HedgeWizard Games

Stories from Men of War

2011-03-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a wee bit of Men of War: Assault Squad lately, and have discovered to my delight that this micro-heavy RTS is ripe to bursting with stories. Which is probably why I keep playing it. And why my thoughts turn towards it periodically throughout the day, often remembering some tiny, inconsequential act I committed that was: So. Bad. Ass.

These stories come about, not because there is an epic back story to the maps, or because there is some vast investment into characters or narrative. No. Rather they come about because of the little things. Most specifically, the level of detail modeled into the game.

One story in point:

A buddy and I are playing co-op on the Carentan map. We're the Allies. Towards the center of the map sits a German Flak 41, commanding a promenade with clear sight-lines down two major roads. It's in a reinforced emplacement with one MG crew and has heavy squad support, whose members seem to regenerate every 90 seconds or so. Unfortunately, there is a critical control point located nearby, and sits squarely in the range/LOS of the gun and her support crews. We can't move armor in to support capturing the point, and our squads are getting chewed to pieces. When we try to assault the gun with squads (presumably composed of men of war), they get decimated by enfilading fire along the roads. No air support (as yet).

Suddenly I remember a little game mechanic/model tidbit I picked up in the MOW:AS forums: that HE rounds directed at structures will explode on impact, but AP rounds will pierce right through it. I move a Sherman and two assault squads into position, opposite a lovely French home from the flak gun emplacement.

Immediately, a couple of German squads pour around the sides of the building to take out the tank. My own squads engage from limited cover, protecting my tank. Still, the Krauts managed to get off an AT grenade which disables the right tread on the Sherman. That's okay though, because I take direct control of the tank, load up some AP rounds, and begin firing through the house at the emplacement. After a few rounds, I've punched a nice hole through the structure and start landing rounds on the gun. I switch to HE rounds, which now pass through the building and explode on the emplacement to devastating effect. Within moments, we've destroyed the emplacement and captured the point.

I doubt the AI would have come up with that solution, even if I had put them into the right places. It was only by taking direct control of my tank that I was able to crack that particular nut. And only because the developer included a fairly detailed damage model on top of an already wild deformation model.

That modelling, coupled with the ability to dive into any one unit on the field and control them directly, wrapped in the crunchy shell of the RPG-like inventory system, lends itself to very innovative game play. These features set the stage while also providing the actors for these personal vignettes. In Company of Heroes, you actually hear "Sarge" say things like "Jesus, Conrad! Tie your fucking laces!" Because the audio cues are both more clean and sparse in MOW:AS, I can't help but interpolate my own sarge-like comments as events unfold.

I peel off a pair of riflemen from a squad in order to salvage some ammo from a tank and I hear, "Zacny! Andrich! Get out of that cozy hole of yours and find me some motherfucking .50 cal ammo!"

The fireteam rushes from cover and starts pulling gear from the still smoking hulk. Meanwhile, Zacny is muttering, "This is bullshit! Why didn't he send Sands out to get shot for a change? Why's it always gotta be us?"

Another little scene might come from my realization that my tank is out of fuel, or that my MG emplacement is running low on rounds. I grab Private Sands and send him to the rear for gear. My internal Sarge speaks up, "Sands! You're up!" The little dude runs back to the engineering truck, opens up the back, and stares dumbstruck at all the stuff he can plunder. Fuel, AP mines, AT mines, bandages, various grenades, ammo in 15 different calibers, MREs. Okay, that's all true but the MREs. I think.

In my head, I hear the buck private yell to nobody, "Anybody know what kind of ammo our machine guns take?" I feel for him, 'cause I certainly don't. But I load him up and sprint him back to the front where he hands out the candy like some gritty, Armageddon Santa. He arrives just in time to deliver the AT grenades, in advance of an incoming Puma.

Corporal Murdoch immediately seizes a grenade, advancing bravely (and solely) into the Puma's path. Time stretches out as he runs from his cover. His mates all yell, "Nooo!" but stand transfixed, watching as the turret swivels slowly towards their brave, little rabbit. He looks back over his shoulder at the sarge, who nods in acknowledgment. He lobs the grenade at the base of the vehicle...

...the charge explodes, the vehicle is disabled, and Corporal Murdoch has been spread across the battlefield, the result of withering fire from the Puma. But his sacrifice was not in vain. No. He bought the Allies - at least - 15 seconds before the next wave of Stugs, Panzers and an endless supply of grenadiers move into our indefensible position. We cheer his sacrifice, applaud the resupply effort, and then sigh as we see the punctual arrival of more armor than even God has ever seen.

We know we are going to lose because this game rides on a damned, dirty, cheap AI who aggressively punishes you with vast numbers of enemies. But dammit if she doesn't tell a good a story.

The Oldenhaller Contract: the setup

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

November 6th, 2010. The start of a new WFRP campaign.

Jake and Cory show up, and we begin discussing the system. I give a brief overview of the dice mechanic and how the relativistic/abstract combat map work. We begin making characters, and Dale arrives toting his newly created Human Solider Oldric. Over the space of the next 90 minutes, this is what emerges:

Oldric is a Human soldier, recently released from the Imperial Armies. He suffered from a bad concussion during training, an event which triggered a inborn desire to join the ranks of Sigmar as an Initiate. After his discharge, he receives a letter from his Uncle, Albrecht Oldenhaller inviting him to the city of Nuln. His offer: work for his uncle for 1 year, and he will be sponsored into the Cult of Sigmar at the great temple in Nuln.

Cael is Nin, a High Elf sword master from the great land Ulthuan. He is incredibly young for his race, but yet like all defenders of the Tower, he carries a magnificently forged greatsword of Hoeth. Seemingly sent to guide a scholar to the city of Nuln, his mission is abruptly aborted but he endeavors to travel to the city regardless. He is either moving towards some end, or fleeing from something in his past.

Young Friedeger Liebengut is an apprentice to Magister Egan Von Brandolf, an Imperial Wizard of the Grey Order. He has recently completed his long initial training in the capital city of Altdorf. Although Friedeger questions whether his path will lead to becoming an Acolyte of the Order, he nevertheless continues to follow the requests of his master. As yet unsure what the final test of his apprenticeship will be, he has been sent to Nuln to await further instruction. His standing orders: to investigate any potential threat to the Empire, and report back to his master or else where appropriate, take action.

The players decide the party will have met on a boat to Nuln, and together they select the party sheet: Glory Hounds.

Oldric wishes to cover himself in the glory of Sigmar and will take on whatever tasks necessary to join the righteous ranks of the Holy Defenders of the Empire. Cael is destined to glory as a sword master, wishing only to apply his blade to those endeavors which meet his criteria of demonstrating loyalty and honor. Herr Liebengut wishes to bask in the glory earned from mastering the winds of magic, though his interest in artefacts of an arcane nature could prove to be a fatal undoing, or an opportunity to gather more glory to himself.

The players decide that Oldric has convinced them to come with him as he presents himself to his well-to-do uncle.

Oldric's memory of his uncle are fuzzy at best. He knows that in the years prior to his own father's death, his father and uncle grew more distant from each other. He always had chalked it up to the fact that his uncle left the quiet town he grew up in and started a seemingly successful business in the city of Nuln. Still, the opportunity to be sponsored into the cult of Sigmar, nevermind in the very great temple where the Arch-lector sits is beyond passing-up.

