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We start as Hivers, a bug-like race that is better at building stuff than research. But that statistical difference is by far the only thing that differentiates us from others. Those soft skinned, scaled, furry or even feathery creatures may hold the key to faster than light travel and we may crawl among the stars. But once we get there, we are the only ones to hold the knowledge of instantaneous travel among our gates! Those are our true treasure and will never be known to others. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0010-1.jpg This is our known part of a galaxy: It is a 100 star map and we are in a corner. One could be thinking; cool, we have our back covered! But there isn't a real "backyard" in SotS. At least not for long. When speeds and power sources pick up everything is within reach. What this starting position brings to our empire is VERY limited expansion. Moving STL only before setting up the gate means that the galaxy will be explored before our second exploration wave is finished. From there on it is a slow and painful expansion and if you are unable to make a large gate network, you're finished. Being able to move in a turn is a blessing, but if three cruisers are all you can move that isn't much of a help. Expanding in all directions would be a great bonus for us because it would mean a lot of gates and that would help in defence even if we would have to fight on multiple fronts. The game was started with 6 players on normal difficulty and AIs have one colony extra. Because of this they start with everything half better than me. Production, research... So I need to catch up. Lets explore our neighbourhood first. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0001-1.jpg Our slow interstellar speed makes long-range scouts useless in the beginning. We need gates and fast. Also when we find a good planet we can't wait another 10 or more turns before our gate would get there. So our exploration fleets are made of a tanker and a gate. Very expensive exploration but time is of the essence. Soon we meet Human colonizers. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0003.jpg But their escorts don't show any respect. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0006-1.jpg Soon our two empires fight mercilessly. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0008-1.jpg Humans aren't our only neighbours. There is also a Morrigi empire. When we visit one of their worlds we trigger a menace; the swarm. Their planet was infested and after we retreat in a hurry, the planet is their only target... https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0016-1.jpg https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0019-1.jpg I hope Morrigi won't blame us, they should have cleansed the system sooner.

I'm desperate for my annual X-com fix and I figure what better way than to AAR it! This is going to be a modified game with xcomutil. The Interceptor and Firestorm will be the primary troop transports. The Skyranger is only for extremely long range missions if it's used at all and will be limited to 10 spaces. The Lighting will not be used and the Avenger will only be used for the trip to Cydonia. Saving and reloading will only be done for crashes and leaving the AAR at suspenseful plot points. Now for additional rule possibilities: 1: Will Humans be allowed Psi? 2: Force Human weapons only? 3: Force Pistols only? 4: Research help from captured aliens? 5: Use the improved starting base? 6: Suggest more! Feel free to give input and have give me a character to put on the squad as well as a weapon/personality preference for the character.

I've lost and won a bit of games in Frozen Synapse. This game with 7h30n was not special due to the result but because I was left with a weird feeling that we both knew what the other one was doing. At the very start of the game we both correctly predicted the first missile salvo. I was in a bit of a tight spot there, risking to lose both MGs but I really had no clean exit. I was pretty sure his second missile was going to hit the remaining MG but there was little chance of rescuing them both. Also I knew about the MG behind our backs... My second missile didn't aim to kill his MG (not that I'd mind) but was shot to open a hole for my MG to shoot his. Which he did. There 7h moved an MG into the upper right corner bunker into the spot I was hoping he wouldn't as it could be a likely missile target. His MG was able to shoot mine from there. Fourth turn missile exchange; I was aiming to blow a hole for my MG to shoot from but he was already dead, 7h's missile would fly through the window, aiming to kill that same dead chap. My biggest concern was the MG in the neighbourhood so I went into a bit of a gamble with my MG moving back in, but that window looked really peachy for attacking the second MG, standing in the middle of the yard. Luckily his MG went for the missile guy and was finally disposed of. 7h saw the window and the opportunity it presents to me, so it went off with my MG behind. But not before he was able to kill the menacing threat in the yard. When only missile launchers remain, the tactics is easy. Move away from walls and hope for the enemy's stupid mistake. I do them, but this time we both knew better. 7h30n, you're welcome to enlighten your position. Silencer, now we have to do an AAR...

Hell everyone. This will be the third challenger in X-Com vs XCOM vs Xenonauts challenge. The final challenger is of course Xenonauts made by Goldhawk Interactive, soon to be officially released. Currently we have version 1.04, but I've started playing on 1.03. There is not much difference between both versions. Although fresh game, I'll be using few mods, that change some graphics in game and one that allows additional tactic while entering UFOs. The mods I'm currently using: -Skitso's Oprresive UI mod - it changes some colours in the Geoscape making the game more darker. -Fire in The Hole - modifies the interior of the UFOs and adds a possibility to breach UFOs from other sides. Originally you can't destroy the outer walls of the UFO -Skitso's alternative rank insignia -Jsleezy's Real Fighter Portrait Pack - revamps all the soldier faces - in current version there are 20 faces that weren't yet remade. -Jsleezy's Real Armours - modifies the looks of armours in soldier equipment screen and inventory during ground combat. I'll also be adding Lore+ mod which adds a bit of information about aliens, but recently there were some changes in the files that the mod alters so I'm waiting for update to current version. The difficulty will be of course Insane. So without any delay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbwUdrDXZ8 Same as in OpenXcom, we can decide were to put our base and can see, how much range will our basic radar system have. So obvious choice will be Northern Africa. On the start we must add few buildings to the base: -2x Hangar -2x Radar Array - it increases the range (and only max 3 arrays are allowed) -1x Living Quarters -1x Medical Bay. To have vehicles we need to build a garage, but I'm not going to do that just yet. We must also hire more scientists. And order 1 more Interceptor. At that point there is nothing else to do, but wait and pray that aliens decide to show up in our territory, rather than for example of Americas. We spot 2 UFOs, but their trajectory didn't include to hang around. Instead the wreak some havoc somewhere else. In the meantime scientists tell us what is currently happening and that we can't fight forever. Their proposal for next research is faster Interceptor and armoured scout car. So we chose the new Interceptor. A few moments later we detect another UFO, but this time our Aircaft catches up and manages to shot it down. Having our first ground mission let's prepare the team. Overall I found the first batch of soldiers to have very decent stats. So let's head out to the mission. On the first two turns our soldiers don't encounter any aliens so they slowly move towards the UFO. On the third turn corporal Conk spots a reptilian type creature on the corner of the building. Having no possible line of fire soldiers move to a better position. Meanwhile corporal Loris spots another one, so sergeant decides to unleash to rocket. The blast however wasn't strong enough to kill the alien. On following alien turn, the first spotted alien moved closer and corporal Glinka manages to take a reaction fire, but missed. When it was our turn, soldiers unleashed hell upon the creature and corporal Jackson scores the kill. Following further towards the UFO, cpl. Peters spots another one on the upper floor. So, soldiers move in and blast the the bugger. The one that ate rocket to the face probably run back to the UFO, so our men move in and proceed to enter UFO. There were 2 aliens inside, but in close quarters our machine gunners mowed the down. And thus ends the first combat. First artifacts are sent to the eggheads and rest is sold to the local government.

