Addicted to FRIDAY

[Pete Dero]

I will be playing Sea Power (Naval Combat in the Missile Age).

Enjoy spring !

[W8taminute]

I just discovered this amazing mod for Rome Total War Remastered.  It's called Total War: 1942 Remastered (available on the Steam Workshop) and is set in yup you guessed it, WW2. 

I've never seen a mod that integrates aircraft and armor in such an ingenious way in the Total War engine.  I highly recommend it.

[al_infierno]

Been playing through Jagged Alliance 3 for the first time since I bought it. Really digging the hell out of it, it captures the spirit of JA2 but with some streamlined mechanics and nice QOL features. It's also quite a funny game, like the OG, and it has a lot of the original characters updated into 3D splendor.

The music in the game is good, but gets a bit repetitive (as strategy soundtracks are wont to do), so I've been listening to my own music in the background. The last couple days I've been back on a folk music kick. Afroman's big First Amendment win (never thought I'd type that sentence) introduced me to his cover of Battle Hymn of the Republic, which then prompted me to download a bunch of covers of that song and Blood Upon the Risers.

In any case, since I'm playing as a small group of heavily armed mercenaries in a war-torn African country, I'm reminded of the quote from Winters in Band of Brothers: "We're paratroopers. We're supposed to be surrounded."

This is probably my personal favorite rendition:

[Jarhead0331]

I tried getting into JA3 but I sucked at it. I found the early missions too unforgiving. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong! 

[al_infierno]

I tried getting into JA3 but I sucked at it. I found the early missions too unforgiving. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong! 

So did I at first. The early missions are indeed pretty rough, since you don't have much money and you only have crappy pistols. The game just throws you into it without much guidance, so you have to have some patience and let your butt get kicked while you figure out what's what. Once you conquer the tutorial island and get the first diamond mine on the mainland -- along with some decent gear like MGs, rifles, armor, and explosives -- it starts to get a bit easier.

My main advice is to avoid stand-up fights as much as you can early on. (I know that'll be tough for you!) Instead, you should rely on surprise ambushes and guerrilla tactics as much as you can. Stealth isn't super viable in the sense of ninja-ing out and killing everyone silently, but it helps to sneak in and set up all your squadmates with overwatch on the enemies before you put in your first surprise shot -- then when the bad guys move into place, your guys automatically shoot them up. If your mercs get badly hurt, you can always retreat, heal up, and attack again -- enemies generally don't respawn.

Also, for your IMP merc, I'd recommend going heavy instead of stealthy, AKA the Jarhead Approved Build (tm). IMO Agility is the most important stat (for AP and free moves) followed by Wisdom for XP gain and Marksmanship for shootin' stuff. Health and Dexterity are nice to have too. Everything else can be handled by specialized squadmates.

[Jarhead0331]

^great advice. Thanks! I'm going to give it another look!

[Tripoli]

Damn, I missed the FRIDAY thread.  Gaming?  Probably not much gaming this week.  Some Fight Club work, but I doubt their will even be much of that. 

[Destraex]

For me it's just some COH3 and some AOEIV. I have been fascinated lately with the way AOEIV works and how so many of the civilisations have mechanics that reflect the characteristics of their real life counterparts. Whether it be the whistling arrows of the mongol horseman you can fire in 3 different types as you ride to give order buffs to an entire army or the varingian longboat re-enforcements for the macedonian late byzantine empire. If you set your spearmen to hold they change animation to lowered spears and gain distance as well as the line being impenetrable like a terrain obstacle. This means most units that are not ranged cannot touch them. You essentially have a spear phalanx.
Great for defending gaps especially early game. I think AOEIV has done a really good job in this regard. I just wonder if younger people would even appreciate it. From what I see most of them are forward looking with blinkers to the evil past.

With star citizen I am waiting for 4.7 to drop, then am intending to jump in.

Double the range at which you can attack the enemy. Not sure if the enemy can close to attack range while in spearwall though, will have to test that.

I find myself considering broken arrow again now as well. They still have 5 times the number of players compared to the WARNO player base. The politics of the cheating and the seemingly interrupted or slow development stop me though as does the claims by people of the BA guys being arrogant and defensive. But hey, you get that on the big jobs. Anybody recommend BA??