Cael is dubious about the opportunities presented by Herr Oldenhaller, having suspicions he's nothing more than an up jumped fence or criminal. Still... he means to avoid the Elf district for as long as possible and perhaps he can find an opportunity to demonstrate his worth. Besides, something intrigues him about the other human, Herr Liebengut, which he can't quite place his finger on. He reluctantly offers to escort Oldric and Friedeger to the manse, and his sense of loyalty and honor demand he fulfill his promise.

Friedeger is intrigued by the idea of putting his skills to something practical, and combined with his rapidly thinning purse, decides an opportunity to earn additional coin while waiting for word from Magister Egan is worth investigating. He is also curious about the motives and story of the High Elf, whom he can't quite read. Still, he suspects the story proffered by the Elf isn't entirely truthful and it might be a lark to use his skills at intelligence gathering and subterfuge to get to the real story.

With that decided, they begin play...

--

Up next: Episode I: So... this is Nuln.

Returning to Nuln

2010-11-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

The year is 1986. I am 11 years old. The world of RPGs is not new to me, but I have never run an adventure or campaign for my friends before. I have, thus far, always been a player.

I work on the weekends for my father. He owns dozens of properties scattered across the North County of San Diego, and my allowance comes from the various things I do: mowing lawns, replacing sprinklers, patching holes in walls, painting, and so on.

I have $80 dollars in my pocket. A princely sum. I am standing in the local GameKeeper, eyeing the racks of D&D modules. There, wedged into the display is what can only be described as a large tome of awesome.

I know it is a tome of awesome because it features a tattooed dwarf with a shockingly orange mohawk splitting a goblin down it's center with a massive two-headed battle axe. Center stage is a freakish creature with his own black and white mohawk laying into a decidedly gleeful warrior. In the background, a wizard is preparing to hurl a fireball, and the wrap-around cover art reveals a horde of greenskins about to descend onto the party.

That is some seriously awesome shit to bask in as an eleven year old. I open the cover. The first thing that hits me is page upon page of careers. "Careers?" I ask myself. "What about classes? Where is the fighter? Where is the thief?" Intrigued, I thumb deeper into the book.

I come to the GM's section. The one detailing insanities. Hmmm. That's cool. Deeper.

Spells. This section is replete with the standard tropes of fantasy RPGs, presided over by the most popular and avuncular of spells: the fireball. But what is this next section? Spells for Alchemy. Necromancy. Daemonology.

And look at this! A thoroughly detailed bestiary, with wonderful pencil art accompanying each of the entries. And the art isn't limited to the bestiary, but also liberally sprinkled through the book. Pages of art depicting adventurers in desperate situations, stunning color works of haunting cities, ominous castles and dark woods. The art definitely vibrates with a grim and gritty tone, which matches the description on the back of the book, "A grim and gritty world of perilous adventure."

Paging further, I come across the gazeteer of the Old World. Pages and pages of what the Empire is like, who its inhabitants are, what Sea Elf communities are like. I think to myself, "This is a whole world detailed here."

And then, The Oldenhaller Contract. A quick and dirty introductory adventure featuring a cult that worships the lord of decay. I am smitten. Somehow, I return home empty handed, but my mind is bent always on acquiring my new precious. The careers seem so cool, somehow so... mature. The descriptions of the dwarfs and elves were so detailed and unlike what I'd read in the D&D books. And above all, the images of the plagued cities and dark creatures which inhabited its pages push to the front of my mind.

I want this game. This will be the system I learn to GM.

The following weekend, my friend and I return to the GameKeeper. I can't lay my $60 down fast enough. Meanwhile the clerk is taking forever bagging my new, beautiful hardback baby. I can't wait to get it home so we can start making characters, which we do immediately once we're at the table. We also do it wrong, but we don't care. We have a newly minted Human Gamekeeper to put through his paces.

We stumble through the introductory adventure, committing numerous mechanics fouls in the process. I learn quickly that it's a perfect first adventure for exposing both the mechanics and the setting. Still, over the months and eventually years, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay becomes "the RPG that Court runs." We continue to play D&D, as well as Palladium, Rifts, Superheroes, Boot Hill, Gamma World, and countless other RPGs. I even GM a long-running Rolemaster campaign. But I always come back to Warhammer for its atmosphere, and well, because it's truly my first RPG love. PCs die, plots are uncovered and no one ever gets the girl.

Over the next decade and a half, I run Warhammer for numerous friends, and each and every time someone new comes to the table, they first set foot in the City of Nuln, along the river Reik to contract with an old fence by the name of Albrecht Oldenhaller.

Fast forward to November 2010. Fantasy Flight Games is now the developer of the WFRP license, under the watchful eye of ~~Sauron~~ Games Workshop. My review of it is here (written almost one year ago shortly following its initial release). Suffice to say, it's a gorgeous instantiation of Warhammer, but remaining at its core is the setting: one-part Tolkien as viewed through a dirty lens, one-part Cthulu mythos meets renaissance noir mashup, layered with three parts desperation.

This month, I once again don the mantle of GM for some friends and their attendant characters. New friends, new characters, new system, same Old World. And what better way to introduce the world of Warhammer to a group of newbs, but by relying on my old friend The Oldenhaller Contract?

Dale, Cory, Jake. Welcome to the city of Nuln.

--

Up next... our first outing.

(In addition to blogging here about our sessions, I'm hoping that the party will collaboratively document the contents of the adventures here.)

I am better than Mozart

2010-07-20T13:34:00.001-07:00

I have lived longer than Mozart. Tada!

I am totally excited...

2009-01-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

There aren't many games slated for 2008 that I am genuinely excited about, much less interested in. However, Dawn of War II is very promising, given Relic's promised integration and updating of the CoH engine. The public beta goes up via steam in a couple of weeks!

Also, for folks who love TBS (that would be turn-based strategy, not the TV channel), Stardock is at it again with a new IP covering the fantasy arena. More info here. Galactic Civilizations II (and the myriad expansions and updates) really was quite incredible and the info I've seen on Elemental looks delicious!

I am also really excited to find some time to play some of the titles that have been lingering in the back catalogue:

Fable II - hadn't gotten very far in the main quest
Fallout 3 - likewise
Sins of a Solar Empire - I've been hankering to dive back into this
Space Rangers 2 - horizon's broadening project for me, and possible springboard for Starquest design material.

Although I have had an unprecedented amount of time to play Left 4 Dead in the last couple of weeks (12 whole hours in the last 14 days!), I am starting to miss sinking deep into a strategy game. Something like Elemental, but since that isn't out, I have Civilization 4 and GalCiv II.

On the table-top games front, the computer-board hybrid Star Saga One has been calling me. What a great narrative experience there; and I have never played through Star Saga Two. Somewhere in there I would love to get in a game of Battlestations!

Never Leave a Man Behind...

2009-01-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

...Unless you are within spitting distance of a safehouse, you're the last man, and there's a smoker out there. Somewhere.

How many times have I visited Wellmet?

2008-12-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have been having the dreams again.

The first time occurred almost twenty years ago. They are no less vivid now than they were then, though the frequency has changed. Initially they lasted weeks. When they reappeared, it was months. Now I suspect, it might take years for the cycle to complete, before they resume their dormancy.

