Revisiting Games

[PanzersEast]

So there are some game I have been and plan on revisiting either because if felt unfinished or I just did not give it a proper run through... I am getting close to finishing my first play through with Age of Wonders III and had previously tried to work my way through a Eador MoTBW game...  I am going to go with SoTS 2 once my AoWIII finishes up.

Eador MoTBW - I played recently and have uninstalled.  Too repetivite and there are others a lot better in the market AOW3/FE:LH...

Sword of the Stars 2 - Waited for all the patching and dust to settle.

Civ V - I have started and not finished several times...

ARMA III - Since the campaign is now fully released, I need to circle back

Hearts of Iron III - I have played through many a game only getting half way in

Victoria II - Grind it out.... I played a Argentina game and got quit far....

Warlock - Since Warlock 2 is released, I will be playing that instead

PE

[bbmike]

So there are some game I have been and plan on revisiting either because if felt unfinished or I just did not give it a proper run through... I am getting close to finishing my first play through with Age of Wonders III and had previously tried to work my way through a Eador MoTBW game...  I am going to go with SoTS 2 once my AoWIII finishes up.

Victoria III - Grind it out.... I played a Argentina game and got quit far....

PE

Ah, if only there were actually a Victoria III in existence.  :P

[Tuna]

So there are some game I have been and plan on revisiting either because if felt unfinished or I just did not give it a proper run through... I am getting close to finishing my first play through with Age of Wonders III and had previously tried to work my way through a Eador MoTBW game...  I am going to go with SoTS 2 once my AoWIII finishes up.

Victoria III - Grind it out.... I played a Argentina game and got quit far....

PE

Ah, if only there were actually a Victoria III in existence.  :P

His Amp goes to 11!

[PanzersEast]

So there are some game I have been and plan on revisiting either because if felt unfinished or I just did not give it a proper run through... I am getting close to finishing my first play through with Age of Wonders III and had previously tried to work my way through a Eador MoTBW game...  I am going to go with SoTS 2 once my AoWIII finishes up.

Victoria III - Grind it out.... I played a Argentina game and got quit far....

PE

Ah, if only there were actually a Victoria III in existence.  :P

Well, it may be that by the time I get around to finishing one game of it  :P

PE

[undercovergeek]

what are the fundamental differences between Victoria and PRoN?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I recently started playing Vicky II and I'm having a really good time with it.  I didn't care for it much when it first was released but with the two DLC expansions, it can weave some pretty interesting history.

I started a Grand Campaign playing as Japan from 1836.  I opted to end the isolationist sakoku policy as soon as possible in the hopes that I could play off some of the great powers against each other as they vied to pull Japan into their sphere of influence.  That didn't really work out too well as the Yankees staked their claim on us without so much as a murmur from the other Powers. 

The initial baby steps towards rangaku westernization proceeded fairly quickly.  I hired some western advisers to modernize the military and educate the aristocracy on the benefits of a manufacturing based economy.  This upset the fudai samurai no end and in no time at all, the Bakumatsu era commenced and I had a full blown ishin shishi rebellion on my hands.  The fighting lasted two years and, while it was quite bloody, the outcome was never really in doubt.  Shinsengumi katana wielding experts were no match for volley fire.

Once the civil war ended, the pace of modernization picked up considerably.  I built an experimental rail network in the Kanto area, embarked on a campaign to increase literacy amongst the populace by encouraging the Buddhist and Shinto clergy to educate their flocks, and pressed farm workers to leave their paddies and come to the cities to labour in the new factories that were being built.  As I already had a number of skilled artisans producing glassware and saki, I decided to expand this on an industrial scale and was soon mass producing glass and liquor for the world market. 

The cash started rolling in, rail networks soon covered most of the Home Islands and we were making scientific discoveries at a breakneck pace.  Capitalists began to build their own factories and rail lines throughout the islands (subsidized by the government and protected by tariffs) and our bankers began to make loans to various countries around the globe. 

Things went swimmingly for Japan for nearly 30 years.  Despite their growing literacy, the Japanese populace seemed little interested in the clamours for reform that were sweeping through the great powers.   They were quite content to have power remain in the hands of an unelected elite so long as they were making money.  The only rumblings were from some jingoists in the military who thought we should make a grab for the Korean peninsula.  Sadly, the Americans can guaranteed to protect Korea and we really didn't wish to tangle with them at this point.

