What are you playing now?

[Hurlshort]

I've been playing way too much MLB 09 The Show. I'm kicking butt in my second season. I'm a regular starting 3rd baseman for the Triple A club in Fresno. I have a feeling I'll get the call up to the big leagues by the end of the season, sooner if there is an injury. I'm not sure if my skills are good enough yet, but I'll do my best.

 

I'm batting around .415 with 170 at bats. I've only homered 4 times, but I'm trying to get my power hitting up at ever batting practice.

 

I'm also playing Vanguard with a buddy. I always forget what a fantastic game it is. It's easily the most complex of the MMO's on the market.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Hurlshot

[Purkake]

It's easily the most complex of the MMO's on the market.

 

 

Also: EVE

[Nihilus5078]

3 Words: The Force Unleashed. Oh, and NCAA Football.

[Volourn]

NHL 09 as always. My club is now in Division 5, and my league us in the 2nd round of playoffs where i'm getting by butt whooped.

 

I bought FO3 finally since I finally saw a used copy on sale relatively cheap ($35) so now I get see how awesome it is or isn't for myself. Haven't played yet it depsite having it since Thursday but I give Bethesda kudos on the manual.

[Llyranor]

I'm trying to clear my backlog of portable SRPGs, so I'm handling both Fire Emblem (GBA) and Yggdra Union at once.

[Tigranes]

Try the Witcher EE or Arcanum with high resolution mod?

 

Hrm.

[Deraldin]

Fire Emblem (GBA)

 

Which one? The original or Sacred Stones? I can't remember whether I finished my original hard mode game. I've got it around here somewhere.

 

As for what I'm playing, I'm currently going through The Last Remnant on PC. I honestly don't remember the last JRPG that I played, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was either Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana. Either way it's not exactly a genre that gets a lot of play time what with me being a pretty much PC only gamer. Having fund so far though. Current storyline quest has me going to Nest of Eagles or something like that to fight a bunch of guys. Just tried going through there three times and got my ass handed to me the first two times.

 

On the third attempt I disbanded the my fourth union and beefed up my other three with an extra character each. I managed to take out most of the little guys before the bosses did anything. On the fourth turn or so it was just the two bosses and two small unions. I deadlocked both of the bosses, far enough away from each other that AoE attacks would only get one union and used my third group to take on the other two unions. I wiped out one of them, but took heavy damage from the other. On the next turn I wasn't offered the chance to heal, so I went all out and used the strongest attacks I had in an attempt to take it out before it got me. My first three attacks got it down to about 10% health, but his last attack came before mine in the sequence so he terminated my union before I could get him. One critical attack, one block, one healing move. Any one of those things would have saved the fight. My other unions could soak the damage from the bosses and counter once or twice per turn. It would have taken a long time to whittle the bosses health down, but I could have done it.

 

One move away. Time to go beat up some weaker monsters instead...

[Calax]

More empire... managed to take Moscow and the little province to the north. At the same time as this happened I put together a rather large army to head off an army of similar size from russia that was trying to head up into st petersburg. I attacked and managed to defeat that force only to have a MASSIVE lithuanian army appear (the way they attacked was between two forests south of which was Vilnus the polish/lithuanian capital... it was one of the only routes left for them after I'd sent an army after Moscow. I'd attacked them inside their territory) and attack my army. My army was about 2/3rds the size of his but I managed through A LOT of mobility pick the AI's army apart and kill it. On a hunch I sent a rake out to Vilnus and found that the army they'd attacked me with had been defending their capital. I promptly moved in and took over, and immediately posted my troops to re-build themselves, given they'd fallen to about 1/3 of their number's at full recruitment. Capturing Vilnus was a blessing I didn't see until after the fight as I'd managed to create a connection between my south west and south eastern territories (previously Netherlands, and Prussia had been unable to do much but simply sit because it'd take to long to shift troops from one end of the baltic to the other).