While the dreams are never exactly the same; there are always variations, the core truth behind them is constant. Somewhere beyond the galactic fringe is a force bent on devouring the core. In order for me to reveal this foe, I must track down the myths and legends surrounding the great explorer Vanessa Chang.

In my journeys beyond the boundary, I encounter a myriad of sights and experiences: green aliens dancing around what appear to be coconut trees along a pink lake; a mysterious cult whose ancient secrets can tap into the vast potential of the mind; a planet that unfolds itself into the shape of a man. With every new encounter, I move closer to the answers.

Each time the dream comes I inhabit the mantle of an other: a brash pilot who violates the orders of his superiors; a xenobiologist renowned for his work and admired for his intellectual curiosity; the youngest in a syndicate family; an acolyte bound by his order to test his faith. Each time I have lived out full lives deep in the vastness of space.

This time is no exception. I am now the newest in a long line of ancestors who have ventured out, far from their home. Searching for the stone. Searching for the answers.

My ship is ready. And like every time before, my first stop is the planet Wellmet.

Company of Heroes + The Big Picture

2008-10-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here's what I want... a strategy layer bolted on top of Company of Heroes. Something between Rome: Total War, Rise of Nations and Star Wars: Empire at War.

Overland map of some region in Europe; detailed train routes and roads will help connect up supply lines, regions offer the materials (ammunition, fuel, manpower, etc.) You build your units on the main strategy map, and those are what you bring into the battlefield. This would probably be managed in a turn-based environment.

You can support your RTS battles with reinforcements that are drawn from bordering territories, and/or through a reinforcement mechanism akin to Sudden Strike (you own a certain portion of control points on the map which allow you to call in reinforcements on a timed schedule). Better still is have the reinforcement capability enabled or enhanced by your supply lines. If they're cut just before a battle, you lose or have degraded reinforcement abilities.

Units carry experience over from battle to battle - and thus you should be able to retreat from an entire region/map.

This would be a strictly two player affair, so there would have to be an increase in those style maps for the RT battles. The overland map wouldn't have to be overly complex - I am thinking of something contained - perhaps 12-20 areas which equates to perhaps 25-30 2v2 region maps.

You build directly on the strategic map - but such building follows the SW: Empire at War - you have the option of building certain specific buildings (defensive emplacements, AT batteries, etc.) which appear in standard plug-in locations on the map. The defender has the bonus of inhabiting those fortifications at the start, while the other player must assault a fixed emplacement. This requires use of different tactics. In cases where both sides attempt to take a region in the same turn, it would result in a more standard rts format.

You could open up the specialty options and make them more like the card system in Rise of Nations. You have a certain number of cards for artillery, airborne, and all the various special powers which you purchase via supply control and then can deploy on the strategic map. Some regions may improve those powers, give powers, enable naval bombardments, etc.

How's that for a start? There are a thousand ideas percolating on this...

Planning and Executing Tactical Operations in RTS Games

2008-10-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: I love real-time strategy games. I have another confession: I suck at real-time strategy games. I attribute my underwhelming performances to a combination of 1: not wanting to memorize the perfect build-order, and 2: although my brain can multi-task the hell out of the game, the ability to actually micromanage the units to the necessary extent escapes me.

It is a common enough reality in the RTS genre that the player who micromanages his units the most wins the battle or game, that one could be excused in thinking that this is by design. Certainly the problem is compounded when units have on-demand special powers which can significantly alter the outcome for players who use them in the appropriate instance or time. Some players obviously relish this, particularly those that suffer from some wild combination of ADD and schizophrenia and who can click mouse buttons at speeds hitherto unseen by all but God himself.

Many developer studios have recognized this and throw in a variety of features and AI designs that promise to mitigate the click-festivity of the game to a greater or lesser degree. And yes, I just made up that word, but it's apt. I particularly applaud the work done in games like Kohan and Company of Heroes where attention is paid to bringing out greater tactical fidelity (flanking attacks, terrain and environmental modifiers, etc) without adding needlessly complex processes to engage in them. CoH deserves special attention too, because your squads perform with a greater sense of autonomy than in most any other RTS (though sometimes I am saddened by their propensity for diving for cover in open spaces when there is a nice green-cover obstacle like a tractor six more pixels away.) Still, it's not enough.

When I play these games, I want to feel like an armchair general (or commander, or lieutenant, sergeant, or what have you). I want to coordinate a frontal assault while simultaneously sending a squad in to flank the enemy. I want to bring my armies down to the doors of hell for a concentrated attack, without having to baby-sit my bomber. What I want are queues.

Queuing orders isn't a totally new idea. My own best exposure was in the less-than-premier title Earth 2150. You could select units, record a queue of actions for them to take, and then select a next set of units and record their queue, and so on. You would then unleash that queue with the single push of a button. Imagine coupling something like that with the function in Supreme Commander whereby units of differing speeds would coordinate pace to arrive at the same time.

In a game like CoH, I could queue up my assault; bringing my tanks in to breach the southern wall and grab the enemy's attention, while having my foot squads move-in from the East to reign fire down on the back lines. Meanwhile, I could babysit my sniper, moving him stealthily into position to take out soft targets when the assault begins. Once he's in position, I hit the "go" command, and voila! Instant carnage!

With queueing, instead of micro-ing my units into position and losing the view of the battlefield as I frantically try to bring all of the appropriate units into line, I can focus on using those special powers to better conduct my operations. I am free to address the contingencies that come up en-route to execution without losing site of the plan.

Another bonus: you're on a minor defensive action, but want to move to the offense. Instead of trying to lasso a bunch of units in the firefight and possibly grabbing squads/units you don't want and then having to sort them out, you've already set your plan and only those units in the plan will move out, and the remaining units will continue their present orders.

I am not sure why more developers haven't (pardon the pun) cued-in on this feature; it seems a natural extension for the genre, and provides real planning power to the player. Certainly it beats the old mass-em-up-and-go tactic that frenetic games tend to devolve into. Of course, those hyper-aware uber-clickers will still be ruling the roost. After all, they can record plans that much quicker in the heat of the battle. But at least, the coordinating and babysitting requirements are reduced when you can plan/record at any time for any groups of units.

Thoughts? What other features do you think will put more power in the hands of the RTS player?

Gaming in the Coming Economy

2008-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Given the turmoil in the markets, folks are eyeing their pocketbooks and thinking about ways to conserve money. Certainly my family has become a little more cautious about how we spend our money, and we're looking to tighten further. Following on the heels of Elysium's article concerning his majestic gaming spending-sprees, I started to wonder how folks are eyeing the coming financial storm, and whether it would influence their purchasing habits.

Outside of my teens and early 20's, I've considered myself a discriminating purchaser of games. Perhaps not to other's eyes, but the games I've laid cash down for were only those that I had vetted in some way. Usually this meant scouring the interwebs for juicy demos (thanks Fileplanet!) or doing a modicum of research. Ultimately I played a lot of demos.

In recent years, however, I've realized that I really didn't have the time to play through half of the games I was interested in. So I began confining myself to a more narrow set of games. And now, as someone working hard in the middle of a transition career who is also a new father, I have even less time.

