Archive for p55carroll
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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Last time, I blew off some steam after trying unsuccessfully to run Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire on my Windows 7 netbook computer. The ad said it would work, and a user review said it worked, but my CPU was not supported, said the software.
So, I installed the game on an old PC instead, because I still wanted to remind myself what SMAC was like and then try the expansion (which I'd only seen briefly once before, years ago).
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Tue May 29, 2012 11:00 pm
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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Things have not going well for me lately. Nothing big has gone wrong, but just a lot of annoying little things. Like the rain that has been falling outside--intermittently, so that it keeps catching me by surprise.
Today I got a reminder about why I hate video games (or why I sometimes say I do).
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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I just finished a game of Civilization V. First time I ever completed a game on King level.
I played as America, on a small Continents map. And as it turned out, I got a small continent all to myself. That never happened before in Civ V; I always seem to get stuck with somebody else--and sometimes I play an Archipelago game instead just to get some breathing space. So, I was happy to have my own continent in this game, even if it was a little one.
Over time, I filled it up with ten cities (including a couple nearby islands). I soon discovered a nearby continent--a big one--occupied by Egypt, Mongolia, Arabia, and India. I let them work things out over there while I peacefully built up my own land.
Later, once caravels started being built, I learned that Germany had gotten a continent to himself as well (either that or he quickly knocked off his nearby competition). And his was huge.
My best efforts to get rich, productive, advanced, or otherwise ahead in points were all in vain. My civilization was just very slow to grow. Other powers were beating me to all the wonders, and I was low man on the totem pole.
Egypt got wiped off the big continent next door, and over time India fell too. Mongolia and Arabia each owned about half the territory for most of the game. They were way ahead of me in points, and Germany was pretty far ahead of them.
I was about ready to throw in the towel. I didn't see much hope of things changing in my favor. I had no military. My economy was in such bad shape that I gave away the two caravels I had built just so I wouldn't have to pay to maintain them. Then I had zero navy.
My social advances went in a weird way too. I started with Liberty, as I usually do. But instead of opening up other areas, I stuck with Liberty till I completed the whole tree. Then I started on Commerce. Fat lot of good that did me; I struggled with a teetering economy until the 1990s or so. Finally, I looked around the map and noticed a dozen city-states. Only one was on my own continent, but since I couldn't get anywhere militarily, I figured I might as well try to influence the city-states. I started working on the Patronage tree, and eventually I completed it. Then I went back and finished the Commerce tree.
The Mongols wiped out Arabia, and at the end of the game they had one big continent; Germany had another; and I had a small continent in between. The Mongols and Germans had both started building spaceships before I developed the capability to even build boosters. And even though the other powers were ahead of me throughout the game, I was forced to keep trading with all of them to keep my people from getting too unhappy. As it was, my unhappiness level reached 10 at times.
It had been a very long, boring game. At least it was peaceful; I never once went to war. But I was isolated and helpless. There wasn't a useful move I could make anywhere.
We were well into the 21st century when I decided my only hope was to build the UN. I checked the tech tree and saw that I'd need Globalization for that, and it'd take me sixteen turns to develop it. I went for it, even though time was running out. I had nothing better to do.
Earlier in the game I had built gardens in two or three cities. I usually don't, as they seem unimportant. But they were quick to build, and something told me they might help. Now I was glad I'd done it, because I figured I'd need a great engineer to finish the UN if I was to have the slightest chance.
So, I got Globalization and started work on the UN in Washington right away. It'd take 26 turns to finish it, and there weren't that many turns left in the game.
Meanwhile, I finally managed to catch up in science, so I started building spaceship parts too. My cities weren't that productive, though, and it was clear I wouldn't be able to complete the ship before time ran out. Still, I switched all my cities to a productivity focus just to do what I could.
With just a few turns left, I had made allies of all the city-states. I had money to burn now that that I had completed the Commerce tree. And the advantages I got from completing the Patronage tree prevented my rivals from making any headway with the neutrals. So, the Mongols just started attacking them. They knocked out Edinburgh and were about to attack Venice. Germany tried undermining me financially, and I had to periodically invest heavily to get an ally back.
