Got a lot of packing to do as I am moving at the end of the month, but, if there is any game time, it will be Warlock Master of the Arcane SP and MP. Anything beyond that is gravy.
The sinking of the battleship USS Maine occurred today in 1898 leading to Americas war with Spain in the Spanish American War.
Probably some Warlock MP with MD and Sim HQ Iron Front Saturday Afternoon..
Might have to do some work too.. don't wanna, but we'll see.. Monday off!
Yeah man! Bring it on!!
Aliens: Colonial Marines! Maybe some Men of War: Assault Squad...
Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, ww2 memorial, vietnam memorial, and quick stop into the American history museum to check out the coin collection.
I think some Age of Wonder Shadow Magic, and maybe try to finally play Battles in Normandy... Might throw in some Torchlight 2 also
CMBN PBEMS back now weve figured out the bug
Men of War Assault Squad demo - i think i will like this game
FM2010 - From Blue Square North to Coca Cola League 1 so far, this year is going to be tough though
Parma AAR for CKII and then a flight to Istanbul on Sunday
Shogun 2...not sure which campaign though.
7 Grand Steps
Probably more Skyrim and some Minecraft. I am also going to put some paint on some minis this weekend, even it is just a little I need to get something done.
Falcon 4 BMS + New TrackIR..... have been back flying and honing my skills and mud moving. Not sure if I will get to anything else, but hope to hook up with someone at some point on some MP F4 BMS. May have a look at Conquest of Elysium 3 and CK II.....
PE
Quote from: MetalDog on February 15, 2013, 06:46:46 AM
Got a lot of packing to do as I am moving at the end of the month, but, if there is any game time, it will be Warlock Master of the Arcane SP and MP. Anything beyond that is gravy.
The sinking of the battleship USS Maine occurred today in 1898 leading to Americas war with Spain in the Spanish American War.
Remembering all Maines and Meteors. Will be playing CMBN. Maybe some Fear God and Dead Nought (Board game:Italian Armored Cruisers versus the French I think) in honor of the Maine and some Il-2 4.11.1m in honor of Meteors.
I wish Shogun 2 had a Spanish-American War mod so I could avenge the brave sailors aboard U.S.S. Maine. So I'll settle instead for killing bandits in Skyrim while yelling at the screen, "Remember the Maine!!" every time one goes down. Followed by a drink for them at Happy Hour. I'm 2 battles in for CMFI Conrath's Counterattack right now and it's a great campaign so far. Lots of tanks.
Loved Falcon 4. My most memorable moment was being talked back by the home strip - being told heading, distance etc - being held going round in a loop and then getting the final bearing to the airstrip - and it was spot on! Alas - I couldn't get rid of the graphical glitches for my Falcon 4 Allied Assault and it's sitting in the loft!
I've had 3 TrackIR's now - and never got on with any of them...just can't get it. The reason I've had 3 is I wanted to love it - but it just doesn't work for me. Maybe I just didn't have it setup right - but if I had it sensitive enough that I only moved my head a little bit then I could look all around the cockpit - but then it would be impossible to click anything in A-10C...and if I de-sensitised it, I'd be looking at the desk when looking down in the cockpit...just never could find a happy medium!
Some great games mentioned here. I still have to really dig into CM:N and CM:FI - especially as I bought them and the CM:N update! I also had a campaign going for FM 2010 (or was it 11? Can't remember) - but I'm not so much into football as I need to be to spend much time on it.
But - (no rugby this weekend) - so I'll be doing some of my Trumpeter (NOT Academy!) Challenger II model, trying to finish off Far Cry 3 (it's looooong), I picked up OOTP13 again a few days ago - so more of that and I restarted my X3 Terran Conflict - so more of that.
Quote from: Bison on February 15, 2013, 07:44:54 AM
Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, ww2 memorial, vietnam memorial, and quick stop into the American history museum to check out the coin collection.
Sounds busy. If you get a chance go out to Dulles to the aviation museum. It is worth the drive.
World of Tanks is having a Lisyanka Weekend Event (http://worldoftanks.com/news/2040-lisyanka-event/) this weekend, so I will be putting a few hours into that game. Other than that, probably a little 7 Grand Steps (http://p4.hostingprod.com/@mousechief.com/7GS/by_Mousechief.html) and Talisman Prologue (http://www.talisman-game.com/). I'm not sure what else.