The, bumbling, corrupt, and decadent Spanish empire had taken out a rather significant loan from our bankers in an effort to keep their colonies in the Philippines from collapsing completely.  In 1860, they forfeited their loans and refused to make payment.  This presented quite an opportunity for us.  We now had a legitimate excuse for a war.  The Spaniards were a little too friendly with the Dutch and the English though so we had to send a series of diplomats to meet with representatives from the UK and press our case.  If the UK could through individual debtors in prison, how could they justify allowing Spain to renege on payments owing to us?  Had we not adopted western laws and customs relating to commerce?  They were eventually swayed and agreed to stay out of any potential conflicts between Japan and Spain.

We declared war and proceeded to land troops on Guam, Saipan, and in the Philippines.  The Dutch, perhaps fearing the loss of their colonies in the East Indies, declared that they would support Spain and declared war on us.  Our troops quickly overran the Spanish garrisons which were poorly led and even more poorly equipped.  A large contingent of Dutch marines attempted to land in Mindanao but our frigates caught their transport ships as they were offloading and slaughtered the marines before they could reach the beaches.  The Spanish sued for peace and agreed to repay their debts and to grant nationhood to the Filippinos.  (I was hoping to take the Philippines for myself but that option didn't appear in any of the war goals.  I assume this was because Spain was a Great Power and I wasn't).  The Philippines was granted their independence, Spain was removed as a power in the region, and the world began to take notice of the Japanese.

With our new-found prowess, we removed ourselves from the sphere of US influence and began making overtures to the British.  Relations with the US quickly soured as ties between Japan and the UK expanded (sadly not enough for the UK to bring us under their sphere).  Within a decade, I felt Japan was strong enough to take Korea and hold it against reprisal attacks from China and possibly the US.  I sent out diplomats to manufacture a cause for war with Korea.  We occupied the entirety of the peninsula within months.  Predictably, the US and China declared war.  The Chinese came in waves but their spears and swords were no match for our series of trench-works, forts, and cannons built along the Korea-Manchuria border.  The US was tougher to deal with.  They managed to land troops in Nagasaki and Hokkaido and occupy some provinces but they couldn't sustain their beachheads.  One-on-one, their troops were of better quality than ours but they were at the end of a very long supply chain and we had the numbers so each landing was thwarted in turn.  After a few years of attrition, the US offered to end the war and recognize Japan's claim on Korea.

With Korea successfully annexed, Japan began to colonize islands in the Pacific such as Marcus and Truk.  Between our colonies, our robust banking and manufacturing, and our claims on Korea, the world powers recognized us as one of the Greats.  Japan now had a seat at the table when it came to discussing the important issues of the day.

Not long afterwards, a newly unified Germany began pushing to have Poland released from Russia and Austria-Hungary and granted statehood.  (A cynic might think the Germans were doing this so they could gobble Poland up for themselves.)  Naturally Russia and Austria-Hungary were opposed.  Diplomacy was failing and the prospect of war seemed ever closer.  We cast an eye north to the Sakhalin Islands and the resources of the Kamchatka peninsula and privately decided that war with Russia might not be such a bad thing.  Publicly we made noises expressing our views on the rights of the Poles and the just nature of their calls for independence and threw our lot in with Germany.  The Americans, eying Russia's holdings in Alaska, decided the same.  France, Britain, and Italy, perhaps fearing a surging Germany threw their lot in with the Russians and war was on.

Japan quickly seized vast swathes of land in Siberia while the US gobbled up Alaska.  I sent the Japanese navy down around Malaya and Borneo to try and keep the Royal Navy in check and was initially successful in defeating a number of troop convoys protected by frigate escorts but they just kept coming and I was forced to retreat back to the home islands to repair my battered fleets. 

Things in Europe did not go well for Germany as a united Scandinavia threw in with the Russians and attacked Germany in order to regain Schleswig-Holstein.  Germany collapsed.  The Americans made a brave attempt to free Ireland from British rule but a combined Anglo-French force drove them back across the Atlantic.

