Friday is here so:
Players are gonna play, play, play, play
Wargamers are gonna game, game, game, game
Grogheads are gonna grog, grog, grog, grog
So shake it off!
I am going to play
Omerta: city of Gangsters
What the 'kinell did I just watch?!
Anyway. This weekend I will mainly be playing X3: Albion Prelude. Finally getting into this. Got some good trade routes going and making cash; next I need to buy another freighter and get some automated trade going.
I'm also determined to find some kind of MMO action for Linux. I've downloaded Champions of Regnum and I will also look into Saga of Ryzom.
Sovereignty Beta 2, starting a new campaign with a new faction. Also some Invisible, Inc. I also plan to check in on GalCIv III again and take a look at the new Drakkon faction in Endless Legend.
There is only elite
And some rome II now that I have vanquished athens
There will be some sort of mash up of Civ IV BtS, Warlock and Age of Empires III.
Nova East star party this weekend so I will be indulging my other hobby. When I get back Sunday I will continue honing my piloting skills in Rise of Flight in hope of eventually becoming competent enough to venture into multiplayer.
Elite and hopefully some Steel Beasts Pro with the boys.
some carnage and a little training with the Dogs Of War in Steel Beasts
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1288.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb498%2FAsid_1%2FStrategy%2520Sim%2FAvatars-Sigs%2Fdogsofwar_zpsd9e40818.png&hash=696599f8243999c88ec19a29a15cd93ca86bc7c2)
Wolfenstein, Pe-2 Dive Bomber, maybe some AssCreed Black Flag, and perhaps some Rome II with the Rise of Christianity mod. Good job on Athens UCG!
Not sure.... maybe some more CiV ::) .... I need to start on a review for Brant before he gives me anymore time :buck2:
Just picked up Motorsport manager for the iPad. What a fantastic little game. So lots of that while sitting in the sun on the back deck.
Quote from: Gusington on August 22, 2014, 07:14:50 AM
Wolfenstein, Pe-2 Dive Bomber, maybe some AssCreed Black Flag, and perhaps some Rome II with the Rise of Christianity mod. Good job on Athens UCG!
Epic fight - screenies later - 22 garrison units as well as defenders!! And some hard as nails champions of selon
Distant Worlds - Continue my Kiadian AAR and play the updated Star Trek mod.
Xenonauts
Command - Have some scenario and import work I have been procrastinating on doing for about a month that I really need to get to.
Kerbal Space Program - v0.24 has been out for a few weeks now, time to check and see what mods have been updated.
Quote from: Shelldrake on August 22, 2014, 06:36:01 AM
Nova East star party this weekend so I will be indulging my other hobby. When I get back Sunday I will continue honing my piloting skills in Rise of Flight in hope of eventually becoming competent enough to venture into multiplayer.
This is closest to what I'll be doing since I'll be flying around in BoS. At the moment I'm doing quick missions where I shoot up a convoy in a Yak-1. All-in-all, I think the Yak is the best all-around plane for shooting up convoys in a quick mission. It's enough of a fighter to hold off the 109s and it has a 1200 bullet magazine for the 50 cal which I use to finish off any stragglers after the rockets and cannons run out.
On other fronts: the eternal WITPAE PBEM -- lots of Japs showing up now, so I have to get on with the raids and offensives.
And some boardgames -- probably mostly Hoplite.
I don't know that I've ever been happier for a weekend to get here than after this week at work
Finishing writing up some Birth of the Federation AAR chapters, though I already played through to get the content.
Will hope to start a Grog B-29 Superfortress campaign for the purposes of an AAR - still have spots open if you want your name on the crew roster (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=10981.0).
Other than that I might try some more Return to Mysterious Island, Inspector Grimoire, or maybe Overlord or Saints Row IV.
God willing and the creek don't rise, I should finish posting up the final game of Survive Harder Season Two: the screenies are picked and the text mostly composed, it's only a matter of imageshacking and pasting the code into the text (with some final narrative tweaks I hope), and then copy-pasting the results here with proper final formatting.
