Monte Carlo

The sad thing is that crime games appear to all follow the same drive-and-shoot model. When, as anybody who has seen any of the Godfather series or even any Martin Scorcese movies will realise the RPG opportunitues. Back-stabbing, politiking, a mini-game predicated on the rising and falling markets in different commodities (or, a la Goodfellas one based on finding the perfect pasta sauce recipe just like Momma used to make), the placing of key men in the local council and police, chosing a mob accountant and a decent lawyer, a scene with a trial, escaping from prison, whacking the other side, attempts to legitimize your business and wash your dirty money, managing your trophy wife and five girlfriends... Jeez, The Sopranos needs to be made into a game. A decent one.

^ What Tale said.

Interestingly, we discussed the creeping insect trick earlier in the thread. In a switcharoo, the evil statues use it on the party. We will cheeze them back, oh yes we will! As Oner gets into his stride as the awesome arcane howitzer the high-level sorcerer truly is, hitting the suckaz with timestop / dragon's breath, Horrid Wilting. When we get improved alacrity this will become even twinkier, mwuahahahahaaa!!! We pick up some sweet magic items and proceed to level two... And this screen tells it's own story about Hurlie! All in all, level one of WK is pretty easy for a party, even one on the verge of HLAs (most parties will hit HLAs in the Underdark if they are playing a reasonably modded game of BG2/ ToB). Anyhow, this changes on level two...

After defeating the lich, golems and finding the last clue we go back to a room in the NW part of the level and Sorophx finds a room full of mustard jellies, which probably go well with beef sandwiches... ... but Oner decides it's time to drop a Horrid Wilting, which makes short work of the jellies. This results in a nice warm fireside chat with a ghost and everybody levels up! Although we've done it arse about face... the slippers the lich wanted were here but... OOOPS WE KILLED HIM. We return to the altar and complete the bell, book and candle riddle to enter the second level and guess what? Who'da thunk it but the statues come to life and a battle royale ensues.

My favourite way to play is co-op V computer, you can do this on CoHO. You can have as many commanders as you like, so make an American one too but FFS don't go armour.

I'm AirfixPanzer, usually, but I have several nom de guerre.

PM me and I'll send you my username(s) and you can add me to your friends list. I have a raptr acc and Steam, I might link Steam to CoHO if that's possible.

Guys, what's the deal with Guild Wars? I don't dig MMOs but for some reason I find myself interested in this one.

Guys, CoHO has now progressed to the open beta stage if anybody is interested.

I boycotted Empires et. al because of the Steam issue, I now have Steam but never use it. I wonder if they need to make the Total War series... smaller. At campaign level rather than strategic. It would certainly make it easier to create credible AI.

The reason I keep dying is because you front-loaded the rogue levels. Rog 1 / Ftr 1 every other level increases survival.

^ You're probably right of course, but as an aside I've often ascribed the harsh look of parts of IWD2 to the snowy white backgrounds, it looks perfectly okay in tunnels.

I'm loving the attempt to divert the guy over to the Codex And NWN isn't a classic. It's crap.

Tigs, so tough he doesn't feel the need to be festooned in Gucci magical items, spots a load of traps... ...and a battle with an assortment pack of wraiths reveals that I'd forgotten to memorize any resotration spells! The battle bleeds over into a room with more statues... More exploration reveals clues as to a Bell, Book and Candle and the ghost of a long-dead Very Important Person. And back to a room with yet more traps... you do need a thief in WK unless you like Knock spells and glugging healing potions. We encounter a ghost who gives us clues about how to speak to The Guardian, complete the ritual and descend to the lower levels. We decide to enter his crypt and wake him up. Golems! Tigs seeds the area with traps. He is chaotic evil and cares not for allegations of cheese! We wake up the long dead priest, now a lich sort of character, who demands his slippers! That's right, we could avoid this battle entirely but NO! We are the Scions of Havoc, time to DIIIEEEEEE!!! Again. ...as the lich feels the pain from trap-cheese. A battle royale with the golems kicks off, which proves to be of little concern to the warriors in the party. To be continued...

Monty needs to sneak attack with the returning frost dart at least once.

I don't know, I gave him reasonable equipment...

There is a free, but extremely well-executed and lovingly crafted fan mod called Eastern Front. The Russian order of battle includes punishment units who can, indeed, perform wave attacks. However the vanilla game + expansions is set in the NW Europe campaign in 1944 / 45 up to and including the Allied advance into the Netherlands and the Rhine.

One last CoH screenie because it's awesome: Three Churchills from 'A' Sqn, the Monte Carlo Royal Yeonmanry (The Deptford and Lewisham Lancers) advance into an ambush by a dreaded 88 of the Panzer Lehr. Ooops.

Your gaming genre recognition skills are a credit to you, sir.

More Company of Heroes. Cherbourg, 1944. Units of the Wehrmacht 709th Divn. attempt a counter attack on a hastily prepared defensive position belonging to a regiment of the US 79th Inf Divn. A StuG assault gun vainly tries to cross the bridge but is repelled by a dug-in AT gun. Not deterred by the slaughter the burning StuG is joined by two Puma armoured cars which are promptly brewed up by the GIs... ... who, siezing the initiative, counter-attack with a flame thrower tank, armour and a small team of US Rangers...

So into the Keep, level one is pretty easy. Tigs goes for a recce and bumps into a common-or-garden golem... Which is swiftly dealt with by Hurlie's Hammer of Thunderbolts. This level is full of scrolls. With clues. Tigs recces ahead and finds a room full of mephits, an utter insult to our awesomeness and they are quickly dealt with. And into a room with a statue. Hmmm. This is D&D. We are very suspicious of statues. To be continued...

OK meet our intrepid adventurers... 1. What do you get if the Child of Bhaal decides to worship a battle-crazy god of war? Hurlshot, that's who. A dwarf who drinks napalm for breakfast and breaks rocks with his forehead for fun, he is a one-dwarf army and the undisputed battering ram of his group. 2. His sidekick is the murderous halfling called Tigranes, who notices that where Hurlie goes, blood and gold follows. His hobbies include pulling the wings off flies and collecting knives. Nice. 3. The sociopathic howitzer-on-legs they called Oner thinks he is the Child of Bhaal. He likes timestop because it allows him to wander around and enjoy the world he has created. Before blowing it up. 4. Sorophx, an elf so evil that he was chucked out of the Zhentarim for unusual cruelty, believes that when Hurlshot dies his Bhaal-essence will spark an insane war that will... amuse him. 5. Serrano is in the wrong adventuring party, but his good-aligned one died because the girly paladin kept giving all their treasure away. Serrano's secret? HE WISHES HE WAS A RED WIZARD. He has sleepless nights about this. 6. Lastly, the 8' tall avatar of ferocious hatred they call Shryke. Shryke is biding his time, and as you will see takes a while before he unleashes his full potential. In the meanwhile he wonders which of his comrades will die first so he can flay them and make an amusing hat out of their flesh (mwuahahahahahaaa etc). And here they are at the start of their adventure at Watcher's Keep...

Here, the Kampfgruppe, backed up by a static 88 and a trusty G-Wagen form up at the start point.

No, Company of Heroes.

Hurrah, I got it to work. Anyhow, the brutish Kampfgruppe Monte wins the day.