 

I managed to sue for peace from Russia (don't know how long that'll hold given they still hate me), and tried to do the same with Poland. When you go into diplomatic relations it mentions their prestige rank and their military strength. Both Poland and Russia had "Feeble" military power and very very low prestige ranks, I was moderate prestige (probably because thus far only the Polish and Russians had felt the wrath of my armies) and my military strength is "Terrifying". From the looks of it I've got one of the largest number of men under arms except for England, who's army seems confined to his island. I should probably bully the Danes into submission (they're sitting out on iceland unable to do anything), but I'm thinking I might start fighting with the Prussians (who GAVE me east prussia in exchange for Courland... and now want it back EVERY SINGLE TURN for three techs and 200 gold) to complete my baltic sea ownership (courland is the only other province on the Baltic I don't own and it's a victory territory for me). And it's only 1735.

 

I also played some Civ 4 with friends in a 4 on 4 team game. We set it up so that we were on separate continents from the AI with a small channel in the middle. Most of the game was pretty boring as we teched up and got our economies sorted out. Finally two of my friends (the best of us) thought they should start trying to make up an army to hit the enemies shores with. They put together probably 30 units between them and shipped out, landing and taking Moscow right off the bat. They started trying to head north (because the statue of zues was KILLING our economy and cities populations, and it was located in babylon further north and inland) but didn't get very far as three MASSIVE armies just came up from out of nowhere and stomped all over their army. They grumbled a bit, but by this time our weakest member had spent the ENTIRE time they'd been in the fight building units. Maybe 20-30 turns later we give it another go. This time all of us have at LEAST 15 unit armies that outclass the ai's armies by a large scale (infantry vs Macemen wut!?) It took almost 5 turns to get all the units across the seas and I retook Moscow again (Stalin only had one other city... and China had "recaptured" moscow when they destroyed my friends forces), Me and the Germans' (darkshape from L4D if you've played with him) held moscow against two larger armies (MG's really do make quite good defenders) then when it looked like we'd weathered the storm he stripped most of his units out and headed for Babylon again. During our defense of moscow the other two players (Phoenix and Ric0ch3t) headed south, taking St. Petersburg (stalins only city after the first war) and generally wreaking havoc. We all gain confidence and start attacking me and Phoenix pushing towards a Chinese city that had 28(!) units in it, while Shape ZOOMED towards Babylon and Ric0 played defender of our two new cities. Just as me and Phoenix were about to attack the chinese city, shape took babylon and made our enemies into vassal states winning the game.

 

From what we could tell the Statue of Zues was their only hope, if the war had gone on much longer we'd have had MUCH more problems keeping our cities alive because of unrest. Militarily it looks like that 28 unit army was the last force they had in all their territory, and me and phoenix managed to bottle it up enough that Shape was able to outflank any Ai forces with his infantry and hit babylon itself (on a gamble). Honestly we could have lost or at least had STUPID amounts of problems if the AI hadn't let us buy peace with 45 gold.

[Rosbjerg]

Just started a HoI2 scenario with my roommate, he plays USA and I play the Soviet Union.. We start in 1939 and end in 1964, Democracies can start wars and Tech teams get assimilated - needless to say the Cold War has already started.

 

I've taken some ahistorical turns, as I've modernized the military beyond what Stalin did, managed to defeat Finland in the Winterwar and are thinking about a preemptive strike on Germany (it's late 1940) - I know it's a little gamey, but I thought it might be quite interesting to have the actual WW2 be a fight between The Soviet Union and The Alliance - besides Germany has managed to really hurt England so far and I fear that the Isles may be invaded. USA has a mad economy and industry, my friend managed to really squeeze the potential out of the continent, so even if I conquer the Reich I think I won't really be able to match his, he has an effective IC of over 400 now , mine is around 250. I have a HUGE army though, bigger than anyone in the world, but it's mostly infantry - luckily I still have about 3mil. in my manpower pool - gotta love the endless horde of young Russians willing to serve the Mohterland!