Couple that reality with the fact that our income has dropped considerably (the wife is in Grad School), I am beginning to eye the coming nuclear (pronounced new-clear) disaster of an economy with a judicious eye. We have to reign in spending. Cut back. Weed out the unnecessary. But... aren't games necessary?

Damn tootin' they are!

In the last year, I've purchased ten games for my Mac, PC and Xbox 360 combined. I have two more on order: Fable II and Fallout 3. Looking at the budget, I am thinking of dropping Fable. Further, I am going to narrow that ten down to something on the order of four games for 2009. Throw in one boardgame, and potentially one or two RPG books (very likely the Game of Thrones RPG from Green Ronin), and that adumbrates the extent of my gaming acquisitions for 2009.

Granted, some of the games I purchased this last year were on the order of $9.99 to $20.00, more than a few fell in the $50 - $60 range. My savings will be on the order of $300 dollars for the year. Added to my reduction in board gaming, and to a lesser extent, RPG resources and accessories, and my gaming reduction should be much closer to $500-600 dollars. Again, throw in peripherals and the other myriad gaming tidbits we enjoy acquiring and that savings increases further.

Yes, that means no Ion drum kits for RBII. No new guitar or drum kit for RB II either. Add to the fact that, as Elysium mentions in his article, we are at the yearly apex of delicious gaming, and that prospect becomes tougher to swallow. I am debating ponying up for a Gamefly subscription, but to be honest, given my decreased free-gaming time, I find it more appealing to limit myself to games I really want and that I know I will then complete.

So - how about you? How does your perception of the new economy affect your game purchasing habits? And if you are planning on cutting back, how will you decide which games qualify?

Mini RB2 Review

2008-09-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

I finally had a chance to spin up Rock Band 2 this weekend. Although I didn't have the time to delve too deeply, I was able to work through the first couple of nightclubs across all of the instruments.
I love the fact that single player is conducted in the World Tour mode, and that you can build your entire band and switch your instrument as you play through. This obviates the need of logging out and then back in with another performer, thereby having to play through all of the same songs but on a different instrument. Here, you can tackle any song as any instrument and the rewards you receive are shared as a band overall and not just the performer.

So far I have really enjoyed the songs - they seem a little tighter and better selected. The tougher songs (the ones with a lot of frills and fingering) are shorter, and they nailed the more interesting phrasings more accurately so that they're fun to play. Of course, I've only played a handful of the new songs (the mystery lists will also pull from the RB1 and DL content as well).

I found it interesting that, of the couple of songs I encountered that I don't care for in listening terms, they were actually fun to play in the game.

It should be noted that I am not particularly good at any of the parts; I can't sing very well and my throat tires easily, I am stuck on Medium guitar and drums because I just can't seem to add that extra finger or nail the bass beat when they come so fast and furiously.

However, I think with RB I will make an effort to take it to the next level. I was able to complete a handful of songs for guitar on hard, as well as on bass (though bass tends to be an easier instrument overall). There's no way I can touch Hard drums - though perhaps with some work in the new Drum Trainer mode I can get there. And singing? Fuhgedaboudit.

GalCiv 2 = Way Bacon Rad!

2008-09-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Narratives like this are precisely what makes GalCiv II so thoroughly awesome.
I have a deep hankering to kick off a game - but sadly I do not have the time. I will have to game vicariously through this blog.

Tide of Iron... coming to XBL!

2008-08-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

I just saw a posting indicating that Fantasy Flight Games has licensed a version of Tide of Iron to be developed for Xbox Live!
Tide of Iron is one of my favorites, and doesn't see nearly enough plays largely because finding an opponent is tricky (the spouse doesn't care for straight-up war games) and the play time on the middle to large scenarios can be quite lengthy. This should solve both of those issues.
News here.

Working? Playing?

2008-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have a gajillion projects that I am working on. Or rather, I should say, I want to be working on. But here's what's on my plate:

Writing a mega Warhammer Fantasy RPG adventure/campaign/sourcebook. This is kind of large because I am taking the core system, but putting it into my own setting. That setting is largely the background for my (once upon a time) novel, but tweaked to bring it in line with WFRP. That means the inclusion of the WFRP races, the gods, magic, etc. The places are mine, the feeling will be mine (with equal dashes of GRRM, Cthulu mythos and WFRP). Essentially, I didn't want to be tied to the Empire and its neighboring states, though I am debating putting my "world" in the same arena... so perhaps there might be references to the Empire, Bretonnia, etc. Not sure yet.
Finishing Starquest! This one is hard because I don't have the time to ramp up on working on it - what is required at this stage is a re-work of most (all?) of the cards, as well as creating some original content and new layouts. In short it is huge, and it requires me revisiting and familiarizing myself with What Has Come Before.
Design-wise I am still drawn to completing StrategyX (no real title yet) - a strategy boardgame with a rudimentary AI controlling NPCs. Every week I cogitate on some aspect of this and immediately begin seeing ways of implementing something new, or envisioning how a card will look, etc.
I have some ideas of augmenting existing games too. For instance, adding missions and planet build mechanics to Race for the Galaxy.
In addition to the game mechanics, I have a host of short stories kicking around in the old noggin.

As for playing, I have a number of things I revolve around:

Company of Heroes: haven't played much since moving to the mac, but this is a great game, and I am hoping to get a robust mp game going soon hence its inclusion on this list.
GalCiv II. I am daunted by this one. It is epic and takes a long time. But it's so worth it. I haven't played a game in months. Easily.
NWN 2. This is the one I have been assuaging my RPG desires with of late. In fact, it is really the only game I've sat down and played for more than 10 minutes at a stretch. At this point, I am lucky to average an hour a week. I am still covering ground I originally did while in the PC environment.
Star Saga One and Two. Never really played two, but I am craving to dive deep into these. What great interactive fiction! Part of the reason why I haven't taken the plunge yet is 1. I've been working on getting a working copy of the map from One, which I just completed!, and 2. I kind of want to go through it with Kate... it's something that we can do when she's 4 or 5... but I don't want to wait that long... hmmmm.

In addition to all of the above, I would love to:

Get a War of the Ring quickstart going and play it
Civ IV - 360 or bootcamp? I have the PC version... and I am tempted... but then I should just play GalCiv... but Civ IV is MP too... only I don't know any players.
Write and play a RoleMaster 1 off.
"" Space Master 1 off.
Once Green Ronin delivers ASOIF RPG I want to write and play all kinds of goodness.
Revisit Fallout 1 & 2
Revisit Planescape Torment with the new screen improvements.
Tactical shooter? Rainbow Six Vegas? Ghost Recon on the 360?
For some reason I have Star Wars Empire at War for the Mac. Have never played...
Maybe roll up some Gamma World characters and have a 1 off.

Maybe I should focus on working out, and actually pick up my guitar and practice...

I am a dork...

2008-07-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

As most people who know me will confirm, I am a gamer. It is just a single point in the scatter diagram of hobbies and activities that I enjoy, but it is a prominent point, and one that I try to enjoy regularly. With the arrival of Katherine Anne and studying for my PMP, there has been a serious decline in my free time, but over the last week, I've had the opportunity to indulge a little.