Then, miracle of miracles, I got my great engineer.
I had to spend a turn flushing the idle worker unit out of Washington to make way for him, but then I had the engineer hurry production on the UN, and next turn it was built. Now I just had to hang on to my allies and hope for the best.
When the UN vote came up, I checked to make sure I was still allied with all the city-states. I pledged to protect those I hadn't before. Then I voted for myself and sat back to see the results.
I wasn't sure how voting went; I hadn't done it more than a couple times before. I figured Mongolia and Germany would get several votes due to their large territories, so I half expected to lose. But I was wrong; they only got one vote each. And I got one and needed nine; but all eleven of my allied city-states voted for me.
Behind in points all through the game, with no naval units at all and with minutemen still guarding my cities even in the mid-21st century, I had somehow pulled off a victory. Not a great one--only a middling Simon Bolivar level victory--but a triumph nevertheless.
It pays to persist and do what you can--and to make a plan and stick to it--even when it seems all is against you.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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A week ago, I loaded up Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria again. I'd left off in the middle of what was called a "skirmish" game--though it's a pretty darned big map for a skirmish. Anyhow, it had been a while, and I wanted to see if I could get into the game again.
Short answer: I couldn't. Not really. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but something makes this game feel sterile and obsolete. The AI players zip around at lightning speed--which is OK, since it reduces the downtime between turns, but it's a little disconcerting to watch. Then, on my turn, no matter what I do, nothing much ever seems to happen. Oh, I'll fight battles, and some of them are close, but they play out automatically; the little bit of control I could have doesn't amount to much, so if I haven't planned and maneuvered well enough to have a superior force where I need it, I'm outta luck.
I'd like to use magic to tip the scale in my favor now and then, but I never have much mana. Maybe enough for a small spell or two, and that's it.
Beyond that, it's just explore and conquer. Pretty much like Risk, where you expand to get stronger and expand more.
Enemy armies sometimes appeared where I didn't expect them. Other times, I was able to surprise the enemy and capture a lightly guarded city. But none of it was very satisfying. It all felt bland.
There are quests, but they're only mildly interesting. Heroes can level up to where they can do cool stuff--but somehow that doesn't feel so cool either.
Years ago when it was new, I loved Warlords II. Compared to what else was available in the mid 1990s, W2 was fantastic. But it has been nearly twenty years, and somewhere along the line, this game must've jumped the shark. Maybe if I'd been a loyal fan all along, I'd appreciate the game's evolution. As it is, I just want a better game to play.
* * *
So, last night I finished a game of Civilization V. Several days before, I abandoned the first game I tried on King level--or maybe I should say the first game I ever got far with on that level. The first was a pangaea game, and I think I got crushed or hemmed in early. So I restarted with an archipelago map, thinking I might do better if I could start with an island to myself. Well, I survived, but I didn't prosper well enough. The AI opponents were noticeably more aggressive, and I folded when Montezuma started taking my home-island cities. The writing was on the wall by then, as I had exhausted my resources fending off Suleiman at the other end of my island.
Anyhow, I went back to Prince level, which is still enough of a challenge for me. I can usually win, but I have to work at it. Some of the work is pleasant enough, though, that it makes for a fun game.
My random leader turned out to be Ram Khamhaeng of Siam. And I found myself in the middle of a continent with France and Egypt to my north and Japan to my southwest. Later, it turned out the other continent was occupied by the Ottomans and Songhai; and the Ottomans would wipe out the Songhai and own the whole continent before it was over.
On my continent, I managed to expand and claim a sizable chunk of territory. But France attacked me a couple times in the early years, and I had to start building some elephant units to fight back. Eventually, I established a loosely fortified line along my northern border. But then Japan attacked and took one of my cities.
That irked me. It took forever to shift my forces south and build more units. When I finally retook the city, I accepted Japan's peace offer just to buy time to rebuild. War was really delaying my development.