 

Japan has managed to defeat and annex all of China and her puppets (even Mao kneeled before the might of the Emperor) and now The Empire of the Sun holds a massive landmass, they will be quite a threat for me if they team up with Germany.

 

But the question is if I go the historical way and let Germany attack or strike now, when I have the chance to conquer almost all of Europe.

 

The great thing about this game is how active the AI suddenly has become, they use spies ALOT, take chances and generally outperform the historical versions of themselves - this is mostly true for the evil regimes unfortunately.. It looks like the Americas is gonna be the only one democracy in the world come the next decade.

[Tigranes]

My Witcher, Arcanum and Thief 2 CDs are all at home so it's IWD2 time. I'm getting pretty bored of ETW because the AI is so passive, and you just feel like in 30 years of truce with Austria they've done absolutely nothing. No thanks.

[Musopticon?]

Started up a Warlord(slowly getting to Noble) Big and Small map game with some 7 opponents. These maps seem to get very hectic in the beginning, with many opponents starting almost next to each other. I intentionally took the one map type which had generally given me the lousiest start spots and AI placement, since I intended to finally start with a warlike leader and civ:Kublai Khan.

 

The start was as lousy as I thought it would be: I start in a snaky landmass separated by straits of ocean, but no clam or crab or fish. There's plenty of hills, but with teching I don't find any iron or copper. Really atypical, but not unmanageable. Around when I tech to Animal Husbandry, and handily locate horses next to my capital, Karakorum, Fredrick, Qin Shi Huang and Hammurabi announce their presence on the continent. Now, Fredrick I can manage. He usually becomes an economic powerhouse and techs to oblivion, but that's only later. On the other hand, Qin Shi Huang with his annoying traits(Protective for extra annoyance and Industrious for wonder spam) and Hammurabi with his, usually warlike, vision of uniting everyone under one empire with the second earliest unique unit in the game, did give me a jolt. I can manage Montezuma and Genghis, should they sping up, and deal with Sitting Bull and Boudica in a timely fashion, once their best assets become obsolete and I think I could take on Shaka as well - last time as Ethiopians the experienced(Military Epic, etc) Oromo with their 4-7 First Strikes annihilated his early tech massed ranks with ease, but I really do hate protective leaders who easily gain a score lead. So, the Golden Horde went to war.

 

Naturally, that meant I teched to Horseback Riding, a tech I tend to take only later for the horse archers, and started simultaneously building army and teching culture-enhancing(Kublai is Creative) buildings and wonders, to not fall behind and also get a good city to produce Great People in a timely fashion. 5 Keshiks managed to deal with all but 1 city of the Babylonian Empire, giving me the largest empire in the 2000 BC world. However, Hammurabi's bowman spam started to appear and I withdraw my, now 3, Keshiks to heal for a time. In the next turn, I find that there's a single warrior unit, a laugh in any other situation, next to Karakorum which is only protected by an unexperienced warrior unit as well and at the same time the only chariot that hammurabi still has decides to try some raiding next to their late-capital and my soon-to-be military city. I withdraw one Keshik, and these guys are early monsters(: a melee cavalry unit replacing HA, that does not suffer terrain restriction to movement and can be made immune to first strikes like HA), to kill the warrior who is busy raiding improvements. I chuckle for a moment, since the chariot is easily torn apart by my limping Keshiks and I try(thanks a lot, Medic 1 promotion) for Akkad, the last city.

