The good ol’ Bait and Bake! Thank you for this knowledge, O Lady of War, I will use it should the Civil War happen and my Tartarre-Croutons get besieged by the Reds and Blues. I especially like the use of peasants in this strategy since I’m planning on focusing the East and the South with my main stacks (although I’m probably going to use a mixture of Peasants and Principes now that I can make the latter). It should be a good exercise in micro-ing too since I’m still getting used to the controls.

I really like the fact that terrain plays a huge part in combat as well. Had a skirmish on a slope against a Macedonian army and I decisively won by forcing them to fight uphill. This game is awesome!

I have been thinking about it for a while, and Uleni inspired me even more. So last night I started a new Amazon Total War campaign, playing the Valkyrja from my Amazon: Total War mod. So far so good. The first time I played them the early game was really brutal, as I was fending off both Scythia and the Sarmatians at the same time.

This time out I did not spend as much time building up my resources (and allowing the Scythians and Sarmatians to do the same. Instead by turn 6 I had attacked Scythia. I am up to turn 15 or so, and have them on the ropes. Mercenaries have helped a lot. They are about half my army. Losses have been heavier than I would like. But that is the problem with fighting against a horse archer faction. They always end up hurting you, no matter how many archers you have yourself.

The Sarmatians appeared on my border attacking a rebel city a few turns back. They took it, but so far have not moved against me, yet. My hope is that I can knock out Scythia and then take some time to consolidate before going against the Sarmatians. Once I can finish them, the game should be easier, as it will be mostly non-horse archer factions. Though Armenia might be trouble.

Where did you put the Valkyrja homeland? Scandinavia?

No, Scandinavia is not part of RTW1. TheValkyrja are in the equivalent of modern Belarus, and a little to the east. The other Amazon factions are the Bean Sidhe in Ireland and Scotland, the Gorgons in the Western Sahara, and of course Amazonia in north-eastern Asia Minor.

Ah, ok gotcha.

I've been feeling a bit of Total War coming on recently too, though I am currently doing another playthrough of Divinity Original Sin 2 so TW will have to wait a few more days.

Good luck with the Scythians Rosa! Hopefully the Sarmatians are polite enough to wait for your current business to be concluded before they invite you to dance.

I smell the beginnings of an AAR! Honestly ever since I read this https://lparchive.org/A-Scotsman-In-Egypt/ way back when, I always wanted to make one.

And now that I have Rome: Total War....

I decided to buy Star Control Origins from Steam and so far I love it.

Go for it. An AAR is a lot of work (I did a few in my time), but they can rewarding.

I will be a good AAReporter, even if it kills me!


... or anyone else, for that matter.

Uh... what’s an AAReporter?

After Action Report(er). Basically you summarize what you did in your turn (troop movements, battles, the works).

Think of it as a Let’s Play, in text form. I’m thinking of doing either Britannia or the Brutii. And if they ever release them in an update, I’ll most definitely write an AAR as Spain. The way they’re placed in the map offers maximum geographical defense while not cheaping themselves out on rich trades (which is the case with Britannia).

Oh ok, gotcha.

Spain wasn’t released on the original game as far as this one knows, but Khajiit thinks one could alter the INI to make them playable. Perhaps the mobile game will be different.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Scheisse, I really have to buy a PC. I’m missing out!

Khajiit’s game on PC is really buggy. Especially Egypt for some reason. It crashes randomly during siege battles

RTW 1 is very moddable. It is the game where I started to seriously create mods. Everything is in text files, which makes it very easy. There are a lot of text files though, and you often have to edit several of them to make change. Making all the factions playable is easy though.

So thanks to the late game dungeons packing like 10-12 different Pokemon spawns on every single floor, finding specific Pokemon to recruit has been...trying. At the very least, it's gotten Celebi to level 100, meaning that I now have a Pokemon with the Fast Friend IQ skill to make recruiting a little easier. I'd say I've made quite a bit of progress, too. Unfortunately there are some pokemon that are unobtainable without evolving the ones you can recruit, and a good chunk of those need the Link Cable evolution item so there's still some work to do. :T

Got over half way through a Divinity:OS2 playthrough and decided to start all over again to redo my character and grab some quests that I missed.

