggnews

I might interested in trying the warhammer series by starting with  one title, any recommendations? Are they all RTS games, not a big fan of RTS  speedy click fest's.

Much good advice subsequent to your question upthread, although if you care anything about story then I don't recommend Retribution first as it finishes out the arc started in the first DoW2 game, and actually going back all the way to DoW1.

While the DoW1 is a clicky base-building RTS, its speed is pretty moderate and can be dialed down to taste (if I recall correctly.) Also, along with Kohan 2 (and Kohan 1 by extrapolation) and the first Battle for Middle-Earth, it stands at the head of a great RTS renaissance aimed at making RTS gameplay more efficient and less like, say, Starcraft (to give the most popular ultra-competitive example) or Warlords: Battlecry 2 and 3 (which I regard as the last and greatest of the first generation of RTS design).

All three game sets (Kohan series, DoW1, BfME1) have great stories, and easy learning curves through extensive tutorial campaigns combined with game design that supplements the player a lot and holds your hand while you're learning. DoW1 could be said to suffer a little in comparison with the other simply because Relic tended to change the gameplay rules a little significantly with each installment!  >:D -- but not so much as BfME2 changed them. (BfME2 has a lot of things going for it, but I would never hand it to someone trying to learn RTS or, like me, getting older and less thought-clicky-reflexive. ;) )


For purposes of learning the system I definitely recommend DoW1 over DC or SS, though those are the most refined and extensive versions of course. (Though there is a legitimate debate over the merits of vanilla SS compared to  DC since its release was buggy and the two final factions aren't fan favorites. However, the best kitchen-sink mods, first and foremost today the soon-final-edition of the Ultimate Apocalypse mod, use SS and fix a ton of problems while adding in the final faction which never made it into the DoW1 series, the Tyrannids.)

I mean, if you're already familiar with RTS concepts (which I'm presuming) you'll feel right at home anyway, but it will still teach you the basic particulars of DoW1 from which you can then play the other factions (since the Space Marines involve the template rule set everyone else uses or modifies), and this way it will train you slowly back to feeling confident at running an RTS.

Coldplay's playthrough of DoW1 (and the whole series actually, or that was the plan) gives a good idea of the gameplay from the beginning, although naturally being more experienced at it he can be a bit twitchy slinging the screen around.

[-budd-]

Thx for the rundown. I'm still balking at the click fest RTS nature of the genre. I know nothing of warhammer lore, but am quite familar with middle earth lore. I prefer  base building in my RTS and adjustable speed and or pause would be a plus. I'll check BFME and the DOW1 on youtube and see if that pushes me over the edge. Thanks for taking the time to pass along the info.

[JasonPratt]

BFME very much simplifies the base-building aspect (as does Kohan by the way); and of course the story is, well, the movie trilogy (moreso than the books, straight up music artstyle voices sfx video etc.) However, the games could be hard to find -- they only exist in physical copies I think -- and worse, the online patching service folded years ago and the first game needs about four patches which aren't easy to find in themselves and aren't clearly labelled as to the order (also some of them come in multiple parts). A fan site might be the best way to get those.

Here's a BFME IGN review:

Incidentally, the game engine is built from the Command and Conquer: Generals engine.

I'm pretttty sure you can pause to give orders and click buttons in any of those games, but it's been a while since I played them.

40K lore is, hm, not Middle-earth obviously. The Space Marines (the popular name for the Legion Astartes) are one of several relatively lawful factions fighting a slowly losing long-term war against universal entropy and dissolution, very grimdark (in fact it may have coined the term: "In the grim darkness of the future there is only war.") Except bright colorful grimdark.  :D Like most factions in 40K they don't even trust each other much and trust other races even less. There's a near-dead Emperor helping keep the human galactic Empire together but his strength is slowly fading. New scientific development has largely halted and technology is carefully kept as relics but aren't well-understood. Human settlements are beset by several kinds of hostile alien invasions from within the galaxy, outside the galaxy, and outside the physical universe altogether.