Hired by Enrico Chivaldori to overthrow his evil ex-wife Queen Deidranna and free Arulco, off I go, absurdly optimistic. In this game, I will be playing Expert/Tons of Guns/Iron Man/Sci-Fi, because I've played JA2 a lot over the years. I'm not very good at it, but I have played it a lot. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/startoptions.jpg The only initial recruiting point for mercs is the Association of International Mercenaries, whose range of crazed killers stretches from the budget-priced thugs like Bull, all the way up to supremely skilled thugs like Gus. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/aimercs.jpg I quickly pick out a squad that I can afford. $30,000 to hire mercs to overthrow a country? I like value for money too, but where's your sense of proportion, Enrico? Barry is my explosives 'expert'. He's also a decent shot, good Agility and Strength, and his high Wisdom means his skills will improve quickly. He's also going to be my mechanic, unless I gain a sudden windfall allowing me to hire someone who knows that maintenance sometimes goes beyond simply hitting things. $6,995. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/barry.jpg Barry forgets the whole 'heavy breathing' thing and ruins the call. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/barryinto.jpg Bull is cheap muscle. He's very strong, slow, and capable of beating the living shit out of anyone who is not currently Superman. Or Batman. $4,500. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/bull.jpg The call goes swimmingly: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/bullintro.jpg Grizzly is a good all-round soldier, and is also skilled in a bit of the old fisticuffs. $6,000. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/grizzly.jpg Malice is the last member of my not-very-rounded squad. A good soldier, he also likes stabbing people in the face and kicking them in the balls (not always in that order). $10,000. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/lamal.jpg Being Quebecois, he has certain 'eccentricities': http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/malintro.jpg Malice's frilly undercrackers aside, I have a decent squad here. All fairly robust, (in my games, 'Bull' is often short for 'Bullet Sponge'), with two places left for a mechanic and a medic. Barry is a decent bomb doctor and improves quickly. Grizzly will usually develop into a kick-arse soldier. Bull can't really be any better at beating people up than he already is, but he sometimes manages to ignore his slow metabolism and fast pie arm and actually run a bit. Malice is nippy, and packs a decent punch. Because of his Dexterity, he's also good at chucking grenades (Grizzly and Bull excel at 'accidentally' hitting friendlies with them thanks to their low Dex). Bull, Griz and Mal have been hired without equipment, because they're going to live off the land (read: get shot a lot and nick stuff). I want the explosives and other kit Barry has, so he's lucky, being the only one turning up with armour and a gun. Arulco, in all its glory: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/arulco.jpg The M-Team (M for 'Manly') drop into Omerta, the first town of Arulco. Who lies in wait? Who would dare?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu5SEyYyH0I http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6067/wowmartianintro8.jpg Welcome to Mars. I cold, barren, dying world. http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/4544/wowmartianintro9.jpg The Senior Elder has not rectified the situation and is being..."Replaced" http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9906/wowmartianintro10.jpg You, are his replacement. http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2350/wowmartianintro12.jpg You take your seat among them Council of Elders. http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/402/wowmartianintro13.jpg Plans are discussed for the invasion of Earth, the primitive world sunward of Mars. http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/429/wowmartianintro14.jpg A large hydrogen accelerator will deliver the assault force. http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9343/wowmartianintro15.jpg After a ten day journey, the first pod enters the Earth's atmosphere. http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/4355/wowmartianintro16.jpg A crowd of human vermin has gathered to view the crash sight. http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1995/wowmartianintro17.jpg These hideous creatures are cleansed. http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/7253/wowmartianintro18.jpg Then, the Fighting Machines are assembled. http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/9453/wowmartianintro19.jpg And our forces advance on human military positions. http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/6351/wowmartianintro20.jpg Though our forces are technologically superior, we seem to have underestimated their numbers. http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/746/wowmartianintro21.jpg Contact has been lost with the first pod! http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2369/wowmartianintro22.jpg A more secure location to base our forces is selected.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/3240/ascend0011.jpg Woah! Groovy, man. We can pick out how the universe works. We're going to have lots of stars, man, and lots of aliens, but they are going probably be total oppressors, man. And our color is going to be green, because we're in touch with the earth, man. http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/829/ascend0012.jpg We've overpopulated the world, and we're going to go spread the love to the stars, man. We're really good at gardening and stuff and we're going to descend on wrecked planets and protect them from the Man, man http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7660/ascend0013.jpg Dude, ok, this is going to be really trippy, but we're viewing our whole solar system from SPACE! WITHOUT acid! http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/5773/ascend0014.jpg Our planet is all green and happy, because we know what we're doing, mmkay? http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4193/ascend0015.jpg This is where we are going to figure out how to leave our overpopulated world whenever we get motivated to learn all that stuff. http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9506/ascend0016.jpg Here is what we're good at, man. Every 150 days, we like, come off our benders and do stuff. http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1545/ascend0017.jpg Groovy man, we have alien friends to talk to! http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2522/ascend0018.jpg They don't seem to want to be our friends. http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6647/ascend0019.jpg Neat, a call on the technicolor space phone! http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/9262/ascend00110.jpg Damned oppressive aliens... Way to harsh our buzz, man.. http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4282/ascend00111.jpg Ok, we've learned some stuff in past 5 months and built up our industry enough to launch things into space. These green rockets take forever to get stuff up into orbit, man. http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8530/ascend00113.jpg A month later and Moonbeam tells us that we can leave the planet to spread free love and grass, man. We're going to go to the next planet in the system to set up some organic farms or something.

Check it out and have fun! First video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEP58Ey6DFE There is as well The Bureau X-Com Declassified, EU IV, Victoria II HOD, CKII TOG and much more ;-) Here you can find more http://www.youtube.c.../Steelwarrior77

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/Liir.jpg The shame. Shame and disgust. My own and that of others, blinding emotions running through my sanity. Whether I would endure or break was uncertain. But the pain was even worse. I felt every wound and heard every scream of my kind, battling across the expanses of the galaxy, leaving frozen water of Muur scattered among the debris of machines of war. War. My mind was filled with shame of my brothers, sowing death upon living creatures, risking their own reason in the cries. But finally I had to admit their actions are patches sewn over the Song, preventing it from falling silent. Still I kept my ears shut to the growing disharmony for as long as I could. Then the murmur of life upset started to invade my song, too. I couldn't bear it any more, listening and doing nothing to heal the chords. Elder at my age, others expected me to teach the young, sing and await my own end in meditation. Disharmony and silence take my age! So I cloaked myself in shame of my people and took the exile. Swimming in the black sea, the machines I once loathed carry me around. I give the orders to take lives and bear the weight of consequences. I take as much responsibility for pain we cause as I can to make life of my fellow Black Swimmers a fraction easier. They care for me, too. Our song takes us through murky waters, each battle won adds to the harmony of life. We will win and be reborn or die trying.

