What Video Games Have You Been Playing #11: I should go

[Lexicus]

Are rockets actually any good @Dachs?

 

[FriendlyFire]

^ Italy can barely afford to build Tanks but they are building rockets to bombard Germany ?
Reinstalled COH2 for the steam event, playing the Hard mode, its really hard for Soviets, Basic conscripts die like flies, your standard infantry unit also dies like flies, I think your suppose to use your numbers to flank and use human waves tactics to just soak up bullets, bullets cost money and conscripts are free.

 

[H4run]

Recently I able to move from my Android gaming to my laptop, I play Yakuza Kiwami 1, and my experience with the game is a complete blast, what an awesome and entertaining game, the beginning is a bit lame and boring but after you past certain stage of the game that made you able to explore the city much more freely, I'm having a good time and lots of laughter playing that game.

There is a part where you able to date the in game girl, and I see my wife is very uncomfortable with that part, I calm her by saying "hey relax it is not about me, it is about this guy name Kiryu San". But by that moment I realize that, it will be impossible for me to play the Witcher, at least at home, lool

 

[Yeekim]

But by that moment I realize that, it will be impossible for me to play the Witcher, at least at home, lool

Just make sure to romance Triss and Yen both and have her watch when it gets serious

 

[H4run]

Just make sure to romance Triss and Yen both and have her watch when it gets serious

nope, I don't want to risk my life for that

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Are rockets actually any good @Dachs?

Rockets are always good

 

[EgonSpengler]

I started a new Survival Mode game of The Long Dark, Stalker difficulty (e.g. Hard but not Very Hard). With 3 lockers in Carter Dam and 2 in the Lookout bunker that I couldn't open, I spent the better part of a week scouring Mystery Lake for a darned prybar. I was hoping to find a good winter coat. I'd been getting by with a wool sweater and a "light shell" (which actually isn't a bad combo, irl, but is insufficient for The Wintry Apocalypse). Finally, I begrudgingly headed for Coastal Highway, determined to turn around as soon as I found a prybar. I hate Coastal Highway. But almost as soon as I entered the new zone, there was a pristine prybar, sitting right there on the train tracks. So I turned around and trudged back to Carter Dam and the bunker, with visions of a Mariner's Peacoat or an Old-Fashioned Parka dancing in my head. All of the locked lockers were empty. Those dirty sons of b****es.

 

[Lexicus]

played a little league of legends with my friend last night for the first time in a while
ongoing campaign of Empire: total war. I used the military exploit access to enable me to focus wars on a single enemy at a time ( at least in theory, in practice alliances can mess this up). Built up some forces for the initial Austria DOW (they always seem to attack human Prussia after about 4 turns maximum), and quickly beat their armies and captured Breslau and Prague before making peace and granting indefinite military access. Then I was able to attack Poland-Lithuania without bringing Russia into the war by invading Saxony. Grabbed Danzig, Dresden and Warsaw in that war. Courland also attacked the turn after I invaded Poland so I added Jelgava to my territory too.

I was then able to contrive some diplomatic coups. I forget exactly how but I managed to war on and conquer Bavaria, Hanover and Württemberg without drawing any major powers in against me. Then something wild happened: Austria captured France, leaving France with only Flanders and Rhineland. I took the opportunity to declare war on a weakened France and grabbed the Rhineland and Flanders, knocking France out of the war (I quickly handed Flanders to the United Provinces along with some tech for a military alliance). We were both at war with Spain, which then captured France from Austria. They had also conquered Portugal. So I needed to re-calibrate the balance of power, I sent a stack from Paris to Madrid to Lisbon, and indeed as I wanted the French rebellion retook France and the Portuguese rebellion retook Portugal. I gave techs for peace to try to give the "new" nations a bit of a boost, to keep western Europe divided until I can come conquering for real.

Next I decided to head north against Sweden, making an alliance with Russia for good measure. Sweden owned Denmark as well as all three provinces in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland). I sent one army overland to Copenhagen, and landed a force in Sweden using one ship to cross the Baltic. Eventually I conquered all of Scandinavia and Denmark but Sweden somehow also holds Tripoli so they didn't get knocked out of the game.