Then I can at last start playing Season Three! :D
I am celebrating, and recovering from, a win in CMFI's Troina campaign's 3rd battle, "Hill 1034". Battle 2 was murder but battle 3 is a double homicide. One lone company and an engineer platoon against 450 meters of open terrain to a hilltop building complex guarded by German trenches, barbed wire, MG bunkers, mines, AT guns and supported by armor and mortars. The only hope of a win is to use your plentiful arty to clear the way which of course I totally screwed-up. But I got the win-- literally assaulting the last German-held building with 1 min. left in the scenario-- for the loss of 64 casualties including 32 KIA. But we cost the Germans 153 casualties and 1 AFV. I need a break. My blood pressure can't handle another Sicily-Hill-Thing right now. So I'm headed back to Skyrim to walk the quiet woods, chase a butterfly, watch the sun go down and see if the bard in Whitewater knows any new songs. :) I'll worry about the war again on Monday.
There must be at least 3 butterfly chasing mods for Skyrim.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on August 22, 2014, 08:34:45 AM
I don't know that I've ever been happier for a weekend to get here than after this week at work
Amen!
Even I am crying for mercy this week.
Quote from: Asid on August 22, 2014, 07:10:47 AM
some carnage and a little training with the Dogs Of War in Steel Beasts
This. When I get the time.
Invisible, Inc. and some other stuff will be the short filler.
I don't know why you guys are complaining. I'm retired... I NEVER get a day off. :coolsmiley:
Quote from: Sir Slash on August 22, 2014, 12:20:13 PM
I don't know why you guys are complaining. I'm retired... I NEVER get a day off. :coolsmiley:
+1 Me too!
+2 Me three :D
I'll be messing about with Russia Besieged, my copy of which arrived this very day.
I tip my cap to all of you, our very own Invalides unit :)
Pray tell me, what is this "Russia Beseiged" you speak of? It is foreign to my ears (best Skyrim accent).
Just don't ask us to take our dresses off Gus.
I won't ask anything, it will be a.direct order.
Quote from: Sir Slash on August 22, 2014, 02:02:55 PM
Pray tell me, what is this "Russia Beseiged" you speak of? It is foreign to my ears (best Skyrim accent).
Sounds familiar but can't place it...
L2 Design. Corps / Army level. Eastern Front. Big map. Now out of print. Much lusted over but hard to find game, an unpunched copy of which I have managed to get my paws on.
Playing as Aragon in MTW2 using the Stainless Steel mod. The year is 1129 and I was just gathering my army to send on the Pope's first called crusade only to have both Genoa and Portugal declare war on me.
Also CMBN with the 3.0 upgrade and I just bought CMRT this week.
HOI3 campaign as USA....April 1942, lost Guam and Wake but the Philipines are holding out. Making History: The Great War USA campaign as well....started over having figured out some of the mechanics and pacing of the game.
X-Com Long War this weekend. I managed to just clear a harvester UFO with just ballistics with only one dead, so I'm feeling frisky. Maybe a little Rome 2 DeI.
I'll start ripping into my stack of board games. Marvel Dice Masters, Friedrich, Java and Goldbrau are at the top of the stack.
On the computer, I'm not sure. I might delve back into Don't Starve. I also might get back into something like AI War or Space Hulk. And Payday 2 will probably get some play tomorrow.
Played a few games of chess and am looking at upgrading to Fritz 14 now that Steam carries it.
Also playing Crusader Kings II, but I'm starting to get pissed off that in the last four games I've attempted to play a band of 1600+ man raider mercenary armies show up within 10 years and end the game. I can field around 100 men and some random ass shows up with 16X the army. It's really taking the joy out of the game. I think it's a feature from the Old Gods expansion so I'm going to disable that one for my next game.
All gaming will cease in the Bob hovel at 7.50pm in order to watch the first of a new series of Dr.Who.
:)
Quote from: Bison on August 23, 2014, 12:38:01 PM
Played a few games of chess and am looking at upgrading to Fritz 14 now that Steam carries it.
Also playing Crusader Kings II, but I'm starting to get pissed off that in the last four games I've attempted to play a band of 1600+ man raider mercenary armies show up within 10 years and end the game. I can field around 100 men and some random ass shows up with 16X the army. It's really taking the joy out of the game. I think it's a feature from the Old Gods expansion so I'm going to disable that one for my next game.
who you playing as?