Hello. I've been waiting to finally do some Sword of the Stars 2 AAR. I was constantly prevented by big buginnes of the game. Still the game ain't what it should be but it is now in a form that at least allows to play normally (except if a patch comes that screws the saves). My plan is to do a whole series of AAR for SotS2 with all the playable races. It may take very long since I will take brakes from it at some points, there might be more patches that change things and I am not guaranteeing a successful ending (most probably because of some game breaking bug or save destroying patch). The game is quite bit slower than the SotS prime, so there are sometimes those games where things come to a stall, because of bad CH spawning on planets. Sometimes you can get plenty of low CH planets, sometimes you are surrounded by planets witch CH 300+ or systems without planets. Not only this but in SotS2 we start on Cruiser class ships that are very expensive at the beginning in comparing to SotS Prime where a destroyer cost 10-20k in credits while cruisers cost 100-200k credits - see the difference? Plus there are other changes that you will notice during the gameplay. Now onwards. The map for this AAR is custom generated by galaxy generator version 1.9. The game itself doesn't have a starmap generator like in prime so it was up to brave modders to the job. The map is of clusters type with 5 clusters, 100 systems and 4 players. Why 4 players? Because of the performance. The waiting time at later stages becomes very long, so I am minimizing it. Maybe in a year Kerberos will improve it (and it was improved few times too). If you didn't guess, I'll be playing as Morrigi Confederation. Though they are feathered dragons most of us call the birds - go figure My opponents will be Tarkasian Empire, Zuul/Suul'ka Horde and Hiver Imperium. Why no LOA? Well because I don't believe that AI is good enough to play it yet. Plus they are relatively new race and there still are a lot of bugs about them. Why no Liir? Well - other that I bloody hate them, they simply didn't rolled high enough dice to get in Because the AI is still in the woodwork - sure it can play ok - I will give it a small advantage of starting credits at 1 million, 3 additional techs and make it HARD so it will get additional bonuses. So let's press that start button and let the sadomizer raping begins. Here is our home system and our homeworld and how it looks in the global galaxy view. Although our main system has 4 planets, 2 of them aren't in our range of climat and the third has climate that is too expensive for us. But on the other system we have a starting point. In this game we start with 4 fleets. 2 Survey fleets, 1 colonization fleet and 1 Construction fleet that can build stations. So let's make use of that colonization fleet. Now let's use those Survey fleets and scout some systems. It's best to start with the systems that have the most planets in them. Only SolForce can't be picky about expansion. Next thing let's look at our empire more closely. First we need more money - increasing the tax rate to 6 is all we can do to get more money out of our people and not get in trouble of rebellion. Also at start the security slider is way too high so it needs adjustment. Next research. Morrigi have slight boost in research department 20 or 25%, so we should get things much faster. The only exception are Liir that have even more boost in research. Our first research I think should go for better growth and terraforming. I adjust the slider slightly so it should take 15 turns to do it. Could add more but Morrigi ships are quite expensive (if not the most) and some money in treasury are needed. Each race has their own predefined starting ship designs. Any new design is a prototype - a ship that is more expensive to build and it takes bit longer. The only exception is retrofitting (changing the tier of the gun of same kind for example: green laser to uv laser). But because we are on turn 1 any new design is free of charge so we use it to make our own designs that will serve our mighty empire. First comes the vanguard of our fleet - The Raven. Our second design is The Crow. It will server as Survey class ship. Third design is The Flying Nest. It will be a supply ship. (At the point of writing this AAR I've found a better name for supply ship so if I create at some point upgraded design I will switch to better name). Next design - Light of Hope. Our colonization ship. We can't forget about CnC ship - The Flock Leader. (As you can see my naming ain't that great so if you have better names you might just pass along (and please no corny names like 'Here fishyfishyfishy' )) A 'Flock Boat' (Gravboat type ) And I couldn't left the constructor type unchanged, so here is The Crane. That's all what we need now in design department. So let's create some new ships. A second colonization fleet would be nice if we run into plenty of good planets. There is nothing more to do except well maybe send that construction fleet to survey that planetless system. They'll get plenty of work later.

Hey folks. I have just aquired from 75% promo on steam new Shogun 2 Total War and I have decided to try with my very own AAR. Together with you I will play my first Grand Campaign in this game. I have played previously Medieval Total War 1 & 2 but never was able to finish the grand campaign. Maybe together with you I will be able to make this break through. So without further addo. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EQWcB1vXXg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EQWcB1vXXg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344" wmode="transparent"></embed></object> The story takes place in year 1545 in feudal japan struck by civil war as local clans fight to become Shogun. Though Japan had an emperor - he was likely a symbolic figure - Shoguns were true political power. So let's get started: This is the main screen.. Now we will decide what clan we take. First is Chosokabe clan - their main trait is better trained archers and more income from farms. Clans capital is located in southern island. Next we have Shimazu clan. They are the best swordsman in Japan therefore can hire better Katana wielding Samuais, have more loyal generals and can field the most powerful Katana wielding Heroes. Katana samurais are bread and butter of all Japaneese army and these are the best - pretty obvious decision for the beginners like myself. Also they start at south west corner in Kyusu Island so the expansion is straight forward. Next Hojo clan - excelent builders and siege experts - lower cost and time of repairs and cheaper siege weapons Mori clan - naval experts Oda clan - they specialize in Ashigaru units - the most basic unit in game - cheap and in numbers but easly defeated by their samurai counterpart. Date clan - they specialize in charge tactics - all charging units gets bonus to charge attack and no-dachi samurais. No-dachi samurais are Samurais with bigger swords but poorer armor - overall they are weaker than Katana samurais but very devastating at flanking charges. They have the famous 'Banzai' warcry. Takeda clan - mounted specialists The famous Tokugawa clan - Masters of Intrigue - they can field kisho ninja, a ninja unit that can be used in battlefield and Metsuke agent have 2% increased performance. Metsuke is special agent something similar to Spanish Inqusitor but can also maintain a city which increases its income. Next Uesugi clan - they specialize in Warrior Monks. They are the strongest units, but their price is also huge. It is believed that still Samuari warriros are still better in cost / efficiency aspect. Also monks agents are better - monks here are like priests but can even persuade enemy agent to switch side. Next Hattori clan - they are masters of ambushes - their special units can hide in battle and all ninjas are 2% better. They with Tokugawa can have kisho ninjas. Last clan is Ikko-ikki - very strange clan - they can field greater ashigaru and warrior-monk units. They cant' have Metsuke agents and their generals can convert people to their clan religion same as monks do. Having decide I will go with Shimazu clan. I will be playing on normal difficulty and my goals are to conquer and hold Kioto for 1 games year and hold 6 other provinces - Bungo, Higo, Hyuga, Osumi, Satsuma. I must reach this goal before year 1600. 1 years equals 4 turns, 1 turn eqauls one season (spring, summer, autmun and winter). So here we go...

Hello there. Meet SC Pete. SC Pete is Federation Ship class Kestrel. SC Pete and his crew were assigned to capture a very important information that would allow Federation to win war against the Rebels. They succeed but now the real challenge is to get back home. Meet the crew: Captain Silencer: Ships pilot. Lieutenant Thorondor: Shield system operator. Sergeant Space Voyager: Weapon System operator. SC Pete is a fine ship. A little basic but can be quite deadly. It's basic armament is Artemis missile launcher and Burst Laser Mk 2. Quite good combination. Other parts are quite basic and crew will need to scavenge plenty of scrap to upgrade this ship. This is our first sector - exit is on the far end but we also must visit as many systems as possible because the rebels are right behind us. Our first jump lead us to nothing special Upon next one we meet our first adversary. Though we can't afford the payment for "save" passage, we would have attack him even if we could. After damaging him quite a bit he tries to bribe us with some gifts. Pretty tempting proposition but I must decline. When he is dealt with we scavenge what was left - a little more scraps but less fuel. Considering current prices we came ahead. Next system - some pirates are attacking some civilian ship. Because Federation is good guys we of course help them. We move forward and find an opportunity to salvage some military goods. Unfortunately we weren't that lucky this time. But oh well we can carry on in one piece at least. At next stop we encounter some slavers - slavers are good encounter because they give us a new crew member if we beat them up. They also had teleportation device and beam one soldier on our deck. Sergeant SV and Lt. Thorondor deal with him. And after that we beat up those slavers. Assted is beamed up and will supervise our engines for now. Assted is an Engi - a half cyborg race which is expert at repairing stuff. Our next stop leads us to some store - because we can't afford anything nice here we just make some small repairs. After some shopping we receive some distress signal and of course pledge to help those poor souls. Next system is under heavy quarantine - we better get moving. We spot another distress signal. We can't risk our lives but we try to save as many as we can. Again we are lucky and get another crew member. Meet Jones. Jones is Zoltan - a race of humanoids that are almost made of pure energy thus any room they operate in require less energy from our main generator. He will supervise the engines now. Next stop we hit some nebula. To be worse there is plasma storm here. Nebulas renders our sensors useless but plasma storm halves our energy output. Feeling lucky we manage to find something for us in this grave and another crew member. Meet King. King is mantis. Mantis are warrior race so he will be used as a defender if someone will try to board us. Another system, another pirate ship and we hate pirates. Like I said - we hate pirates. Though those missiles would come in handy. All that trouble to save arms dealer that works for Rebels. Let's see what he has. Good stuff be we can't afford that cloacking device. We hire Scott Kletzkin - a Rockmen who is sturdy as rock and is immune to fire. We've reached the end of this system and rebels are almost on our six. So we change sectors. Let's try that Rock Controlled Sector - maybe something special will happen there or maybe we will all just die.