After what seemed like another eternity, I had finally restored my economy and people's happiness. But I was lagging a bit behind. And every time I tried building a Wonder, Egypt would beat me to it; I couldn't believe how quickly Egypt cranked out Wonders (I guess that's one of the advantages they get in the game). France had captured a couple Egyptian cities, and Egypt was very small--but it was rich and had some power.
Japan had only two or three cities, and for some reason he hadn't expanded into the open territory to his west. So I did. I sailed settlers around there and founded a couple cities on the far side of Japan. I planned to hem him in, build up my army, then conquer the little pest.
By this time, though I watched the Ottomans conquer a whole large continent. Suleiman was way ahead of me on the scoreboard, and I didn't think I'd be able to catch up. He was surprisingly friendly, though. I was reluctant to trade with him, since it'd make him even stronger, but once he had defeated Askia, Suleiman was the only trading partner I had left. Egypt suddenly hated me for no apparent reason, France had little to trade, and Japan had nothing.
Before I was really ready, Suleiman asked me to join him in an attack on Japan. I could've delayed ten turns, but I was delighted to get support in doing what I had planned to do anyway. The Ottomans were too far away to have much of an impact, but it's still nice to have an ally. So, we attacked.
It took half a dozen eternities, I think, to finally subdue Japan. My forces were smashed up and thrown back time and time again. Sometimes Japan even invaded my territory, and it was all I could do to defend it. But persistence paid off in the long run.
By the time I defeated Japan, we were already into the 1990s or so. Not much time to catch up with the Ottomans. With my resources at another low point, I had to take time to rebuild--but the clock was ticking.
As the years passed, I noticed that Suleiman still had such a lead that I couldn't just outbuild him. I'd have to do something more drastic.
France was the likely target--directly to my north, with a long border to attack along. But I could see a lot of high-end French units maneuvering along that border, so I knew it wouldn't be easy. He also had eight or nine cities, and it'd take a long time to get through all those even if I could manage it.
Then I remembered all those Wonders Egypt had built. No doubt they were all sitting in Thebes, which was just across a short stretch of water from my formerly Japanese holdings. There were Egyptian forces there to be sure, including a couple battleships. Yet, Thebes was isolated; the other two Egyptian cities were on a large island nearby. Maybe if I planned it right ...
I started building a navy and sending it toward Egypt. I built tanks and artillery too, massing them across from Egypt.
When I decided I couldn't waste another year preparing, I contacted France and proposed a joint attack on Egypt. I figured that if Napoleon was helping me, he wouldn't be tempted to attack me while I was busy elsewhere. Plus, Thebes was a tempting target for him too--and nearer to him than to me. He accepted my proposal, and we were off to war.
The tricky part was keeping France out of Thebes. He could get there by land--and he did, instantly. I had to cross the water, and first I had to knock out the Egyptian navy. I succeeded in that, and I got some units adjacent to Thebes. But the French were adjacent too, and I had to time things right to ensure that my forces did the capturing.
It took quite a long time. I had to keep holding back my artillery and naval fire so that the French would smash up their ground forces in futile assaults. Each time a French unit got eliminated or withdrawn, I'd push one of my units into the hex--even a weak artillery unit if it's all I had there. Finally my patience paid off; after several turns of bombarding and a costly assault or two, one of my tank units captured Thebes.
That cut France off, as my forces were now between him and the other two Egyptian cities. I soon had those subdued as well. Bye-bye, Pharaoh.
I checked the scoreboard, and--wow! Those Wonders must've worked wonders, because I was now decidedly in the lead. I was pretty pleased with myself for having sized up the situation and done what needed to be done. With only a dozen turns or so left in the game, I expected it to be smooth sailing. No one had threatened to win a space race or create the UN or anything, so I was in great shape.
Then France declared war on me.
Well, I deserved it, I suppose, for having made a tool of him in my attack on Thebes. It was very scary, though.
You see, I had once again depleted all my resources. Annexing the Egyptian cities made my people livid, and they weren't producing. Many of my best units had been destroyed in the war. Thebes itself was only lightly guarded--and of course that was France's main objective.
