In What Electronic Entertainment Have You Been Partaking #18: Reticulating Splines

[Quintillus]

Lately I've played the most Hearts of Iron IV. Soon after release, I was lukewarm on it, but it has improved over the years - I think a combination of in-game improvements, and my learning how it works better. I have three recent games.

Spoiler China :

The first is as China; Japan decided not to attack anyone, so it was a bit anti-climactic, but I defeated the Communists, built up, and most recent sent a million men to help defend the Communists - in the Soviet Union from the Germans. My strategy focused on defending the Dneiper and the oil reserves in the Caucuses, and it did slow the German expansion in the south, but by now Leningrad and Moscow have fallen, so I am sending another million men to help defend the Volga. The Soviets have been utterly useless so far, but if we're lucky the combination of a Chinese army of two million and extended supply lines will buy the Soviets enough time to stop and regroup. Or at least enough that I can build a new Great Wall of China in the Gobi Desert and the northern mountains. All in all I'm a bit disappointed to have not faced Japan, but the Soviet defense was an unexpected yet interesting turn of events. I also successfully took Vietnam from fascist France, making China the only Allied nation to have achieve a victory of any magnitude.

Spoiler Poland :

The second is as Poland, allied with Romania. In that one, Germany attacked right on time, but we counter-attacked and took eastern Pommerania in September, 1939. The battle then settled into a stalemate over the first year or so, before our just-barely-adequate armies started to bend, losing group first around Poznan, then Danzig. But conveniently, the Germans also declared war on the Soviets around this time. While the Soviets disliked me due to having signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, I decided to take a strategic gamble and stopped defending the Romanian bridgehead. The Germans exploited this and then marched onto Soviet ground, opening the floodgates as the Red Army stormed west - much more successfully this time, since the Polish Army was still keeping the Germans west and north of Warsaw. Fascist Hungary was soon steamrolled, Romania regained their lost ground, Prussia lost its first letter, and we retook Lodz, Poznan, and Danzig, making it as far as Stettin. Unfortunately, around this time the Germans defeated France, and then sent their entire army east again. We held steady for awhile, doing our best to make warpus proud, but a German amphibious attack into Prussia, which overwhelmed the Soviet defenses there, made our front collapse. Retreating quickly to avoid losing whole armies to encirclement, we now have only Warsaw and some of the surrounding countryside. But we do have over 60 divisions there, and so far that has kept the capital from falling. After repelling the first few waves of German attacks, many of them seem to have moved east to fight the Soviets, and it is our hope that either the Soviets turn the tide, or the British open a successful front in the west while it is sparsely defended.

Spoiler Imperial Germany :

The latest one is as Imperial Germany, under the Kaiser. It has been a plotting, highly peaceful game, as after overthrowing the Nazis, I remained at peace until the Soviets declared war on me in late 1943, having taken roughly three years to defeat Poland. As the last major power not to be at war, and having fomented monarchist sentiment in Russia, it was an easy defense. We were soon on the offensive, a month or two later White Russia rose in the Caucuses, and by late winter the USSR was no more. Poland was partitioned (sorry warpus), and with the east secured, it was finally time to retake Alsace-Lorraine from the French. In the early '40s, Italy had successfully defeated France, before Britain liberated France and defeated Italy, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. But Belgium declared war in support of France, so I re-executed the Schlieffen Plan, this time with tanks. Although tank losses in eastern Belgium were heavy, once we were past there the hammer swung down on Paris, and France fell in about a month and a half. The only fly in the ointment was a successful Danish offensive in northern Germany, as I'd forgotten they had joined the Allies the year prior. But that was corrected, and Czechoslovakia, who was entirely surrounded by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria, and Romania, fell in about a month as well. I'm currently dueling with the British in the air and at sea, and preparing for an invasion. Whether that can be pulled off is unclear. Particularly with recent additions to the Central Powers - White Russia, Finland, Portugal, Brazil, and Afghanistan, most of them members of the Anti-Soviet Block who joined when the USSR declared war - I think we have the stronger long-term position, but the RAF and Royal Navy still have numerical superiority, and the battles so far have not produced a clear winner.

Other games I've played recently:

• 80 Days. A delightful travel-the-world adventure; I nearly froze to death on the most recent voyage.
• Renowned Explorers: International Society. A charming, but not necessarily easy, story where you play a team of adventurers in the late 1800s, exploring Egypt, Transylvania, the Caribbean, and other points of interest, either using diplomacy, deceit, or force to accomplish your objectives.
• Doom. The original, 1993 version. It still holds up pretty well! I have just reached The Shores of Hell.
• Urban Empire. Not really a city builder, more of a mayor game. I think a lot of people were expecting something like that other Finnish city builder, Cities: Skylines, and that's not what it is. It flopped as a result, but I like how unlike other city builders, you aren't a dictator but have to engage in politics, able to persuade the council to do some of what you want, but not all. Investing in infrastructure; funding city services; passing certain laws. I'm currently in the late 1800s and am gradually expanding electricity, running water, and gas street lights, and to a much lesser extent telephone coverage, while also having recently built the city's first high schools. But there are the slums on the east side that have been long neglected, we need a few more clinics, and our rail infrastructure is becoming dated (though we do have our first tram line!). I also like that, generally, money doesn't grow on trees, as the seemingly unlimited supply of funds was a large part of what made Cities: Skylines not fun for me. Finally, there's some degree of personal and social development - in my current city the Socialists are powerful and the Communists exist, whereas in my last one I played an old conservative who convinced the city council to disallow unionization. It's a game where I find it a shame that it didn't succeed, as with a year or two or extra development and maybe an expansion, it could have really shined. As it is, it's interesting if you like the political and fiscal side of development as well as building, although it does have performance issues as the city grows.
  
• Knights of Pen and Paper. A role playing game that is inspired by some wizards of the coast. I've never played Magic, but this is a fun game, even if the mechanics aren't as refined as Darkest Dungeon. There's also a good amount of content; I thought I'd finished the game and won, but nope, there's more!
• Stellaris. Got put on hiatus by HOI4; as usual I prefer history to space. But I have a game that I will likely resume, as the Commonwealth of Man. I was mildly disappointed that due to a bug, there is no United Nations of Earth on the other side of the galaxy, but it's still been a fun time, forming alliances with some avians and foxes, initially losing to be then taking planets from the reptilians who took a star system ideal for human habitation after I failed to colonize it due to inexperience, and always being wary of the fanatical purifiers on my border who wish to conquer all other life forms; thankfully the fungal species on their other border has been keeping them busy lately. Across the way, I very nearly allied my other neighbor, before they decided I was a better rival, so I've been working on allying the slaving despots across from them instead. We don't allow slavery ourselves, but we can't have a two front war with no allies should the fanatics on the other side defeat their fungal foes and invade us next.

Yeah, I've been playing a lot of games due to covid. And Banished is another good game that I played most recently in June. I like its relaxing pace, setting, and resource-based economy.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

This officer of the Imperial Legion can't make up his mind about the Imperials....

 

[amadeus]

I was playing some old Sega Genesis (known outside N. America as the Mega Drive) games. I’ve been busier with other things, so games just haven’t been very high on my to-do list.

 

[H4run]

I was playing some old Sega Genesis (known outside N. America as the Mega Drive) games. I’ve been busier with other things, so games just haven’t been very high on my to-do list.

I had that console before the snes, before my house got rob and so the console gone. I mostly play a platform game there. But as a console, snes is still the best console ever, follow up with ps1, those were the days.

 

[Phrossack]

I was playing some old Sega Genesis (known outside N. America as the Mega Drive) games. I’ve been busier with other things, so games just haven’t been very high on my to-do list.

I used to play Sonic, MegaMan, and Jungle Strike on it when I was younger. Never did get around to beating them, though.

 

[H4run]

I used to play Sonic, MegaMan, and Jungle Strike on it when I was younger. Never did get around to beating them, though.

Me too, the main attraction of me playing rpg when I was little was that, there was a save game, you can keep on playing even after you died (no life and credit) without going back to the very first stage. I hate platform game.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I have been playing;

(i) Fog of War; and
(ii) 4 player chess

at www.chess.com

 

[EgonSpengler]

This officer of the Imperial Legion can't make up his mind about the Imperials....

He probably subscribes to the "a few bad apples" theory.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

*walking along a road in Vvardenfell*

*battle music starts playing*

Huh? *looks around* I don't see anything...

*keeps walking but takes my sword out*

*hears a very familiar screech and looks up*

A damn cliff racer got stuck in a tree.

 

[H4run]

I believe those are flora around Caldera and Balmora. Oh man, the nostalgia is very strong here, the ambient of the game also stunning.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I just killed the egg poachers in the second Fighters Guild quest and instead of heading back to Balmora I decided to go across the bridge and follow the road to see where I ended up.

 

[AmazonQueen]

It still looks good if somewhat static.

 

[aelf]

Well, I never claimed to be a great Civ3 player!

This game was/is at my usual Emperor level, but (with hindsight) I screwed up big time by not making any significant effort to expand west initially. That was mainly because there was a substantial range of Mountains and Hills directly west and south of Persepolis, preventing me from putting a full first ring in place: I sent my Settlers to the more fertile looking river-Plains to the east instead. Unfortunately that meant that the Summies got to the "nearest" Horses to Persepolis (at 3rd-ring distance, to the west) before I did; aggravatingly, they also pipped me to the Statue of Zeus by only a couple of turns.

