GrogHeads Forum

Thanks to Kushan who opened my eyes that I don't serve all our customers with my music choices, so, I give you the most perfect country song ever recorded.  And the next one is for my friend Tuna.  You'll find this selection on the Songs for the Dog When He Dies album:



As far as gaming this weekend, my great good friend, bob48 surprised me with a copy of Warlock 2.  Therefore, I will be playing a buttload of Warlock (to the surprise of noone).

Happy Father's Day fellow Grogs!!!

Hear, hear! Happy Father's Day to all!

Not sure what I will be playing yet. Probably a lot of random stuff. I'm in a weird gaming mood.

I'll be continuing my tutorial on Combat Commander:Europe. I hope to complete the tutorial and start a solitaire game of my own - see how that goes.

I will be continuing to send my Javelin magnets forward in my PBEM of Combat Mission:Black Sea with UCG

I will also likely play some superb The Witcher II and pCars

Anything else is gravy.

I'll finally get a good chance to dive into my new Tiger Leader game.  O0

Magic 2015 and SOW Gettysburg.  Slinging some cards tonight at the LGS and working on my Tier XIV Commander and Standard decks.

I'm on my aging, dying laptop so I'll be stuck with games that will play on it.  Going a bit retro (at least until the computer crashes again).

I'm in an FPS mood so I'm going to try Ghost Recon.
To fill my Civil War fix I'm going to continue with Take Command: Second Manassas all modded up.
Finally, I think I have Combat Mission 1: Beyond Overlord installed.  Not sure if it runs, though.  If not, or in conjunction, perhaps some Panzer Elite.

Quote from: Bison on June 19, 2015, 06:55:11 AM
Magic 2015 and SOW Gettysburg.  Slinging some cards tonight at the LGS and working on my Tier XIV Commander and Standard decks.

I did pick up Magic 2015 on the daily sale the other day. 

My PC gaming urge is has been almost nil lately, but if I fire it up anytime soon I will look you up for some head-to-head.

This weekend will see some of the crap I purchased from the Steam Sales plus....

Elite Dangerous
Hand of Fate

Start a new campaign of either AOW3, CK 2, Endless Legend + New DLC (giving it another go)...  but I have so much so who knows.


Tiger Leader


PE - Steam Bedazzeled

Ripple, one of my favorites! Thanks MD!

Will have to figure which games that I bought this week to try out, before I forget that I bought them!

Picked up Arma III, so maybe at least do some co-op on that with my 16 year old. Do any Grogs do co-op matches with this one? I know SDR mentioned SimHQ a few months back.

Quote from: Tuna on June 19, 2015, 07:52:03 AM
Ripple, one of my favorites! Thanks MD!

Will have to figure which games that I bought this week to try out, before I forget that I bought them!

Picked up Arma III, so maybe at least do some co-op on that with my 16 year old. Do any Grogs do co-op matches with this one? I know SDR mentioned SimHQ a few months back.

  I'll be playing ARMAIII (in the editor looking at new terrain), Vassal PBEM, Invisible and probably some DCS MIG15bisbeta

JTS:Waterloo...big campaign...because Doug likes big games...

JTS:Leipzig finishing up a toonament in which I did not crap all over myself...which is its own form of winning...

JTS:Campaign Series PBEM

CM:BS PBEM

Commander Great War: PBEM

Checking e-mail for Sicily turn from Vance...I do this a lot...sad, really...he's probably playing a board game he got long AFTER he started playing Sicily...probably...

SoW:W...hoping to try a brigade level H2H...folks seem obsessed with big battles which, absent a LAN and a huge group is typically a bad idea...

Started getting SB:WWI PBEM turns from Boggit again...HOOZAH...OTOH, his forces are getting closer and closer to my trenches...BOOOOO...

Tiny Epic Kingdoms

Lighting War: War on Terror

And MAYBE, Mice and Mystics, although my wife really wants to get to level 10 in Diablo III blacksmithing which will require farming pages...

@Toonces:  I am always amazed that, for all the glories of CMx2 (and they are legion) how much i still enjoy the occasional game of CM:BO.

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

Just got back from a work trip and now traveling to NH for The Wife's college reunion. I may die. Happy Fathers Day to all dads here!