Going the route of a Hydrosophist to begin with, then perhaps add some Necromancy skills in later. We'll see how it goes.

Running with Lohse, Sebille, and Beast in my party. The first two because they're my favourite characters, Beast because he's the male character I dislike the least (his quest isn't that interesting until the last act, but he's a nice guy to have on board).

This'll be my third or fourth playthrough, so I've gotten to know lots of the quests quite well now and know the 'best' way through them for the most part.

In typical Larian fashion, Divinity: Original Sin is hard. I am really reluctant to buy equipment, but I may have to because I am getting my [censored] kicked in the places I can currently fight. I thought I had good equipment right now, but man, I'm getting wrecked by some of these battles. They seem unfair at times, but I had that happen to me in Divine Divinity and Divinity 2 as well. I guess it doesn't help that I am not used to party-based (and turn-based) RPGs, but I am getting accustomed to it.

Still, I have made much more progress since my last post about D:OS in this thread. I have gotten a decent feel for the mechanics. It seems now I just have to "git gud."

I ultimately gave up on Divinity Original Sin. Every fight is a like a boss fight. Some are just utterly ridiculous, where one hit kills your characters. Modding it is extremely difficult, so there is no fixing it.

Sounds like the same issue I had with Golden Axe Beastrider. First you start off with simple enemies then face a boss like character, then THAT character now becomes your standard enemy and those simple enemies from before...gone. Never to fight for Death=Adder again.

That is basically it. Every battle ends with you just barely scraping by with only one character left with a single hit point. If you are lucky to do that well. There is one place in D:OS where you fight this thing that looks like a giant skull train. It has a ranged attack that is a one hit kill on everyone. Then there is another place with a pirate ship that has a cannon on it. Said cannon one-hit kills in an area effect, and is defended by a bunch of critters that are all bosses. In the end it is just a waste of time.

I know a lot of people detest trash mobs. But I like them. They make me feel like my characters are actually good at what they do. I like to be able to use tactics, plan around my characters abilities, maneuver to my advantage, and win because of my thinking. I hate it when no matter what I do, I take a thousand points of damage and die from one shot by an enemy that is impossible to even reach. I prefer the boss fights be saved for the actual boss fights - when you finally face the big bad at the end. Then I expect a real nail-biting challenge.

One of the criticisms I have for the Divinity games is that they are a little bit too linear at times, due to how enemy levels scale. I think it is great to have some areas that you just can't survive unless you are good enough, but there is often a great disparity just between one level and the next. There isn't as much freedom to explore as I would like. With Divine Divinity and Divinity 2 there was still at least some room to move around due to being action-oriented, but even then it was still easy to get your [censored] kicked. Sometimes fights are just straight-up unfair in these games.

Still, I am making good progress in Divinity: Original Sin. I have been finding ways around obstacles (even if it takes a little while). The story is really starting to kick into high gear now. I'm quite enjoying it.

Never played those ones.

Not looking to now. I don't like "hard" games.

Same. Well, Khajiit doesn’t like unnecessarily hard games.

Same here, I'm not a fan of 'being challenged' with my gameplay. I just want to have fun.

I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 on the easiest of the 4 difficulty options (think it's just called 'story' difficulty) and it's all good as long as you don't try and go into higher level areas. Found a handy graphic which splits the map into sections by level so I know where to start and work my way around. It's a good game to take your time with and move through at a relaxed pace.

For me, it depends on the game and what about it is so difficult. Sometimes I look for a good challenge. Other times I just want something that requires a bit of skill but not too much. Sometimes I'll just look for a leisurely stroll. It's rare that I look for something absolutely brutal. But it also depends on the type of game and the franchise as well.



I'm not on the hardest difficulty, but there is an easy mode that is something along the lines of "story" difficulty like hazmick was talking about for the sequel. I can't attest to how easy it is, so I don't want to give bad advice, but you might want to look into it a bit more if you still were interested in the game otherwise.