 

Anyhow, skip a thousand years forward and the Mongolian empire is the biggest and baddest warmonger on the small continent. Akkad, Dur-Kigalshu, Babylon herself, all produce Catapultae and Keshiks for the soon-to-be raid into China. Funnily historical and ahistorical at the same time, that raid is done in a series of quick city razes, taking one city, the former military capital Shanghai to be used as a fortress. The Chinese empire starts to bend, as their production drops and the Spearmen can't handle all the horsemen in their midst. I push on, razing another city and cutting the empire in twine, until I find myself staring at the absolutely massive(13 pop and 2 wonders) capital city Beijing. My last 4 Keshiks and two catapultae crews shrug their shoulders, more to chew for the spears and start to destroy mines to drop their military production. Well, worst comes to worst, Qin Shi techs to Macemen and Chu-Ko-Nu and my forces are torn into shreds. The last two keshiks and one catapult escape to Shanghai and I sue for peace. End result: only go for your best advantage as long as it's still an advantage.

 

I've got a fifteen unit army, but still no iron anywhere, waiting to raid the last cities, sitting in Shanghai and a Military Epic city with a ger and a barracks and a military instructor(100% military unit production+4 exp+4 exp+2 exp=win) making more until I can't take the maintenance anymore, but I really don't feel like watching more catapults and horsemen die just to end up eventually bending over for the absolutely massive German Empire, though they lost two cities to my incredible culture already, bristling with 10 pop cities and endless hordes of swordsmen. Who cares if you are already well into Nationalism when the enemy can just chew you into death when they have all the military resources and you don't.

 

Really, I love the game, but I might try some civ with a bit better and longer-lasting unique unit next. Like Japan or China. Ooooo, China...

[Llyranor]

Fire Emblem (GBA)

 

Which one? The original or Sacred Stones? I can't remember whether I finished my original hard mode game. I've got it around here somewhere.

The 'original' one, though I have both. I'm finishing them so I can rationalize getting the DS version too, instead of just *adding* to the backlog.

 

For TLR, make sure some of your units know Vivification Herb at some point. You may not need it yet, but reviving units becomes pretty important. You'll be able to recruit soldiers with it at some point, but my main leaders learnt it anyway.

More empire... managed to take Moscow and the little province to the north. At the same time as this happened I put together a rather large army to head off an army of similar size from russia that was trying to head up into st petersburg. I attacked and managed to defeat that force only to have a MASSIVE lithuanian army appear (the way they attacked was between two forests south of which was Vilnus the polish/lithuanian capital... it was one of the only routes left for them after I'd sent an army after Moscow. I'd attacked them inside their territory) and attack my army. My army was about 2/3rds the size of his but I managed through A LOT of mobility pick the AI's army apart and kill it. On a hunch I sent a rake out to Vilnus and found that the army they'd attacked me with had been defending their capital. I promptly moved in and took over, and immediately posted my troops to re-build themselves, given they'd fallen to about 1/3 of their number's at full recruitment. Capturing Vilnus was a blessing I didn't see until after the fight as I'd managed to create a connection between my south west and south eastern territories (previously Netherlands, and Prussia had been unable to do much but simply sit because it'd take to long to shift troops from one end of the baltic to the other).

 

I managed to sue for peace from Russia (don't know how long that'll hold given they still hate me), and tried to do the same with Poland. When you go into diplomatic relations it mentions their prestige rank and their military strength. Both Poland and Russia had "Feeble" military power and very very low prestige ranks, I was moderate prestige (probably because thus far only the Polish and Russians had felt the wrath of my armies) and my military strength is "Terrifying". From the looks of it I've got one of the largest number of men under arms except for England, who's army seems confined to his island. I should probably bully the Danes into submission (they're sitting out on iceland unable to do anything), but I'm thinking I might start fighting with the Prussians (who GAVE me east prussia in exchange for Courland... and now want it back EVERY SINGLE TURN for three techs and 200 gold) to complete my baltic sea ownership (courland is the only other province on the Baltic I don't own and it's a victory territory for me). And it's only 1735.