I was playing as an Irish earl. I just wanted a quiet, slower paced game, and become king of Ireland. I might as well be playing down in Spain were I expect to be invaded every 5 years or so.
whos sending the army against you? another irish guy? havent seen that before - do you have money for your own?
I just had one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had in a game. First mission in XCOM with the Long War mod. Second turn I trigger a group of aliens, they kill one of my team and 2 others panic then run out and get themselves shot as well.
{inhale} {inhale} {inhale}
Survive Harder Season Two AAR posting, finally complete, phew.
Probably won't get much actual gaming done the rest of the day, as the Bro's birthday party is tonight -- and he has nieces full of adorableness! But I might be able to sneak in some Jaipur or teach them something a bit more complex tonight, who knows.
Quote from: Kushan on August 23, 2014, 02:39:30 PM
I just had one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had in a game. First mission in XCOM with the Long War mod. Second turn I trigger a group of aliens, they kill one of my team and 2 others panic then run out and get themselves shot as well.
seeing more and more of this mod mentioned with high praise (and brutality!) - is it good?
this weekend has mostly been Elite, but i took 3 hours out yesterday to play Endless Legends - its sublime, great graphics and immerssion, the quests are brilliant, im 75 turns in with 3 cities, 2 good sites for 2 more and am recruiting an army of minor nation ogres because i think theyre awesome, with my wild walker rangers behind them they are a good battering ram
Quote from: undercovergeek on August 24, 2014, 10:42:16 AM
Quote from: Kushan on August 23, 2014, 02:39:30 PM
I just had one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had in a game. First mission in XCOM with the Long War mod. Second turn I trigger a group of aliens, they kill one of my team and 2 others panic then run out and get themselves shot as well.
seeing more and more of this mod mentioned with high praise (and brutality!) - is it good?
Overall I think Xenonauts is better. That being said, I'm having a fun with Long War. I did end up checking one of the second wave options that increases the accuracy of the XCOM weaponry. I think is also reduces their chance to panic too. Its still been difficult but not to the point I'm banging my head against a wall. I could have dealt with the lower accuracy but my soldiers panicking every time they got shot at was quickly making me want to bang my ahead against aforementioned wall. I'm 5-6 hours in and I've already lost more soldiers then I ever did when I played vanilla XCOM. I've only had 1-2 missions where no one came home injured, but those are the exceptions. Your also forced to train rookies, since even when a soldier comes home uninjured they are still fatigued and unavailable for use for a few days.
Definitely worth a look next time you want to play XCOM.
Quote from: Kushan on August 24, 2014, 12:03:21 PM
Quote from: undercovergeek on August 24, 2014, 10:42:16 AM
Quote from: Kushan on August 23, 2014, 02:39:30 PM
I just had one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had in a game. First mission in XCOM with the Long War mod. Second turn I trigger a group of aliens, they kill one of my team and 2 others panic then run out and get themselves shot as well.
seeing more and more of this mod mentioned with high praise (and brutality!) - is it good?
Overall I think Xenonauts is better. That being said, I'm having a fun with Long War. I did end up checking one of the second wave options that increases the accuracy of the XCOM weaponry. I think is also reduces their chance to panic too. Its still been difficult but not to the point I'm banging my head against a wall. I could have dealt with the lower accuracy but my soldiers panicking every time they got shot at was quickly making me want to bang my ahead against aforementioned wall. I'm 5-6 hours in and I've already lost more soldiers then I ever did when I played vanilla XCOM. I've only had 1-2 missions where no one came home injured, but those are the exceptions. Your also forced to train rookies, since even when a soldier comes home uninjured they are still fatigued and unavailable for use for a few days.
Definitely worth a look next time you want to play XCOM.
i was on the verge of starting an ironman campaign but ill look at this instead - iirc there is an option to just pull out of a mission you dont have to stick around to the bitter end, which i find more realistic
I ended up sinking 3 hours into One Finger Death Punch yesterday. It's so ridiculously simple, yet so ridiculously fun.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on August 22, 2014, 02:56:24 AM
Anyway. This weekend I will mainly be playing X3: Albion Prelude. Finally getting into this. Got some good trade routes going and making cash; next I need to buy another freighter and get some automated trade going.
