Hey its Friday!!

[Gusington]

OK I'm going in.

[mirth]

Maybe a nap first, then manliness?

Won't you need another nap after the 'manliness'

[Gusington]

Well I played three hours (!) of Attila TW as Aksum, great campaign and very interesting faction dynamics and units. I made peace with the Sassanids, made Persia my puppet, and kicked some Atropatene (?) arse. MANLY.

[Anguille]

Nice pictures Gus...seems you're having fun  O0

Finished the last map of Grand Ages: Rome and have selected Tropico III to be my next main game...(finished first map).

Also played a game of Master of Orion IV.

[Gusington]

Yessir...Aksum is a great faction :)

BTW - I noticed you stopped playing Grand Ages - Medieval and went back to Grand Ages - Rome...

[Anguille]

Yessir...Aksum is a great faction :)

BTW - I noticed you stopped playing Grand Ages - Medieval and went back to Grand Ages - Rome...

It was already a couple of months ago...i completed both campaigns in Grand Ages: Rome and played about 60 hours to get there...great game. I had fun with Grand Ages Medieval but it's very different type of game.

[mikeck]

Nice pictures Gus...seems you're having fun  O0

Finished the last map of Grand Ages: Rome and have selected Tropico III to be my next main game...(finished first map).

Also played a game of Master of Orion IV.

How is MoO IV with the new EA6 release

[Boggit]

This weekend I'll be trying to finish my CMFI's Conrath's Counterattack Campaign: battle 5 Piano Lupo where I have 7 minutes to secure the objective and nothing between my forces and it but open, empty space. That's when this game REALLY starts to worry me.  :-\

So who's up as sniper bait? ;D

[Gusington]

I have an old copy of Grand Ages Rome around here somewhere...a lot of complaints about the new Grand Ages game stemmed from the huge difference between it and Rome IIRC.

[Sir Slash]

I actually managed to win battle 5 of the Conrath's Counterattack Campaign for CMFI.  :D  In fact a Total Victory with 164 American casualties including 112 dead and 3 tanks in this VERY tough fight with lots of tricky terrain LOS complications. This one should be called, "The Hills Have Eyes" because the Americans seem to be able to spot every move you make and rain 60mm mortars down on it. Of which they NEVER seem to run-out. So it wasn't cheap-- 70 men lost including 31 KIA and 3 tanks lost and another 4 disabled. Next up is the final battle of the campaign to drive the US Army back into the Med.

[Anguille]

Nice pictures Gus...seems you're having fun  O0

Finished the last map of Grand Ages: Rome and have selected Tropico III to be my next main game...(finished first map).

Also played a game of Master of Orion IV.

How is MoO IV with the new EA6 release

It's a very decent game and i already had enough fun for my money.

The AI is imho better and challenging enough for me on normal difficulty. I've lost all the last games i've played (two economic losses and one military defeat). I am no Robert E. Lee and you'll find many who still find it too easy on harder settings.

I am not a big fan of starlanes but it works and is well implemented. Colony management is very micro (like in MOO2). One of the biggest changes since EA5 is that population growth is slower so the initial phase of expansion takes longer. One of the greatest thing about the game is that you can customise it a lot (which victories etc.) so it's really possible to set up the games as you like.

- Espionnage is really not great now and i tend to skip it. They said they want to make a new system so it's on their list.

- Ground attacks isn't great and i have yet to see the AI doing any...they usually just bomb planets.

- Pre-Warp setting is still too hard for the AI (usually gets crushed by pirates).

I think that they consider the release after the next EA (maybe 2 months?) even if they still have a few things they want to implement post-release. This means that the "normal" and cheaper edition should be there soon.

[Anguille]

I have an old copy of Grand Ages Rome around here somewhere...a lot of complaints about the new Grand Ages game stemmed from the huge difference between it and Rome IIRC.

Indeed, if you jumped (like me) from Imperium Romanum to Grand Ages: Rome, you had to rethink how to play...if you tried to play it the same way without reading the manual or play the tutorials, you would find your cities burning down very fast! They are different games, one is micro and the other macro:

- Imperium Romanum: economy is based on individuals who look for a job and have needs. Individuals can work in any building (there's a difference between man and woman though). In this game, you collect goods and products. A sawmill produces goods and once you have enough, you can build a house. You don't need money (it helps but you can complete the game without it). There's no research needed, all buildings are available from the start. Military is basic (infantery, archers and cavalery).

- Grand Ages: Rome: economy is based on houses (3 different types) which makes buildings work. Plebeians, Equites and Patricians can work only in specific buildings (most work is being done by Plebeians). In this game, a building, like a sawmill gives a constant amout of woods. A working sawmill will allow you to build a certain amount of houses...if the need for wood is bigger than the production, fire will start. Money is the base of your economy here...no money, no buildings. You have to make research to unlock most of the buildings. Military is much better and there's a lot of different units available. It's however mostly cool in MP games (don't play them so much).

As you can see, both games are very different but both very cool imho.

[MetalDog]

Nevermind.  Posted in the wrong place.