Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and what are you doing these days thread!

[Pocus]

Hi gents,

I wish you some very good days with family, friends and some good games. If you are lucky to have some vacation, then that's even better!

I'm curious what you folk are playing these days? I'm enjoying Heat Signature, which is a nice rogue-like sci-fi 'breaching game', when you board a spaceship and do some missions. Admittedly, you don't play this game for hours before doing something else (it can be a bit repetitive), but this is a very nice game.

Also, a bit of Aurora from time to time. For whose who don't know, Aurora is harpoon mate with excel, in space. Definitively nerdy.

[JayR]

Happy New Year to you Pocus,

I just completed a long running RUS grand campaign as the Reds vs the AI. I'm trying out TEAW now, the Serbia scenario.

Great fun!

[Hobbes]

Hi Philippe, Happy New year to you and yours. I've decided to be a more pro-active lurker as the new game engine is coming soon. Very excited to see that! I'm playing Order of Battle as it's the perfect Christmas game for a fried brain.

Chris

[richfed]

Ageod's Civil War II
Order of Battle
Hearts of Iron IV

That's about all I play these days. Pretty hooked on HOI4 at the moment.

[Pocus]

HOI4, I really don't know what to think about it. I have read again and again that the AI is much lower in quality compared to HOI3, and a WW2 game without a good AI, is not that great. But I would really like to play it one day.

[lodilefty]

War in the Pacific - AE
waiting for new game engine alpha/beta.....

[Durk]

Everything AGEOD with a lot of play in End All Wars, but just starting the newest update to Commander: Europe at War.

[Citizen X]

Though still a few days till then, but Happy New Year to everybody.

PON actually.
Still a great game.

[Baris]

SC WWII War in Europe and Gal Civ 3 Crusade from nostalgia Gal Civ 2.

[PhilThib]

Too late for Xmas for me....but in advance to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

[Altaris]

Merry Christmas guys!

Re: games, if you are looking at Paradox ones, EU4 with the latest additions is by far their best game. Fantastic thru and thru. It's also on sale quite a bit (75%ish) up until the last DLC or two, so a good time to get it on discount.

Crusader Kings 2 is good as well, though EU4 is a better "game" overall, IMO. HOI4 is okay, but you need some AI mods for it to be remotely challenging in SP. It's also very deep mechanics wise, while in some ways being too light (the lack of any sort of chain of command enforcement is particularly glaring).

Strategic Command is a good series, tho I haven't tried the latest SC3 title.

[richfed]

HOI4 is okay, but you need some AI mods for it to be remotely challenging in SP. It's also very deep mechanics wise, while in some ways being too light (the lack of any sort of chain of command enforcement is particularly glaring).

Upcoming patch deals with chain of command and much more. I don't know, "everyone" seems to complain about the AI. Yes, areas of improvement are needed, but I find it very difficult to beat. Could be I am just a poor player.

[Pocus]

re HOI4: What would you recommend between Black Ice and Operation Overhaul, if AI is very important to the player? I see also there is an 'expert AI' mod mentioned.

[Altaris]

I like ExpertAI myself, but it has been about 6 months since I played it. Whatever you do, if playing SP, get some AI mod. The game is practically unplayable with vanilla AI.

[nlancier]

Happy new year gents!..

[loki100]

Happy New Year/Bliadhna Mhath Ùr

As to playing, set up a Distant Worlds game with the sort of settings that makes it just a long meander with no time pressures ... great fun to dip in and out of. Too much WiTE2 (rather dominates my spare time one way and another) and some Campaigns on the Danube

[Pocus]

Happy New Year folks! May you have great time ahead

[wrlertola]

Happy New Year to all!
Been playing CW2 and Conan Exiles which is definitely something different from my usual cup of tea along with some WitP-AE.

[Baris]

Merry Christmas guys!

Strategic Command is a good series, tho I haven't tried the latest SC3 title.

We did find SC WW1 Breakthrough fine with a pbem player from this forum but he keeps telling me Altaris mod is better. There is definitely more lore in Ageod games !

I think gameplay from WW1 breakthrough was much more detailed than in SC3. I'm more interested in WW1.

[Pocus]

Latest SC3 is very nice and much more modern in feels. It is only about the war in Europe though.

[Pocus]

Latest SC3 is very nice and much more modern in feels. It is only about the war in Europe though.

[Captain_Orso]

Merry Chris.... *dangit*

Happy New Y.... *crap*

Happy Three Kings.... *#§%}{*

Happy Hump Day!! ... *GAHHHH*




Good Day!! Everyone! It's 5:30 pm hear, and the sun is down, but in .... somewhere, the sun is just coming up, so I'm going to let the statistical average reign and just say good day to all, hope you've had a great holiday season with loved ones, and are now on a strict diets to lose all those X-mas turkey pounds

So, what have I been playing.