I've got this but am totally hopeless at it - running out of money, getting whupped generally. Apart from "
Don't play it then" do you have some useful general advice? :)
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 22, 2014, 09:08:42 AM
Finishing writing up some Birth of the Federation AAR chapters, though I already played through to get the content.
I'm really looking forward to that! O0
Boggit I'm still away from home and on my phone but I'll give you a detailed reply later today. :)
Quote from: bob48 on August 22, 2014, 02:21:30 PM
L2 Design. Corps / Army level. Eastern Front. Big map. Now out of print. Much lusted over but hard to find game, an unpunched copy of which I have managed to get my paws on.
Great, great game. Essentially an uber-updated and enhanced version of Avalon Hill's classic, The Russian Campaign.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on August 25, 2014, 06:55:37 AM
Boggit I'm still away from home and on my phone but I'll give you a detailed reply later today. :)
Thanks Huw - appreciated! :)
Quote from: Kushan on August 24, 2014, 12:03:21 PM
Quote from: undercovergeek on August 24, 2014, 10:42:16 AM
Quote from: Kushan on August 23, 2014, 02:39:30 PM
I just had one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had in a game. First mission in XCOM with the Long War mod. Second turn I trigger a group of aliens, they kill one of my team and 2 others panic then run out and get themselves shot as well.
seeing more and more of this mod mentioned with high praise (and brutality!) - is it good?
Overall I think Xenonauts is better. That being said, I'm having a fun with Long War. I did end up checking one of the second wave options that increases the accuracy of the XCOM weaponry. I think is also reduces their chance to panic too. Its still been difficult but not to the point I'm banging my head against a wall. I could have dealt with the lower accuracy but my soldiers panicking every time they got shot at was quickly making me want to bang my ahead against aforementioned wall. I'm 5-6 hours in and I've already lost more soldiers then I ever did when I played vanilla XCOM. I've only had 1-2 missions where no one came home injured, but those are the exceptions. Your also forced to train rookies, since even when a soldier comes home uninjured they are still fatigued and unavailable for use for a few days.
Definitely worth a look next time you want to play XCOM.
Which version of XCOM uses the long road mod? I have the original 4 Microprose XCOM games, the UFO:Terrestrials one, and another whose name I can't remember - Xcom -Alert or something - a white and red box IIRC (I never got around to playing it :-[).
Quote from: Boggit on August 25, 2014, 07:33:01 AM
Which version of XCOM uses the long road mod? I have the original 4 Microprose XCOM games, the UFO:Terrestrials one, and another whose name I can't remember - Xcom -Alert or something - a white and red both IIRC (I never got around to playing it :-[).
It uses the remake that Firaxis did a few years ago with the Enemy Within expansion. There is a version that doesn't require the expansion but it was a few versions out of date and didn't have all the features of the normal version. I think both games and the combined pack with both are still on sale on Steam until tomorrow.
Quote from: mirth on August 25, 2014, 07:18:08 AM
Quote from: bob48 on August 22, 2014, 02:21:30 PM
L2 Design. Corps / Army level. Eastern Front. Big map. Now out of print. Much lusted over but hard to find game, an unpunched copy of which I have managed to get my paws on.
Great, great game. Essentially an uber-updated and enhanced version of Avalon Hill's classic, The Russian Campaign.
It does indeed look good, and I've now got all the counters clipped and have been having a good read of the rules. Soon, if I can find the space, I'll be setting it up for a first solo game to see how it all works out. :P
Quote from: MengJiao on August 22, 2014, 08:31:29 AM
Quote from: Shelldrake on August 22, 2014, 06:36:01 AM
Nova East star party this weekend so I will be indulging my other hobby. When I get back Sunday I will continue honing my piloting skills in Rise of Flight in hope of eventually becoming competent enough to venture into multiplayer.
This is closest to what I'll be doing since I'll be flying around in BoS. At the moment I'm doing quick missions where I shoot up a convoy in a Yak-1. All-in-all, I think the Yak is the best all-around plane for shooting up convoys in a quick mission. It's enough of a fighter to hold off the 109s and it has a 1200 bullet magazine for the 50 cal which I use to finish off any stragglers after the rockets and cannons run out.