So after a horrific slog through every dungeon in the game, I finally have every recruitable Pokemon in Explorers of Sky save Kecleon. I also have to evolve the ones I have but that's besides the point.

Also did a run of Zero Isle Center to clear my Job log. Pointless, since the rewards were exclusive items i already have, but I have now cleared every dungeon in the game at least once.

Still playing Star Control Origins and still loving it and now finding out there's no SCII Death March Timer I can actually take time and explore though you do need to keep the main enemy at bay by going into the taken star system and reclaiming it. It's no problem if you're ship is powered up.

Fired up Super Castlevania IV on this one’s mini SNES. Khajiit didn’t get very far as he was playing rather recklessly, but the game is as fun as ever!

Ah Castlevania IV...the third level was always my favorite as it had the best music in the game .

The game is just chock full of awesome tunes! Easily some of this one’s favorite music in all of gamingdom.

Played through Assassins Creed: Odyssey this week. It's pretty good! Took me 74 hours to get through the main quest and all the major side quests. Fully levelled my character, fully upgraded my ship.

Set in Greece, 431 BCE, the game takes place during the Peloponnesian War. You play as one of two characters, Kassandra (who I chose)or Alexios, a mercenary and grandchild of Leonidas. You use the broken spear of Leonidas as your assassination weapon, and there's a fair bit of emphasis on him and your bloodline.

Main plot is all about reuniting with your family, and tackling the mysterious Cult of Kosmos. It's pretty fun to track the cultists, finding clues as to their identities and taking them out to reveal the identities of their leaders. There's also a little bit of the precursor nonsense that the AC franchise refuses to let go of, but nothing too obtrusive this time around, and the way it ties in with Greek mythology is pretty neat.

Greece is huge in the game, and split up into loads of separate provinces. Each province has it's own quests, and your actions can destabilise the province which in turn allows a battle to be fought between Athens and Sparta, the winner gaining control of the province. Of course as a mercenary, you can be hired to fight for whichever side you choose.

The various cities and the surrounding country areas are all absolutely stunning, and they way Greece is brought to life here made it all feel so real and engaging. Characters such as Sokrates and Hippokrates are really interesting and well done, in a much better way than some of the famous inclusions in previous games (looking at you, Syndicate).

The only downsides to the game would be the micro transaction store (fairly unobtrusive, easy to ignore) and the writing - it can be a little hit and miss at times and the plot is quite predictable.


Overall, a classic Assassins Creed experience in a fantastic setting.

Khajiit wants to check out this one and Origins. This one hasn’t played an AC game since Black Flag.

Syndicate was the last one that I played, though I think Black Flag was the last one that I actually enjoyed until this one. Apparently Origins is quite good, so I may also check it out at some point.

Divinity: Original Sin just keeps getting better. Now that I've become accustomed to how it works, it has been much easier to play. Not that it still doesn't pose a challenge, but I am having a much easier time playing it now. Not every fight feels like a boss battle now, as SubRosa put it. I am in the thick of the story now.

You know, I was thinking about the original game of the series, Divine Divinity, is called (usually affectionately) a Diablo clone, but other games that I didn't think felt like it are called Diablo clones too. Now, I haven't played the original Diablo, so I don't know how accurate that is. But I was thinking about why I had such a great time with Divine Divinity, whereas I got bored with games like Titan Quest and Grim Dawn rather quickly. I thought of at least 2 major reasons:
1) In the latter two, there is just LOADS of loot. Way TOO MUCH loot. It becomes a chore to pick it all up, sift through it all to see if there is something better, and then sell the rest. It was absurd how much weaponry and armor it threw at you. There was a lot of loot in Divine Divinity too, but it wasn't overwhelming.
2) I love cutting through mobs of enemies, but there is a limit to that enjoyment. And there is just such an unbelievable amount of enemies in Grim Dawn (I didn't play Titan Quest long enough if this was true for that game as well, but it seems to be basically Grim Dawn in Greco-Roman times). It gets uninteresting really quickly. Divine Divinity had plenty of mobs, but it was almost always engaging (there were a few exceptions, such as the end game).

Thoughts, anyone?