Very much a Dark Ages game with the Roman Empire tottering under barbarian assault as it strives to keep from crumbling. What you're looking at in the first mission is typical of the lore: a planet of colonists is hit by a traveling infestation of half-plant combat primates called orks. The local militia (the Imperial Guard) try their best but they're just mostly regular guys with old-timey laser-rifles in a world of mutants, supermen, demons, and monsters. The Marines drop in to try to put down the ork infestation before it grows so large the world has to be abandoned, but they're almost too late already. There are other plots afoot as things turn out: the elves have arrived for some mysterious purpose and are generally trying to help the Marines without being too obvious about it (mainly because the Imperials hate and distrust the elves and would usually gladly kill them given a chance -- partly because the elves really don't give much of a hoot about humans and really do endanger human life while trying to keep a lid on worse things out there.) And demonic space knights, traitors to the Emperor from around 10Kyears ago, have also arrived on-planet for some purpose that can't be good since they serve dark chaos monsters looking to unmake the natural world into madness and dissolution.

The first expansion, Winter Assault, opens up the Imperial Guard as a playable faction.

The second full game, Dark Crusade, introduces the Tau (basically dwarves if dwarves were elves, and arguably the 'good'est of the lawful factions) and the Necrons (undead robots designed like the Terminators) as playable factions.

The last full game, Soulstorm, introduces the Dark Eldar (dark elves, duh) and the Sisters of Battle (firey space-battle-nuns) as playable factions.

The only missing major faction are the Tyranids -- which are just about straight-out the Xenomorphs from the Alien movies -- but those show up (minus a few factions) in the DoW2 games, and have been successfully modded into DoW1.


Kohan lore is a little like The Wheel of Time -- the game writers are clearly fans -- mixed with more direct Zoroastrianism. A reborn-hero unaware of his past (rather like Rand al'Thor), starts ignorant and is asked and guided to help free the continent from the evil Kohan who have almost completely taken over; but there are a number of interesting concepts (which mesh well with gameplay like why as the player you can bring your heroes back in a mission after they die -- but they start over again at zero xp.) And the story, in the first game at least, throws some curves I won't spoil. The gameplay is more modern-looking in the 2nd of course (the first one was one of the last sprite-based games instead of 3D models), but I found the story to be much less memorable and romantic: I still remember most of the first game, but could barely describe the second story if someone put a gun to my head!

I can't find any good introduction videos to the Kohan games, unfortunately.

[Shelldrake]

AI War Collection now on GOG for $6.79 limited introductory offer.  :)

[Huw the Poo]

AI War Collection now on GOG for $6.79 limited introductory offer.  :)

That's less than I paid for the base game alone!

[Shelldrake]

AI War Collection now on GOG for $6.79 limited introductory offer.  :)

That's less than I paid for the base game alone!

How do you like the game? I have a lot of 4x space games in my collection but am always tempted by another good one!

[Huw the Poo]

Lots of praise in the current thread.  In short - it's very good. ;)

Also, if you have a lot of 4X space games, the fact that AI War is very different might tempt you.  You always play against two AI opponents who are significantly stronger than you are.  The catch is that they don't see you as a threat unless you march through every world, conquering/destroying everything in sight.  As Nefaro says in that thread, it's essentially a guerilla war in space. :)

[-budd-]

summer sale reloaded at GG ..... http://www.gamersgate.com/

[steve58]

Humble Jumbo Bundle 2

Minimum price of $1 includes

• Deadlight
• Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Complete Pack

If you beat the average price (currently $5.33), you will also receive the above plus:

• Crusader Kings II w/ 3 DLC Unit Packs (African, Russian and Norse)
• Terraria
• The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition
• ...more games to be added

Pay $15 or more and also get: Age of Empires Legacy Bundle

All Steam keys.

[Boggit]

Lots of praise in the current thread.  In short - it's very good. ;)

Also, if you have a lot of 4X space games, the fact that AI War is very different might tempt you.  You always play against two AI opponents who are significantly stronger than you are.  The catch is that they don't see you as a threat unless you march through every world, conquering/destroying everything in sight.  As Nefaro says in that thread, it's essentially a guerilla war in space. :)

+1 to everything Huw says. I recommend it too. As with a lot of Arcen stuff, it's very original gaming.