On other fronts: the eternal WITPAE PBEM -- lots of Japs showing up now, so I have to get on with the raids and offensives.
And some boardgames -- probably mostly Hoplite.
Well...hmmm...and that is exactly what happened. More interest in boardgames lately. I'll go post something down there.
Boggit
OK here's what I've been doing. I'm not a hardcore player or anything and there are probably easier/quicker ways to make money, but this has at least got me started.
Select the Humble Merchant starting position; this gives you 1,000CR but more importantly two ships, an Argon Discoverer (M5 I believe) and an Argon Mercury (TS). I think you start at Herron's Nebula; three sectors south of there is Ore Belt, which is a sector with one solar power plant and three ore mines. This is where I brought my Mercury and started hauling energy between the SPP and the mines. Buying energy at its lowest price (12CR) and selling at its highest (19CR) produces a profit of nearly 21,000CR per run. You might occasionally want to venture north, east or west to flog the energy if the mines are well stocked. For some reason I never see traders in Ore Belt so you have this corner of the market to yourself
It didn't take long before I had a few hundred thousand CR which meant I could start trading ore. I got myself a trading system extension - from an Argon Equiment Dock, I believe - which allows me to see all prices in any sector in which I have presence, i.e. a ship or satellite. At this point I parked my Discoverer in Home of Light to enable me to keep an eye on prices there, while still in my Mercury I started hauling ore from the mines. I sold it either somewhere in Ore Belt or, if the prices weren't good enough, in Home of Light.
The price of ore varies wildly. It's possible to make ~150CR profit per unit if you can buy it cheap enough and can find a factory that wants it badly enough. The problem is ore gets used up very slowly, as far as I can tell, so you'll start running out of places to sell at a profit if you don't go a bit further afield. The trading system extension is invaluable here. Frustratingly, the AI merchants don't seem to like trading energy so you may have to do the occasional energy run to make sure the factories keep working and the ore mines keep producing.
One other thing I've been doing is deploying a satellite network. There's a satellite factory in Argon Prime. I've been buying satellites in my Discoverer and deploying them in various Argon sectors to make it easier for me to keep an eye on prices. One satellite placed centrally per sector should be enough. Now, what I should have done is bought another trading system extension for my Discoverer so that I could remotely trade with my Mercury while deploying satellites, but I didn't. Or I could have bought Explorer software for my Discoverer so that I could have remotely deployed satellites while trading in my Mercury, but I didn't do that either, so I've lost out on a lot of efficiency there.
But anyway, that's where I've left things because I've been away for most of the weekend. I have three or four sectors' worth of satellite network deployed and I'm happily trading away in my Mercury. It's easy to make a few hundred thousand an hour now, so it won't be long before I have to make my next decision: buy another hauler and get some automated trading going, or get straight into the manufacturing business with my first factory. :)
My long term goal is to acquire a really good fighter and begin the storyline missions, as I understand the rewards for doing them are great.
@Huw :)
That's excellent advice. Thanks for that. O0
I couldn't help thinking it also makes quite an interesting tale. Ever thought of starting an AAR thread about the game? :coolsmiley:
You're welcome Boggit! Let me know how you get on.
An AAR is possible actually, however this is my first serious game post-Dota so it remains to be seen whether I'll stick to it...also I'm not doing anything even remotely interesting at the moment so it would have to wait a while. ;)
I finally got to play a little of the second Sovereignty beta yesterday, but nothing else. I was gone the entire weekend, so no gaming for me.
Quote from: Martok on August 26, 2014, 12:13:37 PM
I finally got to play a little of the second Sovereignty beta yesterday, but nothing else. I was gone the entire weekend, so no gaming for me.
Are you allowed to saying anything about the game to us?
Quote from: TheCommandTent on August 26, 2014, 04:04:12 PM
Quote from: Martok on August 26, 2014, 12:13:37 PM
I finally got to play a little of the second Sovereignty beta yesterday, but nothing else. I was gone the entire weekend, so no gaming for me.
Are you allowed to saying anything about the game to us?
@Martok :)
Yeah, you Tease! ;)
Well all us beta-testers are under NDA, so I'm not sure how much I can really say.
That being said, I wouldn't bother to continue play-testing it if I wasn't enjoying myself to at least some extent. ;)