I had to rush what feeble forces I had up to Thebes. By this time I had half a dozen bombers, and they helped a lot. But France was coming on with hordes of foreign-legionnaires and rocket artillery and such. I wondered if I'd be able to hold out.
I parlayed Suleiman into joining me against France. Maybe that helped a bit, but I never saw anything but the odd Ottoman ship anywhere in the vicinity. His empire was too far away to be useful.
I did hang on to Thebes, thank goodness. Without it, I'd have lost the game to the Ottomans. But the French had plenty of forces to spare, and they sent them south toward my capital. They captured my two northernmost cities before I could put anything in their way. A couple times they got adjacent to my capital city and launched small attacks. So, I was still worried.
Luckily for me, the French were pretty well spent. With only a couple turns left in the game, I managed to combine a few tanks with some artillery and bombers and recapture the two Siamese cities the French had taken. After that, Napoleon threw in the towel and made peace.
At the very end I'd been threatening Memphis--a city France had taken from Egypt early in the game. It would have been especially sweet to have captured that city--and maybe I could have even gotten it as part of the peace package. I was too relieved to think about that at the time.
Time ran out, of course, as it always does. Victory was mine--and hard won.
* * *
So, what makes Civ V so much more interesting than Warlords IV?
A few blog posts ago, I was saying I thought I'd like Warlords better because it's all just straightforward conquest--nothing political to worry about, and not much in the way of economics.
Well, for one thing, I have a lot more control in Civ V. I choose where to found cities, and I can create a lot of things besides military units to help my civilization grow and prosper and become strong. In this new version of Civ, I can even employ some rudimentary tactics; I'm not just pushing stacks of units against the enemy--which is about all I do in Warlords.
I've played every version of Civ, and I must say I'm now enjoying this one the most. In all past versions, I hated war. No matter who started it or how it went, I hated having to fight a war; it was always a real drag, an enormous slugfest. In Civ V, the one-unit-per-hex rule may be unrealistic at this scale, and the tactics may be inappropriate for a game at this level, and the AI may be incompetent--but in spite of all that, I actually look forward to war. It's now as good a part of the game as any other.
If I stick with it, maybe I'll learn to survive at King level.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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OK, so I was playing Civilization V last night. It has been my fallback game for low-energy evenings when I want to just sit and click away at something fairly pleasant and mindless. I play on Prince level, and I win most of the time, though I have my ups and downs.
But last night was different.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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Every once in a while I get stuck. Several months ago, I set out to complete the AW:BHRcampaign. I had completed the first one in the series, and I wanted to get through this second one so I'd be caught up with the first game I ever bought for my Nintendo DS Lite: Advance Wars: Dual Strike.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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I'm on vacation, and I've ended up playing several games of Civ5. One thing I learned is to keep the map to Dual or Tiny size; anything bigger takes too long, especially on my little netbook computer. Another thing I learned is that there are two basic kinds of game that can develop--racing games and fighting games.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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I've been playing Civilization V quite a bit, and I've finally caught on to it. Still playing at Prince level (which is a little embarrassing to me, but I'll take it step by step), but I'm winning pretty consistently. And I've won a couple space-race victories in addition to the usual time-limit victories. I think that's a good sign. I keep wanting to win a cultural victory, but I never even get very close to that. I suppose I could have won a domination victory a few times, but I didn't try; I was enjoying my building and expanding too much.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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Several years ago, I belatedly discovered Roguelike games. I tried a couple and settled for a while on one that was very good. Its graphics were comprised of colored ASCII characters on a black background, so it wasn't much to look at. Yet it was a great game to play.
The only reason I'm not still playing it is that I got tired of losing my character to YASD (yet another senseless death). You have to die and start over many, many times in that game in order to get anywhere.
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Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
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I've been continuing to fool around with games on my new netbook computer, when I really ought to be tearing into my new copy of Magic Realm. So, I thought I'd take a few minutes to comment a bit more on them.
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