Free Game Eats Free Time

by on September 6, 2015 at 9:49 am
Posted In: MMO

Guild Wars 2 is now a couple years old, and coming out with their first expansion. Since the game has always been ‘pay once, no subscription’, they’ve decided to make a slightly limited version of the base game free, and encourage everyone to just buy Heart of Thorns, due out in a month.

Smudge and I tried out the game during a couple free weekends two years ago, and kind of bounced off the game. We had a lot of trouble at first, had fun the second day, and then found ourselves frustrated all over again when we came back during the second free weekend. After that, while it was tempting, we just couldn’t go for it, if we needed to re-learn every time.

This last week, we tried again, and… didn’t really have any trouble. It’s been taking us a while to really get up to speed on a lot of nuance, but we didn’t just bounce off the system this time, for whatever reason.

From the first, I thought that GW2 was a very forward-looking design, and I hope that it will be influential in the next generation of MMOs, even when I don’t agree with everything they’ve done.

Questing is where I have the most trouble. There are quest givers who want various things done, do them get a reward. But, you never have to talk to them, just get in range, and a corner pop-up will give the basics of what’s needed, and show a progress bar. The fact that you can do any of a number of things to complete the quest, instead of ‘kill exactly x of critter a, kill exactly y of critter b, and bring me exactly z of this plant’ is great. But, I prefer my RPGs to be heavier on the RP side of things (quest dialogs and conversation trees was the strongest part of SW:TOR, and what I want to see more of), and while you can talk to the quest person, and get a good conversation explaining everything, it is possible to get the complete while doing something completely different, locking you out of that conversation.

Speaking of other things to do, GW2 has a event system that I like. NPCs will go out and do things, get into trouble, and need help. These generally have some good… stage plays to go with them, and are fun, and anyone can join in at any time (many are also specifically kicked off by player action). I’ve come to the realization that these are the real quests in GW2, even though they’re obviously descended from the ‘rift event’ idea of Rift, these are much more dynamic and better thought out.

The map has various things to do scattered around it, points of interest to visit, vistas to see, quests to do. Despite the last being called ‘quests’, they’re really just another type of generally-accessible bit of content to visit. And all these points have done a lot to help get me to explore the world. (Something I like in theory, but often don’t do so well on.) And as it turns out, there’s still plenty of things for the people who like to explore to find that aren’t just part of the checklist, this is just the basics.

Another thing that has taken some re-thinking on my part to understand is character development. The first thing that GW2 shows off is that each weapon you pick up has a completely separate set of skills associated with it, and your character can act very differently depending on what weapon(s) you’re using. After a bit of fun with that, I had disappointment that it doesn’t take long to acquire all the various weapon skills. Deciding what you like, what you want to use and master will take some more time, but the exploration of this neat weapon system is disappointingly short. What I realized is that the idea is to introduce that, then move into various non-weapon skills, and then into specializations, and have your character grow through these different systems. But I’d still prefer to see the weapon skill continue to grow and evolve as you progress.

On the other hand, all of this is instantly changeable. The specializations especially are like the skill trees in traditional MMOs like WoW, but instead of permanently picking a path, you can always rearrange things (starting with your used weapon!) to take on a different role. I just wish you could save off a couple combinations so you can more efficiently go into ‘party healing mode’ or whatever.

So, yeah, I’m enjoying Guild Wars 2 right now. More than I thought I’d be after my first couple experiences.

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Two Rounds of Mantinea (418 BC)

by on September 3, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch and I had another between-bigger-games round of C&C:A Tuesday night. This time was the first Battle of Mantinea from Expansion #6. It’s a large battle with a large number of units and going to 8 banners, and both sides have a special unit. The Spartans have a typically special Aux (always gets hits on helmets and can ignore a banner; can also move two and battle), and the Argives have a heavy unit with five blocks. Both sides also have three leaders, of which one is not attached to a unit at the beginning.

I had the Argives first, and I started edging forward while Patch burned a couple of Order Heavies (the Argive special is the only heavy unit in the scenario). I initially made contact on my right flank, and took light losses while driving off a couple units. Patch came back with Order Four, and managed to wipe out my leader-lead MH in one attack. I didn’t have any great places for him to go, and took a chance by placing him behind the surviving adjacent unit. However, the next attack did two hits and drove him back two hexes—beyond my leader. He then used momentum to get at and kill my leader.

I used a just-drawn Line Command to bring up the intact portions of the army, and on terrible rolls, did five blocks in four attacks, while I lost a grand total of ten blocks (two units down to one each, and two left on the five-block special). Patch then used Clash of Shields to finish off three units for no damage (nothing survived to battle back!).

The only good news was that his center leader was isolated and was attached to a one-block unit, which I finished off, killing the leader. I also weakened a 5-block Spartan MH, and only took a banner on the battle back. Patch used Leadership to move on his left, pursuing my shattered right, taking two hits in the process of finishing off the only medium I had left there. I used Inspired Left Leadership to bring my intact units up on my left, finishing of the Spartan MH, and getting a regular MH on a very lucky four-hit attack.