Hearts of Iron 2 is a grand strategy game, plonking you in control of a country, kicking off in the 1930s or 1940s (your choice) and you can do pretty much what you like, though nearly everything you do is military in nature. There's not much in the way of civilian governing going on. You create armies, navies and air forces, use spies and diplomacy to pick on/make friends with other nations, trade goods and move your troops about as you like, declaring war on whoever takes your fancy. So you can change history. A quick precis of my first game. Well, the first game that didn't end in tears, anyway. Starting in 1936 as the UK, I wasted no time and immediately started to meddle. I jumped in on the side of Ethiopia and booted the Italians out mid-invasion, and then out of Africa entirely. Italy sued for peace, which I ignored, quickly shifting the Royal Navy and RAF to bases in the Mediterranean and North Africa, and invading the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Italy promptly threw its toys out of the pram and refused my generous peace terms (I keep everything, you don't get blown up) and was only brought to heel by six months of bombing, convoy raiding and naval blockading. Honourable mention goes to the French here, they wasted no time in joining in, and although they made no headway at all into Italy (must have been quite a Surrenderathon), they bombed the shit out of northern Italy and tied up lots of Italian troops. And so we had indeed, peace in our time, for about two months, when I joined in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side, actually not getting involved that much beyond using my small expeditionary force-style army to hold Republican provinces, and using the RN and RAF to batter Fascist Nationalist forces and make the battle easier for my Commie muchachos. Cue me picking up even more territory in Africa as Republican colonies turned Fascist and then turned British. Needless to say, the pinkos won, and Spain joined my wonderful alliance, solidfying Western Europe. Unfortunately, this warfare had done nothing to stabilise the situtation, and France, God knows why, invaded Germany in 1937. They invaded Germany all the way to Paris, in fact, embroiling me in WWII two years early when my forces were in severe need of an upgrade. Joining in the defence of France was out of the question, I had no wish to replicate Dunkirk, so I retreated to the UK, leaving a few divisions on the narrow Spain/France border, to hold it against the might of the Wehrmacht. WWII sort of happened, with most of Europe being involved, the Soviet Union kicking off in 1943 and the war ending in 1948, with most of Europe under Soviet rule. I broke out of Spain in 1945, managing to save about a third of France from the Iron Curtain, along with Italy, Greece, Albania, etc. Finland fell to the Russkies. The US never got involved, Japan conquered meaty chunks of China, then started on Russia. I had to get rid of a big chunk of my forces, thanks to the slackness of the peacetime economy and India going independent in 1948, and then went on a bit of a rampage in the Middle East, conquering lots of little countries for oil (Persia, and of course, Afghanistan), while simultaneously liberating most of Africa into little countries that would starve themselves right on into the 21st century. South Africa, my stalwart ally, ended up acquiring the lower third of the continent as I sold provinces off. WWIII started in 1953, and was a bit of a muddled affair. Japan and its Chinese puppets, Manchuko and Menguko, were still at war with the Soviet Union. The US went to war with the Soviet Union as well, as did my alliance (the Free European Alliance Revolution, as I dubbed it ). Thanks to this odd situation, Japan and the US invaded the Soviet Union side-by-side, with the Yanks taking the Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan going in through Mongolia. Most Soviet troops must have been in the East, because FEAR punched deep into Europe, liberated everyone and then bogged down in Russia in winter. And I thought I had learned from history. The game ends in 1964. At this stage, Europe was free, sexy, and all allied to me. The US and Soviet Union made peace in 1960, leaving the US in control of Siberia. Japan and the Soviet Union were still battering each other, and were still in Mongolia, the conflict being something of a stalemate. Most of Africa was liberated, the Americas were unchanged, and Asia was a mess, though Nationalist China swallowed Communist China sometime in 1951. I owned islands all over the globe, but didn't have the economy to develop them further. Apologies for the essay. This game will definitely help your geography and history, if nothing else. It's quite slow, but fun if you want to mess about with history. There's no tactical element, but there are lots of different units once you develop past the WWI kit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zorvehkmYHM Welcome all to the world of Fallen Enchantres: Legendary Heroes. With this AAR I will welcome you to the world of Elemental. A world full of magic, monsters and would be heroes. The question is, can I be such a hero in this world ravaged by war, where hoards of monsters roam the land and the Evil Enchantress plots here dark schemes. We will soon find out. Before we head out, let's pick our Sovereign, who will lead it's people to victory or death. The first is Lord Relas of the Altar Kingdom. The Altar is kingdom of people who loves adventuring. Their main traits improve questing. The second pre-defined Sovereign is Oracle Ceresa of the dark Resoln Empire. Those are sort of undead Wraiths. They are dark magic oriented summoners with also abilities to drain life. (Note: Empires and Kingdoms are opposites of each other sort of like. But that doesn't mean that Kingdoms are of Good alignment. Next we have General Carrodus of the Capitar Kingdom. This Kingdom is based on trade or at least their portfolio says so. Then we have Lady Irane of The Kingdom of Tarth. Former slaves of the Capitar Kingdom. This your more fighting oriented kingdom that also has access to better bows and their scouts aren't slowed by obstacles like forests. Next in line is Emperor Karavox of The Kraxis Empire. They are defensive oriented with some traits of trechery (betrayers trait for example). Here we have evil Umber Empire with Kulan as their leader. They are some sort of evil barbarians, since they traits improve offensive skills . Then there is Magnar Empire with Magnar as leader. From the traits we can see that they fancy in slavery, which means any victories will increase city populations. Next the Kingdom of Gilden with Lord Markin. This Kingdom crafts the best armor and are the only ones that can train Golems as powerfull guardians. Next the Kingdom of Praiden with Queen Procipinee. They are the classic mage type kingdom. And the last is Empire of Yithrill with Warlord Verga as their leader. This is another faction that only wants to kill and murder everything that lives. If that is not enough, you can create your own Sovereign based on the above kingdoms or empires. And in this AAR I will create my own Sovereign. I've tossed a coin and in this game the Sovereign of the people I will rule will be female and the faction will be Kingdom of Guilden. Her traits are focused on fighting mostly and some basic aspects of life magic. With the heavy armor of the Gilden Kingdom she will be some sort of Paladin class hero. Her starting weapon will be the spear. Lowest damage from the all starting weapons but has pretty good advantages like ignoring 50% of armor, immune to counterattack (many swords give counterattack skill) and impale which allows to hit two enemies behind line. So with some sort of introduction done, let's start new game. Map will random generated - I don't have map DLC because there is no point in buying predefined maps if you have generator, unless the generator is bad (hint: It ain't that good like in Civilization games.) The setting of the AI is as follows. I haven't mastered this game that much so I wonder if I can manage normal AI, but what the heck. So let's go. But before you even start the game, you will be playing a mini-game with RND, which means hitting "generate new world" button until you will get decent landing position. Because in this game that city tile really counts. I stopped at this scenario. It ain't perfect, but you could even spend hours till you get the perfect settings (just like you did in Baldurs Gate 1 ). City creating units see 3 things on the tiles. That is Food, Production and essence. The higher the number the better. For the Food it matters how fast your city will grow, for production how fast it will build, and the essence allows the cities to get some magic enchantments (later on that). The highest number what can be seen is 5 I think but good luck on getting 5/5/5 - I think not possible. The very good tile can have 5/4/3 I think, but with RNG luck you can even start on tile that have 2/4/0 or none at all. So yeah. In the scenario I've chosen I will move to that tile 4/3/2 on the left side. Form the up we have some crystal production tile, down we have iron ore and on the right we have life shard. So with proper expansion we can at least prosper from the Iron mine and that life shard - don't know what those crystals are for yet. Our capital is created Tan-ta-Kreet. First thing we need to the city to do is train some scouts and pioneers. Next thing is to cast that sovereign special city enchantments spells. It gives bonus to a city and since our Sovereign knows something about life magic she can cast Sovereign's call which boosts population growth. Other magic schools give other enchantments. And the last thing is to set that research. Research is divided into 3 categories: Civilization, Warfare and Magic. So let's start improve our civilization first. With that extra money on start rushing production can be useful. So that is how you start a Fallen Enchantress game. Stay tuned for more.