Skyrim: Having beat the main quest in dragonborn, I'm going to do some of the side quests and hunt down some black books on Solstheim. There's also some things I want to do back in Skyrim as well, including hunt down the rest of the dragon priest masks and doing some of the daedric quest lines. I want to get another few levels before go and make another attempt to defeat Alduin. After I do that I think I may archive this character and take a small break from the game before I start my next playthrough. And of course I'm going to spend A LOT of time riding my new dragon mount around both Solstheim and Skyrim.
Crusader Kings 2: Finally got around to reading patch notes from last month and realized that Paradox has fixed the bug that prevented players from building trade posts when playing as republics. I've started a few games as a republic but haven't gotten very far before my frustration with the bug made me quit and go back to my Italian game.
Planetside 2: Downloaded it earlier this week but haven't had the time to play it.
Unity of Command is on sale in STEAM. Might pick up this and it's DLC this weekend.
Iron Front on Sat
ArmA2 on Sunday.
Not sure what else to play other than that. Nothing's really grabbing me right now.
Man, the Spanish- American war...the good ol days when you could surreptitiously manufacture a war without anyone getting wrapped around the axel about it.
Maybe some more Borderlands 2. I briefly started up Men of War Assault Squad and liked it, so I think I'll spend some more time with that. And maybe some Warlock...
Quote from: Kushan on February 15, 2013, 02:46:34 PM
Planetside 2: Downloaded it earlier this week but haven't had the time to play it.
This is what I'll be doing quite a bit of. I've got about 50 hours logged now and still haven't bought anything. I feel a bit guilty, but it seems I can enjoy this game without buying any upgrades beyond what I earn with my measly "skillz". It's best played with at least one friend on TS, and has the potential to deliver a fair amount of tactical fun if you can gather a few together, but you can get the feel of being in a fight playing solo. If you ignore the sci-fi stylings, it's a reasonable first person battle-simulator.
I'd recommend this to anyone here, especially as you can get a pretty good feel for it without having to lay out a penny.
Probably some Harpoon 3 (finally getting around to getting back into it) and more Musket & Pike: The Renaissance. I also have a craving to play something with 18th century naval ships/fleets, but beyond the Total War games I'm not sure what that would be.
Not sure yet what I'll be playing this weekend. More Distant Worlds: Legends most likely. I'm also kind of in an RPG mood at the moment, so right now I'm thinking some Baldurs Gate as well.
Quote from: MetalDog on February 15, 2013, 06:46:46 AM
The sinking of the battleship USS Maine occurred today in 1898 leading to Americas war with Spain in the Spanish American War.
Ironically, there is evidence that the sinking arose due to spontaneous combustion due to the use of bituminous coal (as opposed to anthracite used elsewhere) for the boilers releasing an explosive mixture of gases, known as "Firedamp".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firedamp
When stored in in a restrictive area these gases can build up to a concentration where an explosion can take place. Prior to the Maine explosion, there was a history of bunker fires in US ships - some causing huge damage. Anyway, such are the conclusions of historians like Dana Wegner and Admiral H. Rickover.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-3584.1998.tb03255.x/abstract
I find Rickover and Wegner's findings more believable than the conspiracy theorists who suggest that the Spanish blew it up with a mine (The US Navy said it was due to a mine at the time, but a Spanish Inquiry at the time disproved it on the evidence {
although strangely not reported in the US Press - I wonder why?}). There is little evidence that Spain had any appetite for war with the US in 1898, so why also would they inflame matters with an attack? I don't have much faith either with the cynical theorists (like the Cuban and Russian Communist parties) who say America blew up their own ship as a pretext for war. They are partly right in the sense that the event was manipulated by the Press and some politicians - but the US to blow up one of their LARGEST ships to make a point? No. I don't buy it. Taking a cynical view - a smaller ship maybe. And that is a very BIG maybe for a lot of reasons - I just don't think the US would have done it, particularly if there was the slightest chance - at all - that the public would have heard about it.
However, it happened 266 men died. :( The Press and the Hawks (for war) used the event to encourage hysteria for war anyway. :-\
1898 Edison motion picture footage of the Maine wreckage in Havana harbor
Quote from: panzerde on February 15, 2013, 07:35:56 PM
Probably some Harpoon 3 (finally getting around to getting back into it) and more Musket & Pike: The Renaissance. I also have a craving to play something with 18th century naval ships/fleets, but beyond the Total War games I'm not sure what that would be.
I love the Total War naval fights, but you might also try
Talonsoft's Age of Sail - Win95 - so some tweaking for compatibility will be needed - try NWS or Ebay
Sid Meier's Pirates!
