Age of Wonders III: Eternal Lords expansion announced

[Gusington]

It's been a while but IIRC in AoWIII you can place your units before the battle starts on the tactical map too.

[Huw the Poo]

It's been a while but IIRC in AoWIII you can place your units before the battle starts on the tactical map too.

No you can't (unless the first expansion introduced it) but if you field more than one army you can indirectly affect their placement by placing them in the appropriate hexes on the strategic map.

[Rayfer]

That would be endless legend

LOL...and that's the one I don't own!

[mikeck]

And now we come full circle. Endless legends vs fallen enchantress! Which one has more complex city building?

[Nefaro]

And now we come full circle. Endless legends vs fallen enchantress! Which one has more complex city building?

FE


EL isn't very deep as far as choices go.

[MetalDog]

FE is exactly Civ like in its choices, build times, and variety.

[FarAway Sooner]

On a certain level, I'm sure it is.  On another level, the difference in city-building conventions and the richer quests makes the game pretty refreshing for the first 40-60 hours of game play.  Ultimately, I suspect most 4x games's city expansion models are based pretty heavily on the Civ I model, although a few games (Endless Legend comes to mind as the most recent example) do introduce some interesting twists that add a lot of variety.

Where FE really falls down, as noted above, is the lack of flavor for the different factions and creatures. 

The quests are excellent, but factions and creatures are just boring to me.  I played FE a lot and like the game system, but they would've been better-served to stick with more conventional fantasy tropes than to create original ones that all blur together, IMHO.  I appreciate Brad Wardell as a game designer, and I know from his posts that he takes great personal pride in the original settings in which his games are set (e.g., Galactic Civilizations, but I find most of his settings just lack character (visually or thematically).

[mikeck]

Well, I'm looking to invest some time in a good deep fantasy 4x. Was hoping "sovereign" from matrix would be out since it has been in beta for awile but I suppose not. I played AoW3 and had fun for a bit until it occurred to me that I need not specialize cities or worry about building the "wrong" things

I have tried FE before but didnt give it a fair chance

[Martok]

On a certain level, I'm sure it is.  On another level, the difference in city-building conventions and the richer quests makes the game pretty refreshing for the first 40-60 hours of game play.  Ultimately, I suspect most 4x games's city expansion models are based pretty heavily on the Civ I model, although a few games (Endless Legend comes to mind as the most recent example) do introduce some interesting twists that add a lot of variety.

Where FE really falls down, as noted above, is the lack of flavor for the different factions and creatures. 

The quests are excellent, but factions and creatures are just boring to me.  I played FE a lot and like the game system, but they would've been better-served to stick with more conventional fantasy tropes than to create original ones that all blur together, IMHO.  I appreciate Brad Wardell as a game designer, and I know from his posts that he takes great personal pride in the original settings in which his games are set (e.g., Galactic Civilizations, but I find most of his settings just lack character (visually or thematically).

+1 to most of this post.  I'm not as harsh in my criticisms when it comes to FE:LH's "flavor" -- I'm generally satisfied with both the creature variety and degree of difference between the factions (although I can understand where you're coming from on the latter) -- but otherwise I'd say that's a fair assessment...both positive and negative. 

Well, I'm looking to invest some time in a good deep fantasy 4x.

I have tried FE before but didnt give it a fair chance

Right now, I'd say FE:LH is still the game that best fits that bill.  The newly-released Worlds of Magic is about the only other title that even approaches the same degree of depth, but even that one isn't at the same level IMHO. 

[undercovergeek]

So we have aow III, FELH, endless legends and world of magic and we're still not happy?  :'(

[Huw the Poo]

Well, only two of those are Linux compatible, so... :P

[Martok]

So we have aow III, FELH, endless legends and world of magic and we're still not happy?  :'(

*I'm* happy.  I don't pretend to speak for anyone else, however.  ;) 

[FarAway Sooner]

Sorry, the "what to build" options in Endless Legend are more limited than the other games, but Legend does some really interesting and innovative stuff with WHERE on the strategic map you build things.  You can't just expand your city whatever direction best suits your "snaking" strategy to reach a particular resource in the shortest time. 

You get major benefits from concentrating your city development within a hex of other city development, which more closely matches the way real cities development IMHO.

[mikeck]

Well, only two of those are Linux compatible, so... :P

Ok, I have to ask...what is the deal with Linux? I've seen you mention it a lot in threads asking whether the game is available in Linux. Is it an operating system like windows? I'm assuming that but not sure

If so, isn't it easier to just use windows since everything is compatable?

Anyway, just like space 4x games, each offering has something the others dont. The perfect space or fanatsy 4x is a unicorn

[MetalDog]

The perfect space or fanatsy 4x is a unicorn

And none of us is perfect and virginal enough to approach it ;)