So I decided I'd like to try an AAR (After Action Report) of Silent Storm, but to make things a little more interesting than the usual AAR I randomized what I would get. I created a spreadsheet, entered the Campaign, Gender, Nationality, Profession, (etc) titles and then generated a random number within the range to pick what I would get. No do-overs, or recalculations, this is what Excel spit out for me. (For some reason, my notes said 0=female, 1=male so I went with that instead of in-game). I of course took one small concession: if the gender was female, she would only get female hair and NO facial hair (c'mon, we can't be that cruel) while males only get male hairstyles. Here is what this particular female ended up looking like: http://s4.postimage.org/1hnaue78/Scrn_Shot_120911_150435.jpg Not the most endearing face in the world, but it could have ended up far worse. Once I knew the sex, I determined her name by generating a random number between 1 and 1000 and then picking that from the list here. First name: Vickie, short for Victoria which means victorious (how appropriate)! Last Name: Quinn (Irish derivation). Nickname: I chose Tori. She will be on the Axis side, Japanese, a Medic and have an Italian voice. Quite the diversity. The one thing I didn't randomize were her stats... I just used the game defaults. I probably could have come up with some randomization routine to figure out Str, Dex and Int, but for my first full play through I don't want to gimp my character too much. (Gimp: In RPGs to accumulate stats, atrubutes or skills is such a way that your character is almost useless). I'll post the training mission shortly. Once I'm done with that, it will be time to pick my squadmates. They will also be randomly chosen to a degree (I'm not sure how to go about this yet, but I do not want another medic on the team because my hero is already one), so I might just exclude that class. We'll see. - Zombie

It's funny how playing games leads, sometimes by a roundabout route, to playing more games. Obtaining nukes in Hearts of Iron 2 led me to start watching films about nuclear war or possible nuclear conflict. Dr. Strangelove, an old favourite, was put on for the nth time. And a new one to me, Thirteen Days, based on the Cuban missile crisis. This led me to hanker for some nuclear war. "Why," I asked myself, "hasn't anyone made a game about Mutually Assured Destruction?" Then I realised someone had. Introversion made a game years ago, called Defcon.. It's rather fun. "I wish I owned that." I mourned. Than I realised I did, and had a game. The world is divided up into six areas (Asia, Russia, North America, South America, Africa, Europe) and given equal forces to fight it out. Radar sites lift fog of war, airfields can launch fighters and bombers, and silos provide air defence and launch nukes. Fleets consist of subs, carriers and battleships. Subs are slow, but can launch nukes and are usually hidden underwater except when launching. Carriers are good at looking for subs, and can launch fighters and bombers. Battleships are good at blowing up other ships. This is all represented by some very stylish 2D graphics, made to look like a stereotypical represntation of force movements in a bunker's war room: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/def1.jpg The countdown begins straight away, as you site your facilites and place your fleets. This is one of the great things about the game. The concept of MAD is inescapable, when you start there's nothing you can do to avert the war. It's just a matter of time. But you can't launch missiles until DefCon 1. Pretty soon, fleets bump into each other. DefCon 3 is reached, and aircraft can be launched. The fighting starts as air forces mesh and collide, fighters tackling fighters, bombers missiling carriers, fighters chasing bombers, air defence shooting down any enemy aircraft, subs slipping by or being discovered, battleships blowing everything within range to bits. http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/fleets.jpg You probe enemy air space with your aircraft, trying not to be intercepted, looking for their silos, radars and airfields, predicting your missiles' trajectory and wondering what to take out and how: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/launcho.jpg But this is just to get to the real goal. The cities: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/sph.jpg By default, each territory has 25 cities, each containing a part of the territory's 100-million population. Obviously, this isn't realsitic, it's to provide balance. The cities vary in size, so if you turn London into a crater, this will kill more than if you nuke Maracaibo. The location of any nuclear launch site is immediately known to the other players, so what do you do? http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/laudec.jpg Launch early, and hope that your silos can switch back to anti-missile duty in time to hit the enemy nukes as they come for you? Stay on the defensive, and leave your silos on anti-missile duty? Half and half, launching bombers to nuke his silos? Use a massive attack from your subs and silos and bombers to overwhelm him? Up to six players, human or AI, differnet game modes, alliances and betrayals, a very simple and elegant online system. Brilliant, if disturbing, audio, lovely visual style, simple controls (95% left click or right click). I lost this one: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/bah.jpg If anyone fancies a game, let me know. You can turn me (glowing) green with envy at your apocalyptic skills.