The easiest stuff for me to slide into those odds minutes of free time are electronic games; xbox 360 (the Civ Revolutions demo and Penny Arcade's adventure) or now on my shiny 24" iMac. I bootcamped (I have dubbed that a verb) Vista so that I can play my old favorites like GalCiv II and Company of Heroes. In fact, I managed to throw up a quick skirmish map of CoH - bumped the settings up way beyond what my old rig could hande, and woah... that game is both awesome and now gorgeous!

However, my true love is Roleplaying Games, or RPGs. Sure, I can hit those up electronically too - Mass Effect recently, and I nabbed a copy of the Mac version of Neverwinter Nights 2 (which runs like butter on this system as opposed to my old Windows machine). But really, nothing holds a candle to the old PnP forms - pen and paper. In no small part because I really enjoy reading the systems and writing the adventures.

Anyway, I have been JONESING for some serious RPG goodness. I appreciate the streamlined play of a boardgame iteration like Descent's Road to Legend expansion or the space equivalent Battlestations, but it doesn't quite scratch the same itch. I recently acquired digital copies of old games I used to run as a tween and young adult. Games with names that hum with power. Names like: GammaWorld. Star Frontiers. Warhammer. Warhammer 40k. Rifts. Rolemaster. Okay, maybe not that last one. But damnit, those crit charts were pure awesome! Since I also have a deep, abiding love for space opera, I nabbed copies of the core sourcebooks for SpaceMaster too. Crits in Space!

The problem is this: I have no one to play with. Sure, I ponied up some ducats for a few copies of Fantasy Grounds a couple of years ago (for the uninitated, it is a badass virtual tabletop environment, which when combined with a service like Skype allows you to play with friends countless eons away) - but all the tools in the world won't bring folks to the table.

Okay - maybe I don't need players... I can still enjoy drafting an epic sourcebook with maps and adventure hooks galore. But for which system? I don't have time to stay current or otherwise manage all of those systems - I need to pick one. My fallback might typically be the latest version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay... afterall, it is one of my absolute favorite settings, and my brain has retained much of the system despite all the years. But oh noes! What is this? A treasured developer has been granted the license for my absolute all time favorite settings ever?? Green Ronin is publishing a system for George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (AKA Game of Thrones) series?? And what is this? They have produced a mini start kit pdf to download... I must check that out.

Okay, I checked it out and it is all kinds of cool. So now I want to start using that system. Because the world is vivid, gritty and alive. Because the system is smooth, streamlined and wicked quick. Because it is the beautiful, new bike on the block and I have to ride it!

New problem: the book is done, but they aren't releasing until October! I suppose that just gives me more time to work on bringing Kate to the PnP RPG darkside... ;)

Compelling Features: Ground Control

2008-05-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today's compelling games/features entry is going to cover both aspects of the series across two entries. The first up is: Ground Control. Click below to keep reading:

I am going to cut to the chase on this one. No mini-type review beyond: it's an RTS that didn't get nearly as much attention as it deserved. Here's what it did very well:

It made artillery interesting. By itself, the artillery units were slow moving and had very limited LOS. This required you to have a quick scout unit out in front of your advancing line to spot targets. The shells fired at a steep trajectory, giving an astute player the ability to move the targets before the massive, concussive blasts rained down on his precious units. Lordy help the player whose units were caught in the devastating impact of two artillery units firing simultaneously.
Your units mattered. Why did they matter? Because they were all you got. You would select a loadout before heading into a level, and you had to work hard to keep everyone alive. If you lost your arty units - that's it. If you lost your air cover - that's it. This forced the players to be a little more careful, and it rewarded good tactical thinking over the standard rush type tactics of other RTS games.
Armor was represented properly. I don't mean there was an accurate representation of armored units since this was, after all sci-fi, rather as in our real world situations, armored units had weakness. Flank and rear attacks were critical in overcoming armored units, again, leading to better tactical play.
You know what? The wiki page I linked to has all the reasons there under Gameplay. Go read it. It includes friendly fire (a difficult strategic choice in development) and squad level control. Let me mention that last one again: squad level control. It is the way of the future. Good developers have already learned this, and it's trickling down into the masses.

I am going to save any analysis on GC for after the next entry.

Next on the docket: Kohan (particularly Ahriman's Gift).

Okay. This absolutely has to be one of the best RTS games of all time, and it is without a doubt on my list of top 10 games of all time. They did so much right... all the way from the clean UI, gorgeous, colorful graphics, up to the robust tactical combat system. In fact, just thinking about this game has got me hankering to load 'er back up. So - what went well here?

Economy and build micromanagement significantly reduced. Instead of placing each building, the players start off with a town - a single object on the map. In order to improve or change the focus of your economy, you just determine what building to add to the town, and voila! If you need to focus on gold production, you invest in building a bank. To expand your sphere, you can send out settler units to create a new town (which had to be outside of a certain zone of your 1st town), or you could attack neutral or enemy towns and gain control of those. To improve your town, you paid the resources and it would upgrade into a city, and later a citadel. With each upgrade, the economic powers increased, and defenses improved. In conjunction with the inherent defenses, your town would defend itself. Anytime enemies approached within the town's zone of control, it would dispatch a militia host. And of course, you could improve these auto militia with better armor/weapons.

At the touch of a button, you could see a list of all of your towns, queuing upgrades on the fly. You didn't have to search around the map for a specific building to click on to upgrade. And thanks to the auto militia, you didn't have to worry about building and placing defenses, or whether your units staged nearby would engage attackers if they somehow escaped the zone of detection.
Zone of Supply/Control: The introduction of a useful, but elegant system of zones of supply and control was incredible. Your towns generated a Zone of Supply (ZOS), which would increase in circumference as you upgraded the town. Your units would only auto-heal themselves while in a ZOS (and only if they weren't engaged in combat). The ZOS would be negated while enemy units were sieging your town. Thanks to the experience component (see below), there was a strong incentive to keep your companies intact, which meant retreating them to within the ZOS to recoup their losses. You could extend your ZOS by building remote forts, which had the added benefit of deploying militia in their own zone of control (useful for chokepoints!).

Each company/town generated a Zone of Control (ZOC), which if it intersected with an enemy ZOC - it would engage. You could alter the size of your ZOC by the formation your companies were in, allowing you to squeeze by a fortified defender to strike behind their lines of control and supply.

What I think is the first, obvious benefit of this system is a lack of micromanagement. Most RTS to this day do not incorporate ideas of supply, and when they do, they can be kludgy or impractical. This instantiation was clean, you didn't have to manage it, and it provided a real, substantial benefit. Often, supply units in other games (Earth 2150, Sudden Strike, etc.) resolved the issue whereby units ran out of ammo. Realistic - but not fun as it killed the pacing and required heavy mico. I can't recall the game, but there was a fantasy/medieval RTS whereby the archers, instead of running out of arrows, by being in the ZOS of the supplying unit would fire faster. Still, it required you to micro the supply unit to gain the best effects and ultimately took your attention from the tactics.