With my empire now expanding across north-central Europe, incorporating nearly all of Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, it was time to move against the major land-based enemy. Austria may have lost its northern provinces to me at the start, but they are still flush with troops and they have a good sweep of territory in the northern Balkans. I also hunger for the remaining 3 Polish-Lithuanian provinces, for I intend to go after the wide-open spaces of Russia before the end of the campaign.

Anyway, the trick is dealing with their alliances. Poland is allied to Austria and Russia, Austria is allied with United Provinces and Poland. I don't want to fight Russia, at least, not yet (they're my ally too...for now) and I don't have the troops to defend the frontier with United Provinces as well as the long land border with Austria and Poland.

I end up declaring war on Austria, asking my ally Russia to come in. Against all odds, they do so, but unfortunately the alliance with Poland-Lithuania is not broken as I hoped it would be. At any rate the situation is good: Prussia vs Austria and Poland with Russia fighting Austria. United Provinces stays out of the war and remains allied with both Austria and Prussia.

My opening move is to lay siege to Vienna and the city in Hungary that I don't remember the name of, in the hope that this will draw in the Austrian armies and stop them from invading my territory along our long border. I also send a force into Lithuania to besiege Vilnius and hopefully accomplish the same thing with Poland.

That's when I had to stop playing last night so bit of a cliffhanger eh?

 

[Dachs]

Are rockets actually any good @Dachs?

Motorized rocket artillery is especially good for the USSR in the base game because they get bonuses and can spam them very effectively. Support rocket artillery can also be pretty useful. Rastsvetali iabloni i grushi...

Rocket interceptor 1 has some utility against enemy strategic bombers, depending on when you get it. 1944 light fighters are generally better, though, especially with the 2x gun upgrade.

Building rocket sites is basically worthless. They cause something like less than 0.1 factory worth of damage per day, even when building extremely large numbers of them (into the hundreds) and focusing on a single air zone.

 

[Lexicus]

Building rocket sites is basically worthless. They cause something like less than 0.1 factory worth of damage per day, even when building extremely large numbers of them (into the hundreds) and focusing on a single air zone.

Yes, this is what I was asking about. I figured that rocket sites were kind of a waste of a building slot.

 

[Dachs]

Yes, this is what I was asking about. I figured that rocket sites were kind of a waste of a building slot.

Quite. They're an IC dump in late game if you don't feel like you need more RADAR, nuclear reactors, infrastructure, airfields, ports, fortifications, or MIC/NIC.

 

[Lexicus]

I noticed their statistical effects were pathetic but I still built them a lot in my first run as Germany, because not building rocket sites was simply inconceivable.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

because not building rocket sites was simply inconceivable

I like this attitude

 

[EgonSpengler]

played a little league of legends with my friend last night for the first time in a while
ongoing campaign of Empire: total war. I used the military exploit access to enable me to focus wars on a single enemy at a time ( at least in theory, in practice alliances can mess this up). Built up some forces for the initial Austria DOW (they always seem to attack human Prussia after about 4 turns maximum), and quickly beat their armies and captured Breslau and Prague before making peace and granting indefinite military access. Then I was able to attack Poland-Lithuania without bringing Russia into the war by invading Saxony. Grabbed Danzig, Dresden and Warsaw in that war. Courland also attacked the turn after I invaded Poland so I added Jelgava to my territory too.

I was then able to contrive some diplomatic coups. I forget exactly how but I managed to war on and conquer Bavaria, Hanover and Württemberg without drawing any major powers in against me. Then something wild happened: Austria captured France, leaving France with only Flanders and Rhineland. I took the opportunity to declare war on a weakened France and grabbed the Rhineland and Flanders, knocking France out of the war (I quickly handed Flanders to the United Provinces along with some tech for a military alliance). We were both at war with Spain, which then captured France from Austria. They had also conquered Portugal. So I needed to re-calibrate the balance of power, I sent a stack from Paris to Madrid to Lisbon, and indeed as I wanted the French rebellion retook France and the Portuguese rebellion retook Portugal. I gave techs for peace to try to give the "new" nations a bit of a boost, to keep western Europe divided until I can come conquering for real.