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/3468/lcs4063001.png ..for my Liberal Crime Spree! http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/1290/lcs4063002.png We're going for the defaults here. http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9897/lcs4063003.png And to hell with being Mr. Nice Liberal. We're going all out! We now proceed to our scheduled programming... http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/4052/lcs4063004.png Howdy. Name's Murray, Murray McFatridge. For the past 25 years I've lived in the capital of the conservative wasteland: Austin, Texas. http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9741/lcs4063005.png I've had a totally shitty childhood. Only positive thing is that on the day I was born, the Sandinista Front came to power in Nicaragua. Things only went downhill from there. http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/7864/lcs4063006.png Like my dad beating the shit out of me all the time. http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8073/lcs4063007.png Eventually I started school, and I had nothing but problems there. I got in lots of fights. http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2763/lcs4063008.png When I was 10, my parents divorced....Violently. http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7629/lcs4063009.png Few years later, I got into violent video games, nobody liked me. http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1668/lcs4063010.png Shit got really bad when I stole a car. Only got a few blocks before I totaled it. http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4143/lcs4063011.png Eventually, I started controlling people and even had my own clique! http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4291/lcs4063012.png At 15 I was hard up for cash. I started prostituting to get by. http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5651/lcs4063013.png When I turned 18, I went to a party and met this cute law student. We've been dating ever since. http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8058/lcs4063014.png For the past few years, I've been living on the streets of Austin and it's about to experience real change! http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/7295/lcs4063015.png Oh shit....this can't be good! http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/5995/lcs4063016.png Ok, we need a name that we will be known as to the People. http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3710/lcs4063018q.png Also, a less wimpy slogan. True Liberal Justice just doesn't cut it. http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/219/lcs4063017.png And our stats. Looks like we're going to be a charismatic fighting character or something, which is really nice!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-07-22_00001.jpg Allright then! Welcome, one and all, to the relaunch of England Vs The World; where we pit might England against the rest of the world because I have no idea what I'm doing for no reason other than because we can. Same rules as the first attempt: Playing as England(+2 movment for all navel vessels, extra spy[new thing!], Longbowman and Ship-of-the-Line units) on an Archipelago map against 7 other Civs(16 city states thrown in for good measure) on Normal difficulty with Epic pacing. The only Victory Condition that is DISABLED is the time-limit. Anything goes in this madhouse! Got all that? Excellent! Let's get this trainwreck party started! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00001.jpg Not too shabby a starting area(I actually had to spend a turn moving my settler over to plant the city there). Two different Happiness resources(each happiness resource only counts /once/ in terms of providing the bonus happiness) in form of silver and two pearls. The Stone just to the northwest will provide a decent production boost once we get it started, while the various food(two cows and a sheep!) will eventually let us grow London to stupid-large status. I'd prefer to have another resource of a production bonus, but you take what you can get! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00002.jpg A quick glance at the city screen. We're going to do the age-old 'Monument then Warrior' build que simply because this island appears like it might be of decent size, so having the extra exploration unit could come in quite handy. Orignally I would prefer to do a Worker, since we've got all these land resources to exploit; but there's been a change with some of the Social Polices that allows me to skip that(which I'll explain in a moment). You might be curious as to the hex with the bright purple outline, straight south of London? Basically, that's just pointing out which hex is most likely to be chosen as the hex to expand into when the city automagically expands it border(done so when the city generates enough Culture). http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00003.jpg With the first City comes the ability to start Research! Wee. Usually on island maps I try to make like an arrow for Optics, to allow myself early ability to send land-units overseas. However, this time I've opted to take a slightly different approach and instead focus on getting the abilities required to abuse those resources near London. As this is a completely different style than normal, I may very well end up scrapping this horrible idea and doing something different; but for now we go after Animal Husbandry(to see Horses and make use of those sheeps/cows), followed by Mining and Masonry(to, well, build Mines and Quarries) before chugging down the Optics path. With Research set up, it's time to start seeing just how small this stupid island is! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00004.jpg Ohhohoho! Ruins! Excellent. As you may or may recall, they're the Civ V goody huts. Let's just take a peek in here and see what we get... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00005.jpg Culture! While this doesn't seem like too shiny of a reward compared to some of the toys possible, it's actually a really decent first find. 30 Culture allows us to go ahead and snag our first Social Policy. This is better than it sounds, promise. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00006.jpg A recap! Social Policies are basically ways to fine tune your Civ even more towards the exact playstyle you want. They have things like bonuses for the City States, science bonuses, trading bonuses, various units/bonuses FOR units; just all kinds of goodies. They work by means of acquiring enough Culture to 'adopt' a Social Policy. Adopting a branch will give some small bonus, each indiviual policy within the branch adds its own bonus, and finally filling out the entire branch will give yet ANOTHER bonus. Fill out enough Branches, and you can get the option to build the Utopia Project; basically another way to win the game. A way, might I add, that /is/ enabled in this game. This early in the game, we really have access to only three Branches of Social Policies: Tradition, Liberty, or Honor. Tradition focuses on buffing up small empires, with a few extra bonuses to your Captial. In comparison, Liberty throws buffs all over the place, with an eye mostly towards enabling fast expansion and small bonuses across every city. Honor is for those who wish to spend time stabbing things, will all kinds of combat and military related buffs. Those who read my last attempt at this may recall that I mentioned I usually try to pick up one or two policies from the Tradition Branch. That was before Gods and Kings came out, where among many other things they adjusted several of the policies bonuses. In this case, there's actually a bonus in Liberty that gives a free Worker unit(remember how I said I was skipping building one in the city? Not as crazy as you first thought! Hah!) while increasing Worker, well, work-speed. For now, I'm PROBABLY going to focus primarly on Liberty; but it remains to be seen considering how early it is. Moving on, we decide to keep sending our Warrior south to explore. A decent distance away(but sadly not near as far away as I'd like) we see an unwelcome sight... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00008.jpg That looks uncomfortably like another Civ's border... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00007.jpg CURSE THE LUCK. We're sharing our starting island with another Civ! On the flip side, I've not played a game with Ethiopia yet, so I've no clue how ugly this could get. I guess most of it depends on how much room to his south and west he has to expand... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00009.jpg So. Ten turns into this, and above is the current world as we know it. Prior to meeting Ethopia, I wanted to put another city somewhere near that mountain(straight north of the Warrior, in case it wasn't obvious what it was) if only to be able to build Machu Pichu later on. Now that we know where Ethopia is, I REALLY want to build there just to cut him off from my section of the island. Any offical manuvers or diplomacy is quite some time away no matter the outcomes, so we've got some time to think on it. Overall it feels like we're doing pretty decent(ignoring the score chart anyway) but I'm not sure how well we're doing considering how close we are to another Civ... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00010.jpg A quick checkup on London. We finished that Monument, and there's not been anything else to build researched as of yet. Knowing Ethopia is where its at, I go ahead and throw a Settler on the list. The only problem I have with doing it this early is when Settlers are being built, they stop the growth of the City until they're completed. Slowing down our captial this early, this close to someone else may turn out to be an ugly gamble; but we'll see! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00011.jpg Tech get! With any luck we'll have a few horses near London or somewhere near where I want to build the second city, so we can have horsemen to crush Ethopia with later on... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00012.jpg Victory! A total of four horses within reach of London, which means a total of four Horsemen can be built when we eventually get that tech(although five is right out). Before I forget, a quick recap of the various resources. All resources provide some kind of bonus to their tile when worked by a City(for example, Horses provide extra production). Happiness resources, when improved with their required tile-improvement(in the case of our Silver, that would require a Mine; whilst the Pearls need Fishing boats), will give us a flat Civ-wide Happiness bonus(see the smiley face at the top of the screenshot, just above the M in Mining). Happiness determines how many cities you can have that are effective and how large they can get. Too many Cities or too many people in those cities, and your happiness goes bad. Not fun. Strategic resources also give a Civ-wide bonus, but instead these focus on allowing certain unit types to be built. Can't build another Horseman if you've used up all the Horses you have, and so on. A cavet with this is that when a unit that requires that resources is killed, it frees that resource back up. Then of course you've got the various miscellaneous resources(sure there is an offical name but I can't recall it while I'm typing this!) that do all kinds of things, but don't provide a Civ-wide bonus. Sheep, Deer, Stone, and Fish are just some examples. These run the gambit from extra food, to extra gold or production. Have I talked your ear off yet? No? Excellent, lets keep trudging forward shall we? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00013.jpg What ho! Horrible savages to our north! Its okay, they can't do much to our city even if our Warrior wasn't in the way. What really concerns me, however, is the terrian. Tundra generally only happens near the top or bottom of the maps(maps wrap around left and right, but not top or bottom). This means our ability to expand is going to be pretty much limited to the south...near Ethopia. That, however, is an issue to tackle when we've got the means to do so. For now, we've got some Barbarians to smash! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00014.jpg A little bit of the ole back and forth results in a promotion for our stalwart warrior. Keeping in mind the terrain near our second city is mostly either Forests or hills, I opt to give this guy a bonus in Rough terrain(Forests, Jungles, or Hills) to make him more of a problem for the foes later on. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Bobaram/Civ%20V%20AAR-Take%20Two/2012-08-03_00015.jpg A quick break here, but first another glance at the world as a whole. I had pulled my Warrior back to the north in hopes of finding uncontested expansion room, but we'll be lucky to be able to fit in a single city up there without bothering our Captial(cities can work tiles up to three squares away from itself, and can't work the tile that another city already is). It's starting to look more and more like we'll go to blows with Ethopia...

