What games are you playing now?

I added HotU to my playlist. Just finished Undermountains -- I hate that place. Now that I've unlocked this area, I never, ever want to play that part again. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable from here. I'm having dilemma with henchmen though. Both new NPCs look very interesting (Valen and that drow girl) but I don't want to drop Deekin either :X

Other that HotU, still playing IWD1+2, BG1+2 & DA:O.
 
After a bit of Heroes of Might and Magic(or a similarly named game)burnout recently I was thinking of trying Elven Legacy out. I do hate time limits in any game though, especially turn-based ones, I love to take my time and explore even in strategy games, but if you can bypass it one way or another that would work.

I haven't played Fantasy Wars either, would you folks recommend playing it first or going straight to Elven Legacy.

Fantasy wars is the first game in the series, but you really don't need to play it to understand whats going on in Elven Legacy (and playing Elven legacy won't spoil Fantasy wars). Fantasy wars is considerably harder though, and for that reason I would recommend going with Elven Legacy first.


Remember that there still is a turn limit, even if you don't go for gold, but it is usually generous enough for it to not really be an issue (on Normal at least). The levels are designed so that the player is supposed to constantly be on the offense. Completely removing the turn limit will probably make them a bit on the easy side.

I have to concede that even tho I end up buying Total War games over and over thinking that it will be different - I just dont like them. I think I'm fairly proficient at RTS, generally I do pretty good, but when it comes to the Total War games (this time it's Shogun) I just have such a hard time getting into it. For one, the unit assortment is mind-boggling. Several different types of bowmen, swordsmen, cavalry, etc. This is going to take some study just to figure out what to use and how.
I have the same problem, I also keep buying them (well, I have not bought the last 2, so I guess I have managed to overcome it ;) ), and I just don't like them. I love games with total war-style battles, with big blocks of troops fighting each other. Games like Dark Omen, Crusaders or King Arthur the roleplaying wargame are all games that I consider to be really good, heck even the old Shadow of the horned rat, or the poorly rated Mark of chaos appealed to me, but total war? No. I just find them to be too repetitive to be fun. It feels like most battles plays roughly the same, and the game does not force you to change your strategy much through the entire game.
 
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Fantasy wars is the first game in the series, but you really don't need to play it to understand whats going on in Elven Legacy (and playing Elven legacy won't spoil Fantasy wars). Fantasy wars is considerably harder though, and for that reason I would recommend going with Elven Legacy first.


Remember that there still is a turn limit, even if you don't go for gold, but it is usually generous enough for it to not really be an issue (on Normal at least). The levels are designed so that the player is supposed to constantly be on the offense. Completely removing the turn limit will probably make them a bit on the easy side.

Thanks for the reply Fnord.
So I'll pick up Elven Legacy first and give it try on normal and see how it plays out for me before messing with the turn limits at all. Everywhere I look around I keep seeing how tough these games are supposed to be, so it will be interesting to experiment and see how daunting they really are.
 
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Elven Legacy. Well I think I have hit the wall. I FINALLY finished the 7th mission (inc bonus missions). I HAD to finish with gold to get the next bonus mission, plus I wanted the 2 artifacts, AND no losses. This is on normal difficulty. It was an obsession that took hours to figure out. Like a finely crafted puzzle. Not sure if I want to continue at this level.

I had to use every trick in the book to pull it off. Be acutely aware of enemy viewing distances (which could triggers a massive spell attack from 3 mages that would easily take out 1 or 2 units per turn), and use all the spells and artifacts I had at my disposal.

I'll give the game this much, it is intricately well-balanced (at least for a massive challenge).

I may wimp out and change to easy difficulty. :blush:

PS. The perks seem to be randomly offered? Is there a perk tree for each class with specific prerequisites like HoMM? If so is it documented somewhere online? I think this is perhaps key to winning. Knowing the rules, helps….. :/
 
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Perks are not random, they are based on the type of unit and also on previous perks taken (some parks are "repeated", so you can take them at different levels, but if you take one early on, you will be offered another perk instead).

I don't know if there is any perk list online, but here are a few things worth considering:
-Segmented movement is one of the most valuable perks in the game, it means that you will be able to perform hit & run attacks (and not clog up the front rank), and it also allows you to move near enemy units without any extra movement cost.
-For flyers, protection from shooting is a must.
-Terrain specific perks are usually not worth it, with the exception of forest bonuses (forests are common), bonuses for movement over water (water is not nice to stand in if you get attacked) or range bonus due to standing on a hill (for archers).
-When it comes to magic, go for healing spells first when possible. Weaker spells usually gives you more uses, but you will have enough spells later on for them to become totally redundant anyway, so go for the higher power ones.
-Armor piercing is very useful to have on at least a handful of your units.

Fnord- Warhammer Mark of Chaos = totally, criminally underrated game! I spent many, many hours on that one
Mark of chaos was flawed, I won't deny that, but it was fun, and yes, as you said, criminally underrated.
 
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Fnord, I think I just grokked what you meant when comparing gold vs XP w/no losses. I thought you were talking about gold as coin, rather than as medal. Important clarification!