Next I decided to head north against Sweden, making an alliance with Russia for good measure. Sweden owned Denmark as well as all three provinces in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland). I sent one army overland to Copenhagen, and landed a force in Sweden using one ship to cross the Baltic. Eventually I conquered all of Scandinavia and Denmark but Sweden somehow also holds Tripoli so they didn't get knocked out of the game.

With my empire now expanding across north-central Europe, incorporating nearly all of Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, it was time to move against the major land-based enemy. Austria may have lost its northern provinces to me at the start, but they are still flush with troops and they have a good sweep of territory in the northern Balkans. I also hunger for the remaining 3 Polish-Lithuanian provinces, for I intend to go after the wide-open spaces of Russia before the end of the campaign.

Anyway, the trick is dealing with their alliances. Poland is allied to Austria and Russia, Austria is allied with United Provinces and Poland. I don't want to fight Russia, at least, not yet (they're my ally too...for now) and I don't have the troops to defend the frontier with United Provinces as well as the long land border with Austria and Poland.

I end up declaring war on Austria, asking my ally Russia to come in. Against all odds, they do so, but unfortunately the alliance with Poland-Lithuania is not broken as I hoped it would be. At any rate the situation is good: Prussia vs Austria and Poland with Russia fighting Austria. United Provinces stays out of the war and remains allied with both Austria and Prussia.

My opening move is to lay siege to Vienna and the city in Hungary that I don't remember the name of, in the hope that this will draw in the Austrian armies and stop them from invading my territory along our long border. I also send a force into Lithuania to besiege Vilnius and hopefully accomplish the same thing with Poland.

That's when I had to stop playing last night so bit of a cliffhanger eh?

I also have a Prussia game going. I signed an alliance early with Austria, and they ran with it, capturing Prague, Warsaw, Lvov and Kiev, while I took Dresden, Minsk, Vilnius and Jelgava. Now Austria is threatening Moscow and I'm worried I've let them get too powerful. Meanwhile, France took Amsterdam, then declared war on me. I happened to have a fleet & army en route to the Caribbean, so I just turned north and took New France instead ("New Brandenberg"?). I did such damage to the French that the Dutch rose up, took Amsterdam back, and then captured Brussels and Paris. Poor France. So now continental Europe has three enormous powers, the Netherlands, Prussia and Austria-Hungary, and I think there might be an enormous war coming. Spain, Great Britain, Sweden and the Ottomans seem content to watch. The Ottomans have been strangely quiet. I know from playing them that their economy can get pretty large, just out of the territories they begin the game with, and I'm wondering if the AI is bright enough to build on that foundation.

 

[Lexicus]

I also have a Prussia game going. I signed an alliance early with Austria, and they ran with it, capturing Prague, Warsaw, Lvov and Kiev, while I took Dresden, Minsk, Vilnius and Jelgava. Now Austria is threatening Moscow and I'm worried I've let them get too powerful. Meanwhile, France took Amsterdam, then declared war on me. I happened to have a fleet & army en route to the Caribbean, so I just turned north and took New France instead ("New Brandenberg"?). I did such damage to the French that the Dutch rose up, took Amsterdam back, and then captured Brussels and Paris. Poor France. So now continental Europe has three enormous powers, the Netherlands, Prussia and Austria-Hungary, and I think there might be an enormous war coming. Spain, Great Britain, Sweden and the Ottomans seem content to watch. The Ottomans have been strangely quiet. I know from playing them that their economy can get pretty large, just out of the territories they begin the game with, and I'm wondering if the AI is bright enough to build on that foundation.

Nice, did you take over the German states or are they still a buffer between you and France?

I found the Prussian campaign to be impossible until I learned about the military access exploit: I was skeptical that it worked because I found it in a forum post from like 10+ years ago, but it does seem to. You give a nation indefinite military access and they'll never declare war. I can handle unequal situations in Total War; I think of myself as a fairly skilled Total War player, yet I simply could not accomplish anything with Prussia with Austria, Poland, Courland, Russia, an assortment of German states, Denmark, and the UK all declaring war on me (UK landing troops every few turns in Konigsberg because they apparently really covet East Prussia). I can crush the enemy in any pitched battle on anywhere near even terms, but the combination of needing to occupy conquered territory, lack of income from capturing enemy settlements, and enemy using 1-unit stacks to raid all my towns meant I was basically stuck defending my own land and completely unable to expand - in fact, barely able to replenish my troops to go on defending myself.