Morale, Formations and Tactical Control: The model for morale was also fairly simple, but effective. In addition to overall HP, each company had a morale bar. As it took damage, it would lose morale. Different types of damage would result in a greater or lesser loss of morale. Losing the company's captain or Kohan would result in losing a massive amount of morale. Once the morale bar was empty, the units remaining in the company would route to the nearest safe harbor and would be uncontrollable by the player for a short period of time following. The decision to flee before your company routed was important to preserve crucial units, it allowed you to control them immediately after arriving at their destination, and perhaps most important, to preserve experience. So long as one unit survived, the company would retain the experience it had earned. And the greater the experience, the greater their powers, including a buff to their morale. Another trick to reducing unit morale was to flank. Did I say flank...?

Before delving further, it makes sense to understand how companies work. Each company was individually composed by the player. This wiki entry explains: "The main military unit in KIS is the company. Each company is led by a Captain, has four front line units, and can have up to two different support units. The units available for company creation depend on the components in the settlement where the company is being recruited. [...] A company's support units and Kohan can provide additional modifiers, affecting attack strength, move speed, defense and other. Once a company engages in combat, each unit will fight individually. As long as a single unit survives combat, the company can eventually resupply to full strength [Again - with full experience intact. -ed]^."It continues: "Units in KIS are divided into six categories: infantry, cavalry, archer, specialty, support, and Hero elements. The first four categories can be both front line and support troops, while the fifth may only occupy support unit slots." The ability to configure your companies, and have them be truly meaningful compositions and not merely an eye-candy feature, provided a great deal of tactical depth. Do you try to preserve your frontline longer by adding a healing support figure, or do you opt instead to load up on a fireball slinging magus to hit certain units hard? Obvious unit counters made sense - having a spear infantry frontline was crucial in countering cavalry units. A full complement of archers would rain death down on slow moving infantry and could otherwise reach support units.

So back to flanking and formations: the facing of the units was crucial, as companies striking along the flank or rear would do substantially more damage, especially if by striking at the rear you could take out the captain or Kohan, you could route the enemy quickly. The formations would determine both their projected ZOC size and shape, as well as their facing. A company in column formation could move much more quickly across the map (speed and defensive capability were altered by terrain modifiers), but their offensive and defensive stats would decay while in that formation. In addition, a columned company would have a narrow ZOC, so you could in effect squeak them by an enemies control area to avoid an engagement. The standard Line formation focused on dealing and absorbing heavy damage, but movement was significantly hindered and you were left open to flanking. Good tactical decisions depended on striking the right balance between speed and capabilities - all determined by natural formations and facing.

Finally, one more element adding to tactical control was the decision to allow a company to entrench in their position. Anytime a company was left alone for a period of time, they would entrench. Their ZOC would extend slightly, and they would get a modest buff to their defensive values. Therefore, anytime a unit crossed their ZOC, they would engage. Upon winning, they would return to their entrenchment (so long as the player didn't intervene). Left even longer, and they would eventually fortify which resulted in a much larger defensive buff. The decision to fortify could be a crucial one, especially in the face of superior numbers or more experienced units. By adding engineer support units to a company you could reduce the time to entrench/fortify - which made for an interesting choice when determining company composition.
Neutrals. Finally, there was a fun aspect to exploring the map: neutrals (or what Warcraft eventually came to call Creeps). Neutral towns, bandits and a host of various creatures including very powerful dragons peppered each map (random or otherwise). They would grow in strength (to a degree) as the game progressed, and by defeating the lairs, you could gain loads of money, resources, or even the occasional Kohan to add to a company. Neutral towns could be taken over, thereafter allowing the player to build units of that type (this worked when controlling your enemy's towns as well).

So - after that huge Kohan lovefest, what do we have:

Provide a framework wherein real tactical decisions can and should be made. In both games you needed to scout and use spotters to effectively use your units and fully realize your plans. That need was born out of two components: A) The environment and Fog of War played a significant role in understanding the battlefield. B) Units mattered because they weren't merely expendable stats - experienced units were worth keeping and one couldn't simply just build more equivalent units (either because you simply couldn't build ala GC, or because you needed to retain that experience in order to match an experienced opponent).

Facing may not be critical in the sense that your units are "blind" to their rear, but gaining attack buffs (or the converse for the target) for units attacking or surrounding units provides a level of realism and tactical control that allows smart players to do more than churn uber units or follow a strict build hierarchy. This does force some micromanagement on the part of the player, but the extent of requiring the player's eyes and hands-on the units can be alleviated by having smart unit AI and through providing a powerful and clean UI. And, to be honest, of all the things player's tend to find most enjoyable, commanding units in battle is more exciting than placing building structures and clicking on upgrade buttons.

Having a supply system, one that is easy to understand, elegantly implemented and worthwhile gives the players something to do beyond killing units. Make strikes at supply lines useful and interesting beyond a temporary deduction in a player's economy. In KAG, there were times when you needed to wipe out a particularly noxious company. The best method was to flank and surround that unit, while also sending a token force to eliminate supply so that it couldn't heal immediately in between waves of attacks. Eliminating supply shouldn't be easy, it shouldn't be the de facto plan, and it shouldn't totally cripple the player. I think Kohan met all of those, but going forward, I will have to consider other ways in which supply can be implemented. [One quick idea is to adjust the the national bonus from Rise of Nations whereby units on the home territory gained bonuses. If a player could somehow eliminate the supply providing unit/city before attacking, they can level the playing field for an assault).

Morale is a very real quantifier on the real field of battle, but so often it gets neglected in the game translation, or the morale system is overly complex. The system in Kohan was nice precisely because it was easy, made sense, and didn't deduct from the other considerations of managing the theatre of war. (Once again, Company of Heroes did a great job of instituting a simple Morale feature whereby units under withering fire would become pinned. The player would receive realistic auditory signals, the visual cues were well done, the effects were logical, they made an impact without being overly powerful, and the player could alleviate the effect by ordering an immediate retreat. Battle for Middle Earth had an interesting morale system whereby units would cower from certain epic enemies or when outnumbered, but I don't believe it had more than an auditory and visual effect).
Reduce micromanagement - except where it makes sense. You don't want the situation where he who clicks most wins, but allow the player to control their powerful empire/field of battle via a simple, powerful interface. If players consistently would want to do y in any given situation, automate Y. It absolutely makes sense that players want to defend their bases. Why do they have to build every single defensive structure? Why can't there be inherent defenses strong enough to forestall a rush, or otherwise provide time for them to bring units back to assist in repelling the invaders? The industry is definitely moving away from the days of yore when you individuall created peasants and assigned them to chop wood, or get food, or whatever. How about automating the resources entirely and merely have the player determine the focus of economy? If it makes sense for unit X to counter attack unit Y, make them auto engage unless otherwise explicitly defined by the player.

Perhaps a simple rule would be - if there is action taking place (i.e. battle) it makes sense to provide benefits for some level of micro, otherwise, automate and simplify the hell out of it.And really, this last point leads to all sorts of benefits, which itself leads to a whole other issue...
UI design. A clean, understandable UI can make or break a game. It's an absolute must that features be manageable through a useable interface without overwhelming the player. Information should be transparent and easy to access and not clutter the field of view. In other words, it's not enough to just be able to hide a massive UI.
Squad control is the way to go. It's visually more appealing, it's fun being able to outfit the exact right company for the right mission, and it's tiring to coral individual units or command them to attack X instead of Y. Of course, large or uber units can be controlled individually where it makes sense.