Why not make it 3 AAR at the same time? I finally decided to give this AAR thing a try as I've never done it before. Welcome to my Hiver AAR! I'll try to play the same game setup as SV and Silencer. http://i.imgur.com/IeZRel.png One opponent of each race and 2 random to make things interesting. http://i.imgur.com/Ah3NAl.png This is our starting location. We are at the edge of the map. http://i.imgur.com/ZULszl.png I don't have some grand research plan so I pick tech that I think I'll need most at the moment. http://i.imgur.com/WKHQFl.png As you can see, we are exploring our cluster + 1 gate is going to cluster right of us. We have discoverend 2 nice planets (they were colonized immediately). http://i.imgur.com/8Rq4el.png Next tech to research is Cruiser construction. You can see all tech we have researched until now as well (Of course in 3 cases we went overbudget). http://i.imgur.com/7ZI4ml.png And our first random encounter! What did we encounter? Dreaded swarm or maybe formidable Asteroid monitor? http://i.imgur.com/e3bJ7l.png Neither! It's Alien derelict. http://i.imgur.com/QGlfQl.png As you can see, we have a new colony and we have scouted a nice planet. Planet with Alien derelict is not so nice. http://i.imgur.com/m1PUbl.png We have a new colony. 3 more planets are scouted. Only 1 is good and 1 has Alien derelict. http://i.imgur.com/Li5Ryl.png We have a new colony and Alien derelict is dealt with. http://i.imgur.com/zFVL1l.png We have cruisers now! Now lets make them easier to build. http://i.imgur.com/QpcLJl.png We have scouted 2 nice planets which are immediately colonized. And our gate is halfway to the other cluster. http://i.imgur.com/trnDll.png Some more research completed (and on time for a change!) http://i.imgur.com/ffnAal.png We have scouted a nice planet. But of course, this had to happen. Frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. http://i.imgur.com/JsKqFl.png And we start to research fusion. http://i.imgur.com/A4HsQl.png

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7610/orion2002.png Alright puny humans! Let's get t his party started! We're going to have the easyiest setting, a large galaxy full of victims, average age and pre warp tech levels. Also, we're going to turn that tactical combat ON because we're not pussies that want to run from fights! We want to witness our victims' terror! We will also be leaving the Antarans ON so that we can slaughter all sentients in their deminsion as well! http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/7277/orion2003.png Today, I rise to be "queen" of the Klackons! They are a hive of ant people that totally kick ass! http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1294/orion2004.png The name? TIGGER! http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8541/orion2005.png And clearly, we MUST be RED! The color of the blood of my victims! http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2281/orion2006.png Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7272/orion2008.png While Kholdan is a nice name and all, I decree that it be renamed to Catnip! http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9084/orion2011.png This is our little world. It holds up to 16 million ant people, this is apparently "large" but I don't believe it. That other gray thing over there, is another planet. It's a barren piece of crap that is of no use to us in the short term. http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6346/orion2012.png On the surface of the planet, we can look into all the different things. First up: Morale. Since we're a hive civilization, we have no need of morale! Neener neener! http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2595/orion2013.png To the left of that we have in decending order: Finances, Food, Industry, and Research. http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4717/orion2017.png The first of these that we're going to play with: Research! We must get more techs if we are ever to leave our home system. Just going to that barren rock decades from now isn't going to cut it! http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1490/orion2018.png And a few months later: PAYDIRT! We get the freighters which will allow us to ship around food an colonists. http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2099/orion2019.png Also, the nuclear bomb and the nuclear drive. Basic tech, but we're getting there! http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2070/orion2021.png Next, we go to research chemistry. This is another basic tech and it'll get us 4 new items! http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/4575/orion2022.png While we're waiting on the research, we get an offer for this guy to join us. 10% just isn't a high enough bonus to be worth it so we reject him. http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3983/orion2023.png Extended fuel tanks! YES! This should allow us to make some scouts to check out the neighborhood. We also get the nuclear missile which probably isn't that great. http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6598/orion2025.png Also required for space travel: Fuel cells and titanium armor! http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/16/orion2027.png With that out of the way, we go for the techs to build basic transport ships to take our people to the stars! http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4443/orion2029.png Now to use that new basic tech. We are going to make some basic scout ships to send to nearby stars in search of habitable planets. http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7717/orion2030.png We are going to make 2 of these then go back to building "housing", which puts production into makin' babies! http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8620/orion2031.png About a year later, we get the results of our research. We get the colony ship. This is something that our mission would be IMPOSSIBLE without. It allows us to transport colonists to new planets and carries everything needed to start a new colony. Also in this research is the outpost ship. Pretty sure that's like a colony ship without the people. Probably useful as a relay in case we're surrounded by uninhabitable planets. http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4979/orion2033.png And yes, we also have the transport! This will send our warrior drones to other planets to slaughter lesser lifeforms! http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/456/orion2034.png And not having a clue what to do next: Fighter Bays. http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9001/orion2036.png Time to send out our first scout! http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/9401/orion2037.png When we arrive, we find a stranded alien guy that we help out and he swears allegience to the Klackon Empire! http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9116/orion2038gzr.png As for the system, it's pretty useless. No wonder he wanted to leave!

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9049/sopening000.png Microprose...are we sensing a pattern? I think so! http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6012/sopening001.png And it's an adventure game! From 1994! What in the world could this be?! http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9845/sopening002.png COLONIZATION! The game where you take over the New World! It's basically Sid Meier's red headed step child and a reimagining of the original Civilization game. http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5179/sopening003.png We're pansies and this is a pretty new game to us so we're playing this on Easiet. There are 4 of the European powers that are represented here. Why they left out Portugal is beyond me.. http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/117/sopening004.png First up are the English. They have that whole Puritan thing going on now and folks want to leave for American. They get an immigration bonus that puts one people on the docks back in London ready to go free of charge. http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2557/sopening005.png Secondly, there's the French. Instead of having a bonus back at home, they get one in the new world: The natives actually like them and they are less prone to be fighting and more likely to be trading. http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8976/sopening006.png On the other hand...the Spanish will have nothing of that and are out to conquer the New World by force. They get bonuses to combat and possibly more loot from sacking the native settlements. http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/8206/sopening007.png Lastly, we have the Dutch. A new nation that has seceded from Spain. They are traders and always get the best deals on trade between the New World and Europe. http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1161/sopening008.png And of course, the Tigger is playing as well....so everyone pick out the nation to be played. I say Dutch, Tigger says Spanish, what do you think?

