What video games have you been playing? ΚΔ (24)? More like ΚΔ,Ζ,ΤΞΕ!

Sultan Ahmed I read the books about Alexander the Great growing up, and decided that, should he have the opportunity, he would make his empire the equal of Alexander's. Only more durable.

By the age of 35, he may not have conquered as much as Alexander, but he had outlived him, and had made quite the impression on the world stage.

He knew he was well-known and well-feared when, in 1523, the French ambassador informed him that France was withdrawing their delegation, and had signed an alliance with the Mamluks to counter any further Ottoman aggression.

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Just seven years earlier, in 1516, the Europeans had largely thought they didn't need to worry about Ahmed. Sure, his janissary regency had finished his father's campaign to secure Serbia, but Ahmed had been focused on the east. Taking Syria from the Mamluks to show who the strongest power in the area was. Incorporating the rest of Aq Qoyunlu. Crushing the armies of Qara Qoyunlu and making it clear that the Ottomans intended to rule the Fertile Crescent, not be allied with its ruler.

Along the way, he had flexed Ottoman power towards Europe just once, forcing Muscovy to sign a white peace with Kazan. That had been a bloodless bit of diplomacy, a burnishing of the Ottoman image in Europe that may have resulted in the collective guard being let down.

But establishing pre-eminence in the Middle East was just Ahmed's first act. And when Bohemia invaded Hungary, he knew it was time for his second act. Hungary, since 1444, had long effectively acted as a strong buffer. Austria let Hungary be free, as did Poland and Bohemia, and the Ottomans did as well. All had seen the cost of Varna, and none were eager to repeat it.

The Bohemian invasion shattered that illusion, the first power grab against neutral Hungary in seventy years, and Ahmed was not going to help Hungary repel the Bohemians and their French allies. He was going to secure the Hungarian Balkans for the Ottoman Empire.

That was done with lightning speed. Ahmed then turned against the Ottomans' traditional foes, the Venetians, and took their Dalmatian coastline, and gave the Florentine coast to Genoa. Venice was effectively now a local player, although they still had Corfu as Ahmed had been so focused on making a point by occupying Venice itself that he had neglected to send an army to take that fortress.

By now it was early 1521, Bohemia was still at war with Hungary, and diplomats and cardinals across Europe were alarmed by their obsolete maps. Some teamed up diplomatically, but Aragon took the issue directly to the powers above:

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Aragon had long enjoyed a shield against Ottoman expansion, that of their alliance with Austria. With an alliance with God Almighty, surely they would triumph.

But Ahmed was not going to sit around and let the Crusade grow in strength. He declared war on Aragon, their Austrian allies, and the Knights, who had been plundering Ottoman coastlines.

Europe watched nervously, at first hopeful that the Barcelona Crusade would become the Istanbul Crusade. But in their strongest test yet, Ottoman armies performed flawlessly. Sicily and Sardinia were quickly occupied, the Austrians and Aragonese defeated on Genoese territory, and an Austrian expedition into the Balkans defeated by a smaller, yet more potent, Ottoman force. With Ottoman forces in Iberia occupying Aragonese cities and then Barcelona itself, the Aragonese were forced to concede Sicily and Rhodes to the Ottomans.

No amount of "restoring the Western Roman Empire" propaganda was going to dispel the fears of western Europe this time. If Aragon and Austria together couldn't stop Ahmed, who could? Hence the coming together of the Mamluks, France, Poland, and many of the smaller Holy Roman states. Even Ahmed's allies in Genoa and Lithuania were fearful of what was to come - spurn the world's strongest power and their thus-far-reliable ally, or face the ire of the second and third strongest together, plus many more beyond that. The Ottomans had repelled Austria and Aragon from the gates of Genoa, but could they really be expected to repel the combined forces of Milan, France, and the Pope? The odds weren't fantastic.

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Red = Coalition partners. Orange/green = would join a coalition but have truce. Orange = May join coalition. Yellow = Could join coalition if they weren't our allies. Wallachia and the Western Roman Empire (Morea/Morean Italy) are our vassals.

But for the time being, Ahmed could be satisfied that while Alexander had reached much farther east, he had not reached as far west, and had certainly never launched a successful campaign in Iberia. Whether his conquests would stand the test of time was a question for the next chapter.
 
I am also on an eco/tech build. But a democracy.
How do elections matter in this game?

Elections let you pick what leader you put in.

Higher the level various benefits along with what traits they have. Your council stacks.

What council jobs are available depend on civics.
 
Every other game now has some version of ironman mode.
It is... a bit annoying? Ok, if you are a teen and committed, it can be fun, but otherwise you risk playing for a couple of hours just to lose :)
Although in strategy games (like Eu) it might be the better choice. Still, I doubt many would keep playing after a massive loss.

Then there's Fear and Hunger, where you are actually penalized (time passes and some events are now irreversible) if you save.
 
Although in strategy games (like Eu) it might be the better choice. Still, I doubt many would keep playing after a massive loss.
I very rarely load over, but never play Ironman. There are too many glitches in every game for that.

I don't think it translates well to Paradox games particularly. There are so many mechanics that you'll often fail to notice one will become influential, slip, and then it hammers you.

If you're the real leader of a nation, somebody is probably going to say "hey chief, that province has a scorched earth modifier and massive attrition is likely, it's not obscured by the fog of war here". That level of, uh, investigative diligence of so many things that could conceivably be the difference between campaign success/failure can get pretty joyless.
 
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I very rarely load over, but never play Ironman. There are too many glitches in every game for that.