 

I also played some Civ 4 with friends in a 4 on 4 team game. We set it up so that we were on separate continents from the AI with a small channel in the middle. Most of the game was pretty boring as we teched up and got our economies sorted out. Finally two of my friends (the best of us) thought they should start trying to make up an army to hit the enemies shores with. They put together probably 30 units between them and shipped out, landing and taking Moscow right off the bat. They started trying to head north (because the statue of zues was KILLING our economy and cities populations, and it was located in babylon further north and inland) but didn't get very far as three MASSIVE armies just came up from out of nowhere and stomped all over their army. They grumbled a bit, but by this time our weakest member had spent the ENTIRE time they'd been in the fight building units. Maybe 20-30 turns later we give it another go. This time all of us have at LEAST 15 unit armies that outclass the ai's armies by a large scale (infantry vs Macemen wut!?) It took almost 5 turns to get all the units across the seas and I retook Moscow again (Stalin only had one other city... and China had "recaptured" moscow when they destroyed my friends forces), Me and the Germans' (darkshape from L4D if you've played with him) held moscow against two larger armies (MG's really do make quite good defenders) then when it looked like we'd weathered the storm he stripped most of his units out and headed for Babylon again. During our defense of moscow the other two players (Phoenix and Ric0ch3t) headed south, taking St. Petersburg (stalins only city after the first war) and generally wreaking havoc. We all gain confidence and start attacking me and Phoenix pushing towards a Chinese city that had 28(!) units in it, while Shape ZOOMED towards Babylon and Ric0 played defender of our two new cities. Just as me and Phoenix were about to attack the chinese city, shape took babylon and made our enemies into vassal states winning the game.

 

From what we could tell the Statue of Zues was their only hope, if the war had gone on much longer we'd have had MUCH more problems keeping our cities alive because of unrest. Militarily it looks like that 28 unit army was the last force they had in all their territory, and me and phoenix managed to bottle it up enough that Shape was able to outflank any Ai forces with his infantry and hit babylon itself (on a gamble). Honestly we could have lost or at least had STUPID amounts of problems if the AI hadn't let us buy peace with 45 gold.

Just started a HoI2 scenario with my roommate, he plays USA and I play the Soviet Union.. We start in 1939 and end in 1964, Democracies can start wars and Tech teams get assimilated - needless to say the Cold War has already started.

 

I've taken some ahistorical turns, as I've modernized the military beyond what Stalin did, managed to defeat Finland in the Winterwar and are thinking about a preemptive strike on Germany (it's late 1940) - I know it's a little gamey, but I thought it might be quite interesting to have the actual WW2 be a fight between The Soviet Union and The Alliance - besides Germany has managed to really hurt England so far and I fear that the Isles may be invaded. USA has a mad economy and industry, my friend managed to really squeeze the potential out of the continent, so even if I conquer the Reich I think I won't really be able to match his, he has an effective IC of over 400 now , mine is around 250. I have a HUGE army though, bigger than anyone in the world, but it's mostly infantry - luckily I still have about 3mil. in my manpower pool - gotta love the endless horde of young Russians willing to serve the Mohterland!

 

Japan has managed to defeat and annex all of China and her puppets (even Mao kneeled before the might of the Emperor) and now The Empire of the Sun holds a massive landmass, they will be quite a threat for me if they team up with Germany.

 

But the question is if I go the historical way and let Germany attack or strike now, when I have the chance to conquer almost all of Europe.

 

The great thing about this game is how active the AI suddenly has become, they use spies ALOT, take chances and generally outperform the historical versions of themselves - this is mostly true for the evil regimes unfortunately.. It looks like the Americas is gonna be the only one democracy in the world come the next decade.

 

Started up a Warlord(slowly getting to Noble) Big and Small map game with some 7 opponents. These maps seem to get very hectic in the beginning, with many opponents starting almost next to each other. I intentionally took the one map type which had generally given me the lousiest start spots and AI placement, since I intended to finally start with a warlike leader and civ:Kublai Khan.

