Grand Ages Medieval

Huw the Poo · October 04, 2015, 11:27:25 AM

Quote from: undercovergeek on October 04, 2015, 10:07:23 AM
As soon as someone says something definitive about the positives of the game I'm all over it

It isn't looking like a thirty quidder is it? Stick it on your wishlist and wait for a sale/inevitable goatee edition with loads of DLC.

undercovergeek · October 04, 2015, 11:41:17 AM

Quote from: Huw the Poo on October 04, 2015, 11:27:25 AM
Quote from: undercovergeek on October 04, 2015, 10:07:23 AM
As soon as someone says something definitive about the positives of the game I'm all over it

It isn't looking like a thirty quidder is it? Stick it on your wishlist and wait for a sale/inevitable goatee edition with loads of DLC.

Despite MDs sales pitch - im thinking this might be it - however, its not the price its just whether its gooder-er or not

Gusington · October 04, 2015, 04:32:58 PM

*ahem* 'more gooder' is more proper-er

DennisS · October 05, 2015, 02:30:07 PM

Many youtube videos show money bleeding away from the treasury to support a large army. Large armies are not optional to capture cities.

This latest patch reduces the cost of armies substantially..making ability to field large armies much easier.

This is important, for a couple of reasons. Prior to this patch, any local campaign would end with the majority of your armies being disbanded...just too expensive to maintain. This resulted in any new armies being recruited at level one for experience. Kind of defeated the notion of keeping -- and maintaining -- a high quality army.

Now, a core army can be kept, and maintained for defense, and augmented for aggressive campaigns. The game, pre-patch, just wasn't working for human players..who would absolutely be unable to maintain an army more than about 20% the size of the other massive civilizations.

No real word on what army sizes are feasible...I haven't played for a week or so (moving!!!). I'll play some today, and report back on what I have been able to achieve.

Gusington · October 05, 2015, 06:03:02 PM

That sounds pretty accurate to history. Are mercenaries in the game?

undercovergeek · October 05, 2015, 06:09:35 PM

Quote from: Gusington on October 05, 2015, 06:03:02 PM
That sounds pretty accurate to history. Are mercenaries in the game?

yup

Gusington · October 05, 2015, 06:11:47 PM

Which part?

MetalDog · October 05, 2015, 06:46:44 PM

The part where he caved and bought the game ;)

undercovergeek · October 06, 2015, 05:22:32 AM

Quote from: MetalDog on October 05, 2015, 06:46:44 PM
The part where he caved and bought the game ;)

Lol no caving - there's mercs in all the YouTube vids

Gusington · October 06, 2015, 07:49:31 AM

Have you caved yet today?

undercovergeek · October 06, 2015, 08:05:16 AM

Still no - watched a few vids yesterday - my regulars, quill18, and arumba have now moved on which is disturbing, I could only find one English vid that had been updated within a week

Whereas blood bowl 2 looks a blast and I think I'll be all over that

tgb · October 06, 2015, 08:24:59 AM

I think it's also a matter of guys like Quill getting so many new games that they have to keep recording fresh stuff.

JasonPratt · October 06, 2015, 08:26:24 AM

Disbanding most of a standing army would be historical and would work well, if the computer somehow kept track of experience gained. When the troops have to be called back up, a variable fraction of that experience (modified by various policies, time, proportion of veteran survivors to new recruits etc.) ought to be retained.

undercovergeek · October 06, 2015, 08:28:39 AM

Quote from: tgb on October 06, 2015, 08:24:59 AM
I think it's also a matter of guys like Quill getting so many new games that they have to keep recording fresh stuff.

Absolutely understood - but when there are updates to ckii and eu4 games you've got to wonder if they've just left it behind

glen55 · October 08, 2015, 11:22:08 PM

I've been playing it off and on the last couple of weeks - probably 15-20 hours - and I'm still on the tutorial! The tutorial is huge, and it's also bloody hard.

If you just follow the instructions you are given, you will absolutely lose every time, no matter how well you play. In particular, I'm talking about when they tell you to build military units. DON'T, YOU WILL DIE. You absolutely must beef your economy up before you can even think about buying units.

The other thing is that the game doesn't let you get away with over-production. Overproduce and you will lose. You must track supply and demand in your territory and purchase enough businesses to meet demand. No more. You have sliders on your businesses that you can use to reduce production, but usually it's better to demolish an existing business than to turn the sliders way low.

This short video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFlmrP4yhow - shows you how to figure out how to produce the right amount. The money part starts 2 minutes in.

Once you've got that figured out, you can win the tutorial. Build businesses when you can afford to until you meet demand of every product - not much more, not much less (but keep a pad in food, wood, bricks and metal wares). This will make you a profit. Save up maybe 200,000, it varies, and bribe away another city. This will build up demand, but there will also be duplicative production - destroy the extra, and build until you can meet your demand, save your 200K, rinse and repeat.

While you're doing all that, perform the steps in the tutorial about building units, etc., when you can easily afford to. You can win the tutorial this way! Hurrah!!!

I've actually been kind of enjoying it, but I'm a big agog at what a project the tutorial is. Of course, you could do it a lot faster if you run the game on super-speed, but that's just not fun to me. I want to watch the little counters move around the map, thank you very much.

I'm still interested enough to look forward to FINALLY getting to try the main mode and see how that goes. . . .