East India Company published by Paradox and available both retail (box) and DL like Gamersgate
Salvo! Published and sold by Shrapnel Games
Wooden Ships Iron Men Win 95 published by Eidos and written by Akella (personally I didn't like it) try Ebay
I think there are a few others, but I can't remember any more off the top of my head. Hope it helps.
+1 to Musket and Pike - which scenario do you like best. I finished the Dutch Campaign late last year - was a lot of fun. :)
Quote from: mirth on February 16, 2013, 11:34:50 AM
1898 Edison motion picture footage of the Maine wreckage in Havana harbor
Wow! Great find Mirth. Looks like there may be a lot of great clips at the LoC.
Quote from: Arctic Blast on February 15, 2013, 05:39:05 PM
Maybe some more Borderlands 2. I briefly started up Men of War Assault Squad and liked it, so I think I'll spend some more time with that. And maybe some Warlock...
@Arctic Blast :)
Check out this guy's scenarios for MoW AS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYwWi-vKHGY
You can download the lot here
http://www.moddb.com/groups/men-of-war-missions-from-xgunishmentx
And a quick thank you for adding me to your "Friends" at Steam.
Quote from: Staggerwing on February 16, 2013, 11:43:08 AM
Quote from: mirth on February 16, 2013, 11:34:50 AM
1898 Edison motion picture footage of the Maine wreckage in Havana harbor
Wow! Great find Mirth. Looks like there may be a lot of great clips at the LoC.
Yeah, I'm going to do more looking around when I have time. I think I saw some Spanish-American War footage.
Quote from: Staggerwing on February 16, 2013, 11:43:08 AM
Quote from: mirth on February 16, 2013, 11:34:50 AM
1898 Edison motion picture footage of the Maine wreckage in Havana harbor
Wow! Great find Mirth. Looks like there may be a lot of great clips at the LoC.
+1 Who'd have thought it. Thanks Mirth :)
Quote from: Boggit on February 16, 2013, 11:40:01 AM
Quote from: panzerde on February 15, 2013, 07:35:56 PM
Probably some Harpoon 3 (finally getting around to getting back into it) and more Musket & Pike: The Renaissance. I also have a craving to play something with 18th century naval ships/fleets, but beyond the Total War games I'm not sure what that would be.
I love the Total War naval fights, but you might also try
Talonsoft's Age of Sail - Win95 - so some tweaking for compatibility will be needed - try NWS or Ebay
Sid Meier's Pirates!
East India Company published by Paradox and available both retail (box) and DL like Gamersgate
Salvo! Published and sold by Shrapnel Games
Wooden Ships Iron Men Win 95 published by Eidos and written by Akella (personally I didn't like it) try Ebay
I think there are a few others, but I can't remember any more off the top of my head. Hope it helps.
+1 to Musket and Pike - which scenario do you like best. I finished the Dutch Campaign late last year - was a lot of fun. :)
Matrix bundles Age of Sail with the updated package of John Tiller's Napoleonic games. That's supposed to be good on Windows up to Windows 7.
Quote from: Boggit on February 16, 2013, 11:40:01 AM
I love the Total War naval fights, but you might also try
Talonsoft's Age of Sail - Win95 - so some tweaking for compatibility will be needed - try NWS or Ebay
Sid Meier's Pirates!
East India Company published by Paradox and available both retail (box) and DL like Gamersgate
Salvo! Published and sold by Shrapnel Games
Wooden Ships Iron Men Win 95 published by Eidos and written by Akella (personally I didn't like it) try Ebay
Thanks Boggit! I'll definitely check those out. I remember Age of Sail - I played all the Talonsoft stuff like mad, years ago. I also like the Total War naval fights, and was thinking about loading either Empire or Napoleon back up
Quote from: Boggit on February 16, 2013, 11:40:01 AM
+1 to Musket and Pike - which scenario do you like best. I finished the Dutch Campaign late last year - was a lot of fun. :)
I'm doing the French Religious Wars campaign right now, just finishing up Dreux. I find I like the later period battles more than the earlier ones, well, because Reiters! Nothing like pistol-wielding heavy cavalry to ruin your day. Damn Swiss will put a kink in your plans, though!
Quote from: mirth on February 16, 2013, 11:52:05 AM
Matrix bundles Age of Sail with the updated package of John Tiller's Napoleonic games. That's supposed to be good on Windows up to Windows 7.
Didn't even think of that - I actually have that installed right now. Thanks!
Man alive do I have too many games. I'm literally overwhelmed with choices. The best/worst is that I think I am chore and work free today, so I can game on like a madman! Now to figure out what to play...
