Troy Goodfellow

We should probably do a show like this every six months or so since there are sooo many smaller games that we tinker with through the year and then forget. Hope everyone has a great 2015!

The "12 Ways to Improve Europa Universalis IV" video cited by Sean was not from Quill18 (who is still amazing) but Arumba. Watch it here:

Oh yes, King's Bounty. I played that! Highly recommended.

We are constantly growing, yes. Not huge numbers, not Idle Thumbs numbers, but strong word of mouth and I meet listeners all over the place. We have come a long way from the days when 200 downloads a week was cause for celebration. We have tried the month long donation drive before but a) we don't have a strong web presence to keep reminding people like GWJ does, and it was only moderately successful. A more regular place like a Patreon or GoFundMe or something similar means we can promote it more regularly and new listeners can just step right in.

I just noticed that you guys didn't talk about the campaign structure either. Next time I am sending in an agenda.

Very sorry I missed this show because of a scheduling snafu. And yes, I would have totally turned the discussion to one about faction design, because there are some rich and valuable lessons in this game.

We're researching a ton of options, but will probably go for the loosest possible one instead of tying people to a committment. That's kind of the great thing about patreon - if you want to give 1 dollar a month, 5 dollars a month, 10 dollars a month then you can. Of course, it's also harder to keep track of fluctuations from month to month, but it will certainly do better than our sporadic donation drives a few years ago. Thanks for the input Hexgrid. Lots to think about.

It's not likely that there would be a lot of extra subscriber stuff, since I am not sure how Patreon even does that. We can't send out the links early because we're pretty last minute ourselves. Bonus podcasts? More work we would never do. Probably it would be just "hey, if you want to support us, that would be awesome. For 2$ a month, Rob can eat and I won't have to put down my imaginary dog" But if there are any ideas for incentives, we'd be happy to hear them.

We are doing a Q&A show in a couple of weeks, and we hope to answer a lot of questions for a change. So here are your options: You can post a question in this thread. You can post a question on my Ask page (letting me know it's for the podcast): http://ask.fm/troygoodfellow You can email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Thanks for your questions, guys! We didn't get to all of them, but we'll save some for the next show maybe. Some great stuff here.

It wasn't Wargame Airland Battle (which we've done a show on) but Command: Air Naval Operations I suck at memory things.

I am reading Christopher Clark's "The Sleepwalkers" Rob is reading Max Hastings's "Catastrophe 1914" I am assuming we will trade books sometime in the next six months.

Heard good things about Commander: The Great War. It is on my ever expanding list now that I have time to play games again.

Rob and Troy welcome freelancer John Peter Grant to the show to talk about one of the greatest real-time strategy games ever made - Ensemble's Age of Mythology. The art, the story, the balance, the structure -- everything is examined in a deep and wide-ranging conversation about why this game still stands as a landmark title with a lot to teach the modern RTS developer and player. Listen Here. Troy's three part history of Ensemble Studios

Troy and Rob mark episode 250 by looking at a new game from Proxy Games and Matrix. Does Pandora live up to its ambitions as a spiritual successor to one of strategy gaming's most beloved titles? Listen as they look at the old wine in not very alien wineskins. Plus some kind words for everyone that has gotten us this far. Listen Here.

My computer is back working after a few days out of commission and I am ready to go - I think. Looking forward to it.

I am in.

Bruce Geryk brings Tom Chick back to the show so they can grill Ilwinter's Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer Osterman about Dominions 4 - the latest version of their "So You Wanna Be A God?" Fantasy Conquest Game. Learn about new empires, new powers and why everything is just a bit different for them. Listen Here

Wasn't a problem with the feed, but with publishing to IT's home page. But all good now! Thanks, Jake!

Yeah, I was thinking episode 23 on changing models of conflict - which was a helluva lot longer ago than I remember. Damn, the show wasn't even six months old. Thanks for your kind words. I really like the chances we get to dig into themes and concepts that repeat themselves in games, and I'm lucky to be surrounded by very smart people.