When and if I finally return, I am going to start playing some Grim Dawn and some Age of Wonders III - looking forward to both. And then its on to the new Rome 2 -Attila expansion.

And Panzerde wins the internet with that Mr. T .gif! Hilarious.

Quote from: Gusington on June 19, 2015, 10:04:27 AM
Just got back from a work trip and now traveling to NH for The Wife's college reunion. I may die.

Don't you go dyin' on me!

Well Undercovergeek and I have finally started our WiTP:AE pbem game!  Both of us are fairly new at the Admiral's Edition so it should be filled with many instances of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory.  We're both planning on AAR's at some point. :idiot2:

I've also fired up CKII.  now that Game of Thrones has ended for the season I have to fill that intrigue void.

I will try my best Nef. Right now not looking good :/

I currently have games going in Distant Worlds, Civilization V, and XCOM so I imagine I will spend time on those. I might also spend time in Football Manager 2015.

I am going to a Pinball and Arcade Games convention in Atlanta this weekend.  Pinball, Asteroids, Joust, etc..... are on the agenda - not wargames (except maybe Missile Command or Space Invaders).

Happy Father's Day indeed to all the Father-Grogs out there, as opposed to the Mother-Grogs(you know who you are). I will balance out all the people telling me what a wonderful Father I am with the, "You ain't s--t" Ass-Whupin that DC Case Blue hands out to me on a routine basis. Keeps me humble.  8)

^You're not humble.

Funny enoiugh, I've been seriously thinking of firing up WitP:AE again...   :o

Quote from: Nefaro on June 19, 2015, 07:49:11 AM

Quote from: Bison on June 19, 2015, 06:55:11 AM
Magic 2015 and SOW Gettysburg.  Slinging some cards tonight at the LGS and working on my Tier XIV Commander and Standard decks.

I did pick up Magic 2015 on the daily sale the other day. 

My PC gaming urge is has been almost nil lately, but if I fire it up anytime soon I will look you up for some head-to-head.

I am ready to embarrass myself with my deck building ineptitude.

I am itching to try out the new DLC for Age of Wonders 3 that I just picked up on the Steam sale. Then some Victory at Sea and Panzer Corps: Allied Corps for a change of pace.

Quote from: Toonces on June 19, 2015, 12:11:47 PM
Funny enoiugh, I've been seriously thinking of firing up WitP:AE again...   :o

All the cool kids are doing it.... :coolsmiley:

Quote from: Toonces on June 19, 2015, 12:11:47 PM
Funny enoiugh, I've been seriously thinking of firing up WitP:AE again...   :o

I've been mulling it over as well.  I've still never gotten past April '42 after repeated attempts over the years (USA Dec. 8 start grand campaign). Frustrations with the UI usually pile up and I quit in despair by that point.

Kinda stuck in the pc gaming dept. these days. Have been playing a few rounds of CM Black Sea. Nuthin' else really grabs me at the moment...

More D&D 5th Edition this weekend. Also, time to finally bust out Alien Uprising and Legendary Encounters : Aliens and give them a try.

PC-wise, all the talk of XCom 2 has me wanting to play XCom again...

Quote from: KyzBP on June 19, 2015, 02:16:26 PM

Quote from: Toonces on June 19, 2015, 12:11:47 PM
Funny enoiugh, I've been seriously thinking of firing up WitP:AE again...   :o

All the cool kids are doing it.... :coolsmiley:

Don't be misled.  Toonces says this every other month and usually it ends up with a drunken late night of youtube video watching and posting said youtube videos here.

Mix of CMANO, EUIV with the new DLC, and Elite for me. picked up Victory at Sea on Steam, so I'll probably give that a go as well. I'll also be picking up SoW: Waterloo and starting to learn it for my twitch stream on Tuesday.

Quote from: Bison on June 19, 2015, 02:51:46 PM

Quote from: KyzBP on June 19, 2015, 02:16:26 PM

Quote from: Toonces on June 19, 2015, 12:11:47 PM
Funny enoiugh, I've been seriously thinking of firing up WitP:AE again...   :o

All the cool kids are doing it.... :coolsmiley:

Don't be misled.  Toonces says this every other month and usually it ends up with a drunken late night of youtube video watching and posting said youtube videos here.