 

The start was as lousy as I thought it would be: I start in a snaky landmass separated by straits of ocean, but no clam or crab or fish. There's plenty of hills, but with teching I don't find any iron or copper. Really atypical, but not unmanageable. Around when I tech to Animal Husbandry, and handily locate horses next to my capital, Karakorum, Fredrick, Qin Shi Huang and Hammurabi announce their presence on the continent. Now, Fredrick I can manage. He usually becomes an economic powerhouse and techs to oblivion, but that's only later. On the other hand, Qin Shi Huang with his annoying traits(Protective for extra annoyance and Industrious for wonder spam) and Hammurabi with his, usually warlike, vision of uniting everyone under one empire with the second earliest unique unit in the game, did give me a jolt. I can manage Montezuma and Genghis, should they sping up, and deal with Sitting Bull and Boudica in a timely fashion, once their best assets become obsolete and I think I could take on Shaka as well - last time as Ethiopians the experienced(Military Epic, etc) Oromo with their 4-7 First Strikes annihilated his early tech massed ranks with ease, but I really do hate protective leaders who easily gain a score lead. So, the Golden Horde went to war.

 

Naturally, that meant I teched to Horseback Riding, a tech I tend to take only later for the horse archers, and started simultaneously building army and teching culture-enhancing(Kublai is Creative) buildings and wonders, to not fall behind and also get a good city to produce Great People in a timely fashion. 5 Keshiks managed to deal with all but 1 city of the Babylonian Empire, giving me the largest empire in the 2000 BC world. However, Hammurabi's bowman spam started to appear and I withdraw my, now 3, Keshiks to heal for a time. In the next turn, I find that there's a single warrior unit, a laugh in any other situation, next to Karakorum which is only protected by an unexperienced warrior unit as well and at the same time the only chariot that hammurabi still has decides to try some raiding next to their late-capital and my soon-to-be military city. I withdraw one Keshik, and these guys are early monsters(: a melee cavalry unit replacing HA, that does not suffer terrain restriction to movement and can be made immune to first strikes like HA), to kill the warrior who is busy raiding improvements. I chuckle for a moment, since the chariot is easily torn apart by my limping Keshiks and I try(thanks a lot, Medic 1 promotion) for Akkad, the last city.

 

Anyhow, skip a thousand years forward and the Mongolian empire is the biggest and baddest warmonger on the small continent. Akkad, Dur-Kigalshu, Babylon herself, all produce Catapultae and Keshiks for the soon-to-be raid into China. Funnily historical and ahistorical at the same time, that raid is done in a series of quick city razes, taking one city, the former military capital Shanghai to be used as a fortress. The Chinese empire starts to bend, as their production drops and the Spearmen can't handle all the horsemen in their midst. I push on, razing another city and cutting the empire in twine, until I find myself staring at the absolutely massive(13 pop and 2 wonders) capital city Beijing. My last 4 Keshiks and two catapultae crews shrug their shoulders, more to chew for the spears and start to destroy mines to drop their military production. Well, worst comes to worst, Qin Shi techs to Macemen and Chu-Ko-Nu and my forces are torn into shreds. The last two keshiks and one catapult escape to Shanghai and I sue for peace. End result: only go for your best advantage as long as it's still an advantage.

 

I've got a fifteen unit army, but still no iron anywhere, waiting to raid the last cities, sitting in Shanghai and a Military Epic city with a ger and a barracks and a military instructor(100% military unit production+4 exp+4 exp+2 exp=win) making more until I can't take the maintenance anymore, but I really don't feel like watching more catapults and horsemen die just to end up eventually bending over for the absolutely massive German Empire, though they lost two cities to my incredible culture already, bristling with 10 pop cities and endless hordes of swordsmen. Who cares if you are already well into Nationalism when the enemy can just chew you into death when they have all the military resources and you don't.

 

Really, I love the game, but I might try some civ with a bit better and longer-lasting unique unit next. Like Japan or China. Ooooo, China...

You bunch of freaking nerds.