We reformed a bit, and Patch brought his left flank into wrap around the end of my line, eliminating a weakened unit, but failing to get a full-strength one in two attacks, who did three blocks in return. Not having much else, I moved my remaining intact units into his, and took out another MH, killing the leader with it, and weakening another for two blocks damage. Patch Ordered Three Center to catch the end of my line again, and eliminated it. 6-8

Mantinea-I-1

We spent a couple turns on minor cleanup the second time, when Patch sent his light cav into contact early. I eliminated one outright, and weakened the other at a cost of two blocks. I used Line Command to move the entire right side up, flowing around the remaining LC. I managed to eliminate it, and used Momentum to have an orderly line.

Patch moved his flanks up, and I Ordered Two Left to bring part of the detached left side into contact with him and my main line. I lost one unit on an unlucky battle back, but I did three damage to a unit first. Patch used Mounted Charge to bring the bulk of his line up (once again, Patch gets all the cavalry cards in hoplite scenarios…). This did fourteen blocks damage, wiping out a leader-led Spartan MH and a regular MH, and broke up half my line. However, a lucky battle back wiped out one of his leader-led MH as well.

I reassembled part of my line, and tried to get his remaining leader in the area, but only did one damage and took four in return. Patch used Order Mounted to press in the center, and get his orphaned leader back in play, knocking out two more units, and sending my center leader fleeing again, while taking two blocks in return. I pressed with my line, and three damage in two attacks, losing another unit in the process, while also reducing a separated full-strength MH to one block and forcing it to retreat.

Patch’s center was now full of much reduced units, but he couldn’t find a way to pull out, and used Coordinated Attack to little effect. I used Out Flanked for a series of attacks on weak units, managing to eliminate one of the center ones with its leader, my Aux was killed on a battle back, but my LC eliminated both MHs nearby. Patch then went with Move-Fire-Move, which reformed the spare lights effectively, but only did one block to a healthy unit. I used Leadership to move in and destroy a one-block unit in the center. 8-7.

Mantinea-I-2

Afterword:

This is one of the bigger slugging matches I’ve seen in a while. Lots of medium units, well formed with little terrain means that it’s hard to maneuver enough to do much with the light units that are also present in numbers. The one heavy unit also feels lackluster despite the extra die and block, since it can’t participate in the mounted cards with the MHs. Considering they seem to be extra disciplined hoplites, I’m surprised they weren’t ruled as a 5-block Heavy Hoplite.

The dice definitely turned the first game in Patch’s favor, but I came back stronger than I thought I might. I’m still surprised at Patch’s moving into contact with his LC early; I would have stayed a hex back for archery and dared him to move up or keep suffering arrows.

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The Godson’s Triumph

by on August 30, 2015 at 10:25 am
Posted In: Books

This is part two of two of Hogarth’s Godkindred Saga, and I wish I’d leafed through the first book again before reading it like I had planned. This is so tied to the first book that after a short prologue it picks up with chapter 27. So, yes, do not pick this up without getting the first book (and conversely, don’t pick it up without this! it is one story in two covers).

That said, it’s an excellent book. There is a bit of change in direction at the very beginning, avoiding the action that was promised at the end of the first part. Past that, it follows on very naturally, and continues to explore a number of themes, including colonialism, loyalty and religion.

I really like the world she’s set up here, and while it would be possible to see other stories set here, I get a feeling that this will be it. It is set up to explore certain ideas, which this story then does. The long denouement not only shows the break up of the group that had assembled as they go their separate ways to rebuild the political world, but explains those few things that were inexplicable. With ‘reality’ as well defined as it is at the end, it seems this setting has done all that Hogarth has intended.

But while the world is bounded by the story and vice versa, it is about people. The characters are all well-realized, especially the viewpoint character of Angharad.

The one problem I do have is that the physical descriptions are a bit lacking. There’s a great variety of species, with a large number of cross-breeds, and it can be hard to put together a comprehensive picture of what some people look like easily (the author’s art is a big help here).

So, don’t get either book without the other, but do get them!

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51 The Taking of Takrouna

by on August 27, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

I figured it was time to go back to North Africa for my next ASL game with Patch, and started looking at the Hollow Legions scenarios, which it appears he has largely not played. The first one of the set, “The Taking of Takrouna”, is interesting, featuring a quick New Zealand assault up half the board 25 hill to take overlay X1, which was obviously meant purely for this scenario.

The Italians are defending with 12 346 squads (and a pair of HS), a MMG, three LMG and a pair of light MTR, dug into a few foxholes. The New Zealanders (Maoris, actually) enter six 458 squads (and a pair of HS), a pair of Heroes, some excellent leadership, some LMGs and a pair of light MTR. Overlay X1 becomes the level 4 top of the hill with a small stone village surrounded by cliffs (Takrouna). The Italians can shift one squad in or out through a hidden trail, everyone else must climb. A couple of nearby crag hexes become further stone buildings, and Moderate Dust adds a 1d3 LV to all attacks.