Soul Calibur VI

Even though I never did finish Explorers of Sky (I'm gonna eventually), I FINALLY got Pokemon Ultra Moon. Considering how Pokemon Moon was the best Pokemon-related experience from the main games that lived up to my hype for it, I still can't believe it took me almost a year to get it lol

Time to download the other starters that I have in my PokeBank so i can start with all 3 :v

Off to Poke-Hawaii

I played Soulcalibur at a friend's house waay back in the day and got hooked. This was the first game in the series called Soulcalibur (the sequel to Soul Edge). This one. I went out and bought it and Dreamcast. I played it like crazy for about two weeks. Then after I had completed every character I just lost interest, and never really did anything with the game or the Dreamcast again. I finally threw both out after my last move.

I really liked Sophitia and Lizard-Man. They were both basically the same character (i.e. exact same weapons and fighting style). One just looked better than the other.

I think the new Soul Calibur (is it two words now?) has Geralt from the Witcher games right? I think it is cool how they incorporated him. I have not played any of the other Soul Calibur's. Have they incorporated characters from other franchises before? It would be cool to have Sephiroth in a Soul Calibur game.

Hmm, I looked for the new game on Gog, but they don't have it. Only Steam. Sometimes irony can be pretty ironic at times...

In Soul Calibur 2:
Link for GameCube.
Spawn for Xbox 360.
Haihachi for PS2.

In Soul Calibur 3 PS2 only:
You could put Sephiroth in the game if you unlocked the right equipment via character creation.

In Soul Calibur 4: They had Star Wars characters in them.

In Soul Calibur 5: Ezio Auditore.

Lol, yeah you’d think GOG would have it since CDPR let them use him!
The Soul series is the most interesting fighting game series, imo. This one remembers playing Soul Edge as a kid in the mid to late 90’s at the local arcade, without fully understanding how much better it was than the games that got Khajiit interested in the fighting genre in the first place, Mortal Kombat. They introduced a create a fighter mode in Soul Calibur III and the one in the new game is chock full of options (though you have to play the game to unlock additional equipment to outfit your created characters in). It really is s fantastic series and, imo, the best series in the fighting genre.

That is really cool.

So right off the bat Ultra Moon reminded me of one of Generation 7's more interesting feature using Yungoos' Pokedex entry: there are no animals in the Pokemon world so Pokemon themselves take their place. Meaning that not only do humans eat Pokemon (and some Pokemon prey on humans) but Pokemon eat each other and it's something that's been glossed over since the original generation of Pokemon games.

Weaville's pokedex entry was particularly graphic about how it fed its packmates by hunting Vulpix in Sun and Moon. Yeesh

I had my first long Minecraft session in ages this evening. Went dungeon crawling near the Hillfort, finding an unexplored section of caves and ravine somehow overlooked until now! Returned to the Fort with a full inventory. Put everything away in its proper storage spot. Fished in the Hillfort's dedicated fishing hole, catching a VERY nice bow, almost as good as my primary bow. During the crawl I actually felt much of the nervousness I did back when the game was new, exciting and often scary.

Played several Transport Fever sessions these past few days. I seem to have lost whatever meager talent I once possessed for scenic detailing. Not overly pleased with anything I did.

Thought about launching Kingdom Come Deliverance, but chickened out after realizing I'll need to start afresh. Not up to that at the moment.

Can't people come and mess up your home as Minecraft is an online game?

Only if you have certain settings set in your game.

Never was a fan of stupidly hard games. Tis why I never start above Adept in Skyrim.

Ah, yes. Faints. Gotta remember this is a kid's game and all, so we can talk about them eating each other but we can't use the "D" word.

(I actually haven't gotten very far in the game yet, just filling up the pokedex.)

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE



???????????????

Just cuddling them until they fall asleep, obviously.

I'm convinced they actually did meant to imply Ekans passes out, since snakes apparently can't choke on their food. It would make sense given how brutal other Pokedex entries are. (Today's Example: explicit mentioning of humans hunting Muk to near-extinction)
They DO, however, always do their darnedest to word these things so that they avoid actually saying "death/dead" even though it's clear that's what they meant.