:-[

Don't put him off - the subsequent postings are usually very entertaining  :)

Continue working on character generation for my recently found FASA Star Trek RPG set. If I do play any computer games I might try Star Ruler 2 or go back to Star Trek Online after a long, long time away.

^ Star Trek RPG?  Man, that's old skool!   O0

Quote from: bob48 on June 19, 2015, 04:00:04 PM
Don't put him off - the subsequent postings are usually very entertaining  :)

Yes they are.

Quote from: vyshka on June 19, 2015, 11:07:06 AM
I might also spend time in Football Manager 2015.

Been trying to persuade myself to start a new season, with the local MLS team, but I've been doing far more reading than gaming lately.

I'm on emergency call for undercoverjuniors first brownie camp and 2 nights from home, even though it's 5 miles up the road it feels awful here without her......

To take my mind off it I'm consoling my javelin troops who were 3 seconds from launch when the said target planted a HE round in the face of the anti tank guy, curse you JD

There will be some long war after xcom 2 got me all moist and I have yet to open the first turn of my pbem with KyzBP - will have time this afternoon, hope my boys at Pearl did me proud - good news is by the time we've finished I'll have paid off the business loan I just took out  O0

Far Cry 4 continues apace -- in an attempt to unlock my Dad's homestead, I ended up drugged and leashed naked to two topless and athletically nubile women in body paint who called me their meat.

:o

After which I was thrown to cougars leopards.

This, somewhat surprisingly, led to the introduction of what I suppose is the second romantic interest in the game, and despite the um colorful introduction it seems a respectable option. No spoilers please in case I'm wrong.


I expect I'll hold off on Arkham Knight's forthcoming release this week, just to make sure the typical PC bugs which plagued previous console ports are given a little time to be found and swatted.

I've been playing an embarrassing amount of 10,000,000 this week, my defense for which is that I love match-3 games which try to apply the mechanics to fighting games somehow. I've also tried a bit of the much better sequel YOU MUST BUILD A BOAT, which I'm sure I'll love more but I'm trying to finish out the first game on general principle.

I picked up A.R.K. on sale yesterday or Thursday, though I haven't tried playing it yet, and probably won't for a little while. But I had commented previously (while playing FC3) that whoever first succeeds in creating a viable dinosaur-survival-sandbox game will have a license to print money, and out of several contenders this one looks to be the best so far, so I wanted to support it. But not enough to pay full price on what's still early access. ;)


Now for a brief report on a game that I picked up on sale just this morning, which I hadn't heard of before somehow.

First, imagine Klondike solitaire.

Now, imagine playing Klondike solitaire against someone else playing Klondike solitaire.

Now, imagine that stealing cards from each other's piles is a common and important tactic, thus also defending against someone doing the same.

Now, imagine that the rules aren't Klondike solitaire, but rather poker, i.e. building poker hands (with yahtzee extensions since 5 of a kind is now possible.)

Now, imagine adding in special ability effects, so that players are attacking each other with the poker hands they've built, and generating limit breaks from hitting and being hit which power those special abilities.

Now, imagine the storyline framing these fights is set in a fantasy version of the Grim Whyte during the time after Edward the Confessor repelled a viking invasion.

Now, imagine that your dialogue choices make no difference at all so far as I can see (even in what replies you get), but it doesn't matter that it doesn't matter, because the tough-guy wit is pretty good anyway.

Now, imagine that this comes with some nice artwork/gfx, plus a repetitive but epic sounding theme song.


You are now imagining Runespell Overture.

You are welcome.  :coolsmiley:

Definitely suffering from "gaming ADHD" the last couple days.  I've gone back & forth between Birth of the Federation, Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion, Armada 2526 Gold, and Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes.  I need more hours in the day to play them as much as they deserve; gah!! 

Quote from: Martok on June 21, 2015, 02:19:01 PM
Definitely suffering from "gaming ADHD" the last couple days.  I've gone back & forth between Birth of the Federation, Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion, Armada 2526 Gold, and Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes.  I need more hours in the day to play them as much as they deserve; gah!!