I don't think it translates well to Paradox games particularly. There are so many mechanics that you'll often let notice one will become influential slip, and then it hammers you.

If you're the real leader of a nation, somebody is probably going to say "hey chief, that province has a scorched earth modifier and massive attrition is likely, it's not obscured by the fog of war here". That level of, uh, investigative diligence of so many things that could conceivably be the difference between campaign success/failure can get pretty joyless.
But with reloading, it is pretty clear that you will win anyway :)
Back when there was no ironman, I would always play the first ten years in EuIII Byz without saving. But then I'd use saves - just accept suboptimal (but not clearly losing) outcomes from wars.
 
But with reloading, it is pretty clear that you will win anyway :)
Back when there was no ironman, I would always play the first ten years in EuIII Byz without saving. But then I'd use saves - just accept suboptimal (but not clearly losing) outcomes from wars.
It's internal for me. I take the loss if I just miscalculate and things go south. But I'm OK loading over for goofs. In EU3 if I try to order two fleets to sit in Gibraltar, but only order one mistakenly, yeah, that's a load over. Those orders would never be misinterpreted in real life: two fleets, one spot. Misclick on unit selection and get defeated in detail after? Very gamey, no need to stand by it(though I occasionally still do because it may still shake my emotional connection)
 
Now that my semester is over, I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 some more and finally made it to Act II, where Johnny Silverhands is introduced.
 
Path of Exile 2 is a major redo of the original and a separate game. All of the major game infrastructure has been reworked. The new art for the settings is fabulous. Early Access is working out the various bugs and balances. As in the old game, the opening action centers around a boss blocking your entry into the town where you meet the NPCs and have your stash etc. In POE1 the fight was hard but even if you died, the boss damage remained and you pretty quickly moved on. In POE2 :lol: the boss is supper hard and the new mechanics unknown. I died like 30 times and each time the fight starts out with the boss fully renewed. For a new to POE player it will be very discouraging and not fun. After that things improve.

I'm moving along and into Act 2 of 6. The progression is pretty slow since the story is completely new and completing all the quests and learning my way around the areas is pretty slow. I'm sure that by the time the full release happens (6 months?) it will be very polished and ready for prime time. EA is not free, but the game will be when it releases.
 
I am finishing Psychonauts 2. Its hard to think about better game. Maybe Psychonauts 1.
The lot of people have problem with the same same as I have with Bioshock or Half Life, that they respect the quality of game but they do not feel that it delivered to them personally.
For me are Psychonauts the exactly opossite, I feel them very personally and enjoy every moment there.
 
I played through Airborne Kingdom over the past couple days. Definitely not worth its $33 price tag, but when on sale for over 50% it may be worth a look for those who like city builders with limited resources and restrictions (like Frostpunk). It is quite lacking in quality-of-life features but they're tolerable.

It has an excellent soundtrack.
 
I have mostly been playing Manor Lords and Civ4 (FfH2 mod). Both are good games that allow me to work on other projects around the house and play intermittently. (Though Manor Lords requires more frequent check-ins.) I have been trying to get the Magister Modmod for FfH2 working but still have yet to figure it out. I may end up reinstalling everything again. I hit a wall where everything looks right but it still isn't loading properly. :dunno:

I have a lot of time off coming up though so I plan to venture into some fresh gaming territory and am excited.
 
Finished my Stellaris campaign today. Humanity ended up defeating an early genocidal invasion by a hair, made an alliance with the Greys, conquered and subjugation the galaxy, before outgrowing the alliance and conquering the Greys. I had alotta good RP.

Gameplay wise, the last time I regularly played was 4 years ago. I'm adapting to the new meta, but I don't love it. On GA, conquest and release as vassal is sorta bleh. You have to do it if you wanna go hard. The basic resource income is just a rocket ship that inflates wildly over time, both through vassal growth and reinvesment it into your economy.

By mid game, I wasn't even running any mines or energy districts. All raw resources came from vassals, my economy doing complex industry at scale.
 
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The 'get more stuff the more you win' approach isn't balanced well at all for Against the Storm.
In fact the hard thing is to lose (playing at max difficulty).

The new port/search for sea treasure ability is awful too (pays peanuts, which is unsurprising as you invest slightly smaller peanuts).
 
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I know nothing about the game, but it seems to me that blight fighter is a more dangerous and less desirable job than wood cutter, and reptilians seem stuck with the job.
 
I know nothing about the game, but it seems to me that blight fighter is a more dangerous and less desirable job than wood cutter, and reptilians seem stuck with the job.
It's a "waterpunk" game, with water-tech which causes blight (poisonous living plants) to appear on the buildings and if left unchecked kill people (or drive them away due to fear).
Blight fighters are just those that use fire to burn the infestation.
Reptiles just have bonuses in that job (and a few others) so I mostly use them there :)
 
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The 'get more stuff the more you win' approach isn't balanced well at all for Against the Storm.
In fact the hard thing is to lose (playing at max difficulty).

The new port/search for sea treasure ability is awful too (pays peanuts, which is unsurprising as you invest slightly smaller peanuts).

By max difficulty, do you mean Viceroy or Prestige+20?
 
Floating 700 food on P10 is still pretty good and indicative you're sailing over the difficulty hurdle! Especially on a minimal footprint settlement like that. I found things got tricky somewhere about 13 where your upgrade options get reduced, so assembling combos becomes RNG vulnerable.

Perhaps worth keeping in mind that only 4.5% of owners on Steam have a P10 completion, down from approx 58% of players having won at least one game.
 
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