Troy and Bruce team up to discuss the track record of railroad games through strategy history, from 1830 through Railroad Tycoon and Rails Across America and beyond. How do these games distinguish themselves from each other? What is the attraction? Does Ticket to Ride count? Listen Here Music Credits: Wreck of the Old 97 - Johnny Cash, 1969 Hobo Bill - Jimmie Rodgers, 1929 All Board, Del McCoury, 2001 Big Rock Candy Mountain, Harry McClintlock, 1928 Iron Dragon

How did I miss this scintillating review methods and theory discussion... In any case, I am all for more people playing and writing about strategy games since it means that Rob can rest his pen. And people need to start somewhere - no beginning reviewer today can be expected to have played Dune 2000, Sacrifice, even Rise of Nations or Battle for Middle Earth 2. The number of active people with encyclopedic histories in the RTS genre and that can recognize instantly where things go sour in a series or know innovation, etc. is pretty tiny. And, frankly, most people just don't have the time to study. Playing all of Age of Empires is not the same as watching Flash Gordon serials to learn about scifi tropes, though certainly more fun. If you can get them to work, there is a lot of time involved. One thing that readers should do - and that I did early, both when trying to find trustworthy reviews and learning how to become a better critic - is recognize that not every reviewer can or should speak to every experience. I needed reviewers with a deep knowledge of history and mechanics to trust, and I found a bunch at CGM and Games Domain. Now with some types of strategy games, editors understand this. Many sites will just refuse to review a Paradox game or Matrix wargame because they know they have no one on staff that can begin to speak to a meaningful experience. But RTSes are different; they are the "action strategy game" - you drag select units and point them in the right direction and everyone loves Starcraft, etc. I also know that, for as much as I love him and value his opinion and experience, Tom and I are never going to see eye to eye on Civ V. Rob and I are never going to see eye to eye on League of Legends. Bruce and I are never going to see eye to eye on Thurn und Taxis. I could get lost in Julian's eyes for days. Knowing a reviewer's history and what they are bringing to the table was certainly a lot easier when there were only a few major magazines and a couple of websites to pay attention to. Honestly, this one reason Twitter has become so important to me. With so many of my most trusted writers freelancing all over the place, I just have to follow them to see what they have recently posted. You can have a conversation with these writers and, importantly, push that review or criticism to an audience that might appreciate it. It's like Usenet with a filter; so I guess not like Usenet at all, but it does help build some of that community of readers and writers that can direct people like you to things you find interesting.

2013 opens with a look at Shenandoah Studios' Battle of the Bulge for iPad. Everyone agrees that it is shiny and beautiful, but does it work as it should? Is it even a Bulge game at all? Listen as Troy, Bruce and Julian work out what makes Battle of the Bulge a near perfect match of design and platform Listen here Gameographies of major players at Shenandoah John H Butterfield Joe Miranda Eric Lee Smith Bruce's review Troy's comments

This week, Troy and Bruce talk to Jon Peterson, author of the epic gaming history tome, Playing at the World. They talk about the turning points in the evolution of wargames, when a wargame becomes a role playing game and the important task of collecting and compiling gaming's long and often small scale history. Listen here.

This is a great discussion guys. I guess my objection (and I won't speak for Tom) to RTS campaigns is that so many of them are tacked on and don't really let you see the beauty of the "true" design - the balancing of units attributes, the economic game, etc; until very very late in the campaign - if at all. They are more action RPGs - which is fine! I like action RPGS! - but designing campaigns as the center of the single player experience seems to underestimate the audience and overestimate the game fiction. To be clear - I am no MP RTS hotshot. I don't have the reflexes for it any more and never really had the math. But, either against friends or (even better) single player skirmish or MP comp stomp, there are few short game experiences as rewarding for the small general inside of us like a skirmish RTS. Scenarios with units that have activation radii or maps that reveal new things and change how you have to do everything (I'm look at you SupCom and Rise of Legends) hit me as not the "Real" game. I guess it's like soloing World of Warcraft, to me. Yeah, I think I get why people do it, but if that's what you're coming for I think you're missing some of the real beauty. Sorry if anyone was offended! But this is why we have the forum!