Do you run into performance issues with Armada? I was tempted to pick up the combo edition on steam the other day, but I read a number of places that that it would run to issues late game.

My weekend was mostly a Distant Worlds campaign as humans. I also spent a few hours playing Fallout 3.

Quote from: MengJiao on June 19, 2015, 08:32:18 AM

Quote from: Tuna on June 19, 2015, 07:52:03 AM
Ripple, one of my favorites! Thanks MD!

Will have to figure which games that I bought this week to try out, before I forget that I bought them!

Picked up Arma III, so maybe at least do some co-op on that with my 16 year old. Do any Grogs do co-op matches with this one? I know SDR mentioned SimHQ a few months back.

  I'll be playing ARMAIII (in the editor looking at new terrain), Vassal PBEM, Invisible and probably some DCS MIG15bisbeta

  Things went very differently:  Vassal PBEM, yes!  But no invisible or DCS.  I got Europa Universalis IV and some DLC for 75% off.  I guess I understand the early modern world better than the middle ages, or maybe I just like having the Timurids out there somewhere -- anyway I actually like the game.  I did a monster custom Shi'ite Republic (based loosely on the historical possibility that Fatamid Egypt was not taken over by the Mamalukes, but instead became an aristocratic Republic) stretching from Bengazi to Aleppo and on into the Ethiopian Highlands as well as Mecca.  So (if they do okay) they can expand in the Mediterranean or the Indian Ocean.  Might be fun.  Don't really know yet.

Pretty much just The Witcher III for me.

I ended up playing a lot of E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. I loved this game when it first came out, but must have got stuck on some mission and put it aside for a couple of years. I reinstalled recently and jumped right back in.

This is one of the most unique gaming experiences I have ever had. The game is loaded with nuance and style like no other, and the world that the developers have created is really unique, intriguing and bizarre, all in a really good way.  This game would be perfect for someone like Dan Abnett to pick up and run with in a novel.

Notwithstanding all the wonderful things about this game, it can also be very frustrating figuring everything out. There is so much going on in terms of plot and gameplay and very little in the way of explanation. Most things can be figured out through diligence, but I can see a lot of people being turned off by the steep learning curve. Also, while the aesthetic of the game is impressive from a design standpoint, the graphics do appear relatively "indie" which is a nice way of saying low budget. Additionally, the dialogue interactions with NPCs are downright awful. Characters, such as Federal police or supremely powerful psi-cybernetic warrior monks say things that you would expect to hear in a highschool locker room. It really shatters the immersion and makes me want to avoid most non-essential interactions. Still the, RPG elements and character building features are very impressive and deep and the FPS combat is surprisingly satisfying.

If you've never played this one you owe it to yourself to at least give it a shot. It is only $3.99 on steam for the next 2 hours.

picture me at 1:00am this morning squinting at the '..........is playing...........' pop up from steam

thinking why the hell is JH playing EVE and how come its on steam

all makes sense now

Quote from: undercovergeek on June 22, 2015, 09:51:18 AM
picture me at 1:00am this morning squinting at the '..........is playing...........' pop up from steam

thinking why the hell is JH playing EVE and how come its on steam

all makes sense now

LoL!

I also enjoyed EYE: Divine Cybermancy.  Interesting FPS-RPG with an odd but unique setting. 

Since it was all originally in French, I kinda wonder if some of the (sparse) dialogue was lost in translation and made it seem even more stange.

Quote from: Nefaro on June 22, 2015, 10:14:00 AM
I also enjoyed EYE: Divine Cybermancy.  Interesting FPS-RPG with an odd but unique setting. 

Since it was all originally in French, I kinda wonder if some of the (sparse) dialogue was lost in translation and that made it seem even more stange.

Simplified for better and yet broader accuracy.  >:D

I've been tempted to get E.Y.E for a while...it looks really weird.

What should I fire up right now? Grim Dawn or AoWIII for a campaign as the undead? Need to cleanse my gaming palette with some dark fantasy before I fire up the incoming Rome 2 DLC.

If you pick the Undead, will that be the first time playing that?