Using the military access exploit I stopped the massive enemy pileup at the start of the game and it's been a lot more fun. I'm playing on medium battle difficulty and hard campaign difficulty.

 

[Phrossack]

After losing interest in my Parthian campaign for now, I've started a Rome 2 campaign as the Roxolani. I figured I'd set the difficulty to Hard for a change.

Oof.

First time, I got swamped by my more powerful neighbors, the Thyssagetae. They overwhelmed me with a full stack of armored horse archers, which are awfully hard to counter.

Tried again and eventually beat the Thyssagetae with my own massed armored horse archers and tye use of the shamefully OP spy ability, Steal Food. Then it was on to the Massagetae, who didn't defend their one settlement well but sent a stack my way instead. They could've taken some territory had they not mysteriously disappeared and their faction collapsed.

I headed west to help my Aorsoi allies against the Armenians and Colchis. It's a blur to me now - a lot of back and forth, but eventually I formed a confederation with the Aorsoi. Colchis was down to Siracena north of the Caucasus after losing its homeland to the Armenians, until Royal Scythia conquered them. Apparently Royal Scythia was driven from its homeland by the Germanic Lugii people. They joined my confederation, helping me conquer the formerly Greek Black Sea colonies like Tanais that had fallen to the Armenians. I razed what I could, but things took a turn for the worse.

I could barely keep up public order in Bosporus, and all the slaves I'd captured caused unrest. Armenia counterattacked and took Samandar, killing my opposition party leader. This enraged them and drove them near to the point of civil war, which I prevented with gifts and offices to calm them. Samadar rebelled and became the Aorsoi again, but though they loved me they didn't yet want to trade, open borders, or rejoin the confederation. Nonetheless,a after I rejected peace with a payment offered from Armenia, their army made a beeline to my lightly defended capital, while my richest city chose that moment to BURN TO THE GROUND. Between the unrest in my occupied territories and my lack of income, it was all I could do to hire some mercenaries and enlist my elderly queen to defend the capital while I took a risk and moved my remaining troops to invade the Armenian-ruled Caucasus.

It paid off. I sacked Phasis for the money, and besieged Mtskheta, a land renowned for its terrifying consonant clusters. I tried assaulting with my purely cavalry army, but savescummed when I found the arrows literally bounced off an invisible wall in front of the enemies standing on the visible walls. If the computer cheats, so can I! With this dagger at their throats, the Armenians agreed to peace.

Meanwhile the Lugii had declared war on me, so I dispatched my armies to instruct them on the value of peace. Annoyingly, all their infantry seem to carry javelins to kill my horse archers if I ever look away for a moment, but they died all the same after repeated volleys and lancer charges. Now I just have to slowly starve them out - hopefully before the Armenians return.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Nice, did you take over the German states or are they still a buffer between you and France?

They were a buffer for a while, until France got done with the Netherlands. Then France declared war on me and starting moving west, but then the Dutch rose up, so now I have Alsace-Lorraine and the Dutch have Cologne. Hannover is still independent. I think they might be at war with Sweden; I guess Sweden hasn't conquered them yet because they've been busy with Russia. Sweden took Copenhagen, as per usual (the Danes briefly held Norway, but that didn't last long), but since then have taken and retaken St. Petersburg from Russia 2 or 3 times now. The Mediterranean map hasn't budged an inch. The Ottomans haven't taken Morea from Venice. Spain hasn't taken Morocco. I'm not sure what everyone's waiting for.