I think I'm going to try Evochron Mercenary. I've never played it. I'll probably play some more XIII Century as well, and maybe some Chivalry/War of the Roses.
I also have a hankering to start CK2 again.
Geez, who even knows...
Post what you think of XIII Century. I have Northern Crusades installed here and have never even fired it up once.
Quote from: mirth on February 16, 2013, 11:52:05 AM
Matrix bundles Age of Sail with the updated package of John Tiller's Napoleonic games. That's supposed to be good on Windows up to Windows 7.
Yeah, works fine on my Win7-64. It's real-time, which kinda sucks IMO, because I end up jockeying the time too much. That goes for most real-time wargames, however.
It may be difficult to find, but
Age of Sail 2: Privateer's Bounty also works on Win7, as I installed it last year. IIRC, all I had to do was turn on WinXP compatibility mode along with the regular "Run as Admin" which I set for all games. AoS2:PB is probably the best of the bunch, regarding naval warfare of the period, and the old 3D graphics in it isn't
too terribly bad.
Note that AoS2:PB's campaign is pretty much a couple of branching scripted ones, although you do have some purchasing/repairing expenditure between each battle. Not amazing, but it's something. A fair amount of historical battle scenarios included, too. The original AOS (that comes with the Matrix Nappy package) is probably easier to manage for the big naval battles, since it's 2D with little sprites, and you don't have to manage the camera/view as much.
Quote from: Boggit on February 16, 2013, 11:46:44 AM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on February 15, 2013, 05:39:05 PM
Maybe some more Borderlands 2. I briefly started up Men of War Assault Squad and liked it, so I think I'll spend some more time with that. And maybe some Warlock...
@Arctic Blast :)
Check out this guy's scenarios for MoW AS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYwWi-vKHGY
You can download the lot here
http://www.moddb.com/groups/men-of-war-missions-from-xgunishmentx
And a quick thank you for adding me to your "Friends" at Steam.
Those look impressive but also gigantic. I'll need some more time to get a handle on playing the game before I even think about tackling those. ;D
Well, I spoke too soon. I got drafted into going to a fitness expo with my wife (followed by dinner out...ugh, no gaming at all!). >:(
@Gus- I really like XIII Century. It's like M2TW but I think it's a bit deeper, more wargamey. I'm surprised it's not more popular around here.
I haven't tried Northern Crusades yet, but I plan to dig in once I read up on the Teutonic Knights a bit. I have a book called, ironically enough Northern Crusades, on the way from Amazon.
Quote from: Toonces on February 16, 2013, 06:40:40 PM
@Gus- I really like XIII Century. It's like M2TW but I think it's a bit deeper, more wargamey. I'm surprised it's not more popular around here.
I suspect it's not more popular because it lacks a proper campaign.
A lot of us desire/need some larger context in which these battles take place. If they'd made
XIII Century with a TW/Civ-style campaign, I think it would've done much better.
I agree, Martok.
However, let me post a different perspective.
Understand that I actually think you're right, and I'd prefer a M2TW-type game than what XIII is. However, what XIII seems to have (to my limited knowledge) is a much closer attention to detail and a more in-depth look at historical battles.
What the game lacks in any sort of dynamic campaign it makes up for in a closer study of one-off historical battles. For example, I've been reading about the battle of Falkirk and then XIII has a nice battle of Falkirk in the English campaign with a very thorough briefing (with 3D overviews of the battlefield) and discussion of tactics before the battle starts, as well as beautiful unit graphics. I guess it is sort of like an interactive History Channel game.
I had read about how there was a swamp in the middle of the battlefield, and how Wallace had formed his Pikemen into shiltrons to defend against the English cavalry. But when you actually see it in 3D and then have the opportunity to gameplay it out on your terms, it makes a big difference in your understanding of the battle. XIII is a huge treasure of that type of stuff.
Again, for what it cost during the Xmas Steam sale bundled with all the other games, it was a no-brainer to me. It's a great game. It's not M2TW, but what it does, it does well. It's very much like a DCS vs. Falcon 4 comparison, if that makes sense.
Oh yes, I'm very much aware that the game's battles have received widespread praise. (It's the reason I almost picked up the game as it is, despite the lack of a campaign!) Nor do I criticize the dev's decision to focus on the battles instead -- when you're cramped for money, personnel, and/or time, you have to make sacrifices & hard choices, and throwing out a campaign is obviously one of the ways in which the developers made use of their limited resources.