Edited March 30, 2009 by Llyranor

[Gfted1]

I finally got around to starting a Death Knight on WoW. Played on and off over the last four days and leveled it to 60. The starting area was fun but just at the last quest where you learn how DK's were severed from the service of the Litch King, I somehow stumbled into the middle of someone else doing the quest and only got to see the last third of the explanation.

 

As this is my first foray in melee, Im not really sure how to properly control the DK and get an optimal rotation. Im also absolutely positive that I screwed the pooch on the talent distribution. The were just coming at me so fast (at one point you complete 2 quests and have SIX talens to spend!) I didnt really have time to study the skill trees and just would up pouring most of them into Frost.

 

Its a cool class though, very very hard to die and I can easily handle a four mob of equal-to-slightly-higher level opponents. Kinda having a bit of culture shock not playing my mage. You non-mage chumps actually have to pay for food and take mundane transportation!? Ug, it drives me nuts.

[Rosbjerg]

You bunch of freaking nerds.

 

We love you too Llyranor!

[Setzer]

I've been playing way too much MLB 09 The Show.

 

Same here. I'm loving this game! Probably the best baseball gaming experience I've had since MVP '05. Currently I'm playing the "Road to the Show" mode and trying to work my way up as a starting pitcher. So far I'm 9-1 w/ a 1.59 ERA at AA -- should be moving up to AAA soon! This is where the majority of my time has been spent but I want to check out Franchise mode as well.

 

Also, I've finally broken free of WoW and canceled my account. Now I'm back in Lord of the Rings Online and while the game lacks some solid PvP, it has the best PvE of any MMO on the market.

[Deraldin]

Fire Emblem (GBA)

 

Which one? The original or Sacred Stones? I can't remember whether I finished my original hard mode game. I've got it around here somewhere.

The 'original' one, though I have both. I'm finishing them so I can rationalize getting the DS version too, instead of just *adding* to the backlog.

 

For TLR, make sure some of your units know Vivification Herb at some point. You may not need it yet, but reviving units becomes pretty important. You'll be able to recruit soldiers with it at some point, but my main leaders learnt it anyway.

 

Heh, I picked up the DS version at release and it almost felt like a step back in some ways. It was missing features that the GBA versions had, like the ability to rescue units which was kind of annoying at times. The save spots mid map were an interesting idea and really saved some time when you are trying to save everyone, but it almost felt like cheating after the GBA games.

 

About TLR, I've already been informed that I need Vivification Herb. I know at least one of my characters has the skill, but I can't remember who it is, not that it really matters since I've never been offered the chance to use the skill anyway.

[Rostere]

Just started a HoI2 scenario with my roommate, he plays USA and I play the Soviet Union.. We start in 1939 and end in 1964, Democracies can start wars and Tech teams get assimilated - needless to say the Cold War has already started.

 

I've taken some ahistorical turns, as I've modernized the military beyond what Stalin did, managed to defeat Finland in the Winterwar and are thinking about a preemptive strike on Germany (it's late 1940) - I know it's a little gamey, but I thought it might be quite interesting to have the actual WW2 be a fight between The Soviet Union and The Alliance - besides Germany has managed to really hurt England so far and I fear that the Isles may be invaded. USA has a mad economy and industry, my friend managed to really squeeze the potential out of the continent, so even if I conquer the Reich I think I won't really be able to match his, he has an effective IC of over 400 now , mine is around 250. I have a HUGE army though, bigger than anyone in the world, but it's mostly infantry - luckily I still have about 3mil. in my manpower pool - gotta love the endless horde of young Russians willing to serve the Mohterland!

 

Japan has managed to defeat and annex all of China and her puppets (even Mao kneeled before the might of the Emperor) and now The Empire of the Sun holds a massive landmass, they will be quite a threat for me if they team up with Germany.

 

But the question is if I go the historical way and let Germany attack or strike now, when I have the chance to conquer almost all of Europe.