Patch had the Italians, and set up concentrated on the obvious route from the NE corner, where there’s a little bit of brush for cover. (In fact, his MMG and a MTR were boresighted in there.) I seriously considered it; the brush helps, there’s a couple gullies to go up, if could get that far, and it’s the shortest route to the goal in BB5. I also considered the middle, where there’s a wall, and the exit of one of the gullies. Eventually, I went with the SE corner, with the longest way to go, but relatively few defenders, and I was worried about breaking as I entered and being forced to rout off the map.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of crags in there too, and I didn’t realize just how badly going uphill into crags was going to slow me down.

My fears were justified though. Patch broke one of my MTR HS as soon as he entered, and I never did get anyone over there to pick up the abandoned MTR either. I also realized that residual was more dangerous than original fire in this scenario. Most residual is one column below the fire that caused it, which makes it about equal to a +1 version of the original shot, and the original fire has at least that much from Dust, while the residual isn’t affected at all.

Thankfully, the one HS was the only thing that broke, despite getting a 1MC on my 10-2 stack. My 9-1 and a squad were poised to advance onto the ridgeline, and my fire managed to Pin two squads. I advanced onto one of them, but neither of us got any result.

51-1B
Situation, British Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Merchants of Conquest

by on August 23, 2015 at 8:34 am
Posted In: Boardgaming

Had the gang (me, Dave, Mark, Jason) over for some Space Empires 4X yesterday. We contemplated various advanced rules and optional rules, but stuck with the same set as last time: Basic rules plus Merchant Pipelines and Heavy Terrain.

After some of the discussion from last time, I planned to be more aggressive this time, and concentrate a bit more on numbers than quality. The opening stages were ordinary enough. I actually placed my homeworld mid-way along the long edge, instead of in the corner, making much of the fringes of my territory equidistant from me. There were no planets adjacent to my homeworld, but were mostly nicely grouped in a left-right line after that, with a few more running out towards the opposite side of the home area.

I built a couple extra scouts early, which was needed as the heavy terrain soon claimed most of them. I seems to have gotten my colonies set up slightly faster than most everyone else, and all the pipeline builds took up the bulk of my shipyards. I was slightly slow expanding my second shipyard, but it was in a nice central location. Dave was off in the direction I had biased my homeworld towards, but the first area between two people that got explored turned out to be between him and Mark. Dave’s planets were all away from that edge of the board, so Mark came in through the empty zone with a fleet, and Dave was uncertain where he was going.

“He who defends everything defends nothing.” Mark managed to get into the empty hex adjacent to the homeworld, and break the pipeline, and then dived into the colonies, reducing one a level before his fleet was finally defeated later. This also demonstrated what unfortunately turned out to be a day-long trend: The dice just didn’t like Dave.

Meanwhile, two adjacent barren worlds were found in the space between me and Dave, that formed a chain between one of my colonies, and the barren world in Dave’s area, which was also a couple hexes away from anything else of interest there. So, I colonized that entire chain while that drama was playing out. There was another pair near the center, adjacent to where his colonies clustered. I headed into the area, first to grab an alien wreck, and 10 mineral marker, with the plan to colonize if I could.

Dave got in before I could, and there was a turn or so of skirmishing before I got a real advantage. When we packed up at the end of the day, I had broken his fleet and had destroyed a colony in his home space, and was fairly clear to get more on a march down his chain with better cruisers than he could build. My pipeline had finally been extended to near the two barren worlds and my final colonies would have been established soon.

Meanwhile, Mark had gotten into a fight with Jason. There hadn’t been any fights over planets yet, but Mark’s low-tech cruisers had done a good job grinding down Jason’s high-quality battlecruisers. Further fighting had knocked out the forward fleet, so I don’t know what Mark had left.

I was obviously in the lead at the end, and making myself an obvious target. Assuming I didn’t get too distracted, I had a good chance at taking out Dave completely. I expect that Jason would have had to provide that distraction soon, and my area would have gotten shot up. The question would be ‘how much?’ Mark would probably have interfered with my efforts to colonize the middle, but wouldn’t have been able to reach much else.

4-player 2 end
Sorry, accidentally cut off the last hexrow on my side taking the picture. Me = Green; Dave = Yellow; Mark = Blue; Jason = Red.

The economies showed a starker tale than I would have thought: On the last economic phase (just looking at colonies and pipelines) Mark earned 55 CP, Dave 66 CP, Jason 70… and I got 92. I was not expecting the other totals to be that low.

Both Dave and Mark had only taken cruiser technology, with Dave also picking up terraforming, and Mark benefiting from two space wrecks to receive +1 attack and ship yards 2. Jason had heavily invested in technology, having gotten up to DNs(!), attack +2, defense +1, tactics 1, move 2, shipyards 2 and terraforming. I had been conservative on technologies, but my strong economy had me finally getting up there at the end with cruisers, attack +2, defense +2, shipyards 2, terraforming (my first tech!), and I got tactics 1 from a wreck.

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