I found the Prussian campaign to be impossible until I learned about the military access exploit: I was skeptical that it worked because I found it in a forum post from like 10+ years ago, but it does seem to. You give a nation indefinite military access and they'll never declare war. I can handle unequal situations in Total War; I think of myself as a fairly skilled Total War player, yet I simply could not accomplish anything with Prussia with Austria, Poland, Courland, Russia, an assortment of German states, Denmark, and the UK all declaring war on me (UK landing troops every few turns in Konigsberg because they apparently really covet East Prussia). I can crush the enemy in any pitched battle on anywhere near even terms, but the combination of needing to occupy conquered territory, lack of income from capturing enemy settlements, and enemy using 1-unit stacks to raid all my towns meant I was basically stuck defending my own land and completely unable to expand - in fact, barely able to replenish my troops to go on defending myself.

Using the military access exploit I stopped the massive enemy pileup at the start of the game and it's been a lot more fun. I'm playing on medium battle difficulty and hard campaign difficulty.

I didn't know about the military access exploit. I was surprised that Austria was so willing to join me in fighting Poland-Lithuania and then Russia. I wonder if I accidentally employed this bug of yours?

 

[Synobun]

Meanwhile the Lugii had declared war on me, so I dispatched my armies to instruct them on the value of peace. Annoyingly, all their infantry seem to carry javelins to kill my horse archers if I ever look away for a moment, but they died all the same after repeated volleys and lancer charges. Now I just have to slowly starve them out - hopefully before the Armenians return.

I read that as Luigi at first. Where's Mario?

----------

I got a few games from the Steam Summer Sale. Not sure when I'll play them. I have spent less than $15 total so far. I just have too many other things to invest in this week, and I haven't been going through my backlog at all these past couple months. I picked up FEAR 2, Regions of Ruin, CivCity Rome, and Empire At War. I've played the latter two on retail discs but didn't have them on Steam. I liked the first FEAR so finally trying the sequels seemed like a good idea. Regions of Ruin... not too sure about this one. But it was 90% off.

I've only been playing Stardew Valley and Pokemon GO. I don't really consider PG a game since I use it for exercise. Meanwhile with SV I'm just trying to get all the achievements. A little uncertain on how to get all the dish recipes and crafting recipes, so I imagine I'll give up on the endeavor soon.

 

[Lexicus]

They were a buffer for a while, until France got done with the Netherlands. Then France declared war on me and starting moving west, but then the Dutch rose up, so now I have Alsace-Lorraine and the Dutch have Cologne. Hannover is still independent. I think they might be at war with Sweden; I guess Sweden hasn't conquered them yet because they've been busy with Russia. Sweden took Copenhagen, as per usual (the Danes briefly held Norway, but that didn't last long), but since then have taken and retaken St. Petersburg from Russia 2 or 3 times now. The Mediterranean map hasn't budged an inch. The Ottomans haven't taken Morea from Venice. Spain hasn't taken Morocco. I'm not sure what everyone's waiting for.

Yeah, Sweden held a lot of the Russian territory around the Baltic before I invaded them and they were forced to move their stacks back to Stockholm to try (and fail) to save it. Russia managed to retake St. Petersburg pretty quick after that. Swedes still held Finland long enough for me to send a stack over from northern Poland via the Baltic.

I'll say it's kind of absurd how much income you get from Sweden, I went from about 2000 income per turn to 9000 when I captured Stockholm, and that was before repairing the palace!

I didn't know about the military access exploit. I was surprised that Austria was so willing to join me in fighting Poland-Lithuania and then Russia. I wonder if I accidentally employed this bug of yours?

If you're playing on medium campaign difficulty I think that would explain the diplomatic behavior differences. I looked for guides to playing as Prussia, sure I must've been missing something since I figured Hard difficulty shouldn't be too hard, and found several of them advocate allying with Austria, which I didn't think made any sense. Austria won't ally with me in my games, and they always attack in the first 5 turns (sometimes they attack as early as the third turn, sometimes they wait a little longer).

You can't "accidentally" employ it, you need to grant military access in the diplomacy screen so unless you did that and forgot about it there's no way.

Empire At War.

I have that too (only played the tutorial so far, got it months ago in a random weekend sale or something) maybe we could play sometime!

I actually picked up Stardew Valley on sale last week as well, if anyone wants to play the co-op mode (not sure what that entails, but willing to give it a shot)

 

[Phrossack]

Empire at War is great. Played that to death when it came out, and for years afterwards. The Republic at War mod is simply the best and, while a total overhaul, seems more professionally made than the original!