Some unit upgrades look like they are awarded with gold medals. Aren't the unit upgrades just as important as XP?
 
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still playing tropico 3 and loving it--getting through about 1 island/mission a day and just unlock the rest of the islands when i last left the game. theres fifteen islands and i'm only 7? down. looks like i won't be getting finishing with the original campaign by skyrim time. the game is addicting and unlike other city builders i've never seem to run a prolonged ecomic surplus as as soon as your industry starts booming the citizens get quite demanding, and the scripted events and choices you must make, mean you have to start doing quite a bit of management which often includes building many building that are both costly to build and upkeep. awesome game though and a total time-sink. one game i pissed off the ussr to the point where they were circling the island with warships. mostly though i have the hardest time keeping the religious faction appeased for some reason...

thankfully the game lets you play whatever type of leader you want and my custom avatar has the highest level of democratic expecations which as you can except always keep an economic boom at bay/in check. combining this game with the visceral experience in the undemocratic just cause games would be amazing.
 
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I meant that you don't need to get a gold "level" on each mission, you can just focus on leveling up your units instead of getting the bonus rewards that comes with finishing the missions fast enough.

Gold coins is needed for upgrading your units, but not every unit needs to be upgraded to their fullest by the end of the game for it to be beatable. And while more gold coins comes with gold status, as long as your only real expensive is unit upgrades, the extra coins are not needed (though they help), as long as you grab most of the money that can be found on each individual mission. The extra magic items & units that comes with gold status are also nice, but by the end of the game I had more units than I could field anyway, and while magic items are nice, higher levels on your units is still more important.
 
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My unused units in reserve are starting to build up. I was short on gold for an upgrade on mission 7. So I am thinking, unless gold unlocks a bonus mission, maybe I should explore more? Not sure which bonus artifacts / units are worth the loss of XP and coin.

How about upgrades offered? Are some of those tied to gold medals?
 
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In honor of Daylight Savings Time ending, I played a 4X game late into the night. Unfortunately, it had to be Civ 5 instead of SotS 2 but it was still fun.
 
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thankfully the game lets you play whatever type of leader you want

That's why I loved Tropico 1. ;)

Now that I have Tropico 3 (as it came with a German magazine), I might try out it as well, but it looks a bit "too modern" for my taste. I rather like the "faraway island" touch of Tropico 1. ;)
But I guess I'll have fun regardless. :) The Tropico series is a great thing anyway, imho. :)

[Tropico 1 building : "The birthplace of El Presidente. Note : Only 2 of it can be built." ;) ]
 
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I am just starting with the cool 'Mysterious Castle' iOS app mentioned on the forums here somewhere.
 
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Mysterious Castle is hard, really hard. Read the players guide and FAQ. It will help you a lot in the beginning. I've just read the faq to figure out how to get into my inventory. Now that you've reminded me I'm going to go read that players guide.

It has potential. I don't play it at home so I haven't gotten too far into it. I'm hoping I'll be able to find some dang healing potions or figure out how to eat the stupid apple to heal up before the battles with the kobolds. Maybe I'll try a three party team with at least one of them being a healer character. I have a human, half-ogre and a gnome….hobbit….whatever. The small thing that casts spells :p Maybe dump the human and get a healer.
 
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My unused units in reserve are starting to build up. I was short on gold for an upgrade on mission 7. So I am thinking, unless gold unlocks a bonus mission, maybe I should explore more? Not sure which bonus artifacts / units are worth the loss of XP and coin.

How about upgrades offered? Are some of those tied to gold medals?
No, upgrades are just tied to where you are in the story, and some units (skyships for elves, most (all, I think) warmachines for the other races) can't be upgraded.

Mission 7 was the snow one, right? It does unlock a bonus mission (and getting gold status on that mission was easy).
 
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Thanks for the info on the upgrades!

Mission 7 (inc bonus missions). It was the Derenhalle (sp?) mission? Anyway, the 3 mages were creaming my party. I had to take out the eagles and the calvary, and then creep up on the main keep to have a chance. Took me a while to figure that out. Sometimes I think this game's path to success is too narrow.

I'm playing the King Victor bonus mission now. Again, it's taking hours of trial and error, in part because I have to get familiar with the abilities of the new human units and their perks.

At some point I'm going to get tired, and want to finish ASAP. Then I will go to easy difficulty... ;)
 
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Ah, yes I think I remember that mission. I did not get gold on it (the one that you just finished, not the bonus mission) :( Skyships are by the way great for taking down units that hides like that, as long as you have the protection from shooting perk. Generally you want a dragon as well, when there is a risk of other flyers attacking your airship.
 
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Gah, I passed up on a secondary objective a few missions back that gives you a dragon unit (so I could get the gold medal of course. ;) ). Hope there's more opportunities for dragons before I need them!
 
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You can buy dragons later on. That being said, at that point in the game, new units will be lagging behind so much in experience that they might be hard to level up. Dragons are not needed, just useful.
 
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