Yes but IIRC there is a story campaign for the Undead also...not sure if I will try that first r just go straight to the Undead sandbox.

Quote from: vyshka on June 21, 2015, 10:23:55 PM

Quote from: Martok on June 21, 2015, 02:19:01 PM
Definitely suffering from "gaming ADHD" the last couple days.  I've gone back & forth between Birth of the Federation, Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion, Armada 2526 Gold, and Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes.  I need more hours in the day to play them as much as they deserve; gah!!

Do you run into performance issues with Armada? I was tempted to pick up the combo edition on steam the other day, but I read a number of places that that it would run to issues late game.

Well I can't say anything about the Gold Edition on Steam (I've simply not played it enough), but my original copy of Armada 2526/Supernova runs on my machine just fine.  It can lag a bit on the largest maps, but not severely so in my experience. 

I seemed to have found a comfy old chair of gaming and I'm ok with that - 3 or 4 favourites that have eradicated my need for anything else hence my poor showing in the steam sales - elite, xcom, cmbs and now witp

Quote from: undercovergeek on June 24, 2015, 10:28:58 AM
I seemed to have found a comfy old chair of gaming and I'm ok with that - 3 or 4 favourites that have eradicated my need for anything else hence my poor showing in the steam sales - elite, xcom, cmbs and now witp

I should get back to X-Com at some time. It was a good game.

I'm a little surprised we haven't had more multiplayer match/AARs on XCOM here at Grogheads.  ???

Wrapping up the weekend that was:

CM:BS PBEM...lots of sneaky Russians...

Campaign Series PBEM -- finished a bloody knife fight in the jungle (Doug's filthy, sneaky heathens swiped a VPLOC that I should have been GUARDING to eke out a minor).

Campaign: Waterloo mega-campaign (PBEM).  I have blown every bridge over the Sambre near Charleroi, but DAMN there's a lot of Frenchmen coming this way...

Commander:  The Great War (PBEM): As Doug put it, the net of all this bloodshed, at least in our telling of it, may prove to be an increase in Ottoman territory.

From Vance...well...nothing...

And, to Jason Pratt, I owe one SERIOUS GrogHead PitF for turning me on to "You Must Build a Boat".  Six hours in and counting...

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

CMRT PBEM

Just started a franchise as the Washington Nationals in MLB 2K12 which I just can't stop playing. Won two games in a row after dropping eight straight games and I'm now 4-8 in the young season.

Why yes...yes I would.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.akamai.steamusercontent.com%2Fugc%2F686020049468580961%2F0999E3736DF6056087732C4382F0FB3CDEC543B0%2F&hash=ad22d09c100a01872b65f394f07ef8eda2633553)

Is that Cindy Lauper? Great to see she's working again. Because girls used to just want to have fun, but now want to go Ghoul.

Quote from: Sir Slash on June 29, 2015, 10:18:55 PM
Is that Cindy Lauper? Great to see she's working again. Because girls used to just want to have fun, but now want to go Ghoul.

lmao  :2funny:  :2funny:

Ghouls just want to have fun?

^better

Ghouls do want to have fun, but that includes burning your cities down and eating brains.

You took that too far  :D

This, I think, confuses ghouls with zombies.  My impression has always been that the former is more a generic flesh-eater (brains, I gather, included).  In fairness, Romero's zombies -- certainly in his first movies -- seemed to eat the entirety of the human body without distinction.

But I digress...

I've always felt that the conflict with zombies is not what they eat but whether they are the slow-moving type of the old black and white films of my childhood or the new and improved fast movers of today. Personally I prefer the older tortoises over the new hares but you didn't need to be fast to catch the 50's women as all they ever did was stand still, scream, and then faint. Into a man's arms of course. Even I could catch one of them at my advanced age, but then to eat one, I would need help. Today's women( if we're still allowed to call them that) can shoot AK-47's and rocket launchers and so I can understand the need to move fast around them. But I still think there should be some kind of final decision about this. And then stick with it. Zombie Consistency. 8)

Hear, hear!!

If zombies are indeed metaphors for the somnambulant  nature of modern society -- which certainly Romero intended -- shuffle they must!

The leaping and nigh-simian running must stop!