I guess I just wish they'd been given the time/personnel to do it all. :)
Interesting. Toonces is this the book you have on the way:
http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Crusades-Second-Eric-Christiansen/dp/0140266534/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361119333&sr=1-1&keywords=the+northern+crusades
If so it's one of my favorite books. Makes me think I should fire up Northern Crusades (the game) perhaps sooner than later.
Y'all have inspired me to take a run at Northern Crusade. I haven't played it for months.
there was a guy calling himself Mitra who had made some mods or improvements for it. I am sure some
guys around here have played them. He had linked them up on WG'er awhile ago.
I have so many games I spend hours choosing what to play and then I have to go out
and get drunk or chase girls so I have to start deciding all over again.
Life is so hard. Pity me.
Quote from: Martok on February 17, 2013, 02:01:13 AM
Quote from: Toonces on February 16, 2013, 06:40:40 PM
@Gus- I really like XIII Century. It's like M2TW but I think it's a bit deeper, more wargamey. I'm surprised it's not more popular around here.
I suspect it's not more popular because it lacks a proper campaign.
A lot of us desire/need some larger context in which these battles take place. If they'd made XIII Century with a TW/Civ-style campaign, I think it would've done much better.
Northern Crusades has a campaign, however. It's not a TW style campaign, and it leads you along by the nose for awhile during the initial tutorial-like stages. But it opens up later, if you can power through the difficult parts. It's more like the Mount & Blade campaign, except you spend your wealth and xp points on military units and goods if you want to trade (there are no personal RPG-style weapons & armor for your leader as in M&B, obviously). I suggest you play on the Easy difficulty level when you start your first campaign because money can be extremely tight and a lot of the opposing armies running around can squish you like a bug until you get built up - and that takes awhile. You'll probably end up restarting a fresh campaign once you start getting the hang of it, because it's very easy to become disadvantaged and suffer losses you can't really recover from with the low amount of wealth. The difficulty of the initial build-up and a couple of the custom made & scripted opponent armies is probably what scared some people away. It can be brutal if you don't find a way to work up to it with money & troops, along with creating an excellent battlefield plan against large odds. The tactical battles are far more interesting (and a bit more difficult) than the M2TW ones, IMO.
I suggest using Mitra's latest Mod for RW2:NC, after you see how the normal game works. It doesn't outwardly change much other than expanding the army size limits but it definitely fixes some issues I with the game such as catching occasional glimpses of enemy units through hills (who are not in LOS and should still be hidden), and reducing the normally constant Morale-murdering archer effects against units in covered terrain, to name a couple examples of the tweaks he did. I consider Mitra's mod to be an unofficial patch.
Mitra Mod thread with info:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=30848
Looks like the rapidshare download link is dead, so I uploaded one here:
http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/39139539/file.html
I don't know if this was the latest version but that's the only one I have. It has a couple extra optional folders, one containing the aforementioned archer penalties for firing against units in forest, and another that has lowered cavalry movement in same, and there are ReadMe files in them with details IIRC.
Thanks Nefaro
Northern Crusades frustrated me.....I remember buying it right away and initially thought it was going to turn out to be a great game. I can't remember all the issues with it, but just seemed like one little problem after another, and then the development studio and publisher had a break up and official support disappeared real quickly. I just remember thinking this game could have been very good if they just had decent follow-up support.
It was a shame...
Thanks for the above, Nefaro.
At first I was excited by Northern Crusades, but that wore off quite quickly. Also support for the game did dry up leaving it less than polished as Grim stated. Frankly MTW2 is a better game and I don't really believe Northern Crusades to be a more "realistic" game.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on February 17, 2013, 07:11:18 PM
Northern Crusades frustrated me.....I remember buying it right away and initially thought it was going to turn out to be a great game. I can't remember all the issues with it, but just seemed like one little problem after another, and then the development studio and publisher had a break up and official support disappeared real quickly. I just remember thinking this game could have been very good if they just had decent follow-up support.
It was a shame...
It was definitely a letdown as the support got cut too short. I still played a fair bit with Mitra's mod/fixes, however, as they did improve the situation - other than the mountainous difficulty in the beginning. I wish I had the very last one he created, because there were some campaign adjustments in it too IIRC.
Sure, M2TW may be more polished all-around, and have more faction variety, but the AI blows and the tac battles are so easy I gotta pump up the AI bonuses quite a bit. :-[ So Northern Crusades was a breath of fresh air, despite only having one playable faction. I think that's due to the tac battle mechanics, as they're pretty open for you to see and more resembles a wargame.