Compelling Features: Earth 2150

2008-05-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

The next game on the docket is also an RTS: Earth 2150. And, like IG2, I came across the game initially via demo download. And again like IG2, it ended up being a middling entry into the market, but it also delivered some new concepts and added a few ideas that I found interesting.
Earth 2150 is a more traditional RTS. You start with a basic constructor unit and building and must build out a base, gather resources, build units and take the fight to your enemies. It had a wonderful lighting model - plasma shots would light up the terrain over the course of its trajectory. If the shot missed (physics!) and hit a tree - the tree would catch fire, further illuminating the area, before collapsing and burning out. Shields were scintillating orbs, laser fire was a bright, brilliant line of light. Nuclear explosions would both rock the screen and light up the surrounding territory with a million candles. But the greatest feature born out of the lighting system was the day and night cycle coupled with unit and building lighting.

At the normal speed, the transition from day to night would take some time. The quality of light would differ between early morning to afternoon night, to late afternoon, to evening. What was unique here wasn't the day/night cycles - other games had done it earlier, and several since. Rather, what was cool was that all of your units had lights. Even you buildings. Okay - by itself not so cool, but wait! There's more! If you switched the lights off of your units, they would move slower (much slower) AND the range at which they would be detected would be smaller. What that meant was, you could setup an ambush at night, or allow your enemy to pass by on the screen without detecting you (so long as you altered your units' engagement rules).

I was truly enamored with this concept of night ambushes, and while it never seemed to play out quite as well or grandiose as I envisioned, especially against the all seeing eye of the AI, it still altered your tactics somewhat. Having an aerial scout switch his lights off at night meant that it crawled across the map, but you could park it just outside of the enemy's base at night and not be detected. In addition, if you had a small outpost on the map, you could turn off the lights of the buildings at night so it wouldn't be detected at quite the range. Perhaps your enemy would simply pass you by (so long as they didn't hear the ka-chunk-a-chunk of your mining operation).

In conjunction with the lighting was a robust weather effect system. There was both the traditional Fog of War, but also a true fog. I truly appreciated the graphical glory when it rolled in over my base in the pre-dawn hours, and my factory's lights illuminated it with an eerie glow. When the fog was present, you had to zoom in a little, thereby limiting your overview of the map. Likewise, if it was raining hard, you'd have to really zoom in. A rain storm at night was a crazy thing, and a perfect time to launch an attack or ambush. If the wind was howling, your air units would crawl, meaning your supply ships (your ammo dependent units would run out and be resupplied by an aerial supply train) might run out during an attack in a wind storm. There were lightning storms, snow, and if one side built a weather generator, one could call down a hail of meteors on your opponent's base! The missing element to this (something I hear Empire Earth 2 included) was a weather report detailing incoming weather in advance so one could actually plan an attack to take advantage of the weather.

The engine was 3D with deformable terrain. Your builder units could build the usual walls, but also trenches. If you connected a trench to a lake, it would fill with water. You could build bridges over said trenches. All fairlymeh stuff, largely because it didn't truly affect the battlefield in the same way that say, Company of Heroes' deformable terrain and destructable environments would. However, one could also build elevators to an underground level, and then tunnel your way about the map, building exits just about anywhere - like in the back of your opponent's base. Of course, your enemy could also destroy the elevators if they saw them being built - or perhaps they'd send down their own units into your tunnels and wage war down there.

The final thing that I found particularly useful and fun, was being able to record commands for your units/platoons, and then execute those commands on demand. For instance, you could plot out a set of waypoints for platoon A, with a final command to attack the enemy base. Then plot out an alternative set of waypoints for platoon B, with the same attack plan. Then, at some point in time, you could execute that recording, and off would go platoons A and B. I really have no idea why this feature hasn't been seen in more RTS games. It makes no sense, because it is singularly powerful and easy. Sure, sure, RTS fans are by and large, micromanagers and clickers of the highest order, but I would much rather plan out a frontal assault with a flank attack to occur simultaneously any day of the week over clicking all the crap to make it so. One improvement that Supreme Commander brought in form of a plan-execution feature was to set the pace of all units in the command equally, so they'd all arrive at the final destination together to bring unholy amounts of firepower on a target concurrently.

So what do we have here?

Environmental factors that enhance play. Company of Heroes absolutely nailed destructable environments (among a hundred other things they did right), and that's one part of this equation. The organic day/night cycle was something everyone could grasp quickly, and by limiting visual detection radii during the evening hours, it allowed players to use the cover of darkness to lay ambushes or launch assaults. The trade off between speed and detectability at night could be a critical decision. In addition, the weather system was more than graphic - it impacted play. Unfortunately, if I recall correctly, players quickly grew frustrated with the limited vision they endured during the rain and fog which hints to its overuse. I do think that limiting the players god's-eye perch adds an important and realistic element to strategy games, but it should be done only at the right times and with the right durations (i.e. not too frequently). It absolutely should bepredictable - weather reports should deliver 5 minute warnings, and the durations should be long enough to be made use of, but not dominate the system.

Bringing in examples from other games suggests other ways to implement environmental factors. In Rise of Nations, units caught fording a river would be subject to increased damage. Many games implement height advantages (to range, accuracy, detection, etc.). Storms of sufficient ferocity would ground aerial units. Perhaps those rivers swell during storms making them impassible, or slowing fording units even further. Snow could severely reduce movement rates for units, or might completely prevent certain classes of units from moving at all. in Sins of a Solar Empire, the different gravity wells sometimes included environmental factors such as nebulas that would affect ships (in the prior article, I mentioned how these might affect shields, etc.).

These environmental factors need to apply to everyone equally. i am not a big fan of events that whimsically put one player at a disadvantage just out of random bad luck. Thus no localized tornadoes or tsunamis.
Deformable terrain seems to be the direction the industry is heading, with Company of Heroes showing us how it can be done well. Absolutely it must have an impact on play - it can't just be window dressing. Burned-out buildings are no longer habitable, but they still provide some cover. Craters and destroyed bridges will make portions of the map impassable, or units could shelter in the craters for extra cover. As the landscape changes, so do the tactics, and so does the flow of play. Units hiding in a forest might be very difficult to detect (perhaps bringing in those environmental factors again, units moving through a forest might be very slow and undetectable, but birds might occasionally "flee" from the advancing force potentially alerting an observant player) - so you go ahead and burn it down.
Allow players to easily plan and coordinate attacks. Not just with each other (using a robust overhead map system ala CoH or Empire Earth 2), but given them full control over the unit plans by allowing them to do more than queue up waypoints. Allowing the player to save consecutive orders to be executed on demand down the line is a hugely useful and cool feature. I am all for reducing micromanagement whenever possible, so this seems like a no brainer to me. Unfortunately, the vast majority of developers seem to disagree..

Compelling Features: Imperium Galactica II

2008-04-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

In this first episode of CG/F, I want to make it clear that the games or features I highlight may not represent the top tier in gaming. Some of the selections may come from games I personally rate highly, others may not. In the latter case though, I will be calling out those features that I thought were intriguing or well implemented or fun. The first game in the series tends towards this latter line: it had some neat features, flew largely under thepublic's radar, and was ultimately a middling level entry into PC strategy gaming. My first selection: Imperium Galactica II: Alliances.