At last! The truth is spoken. Amen, Brother Cyrano. O0

Undead and loving it?

The Grateful Un-Dead?

One need not modify the band's name to suggest that the Rolling Stones -- in whole or in part -- now benefit from necromancy...

I stand corrected.

Quote from: Gusington on June 30, 2015, 07:15:53 AM
Ghouls just want to have fun?

~~~~>>

Quote
Fred: Now we can finally solve the mystery of the hitchhiking ghouls. Pull off their masks and let's see who they really are!
Velma: I don't think they are masks.
Daphne: And I don't think that they're hitchhiking girls either.
Velma: GHOULS, you fuckin' moron, not girls! I wish they were hitchhiking girls - sexy hitchhiking girls.
Fred: Let's kick 'em out! We've got a mystery to solve!
Shaggy: The only mystery here is why we take our cues from a dick in a neckerchief!
Fred: Keep it up, beatnik, I'll feed ya to the fuckin' dog!
Daphne: I CAN'T TAKE ALL THIS FIGHTING!

>:D

Luckily my campaign is NOT shaping up like the above.

Quote from: Cyrano on June 30, 2015, 09:30:11 AM
Hear, hear!!

If zombies are indeed metaphors for the somnambulant  nature of modern society -- which certainly Romero intended -- shuffle they must!

The leaping and nigh-simian running must stop!

Zombies aren't metaphors for anything - they're just cheap monsters for films.

I struggle as I admit this, but I know people who do zombies academically...

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/the-walking-dead-like-all-zombie-stories-not-about-zombies-at-all/265549/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/theories-of-international-politics-and-zombies-daniel-w-drezner/1100318630?ean=9780691147833 (Actually a pretty fun read.)

http://satomko.hubpages.com/hub/Understanding-Zombies-as-Metaphors-in-George-A-Romeros-Dead-Trilogy

I could go on, but that'd be admitting more knowledge of such things than I care to confess...

Zombies are stupid.

Need more ghouls.

^-^

I'm sure there must be a thesis somewhere entitled "Zombies - are they just cheap monsters for films?".  If not, maybe I'll write one...

I am in Nefaro's camp on this one. If there were never another game, book, movie, or TV show with zombies in it, I would not miss it one bit.

Ghouls though? Now there you have a sophisticated and suitably creeping monster.

Are we defining ghouls to mean 'grave robbers'?

I'm partial to the HP Lovecraft notion of ghouls: http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/bestiary.aspx#ghouls

Ugh...creepy.

Lovecraft ghouls aren't that bad. Sure, they eat dead people and all that, but if you happen to speak their language it's possible to befriend them and even gain their aid against much scarier nasties.

Exactly! That's what makes them so much more subtle and interesting than the "Brainzzz!" crowd.

Now I want to play a Dreamlands campaign...

Dreamland is the name of a barbecue joint.

Quote from: MetalDog on July 07, 2015, 10:22:57 PM
Dreamland is the name of a barbecue joint.

It's also one of the names for the Art Bell radio program.

And a nickname for Area 51.

And where my wife tells me I live when I smile at an attractive young girl.

Isn't that the dog house?

It precedes the Doghouse.

Quote from: panzerde on July 07, 2015, 09:52:08 PM
Exactly! That's what makes them so much more subtle and interesting than the "Brainzzz!" crowd.

Now I want to play a Dreamlands campaign...

I tend to prefer the Lovecraftian and modern fantasy derivatives that focus on eating the dead (and making people that way) than the old Arabian shapechanging kind, but at least there are better possibilities than zombies.   Some versions have a quick rotting disease or paralytic poison on their claws - I guess to make it more horrible sounding when they're eating paralyzed people alive. 

Would be a treasure trove for the Zombie-focused film-makers &  such.


I recall an old Tales From The Crypt that featured some of the more domesticated types in the end:



>:D

^Wow I actually remember watching that as a kid! <olde>

Quote from: Ubercat on July 07, 2015, 09:39:16 PM
Lovecraft ghouls aren't that bad. Sure, they eat dead people and all that, but if you happen to speak their language it's possible to befriend them and even gain their aid against much scarier nasties.

Ubercat invited the Pickmans over for dinner.. ?