With Germany out of the war, the Russians were able to send their armies east and their massive numbers slowly began to push us back.  Seeing that the war was all but lost, I retreated out of Siberia to the Sakhalins and hoped to press for a white peace.  Sadly, the war had dragged on too long and, in 1,888 I got a pop up informing me
that the War for Polish Independence had spilled over into the Great War.  A White Peace was no longer possible.  In 1,889 an armada of French and British ships began to disgorge troops around Kyushu just as Russian troops wiped out the last Japanese forces on the Sakhalin Islands.  We were forced to surrender our holdings in the Pacific, give up Korea, and pay ruinous reparations to Russia, France, and the UK and thus the game ended with Japan humiliated and destitute.

I may just have to fire up HOI III and lead Japan to its revenge....




(I'd like to play PrON as I think it's got a bit more granularity and historical flavour than Vicky II but those damned turn times just make it take too long.  The nice thing about Vicky is that you can just kinda tinker with stuff and let the game run.  Even if you screw up, it's not a huge time investment as you can always just mash the time acceleration to get past the slow bits.  You can't do that with PrON.  Playing as Japan is especially painful as you really can't do much of anything other than optimize a few resource gathering sites and build a few trade ships until the Meiji Restoration event occurs.  At 2 minutes a turn time, you're looking at upwards of 15 hours before anything even happens and if you screw up, it's back to square one for another 15 hours of tedium.)





   

[CFoxRun]

That was a fine writeup.  I have been eyeing that game.  Thank you.

[MetalDog]

+1 on the writeup.  Maybe SDR can be cajoled in to writing up an AAR ;)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I thought I just did.

[DennisS]

So there are some game I have been and plan on revisiting either because if felt unfinished or I just did not give it a proper run through... I am getting close to finishing my first play through with Age of Wonders III and had previously tried to work my way through a Eador MoTBW game...  I am going to go with SoTS 2 once my AoWIII finishes up.

Eador MoTBW - I played recently and have uninstalled.  Too repetivite and there are others a lot better in the market AOW3/FE:LH...

Sword of the Stars 2 - Waited for all the patching and dust to settle.

Civ V - I have started and not finished several times...

ARMA III - Since the campaign is now fully released, I need to circle back

Hearts of Iron III - I have played through many a game only getting half way in

Victoria II - Grind it out.... I played a Argentina game and got quit far....

Warlock - Since Warlock 2 is released, I will be playing that instead

PE

Your experiences closely match my own!!

I am trying to work up the energy to re-start Victoria II. This means firing up You Tube and watching a shit load of Quill18's videos as a refresher!

Civ V is an option as well. I have finished the game many times..usually, I have a juggernaut of an offense that is just impossible to stop. I really need to step up the difficulty a little more!

[Nefaro]

I thought I just did.

LOL.  Certainly did.

I used to hear that Vicky 2's performance would drop once it advanced to around 1900-ish and become jerky.  I wonder if that was ever fixed in a DLC.

I picked up the expansions awhile back but still have yet to play Vic2 very long.  I recently thought of starting off with Japan as an easier intro, or something similar in size, as opposed to a great power.  I don't think there's another nation similarly poised to spring into industrial power so notably but I may have a look for another.  Especially since deciding to wait until CK2 gets some patching before starting another campaign.

Some of the new features in AHD convinced me to pick it up on an Amazon sale and try Vic2 again sometime, even though I wasn't all that impressed with the original Vic2.  The addition of the Crisis stuff (idea obviously pillaged from PrON) and some extras for non-great powers could make it interesting enough. 

I, too, would rather play Pride of Nations but that turn processing is a killer even after being tweaked about as good as it will get.  Also not sure where it is on the bugs issue, there may still be one or two annoying ones left over.  If it gets another pass sometime, I will probably fire it up anyway and see how quickly it runs on my newest computer.

[Yskonyn]

Once you are going to sir down for SotS2 be sure to poke me for a MP game! Freaking love that game!

[sandman2575]

For those contemplating more Vicky II, I definitely recommend playing with the Pop Demand Mod -- extremely easy to install, and adds more interest and depth to economics without making the game feel like a radical departure from vanilla. 

[eyebiter]

.

[PanzersEast]

Looks like I am going to take SoTS2 off the list.....

While I believe this is a good game, however I feel like the UI gets in the way of that game.  As I have been playing I am not getting the feedback, at least in a easy way to continue to gauge my progress.  Overall I believe it is a good game, but the UI really lets the game down.


PE