Back in the good old days (8 years ago) when I had a wee bit more time than I do now, I would regularly download demos that seemed interesting or hadlurvely screenshot pr0n. IG 2 caught my eye because of its audacious scope, and it certainly didn't hurt that it was a strategy game set in the vastness of space (bonus!) with delicious rendered nebulae. Per the usual, to assume the role of galactic emperor, you must take your chosen race from single planet dwellers to interstellar conquerors using conflict of arms, diplomacy, espionage and good old fashioned grit. The graphics were solid for the day, and in particular, the three-dimensional star map wherein you performed the bulk of your management, was gorgeous. You could watch trade ships crossing the systems, pirates rising up to attack fleets, etc.

The game was played in real time, but you could slow down or speed up the pace, in addition to pausing in order to issue multiple orders. The planets came in a variety of types (icy, volcanic, earth-like, etc.), but what was unique was your ability to drill down to your colonies. You will literally zoom down to the planet and see a small, compact area representing your colony rendered in passable 3D graphics, complete with random weather. When you built your buildings, you could place them by hand on the map, or otherwise allow your governor to place them. There wasn't really a strategic advantage to placing your buildings yourself, but it was definitely one of the best instantiations of seeing your planet/colony up to that point. Granted, one set of buildings was defensive in nature (representing gun or rocket batteries) but inevitably the AI would clear out every such nest and thus their actual placement had little impact. You could co-locate them all together to represent a massive hurdle, but it wouldn't truly amount to much of an advantage. When your were invading a planet (or an enemy was invading yours), you would see the combat tanks drop in fromatmo , and then you could maneuver them to take out targets including specific buildings or enemy tanks. In practice though, the AI was generally too weak to stave off a concentrated landing, and thus merely taking out targets of opportunity and jumping back out fell second to just wiping out the defense and taking the planet intoto . Still, I always found it much more enjoyable to see my tanks descend down to the surface to take out targets in lieu of the usual report screen which merely showed you the results of your mathematical advantage.

Space combat was conducted in a 3D environment, usually over a planet. Towards the mid game, you could build orbiting stations loaded with weapons which would bolster any fleets you had in position already. On defense, you would also be aided by any planet-side defensive you had built on thesurface , like ion cannons. The Star Wars fan in me always appreciated seeing the giant, green bolt rising out of the atmosphere and smacking a capital ship. As you researched new technologies, you could change theloadout on your various interstellar death dealers. Adding better weapons or more shields, all in the usual way.

Diplomacy was fairly robust, with the ability to conduct all of the usual activities including threatening or offering bribes. A fun addition was to watch when other leaders had their galactic birthdays and send them a congratulations. In fact, the general diplomacy options were more varied than in most games I've seen today (including what I consider the end-all be-all Space Strategy game of all time: Galactic Civilizations 2). I also thoroughly enjoyed the espionage aspect. You would recruit spies of various races and train them in different skills, with the intention of sending them out into the reaches to do your secret bidding: whether it be info gathering or sabotage. Again, the options were greater than what I've seen of late, allowing you to sabotage different things, steal inventions (techs), incite riots, or even attempt to assassinate the leader of a culture! Or, ho-hum, you could set them to run counter-espionage in your own territories. What was fun there was that you would occasionally capture another spy which you could then assassinate thereby sending a message back to his employer - or you could attempt to turn them to be a double agent thereby improving your intel on that race.

One last element worth noting was the music. Very ambient and perfect for the setting (in fact I believe it won a BAFTA award for the themes). Music and sound can provide such a strong sense of time and place that it's inclusion is mandatory - but too often not done well. Here, the music was the perfect accompaniment to the game, heightening the atmosphere.

Of course, none of these features mattered much because the AI was mediocre at best. Who knows really how deep the espionage element was when in practice, it didn't change the dynamics of the game much at all. Sure, I could regularly steal credits or plans thereby gaining tech a little earlier than otherwise. But largely it didn't seem to impact play much at all. Even at the highest difficulty levels, I rarely had much trouble overcoming my enemies - odd considering I usually can't handle even medium AI on many fast paced RTS games (since I largely am not interested in learning/memorizing perfect build orders that must be replicated ad nauseum to win).

So - now after all of this - what amounts to a sloppy, poorly written review - what use is this? Well - here are my takeaways:

Empire to City Zoom. Even though the transitions weren't seamless, the ability to drill down from the galactic level, to the ship level to the planetary level was neat. Sure it was a gimmick here, but if you can justify the need and not increase complexity, I think the results would add a layer of depth and would add to the experience of managing a true empire. Rebellion had a fairly simple transition system, and the newer Empire at War did something similar (and I am sorely tempted to purchase and play the game). In Sins of a Solar Empire - an excellent RTS well worth your time, there is a seamless transition between the tactical gravity-well level and the overarching solar map. The convention of replacing the complex unit graphics with symbols at scale (effective in Supreme Commander and the shift into command view in Company of Heroes) has been successfully tried and proven. The key is to make it more than interesting - you must make it useful and fun. Managing this scale is very difficult though - it's very easy to get bogged down into one facet or level of scale. And what happens when you are zoomed-in? Are things paused? If your playing a board game, what happens to the other players? In all cases, diversions from the main scope should be quick but fun, and have meaning.
It's easier to see than read. Yes - I am a graphics fan, and seeing beautiful renders of space catch my eye faster than a dog chasing a squirrel. And yes - make your graphics (be they electronic or on a board) mean something - and tie the two together. Maybe Nebulas impact your shields somehow and present that dynamically in-game (I hear again Empire at War did that well). Make your graphics both gorgeous AND useful.
If I built it, I want to see it. Maybe that doesn't work in every case, but I love to see the impact of my work take shape on the field. When I build my starbase, I want to see it orbiting my planet. I want to see it attack ships approaching my homeworld. I want to see my planetary defense spring into action, hurling massive plasma bolts spaceward. And damnit - when I invade your petty planet, I want to see my landing craft disgorge thousands of shocktroopers into your cities. I want to watch as they jackboot your civilians in the streets, gunning down any and all opposition. And when I am seeing this, I want it to look like your world. With your buildings. With your defenses. Not generic volcanic backdrop #3. Unfortunately, in IG2, there wasn't any tactical depth to your invasions (or rather it was supremely shallow). Give me reasons for committing a strike force to take out your power generators and then leave. Or perhaps, I need to destroy your production capabilities - and if I do, that result should have an impact beyond merely having to spend more money to bring it back on-line nearly instantaneously.
More meaningful options. Give me more than the ability to threaten or offer trade in diplomacy. Hell - even offer me nuanced versions of threatening that offer different percentages to succeed with differing levels of results. I want to cajole. I want to weedle. I want to flatter. I want to strike true trade deals that mean something to both parties and would force a participant to hesitate in pissing off their trade partner. I want to do more than send a spy into a building to slow down production. I want to build a network of double agents who send me info in order to maintain their secrecy. I want to bribe. I want them steal and sabotage and assassinate and incite riots! Hell yes I do. I never got the sense that the outcomes were truly deep or dynamic in IG2, but the breadth of options was refreshing and something I haven't seen since. But adding options for the sake of having them is not the way to go clearly. Give players a variety of wild, fun things to do - that make sense contextually and that have true impact.