Ultimate General: Civil War: RTS game based vaguely on the American Civil War. Battle names are authentic... weapon names too... that's about it. It can be fun, like playing a puzzle game, but once you've figured the puzzle out, it mostly loses it's charm. PvP would probably be very challenging. Certainly not line playing the AI, but player controlled Skirmishers and Cavalry easily 75% of the winning factor in every battle for the winning side. *meh*

Witcher 3: .... .... well, not over the holidays but I finished my second run through on New Game Plus. It's certainly different from strategy games, but a blast. It's full of beautiful scenery, it's funny, exciting, touching, frustrating*, heart breaking, and sometimes very satisfying. *There are some quest where you say to yourself, I just can't win, even if you do successfully complete the quest, there are sometimes consequences just tear you up inside. Just like RL, even the best decisions can lead to disaster, and here it's mostly things that will touch you, after you've been fighting for a sympathetic NPC for a while, to have them killed in the end by circumstances outside your control anyway... it can be very gritty.

DCS: (Digital Combat Simulator) It's a flight simulator, but on a professional level, at least as far as flight models (exactly how an aircraft flies under all conditions) are concerned. So basically I learned to fly, over the last 2 1/2 years After crashing a P-51D literally hundreds of times in the first year, I've gotten fairly good. And with an Oculus Rift, it's amazing. I've never felt it in the gut like that while playing any game

There Are Billions!!: because, there's a saying in German, --Wenn's den Esel zu gut geht, geht er aufs Eis-- translation: when the jackass gets cocky, he walks out onto the ice. I'm kind of lousy at RTS games, and this is the RTS game from hell. It's a cross between Tower Defense, Civilization, World War Z, and The Walking Dead... anybody wanna buy a Steam game?

[Pocus]

They are billions is on my list, but I'm waiting for the campaign mode, because I guess the skirmish will grow old rapidly. After 3 maps, you are done.

I'm disappointed by your comments on UG:CW. I thought it would be a really cool game to try, but from what you say... A friend of mine did play it a lot and was furious against the AI regenerating troops like a high level necromancer, between each battle.

[Captain_Orso]

I think you have to play They Are Billions a few times in Survival mode to learn the buildings and what they bring and generally how to use your time wisely. The guides in the Steam Community section of TAB are important, although everybody sometimes has their own opinion and you'll probably only learn what is ultimately right through experience. If you're interested, I think this guide provides some good insight to nuances of the game many overlook: Everything you read is wrong, and here's why...

I suck at RTS'es, and TAB is certainly not my game. If you like playing Sim-City and Starcraft, you probably already have your foot in the door with TAB.

UG:CW has a balance mechanism. If you wipe out every enemy unit in a round of battle, it will affect further rounds of that battle greatly, although subsequent rounds are often using different sets of units. Generally the last round of battle uses all, or nearly all the units remaining on the battlefield, in which case, you can attack against nearly nothing.

There is a mechanism for returning a portion of casualties after a battle and you can use your reputation points to enhance this through investing in field hospitals. But there is also an auto-balancing which beefs up enemy forces before a battle so that they have at least a minimum strength so that no new battle after a great victory is a cakewalk.

So, how you manage your army, whether you consistently fill-out your brigades or leave them at about half size with mostly veterans will influence the size of the force you meet in the next battle. And if you consistently inflict heavy losses, the opposing force will generally also be somewhat greener, although there seem to be some fixed force makeups giving the enemy at least some veteran units as well. But they will inevitably scale to the size of your forces, if you are consistent.

I think if they didn't put auto-balancing and auto-scaling in, campaigns would end after just a few battles with heavy enemy losses. This keeps the campaigns going, although it can feel like you are the focal point of the enemy's entire military effort. You just have to get used to that if you play that well.

The major issues I have is that skirmisher units are really like Ranger Battalions. They are often invisible when in cover and have no issue with marching off alone to some secluded flanking position on the battlefield to hit enemy units on their flanks and rear, causing heavy casualties and great moral loss. They can also cause enemy artillery to consistently route until losses simply destroy them. Thus you can systematically whittle away at the enemy on one flank until they are so weak you can counter attack with a sweeping maneuver on that flank an roll the entire enemy army up across the battlefield, destroying every enemy brigade along the way.

I suspect if skirmisher's moral were influence by how the size of nearby enemy units compared to the size of nearby friendly units, it would look much different. I'm also certain that, if it existed, PvP would look completely different than the current PvE game.

[Pocus]

Thanks for the details Captain, much appreciated! so both TAB and UG:CW have definitively some merits, in their current state.

[Captain_Orso]

Both in their own categories, I guess.

TAB is mostly a question of preference.

UG:CW would have a great potential in PvP, but I've read they're not going to do that, unfortunately.