 

The great thing about this game is how active the AI suddenly has become, they use spies ALOT, take chances and generally outperform the historical versions of themselves - this is mostly true for the evil regimes unfortunately.. It looks like the Americas is gonna be the only one democracy in the world come the next decade.

 

Well, unmodded AI Germany should be easy to beat if you've focused on your military on any difficulty except for Very Hard. Japan will be more than a nuisance if they decide to attack, but they almost never do that anyway, so that should not be a problem. If you're going with the option to get tech teams on annexation, you'll need to occupy Germany before you friend does . Also, since you're playing as the SU you'll need to focus on wars of attrition when you're fighting technologically superior enemies (basically US, Germany and maybe Japan), and always choose Meretskov as your chief of staff.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Need to stop playing Fallout 3. :S

[Maria Caliban]

Assassins' Creed. For some reason, I'm enjoying myself. Probably because I'm on drugs.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Probably because I'm on drugs.

 

Legal ones?

[Maria Caliban]

Probably because I'm on drugs.

 

Legal ones?

 

 

Like I'd waste illegal drugs on video games.

[Rosbjerg]

Well, unmodded AI Germany should be easy to beat if you've focused on your military on any difficulty except for Very Hard. Japan will be more than a nuisance if they decide to attack, but they almost never do that anyway, so that should not be a problem. If you're going with the option to get tech teams on annexation, you'll need to occupy Germany before you friend does . Also, since you're playing as the SU you'll need to focus on wars of attrition when you're fighting technologically superior enemies (basically US, Germany and maybe Japan), and always choose Meretskov as your chief of staff.

 

It is umodded - I didn't think any of the mods I could find seemed very interesting. Is there a particular good one we should try? (it has to work for MP)

 

I see what you mean with Meretskov, I have the guy who gives me 25% manpower, but the 20% org. regain would be alot better! I guess I'll have to attack now then, so the US won't get germanies techteams (mine suck too).

[Missy]

SimCity4 because I can't go for too long without playing one of the SimCity games.

 

Now we have a new PC, I'll probably take a look at Dawn of War 2. The mere sight of the box made my laptop run away and cry.

[Nightshape]

I bought FO3 finally since I finally saw a used copy on sale relatively cheap ($35) so now I get see how awesome it is or isn't for myself. Haven't played yet it depsite having it since Thursday but I give Bethesda kudos on the manual.

 

How ironic, so any verdict yet Volo?

[Rostere]

Well, unmodded AI Germany should be easy to beat if you've focused on your military on any difficulty except for Very Hard. Japan will be more than a nuisance if they decide to attack, but they almost never do that anyway, so that should not be a problem. If you're going with the option to get tech teams on annexation, you'll need to occupy Germany before you friend does . Also, since you're playing as the SU you'll need to focus on wars of attrition when you're fighting technologically superior enemies (basically US, Germany and maybe Japan), and always choose Meretskov as your chief of staff.

 

It is umodded - I didn't think any of the mods I could find seemed very interesting. Is there a particular good one we should try? (it has to work for MP)

 

I see what you mean with Meretskov, I have the guy who gives me 25% manpower, but the 20% org. regain would be alot better! I guess I'll have to attack now then, so the US won't get germanies techteams (mine suck too).

 

Most of the good mods (or at least, the ones I like) like CORE are not really game- altering mods, but mods that add more realism by correcting small mistakes. Even though I appreciate the hard work behind these mods, they're not really for people who are into HoI but rather people who are into WW2 and history.

 

Yeah, and the point of having Meretskov as your CoS is that your soldiers will fight more with than their Org. level and regain whould otherwise allow. If your intent is to win a war of attrition you'll need your men to fight the enemy constantly, and reinforce them well so that you gain the full advantage of your manpower. Sure, Shaposhnikov makes sense as a peace- time CoS, and Rokossovsky makes sense as a late- game CoS (tanks), but Meretskov is what you'll need when you fight Germany. Also, I've never been out of manpower with the SU myself, so you shouldn't worry about that.