So although I did get Iron for my Immortals (and used them to capture the speculative Zulu and Dutch settlements on my continent), my westwards foray afterwards, intended to secured the Sumerian chokepoint-town which controlled the Horses, was an utter disaster; the Summie stacks overwhelmed mine at the northern of the 2 towns I'd founded just the other side of the Mountain range, giving them an open path directly to my capital. If I'd made it to the Horses, I would have had the game in the bag much earlier; as it was, I couldn't build any fast units until I could trade over Oceans, towards the end of the Medieval era -- by which time I could also build Cavalry myself (and once I hit the Industrial Age, I beelined for Replaceable Parts, for Infantry and Artillery).

In the meantime, the Dutch and the Aztecs ran away on their respective landmasses, quickly defeating the Inca (dead), the Iroquois (dead), and the Ottomans (long since evicted to a 1-tile island just offshore from France). I really only managed to overtake them in the late Industrial/early Modern, but they're still fairly hot on my heels (at least partly because I've been selling them older tech every 20T or so, to bleed their gold).

True enough. I've found that terrain is a pain, and I don't know how the most elite players deal with non-ideal terrain. I suspect they re-roll the map after several turns

But yeah, given the right conditions, if you're planning to go for SoZ, you would have monopolised ivory one way or another early on to ensure you don't get beaten to it. And picking a fight with an opponent that you do not have a solid plan for and certain odds of beating would also be considered sub-optimal. I'm not as patient as you were and would have quit once I wasted hammers on SoZ. That's just difficult to recover from on Emperor and above.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It still looks good if somewhat static.

It's not completely vanilla. I use the Morrowind Code Patch, MGE-XE (which makes it prettier), and a handful of mods (one makes it so I don't have to dump skooma on the floor when selling stuff to merchants, another adds a few lore-friendly houses you can buy).

 

[AmazonQueen]

It's not completely vanilla. I use the Morrowind Code Patch, MGE-XE (which makes it prettier), and a handful of mods (one makes it so I don't have to dump skooma on the floor when selling stuff to merchants, another adds a few lore-friendly houses you can buy).

Nobody plays a Bethesda game completely vanilla do they? Maybe Arena.

 

[Lexicus]

The latest one is as Imperial Germany, under the Kaiser. It has been a plotting, highly peaceful game, as after overthrowing the Nazis, I remained at peace until the Soviets declared war on me in late 1943, having taken roughly three years to defeat Poland. As the last major power not to be at war, and having fomented monarchist sentiment in Russia, it was an easy defense. We were soon on the offensive, a month or two later White Russia rose in the Caucuses, and by late winter the USSR was no more. Poland was partitioned (sorry warpus), and with the east secured, it was finally time to retake Alsace-Lorraine from the French. In the early '40s, Italy had successfully defeated France, before Britain liberated France and defeated Italy, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. But Belgium declared war in support of France, so I re-executed the Schlieffen Plan, this time with tanks. Although tank losses in eastern Belgium were heavy, once we were past there the hammer swung down on Paris, and France fell in about a month and a half. The only fly in the ointment was a successful Danish offensive in northern Germany, as I'd forgotten they had joined the Allies the year prior. But that was corrected, and Czechoslovakia, who was entirely surrounded by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria, and Romania, fell in about a month as well. I'm currently dueling with the British in the air and at sea, and preparing for an invasion. Whether that can be pulled off is unclear. Particularly with recent additions to the Central Powers - White Russia, Finland, Portugal, Brazil, and Afghanistan, most of them members of the Anti-Soviet Block who joined when the USSR declared war - I think we have the stronger long-term position, but the RAF and Royal Navy still have numerical superiority, and the battles so far have not produced a clear winner.

Hint on this: naval bombers can be used to utterly decimate navies that operate within their range.
They are much stronger than jet tactical bombers or CAS at destroying ships.

I have mounted multiple large-scale amphibious operations using Naval bombers to destroy the enemy navy and then supporting my landings with my own relatively pathetic, submarine-heavy naval forces.

 

[EgonSpengler]

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Nobody plays a Bethesda game completely vanilla do they? Maybe Arena.

At least not without unofficial patches. Unless they're completely new.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I've finished a play through of Sonic 3 & Knuckles Angel Island Revisited, a fan port that uses the ROM available on Steam. I played through the game as Tails, he's considered to be easy mode but it might be better to think of it as exploration.

Nobody plays a Bethesda game completely vanilla do they? Maybe Arena.

At least not without unofficial patches. Unless they're completely new.

I've heard it said that playing a game with mods, including unofficial patches, goes against the developer's intent and that it shows the stupidity of PC gamers that they exaggerate bugs and then complain and try to fix the bugs instead of just enjoying the games. They also mentioned that Bethesda games play far better on consoles.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I've heard it said that playing a game with mods, including unofficial patches, goes against the developer's intent and that it shows the stupidity of PC gamers that they exaggerate bugs and then complain and try to fix the bugs instead of just enjoying the games. They also mentioned that Bethesda games play far better on consoles.

But when some of the bugs can completely break the main quest....