I should start with some poetry introduction. Well I ain't poetry guy so you will not get it. If you want poetry you can ask him. This here gents AAR is inspired by latest master piece (still in creation) made by great chief himself SV. I will be playing as Humans in contrary to his Liir swimmers. Why Humans? Because I like them a lot. During recent games and AARs my hatred for Tarka and Liir grew very large. The map will be the same, the general setting also will be the same I will only adjust battle timer to my preferences. This ain't any competition to prove who is better but a mere test of skills (my skills). So without any further blabbering.... This is the setup screen. And that is how the map presents for us. Our initial start isn't that great. Other colonies are very small size 2 and 4. Because we will be fighting loosing battle we will need to breed faster. Humans aren't masters at anything but their more of jack of all trades meaning I have equal chance to get every tech (except race specific). Our scientific branch isn't that great as Liir but they manage to surprise us on occasions. Our initial starting research will be Waldo Units. We need that cheaper ships to begin with, then we focus on our biological weakness. If you compare my result with SV's I could never achieve Waldo Units in 1 turn. Maybe if I had size 10 other colonies ? But we are fortunate to be on time with it. Having gotten that Waldo Units we design our first exploration units. Szpieg (Spy) is based on Extended Range mission with Hammerhead mission. It's armament are red lasers and we build just enough to cover every possible path we can take. While our scouts take time our research team goes crazy. Our initial scouting's aren't very optimistic for us. Both planet sizes and their environments are over our current limits. For now we aren't touching this Monitor because the planet he is guarding is rubbish. One of our exploration units went into contact with some kind of derelict. Cleverly navigating he stripped the carcass with it's guns. And I don't know how to distinguish this derelict with AM torpedo tube and this without one but clearly I was lucky as it had plenty of guns. Unfortunately the planet he was at was barren rock not very suitable for us. I am afraid that now our scientists will drink harder and work less. Enough with the biology next tech is too much for our eggheads. We need that manufacturing power pronto.

Welcome to the black void of DOS. The year is 1993. A game has just come out that will define a new genre of games: Master of Orion! In this game you are out to conquer the galaxy, either by being elected leader of the Galactic Republic, or by conquest and genocide. Only one leader will return to the throne world of the ancients, Orion, and rule the galaxy! http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7050/moo001u.jpg Well, it's not 1993 anymore. Times have changed, DOS is dead, but a cool app called Dosbox remains. The default speed setting is 3000, but in the case of Master of Orion, we need to kick it up quite a bit. In this case, actually quite a lot..to 21000. This should make the game run smoothly. http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8769/moo002.jpg Also, on this PC, the default is to run the CPU at 1ghz where possible and only spike up on demand. This isn't quite fast enough to run the game smoothly, so we're going to force the CPU to run at 2ghz constantly, this will get rid of any sound choppiness when the CPU tries to throttle back down... "Out of the way Hooman!" http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/1775/89331226602981875113306.jpg "Muwhahaha! I High Fleet Lord Moomew seek a vassal race to elevate my godlike status even further to become the Master of Orion. This is an ancient title that hasn't been in effect for millennia. I intend to change that little detail"..*puurr* http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/4475/sorion000.png "Yessss yesss! Neew Game!" http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2898/sorion001.png "Ok, I want Large, Average, and Five. Hooman, click those, or I eats you!" http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5821/sorion002.jpg "These are the Hoomans. They are gullible and slow. I have already conquered this inferior race, they are quite weak...NEXT!" http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/819/sorion003.jpg "Despite being felines, they are the most inferior race in the galaxy...NEXT!" http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/8072/sorion004.jpg "These are rock people. They can live anywhere and will make nice perches. Add this one to my Maybe pile, Hooman...Next!" http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9506/sorion005.jpg "These are giant lizard people. They breed fast and specialize in wave attacks but I as a feline prefer finesse and cunning..NEXT!" http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4605/sorion006.jpg "The Psilons are hyperintelligent beings, they also have 4 hands and can stroke me twice as much. Maybe pile, slave, or I kills you and eats you!...Next!" http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2672/sorion007.jpg "Tasty birds. They are agile in battle favoring swarms of small and fast ships. Yesss, yess, my birdlings, you go in the Maybe pile...Next!" http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/2648/sorion008.jpg "The Klackon workers have the output of your average factory and can build me things. I like them. Hooman, Maybe pile, or you gets it!..Next!" http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6430/sorion009.jpg "An imposing bear race, they specialize in planetary combat. I prefer to nuke from orbit, I pass...NEXT!" http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6382/sorion010.jpg "Can I has robot body too, mighty Meklars? They are ruthless and cunning, and they can build me more factories. I like them..Next!" http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1383/sorion011.jpg "Yessss yesss, my stealthy ambush predators...Can I has black and white cloak if I picks you?" http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9229/sorion012.jpg "We will also need to choose a color. Since there is no option for 'Cow', the chosen race will be allowed to pick the color. This effects what our ships look like, or something, nothing more."

Some of you waiting for this with great anticipation. Now this wait is over. It took me many hours to bring you this third attempt of Morrigi battle in SotS. In the meantime I was forcing myself to play SotS2 but failed to have fun at all. So without any further delays. Let's get started. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYgti3MKCDg&fmt=18[/media] This is our galaxy. As you can see I've up'ed the planets to 300 and raised encounters to 200%. So will the challenge increase? We will find out. I didn't disable to possibility to encounter those damned fish so everything is up to random generator. In the initial stage I've created 15 or 20 scout's to check the surroundings. My of course never ending luck brought me planets either inhabitable or with CH above 400 and planet size ranging from 1 to 4. Our first encounter with unknown force This first derelict had Anti-matter torpedo luncher so my scout had never chance of disabling it. But that is just the beginning. Next we find swarm And another derelict. This time he wasn't so dangerous so I proceed with disarming procedure. Another swarm. Our research was initially dedicated in improvement of our infrastructure with waldo units, orbital foundries, expert systems. Then I went through green and uv lasers. After a while derelict is ours and the boost is highly welcome One of our few early colonies that I could inhabit without any investiture in bio-tech was attacked by this annoyance. Our scouts again discover unusual things Our first uv laser destroyers engage one of the swarm locations. After that UV lasers I put my efforts entirely to bio-tech including bio-domes, so that means I even go for cruiser construction. That asteroid monitor was captured just in time And we welcome our first opponent. Though this is Tarka - he strangely resembles as human.

I promised so I deliver. Here is the beginning of probably long and not so exciting AAR of me playing Sword of The Stars Ultimate Collection. We begin with standard settings: Galaxy: Real Space, Number of Stars: 200 Distances: 7 light years Size: 0% Resources: 0% No alliances and teams means it is Free for all. Random Encounters I leave 100% as I don't want to be battling swarms every new planet. I leave AI to randoms. I know I will know sooner or later who I will be fighting against - but for you it will be long time mystery. We start at this point Our starting techs looks following So we can have UV lasers from the start, but that is not for now. We begin with standard Waldo units. We also redesign our first scout unit with lasers and name it Sparrow and build 4. (Yep the names of the ships will be based on birds names) They are sent to the nearest stars. The first scout that arrives is greeted by some unknown menace It is luckily alien derelict - so I proceed to 'disarm' it In the mean time - waldo units are researched on time - it provides armour against lasers and orbital foundries which are researched next. Our other scouts reveal 2 suitable planets to colonize and we do so. The battle against alien derelict goes slowly - at 3rd battle turn I have managed to destroy first weapon systems and by 6th battle turn the derelict is neutralized. Orbital foundries have finished 1 turn ahead of schedule, so since we are colonizing I started to research first bio technology. P.S. People please help me with naming of the ships - example what type of ships should be named after what bird - my suggestion is that Destroyers should be named after little ones like named one Sparrow or for example Nightingale. Cruiser named after middle ones like Raven, Crow, Pigeon and Dreadnoughts after big ones like hawks, eagles and vultures.