Codicier

It all started out so well, by 1087 both Kildare and Leinster were captured with the help of some mercenaries and everything was looking quite rosy for my duke. However if you know where to look there are already signs of the problems that over the coming decades will almost see my dynasty wiped out.Many of my son's claims are unfortunately un-inheritable and I still have no idea how to remedy this. I ended up giving away half my domains just trying to sort this out. In fact I mess up so badly that I am forced to manoeuvre my grandson into place as my heir. Fortunately the Duke is nothing if not determined and I managed to carve out a new personal kingdom by claiming Connact (in addition to his seat of Thormund), And establish a claim on Brifne. Finally at the age of 74 my Duke pops his clogs leaving everything to his 18-year-old grandson. I start to believe I may have the chance to reunite my domains, after all my new Duke is barely out of his teens he's got all his life ahead of him to sort out the mess his grandfather created. However it turns out in this case that a lifetime equates to about 11 months my Duke dies before even seeing his 19th birthday as do my claims to about half of Ireland. His sister inherits a small kingdom with a huge and democratic neighbour that my poor administrative skills are pretty much responsible for creating. Worse still the law of the land means there is no current line of succession and she will have no chance to change it for at least 10 years. Fortunately although I didn't know it yet Duchesss Dervogilla is the kind of woman, that would make Ceresti Lansister look gentle, Luceriza Borgia look moral, and puts Lady MacBeth's plotting skills to shame. By the time she reaches her 40th year the casualty list is impressive, Four husbands, her eldest son, two bishops, two mayors and an earl, A duke, and three children who were unlucky enough to be born to people who made them a inconvenience. Her eldest surviving son has strong claims on large parts of Ireland and Wales, and she has just married a man just one well placed dagger from the English crown. Perhaps even more remarkable is the one year later she gives birth to a son who now has a claim on one of the English crowns most powerful Ducys and is betrothed to a girl with claims on much of northern Ireland. So my main aim now is to sort my succession laws out once and for all, after all a genius kin slaying Duchess is not going to be the kind of person who makes the same mistake as has her ancestors.

I don't think there's a specific episode dedicated to it and though I certainly can't speak for the 3MA guys, but if you want to see the sort of stories what Gal Civ2 is capable of producing its hard to go wrong with reading Tom Francis's Plan B series (parts 1 & 2). Also as far as I'm aware Gal Civ 2 is single player (at least I've never played it any other way), however I don't think you will go wrong with Sin's for co-op (though as you say its more expensive). You also might want to consider the Dawn of War 2 games for your stratergy Co-op needs (if you haven't already got them), they have co-op campaign modes & a co-op multi-player mode. I'd recommend this pack, which essentially contains 3 whole campaigns for you and you GF to play through and is pretty cheap for a few more hours(if you really want to save as much cash as possible just get 2x copies of the latest standalone Retribution, which has several different races to play through). Hope some of that info's of some use to you, I realise DoW2 isn't quite the majestic 4x strat you might be looking for but it does co-op well enough to be worth a quick look at.

Considering the various forms of family based murder and plotting we are talking about here I think a few non sequential comments might be the least of our problems when it comes to others assessing our sanity. Speaking of which! My Son is lord mayor in Ormond, tbh I'm not sure I knew what I was doing at the time (it was my 1st title grab), and there doesn't seem to be a way of grabbing the castle & associate barony now.

First of all, that guide is amazing. There is just so much to do in Crusader Kings that I think half my problems in previous play through came from decision anxiety. So having someone lay out step-by-step what he considers priorities was incredibly calming and useful. So anyway, having took over the role of the Duke of Munster I began to follow the guide. The first thing I noticed is that my stats are radically different from those in the guide, but despite that his basic plan sounds good it's time for some wedding bells. A short while later after finding an appropriate bride for my Duke and his son I felt secure enough to up the speed a bit and sit back, wait, and see what happens next. The first event was a reminder to find a bride my half brother, it seems id promised to do so early on but it ha slipped my mind. Sadly he's bit of an old git, so no one seems to want to have their daughter married without a realistic chance of producing children. Despite trying to match up with some equally experienced ladies I had no luck, and therefore resolved to leave him to being a bachelor. 1870 my Duke unexpectedly falls in love, fortunately it's with his wife and so I get a nice little bonus of five piety . In 1871 my play radically through diverges from the guide first time. After building up my support in neighbouring Ormond I hatch a plot and revoked the title of it's mayor from its current holder with the help of 2 of his vassals and install my son in his place. Thankfully this was remarkably peaceful and I'm in a good position to turn my eyes south to Desmond. Fortune again smiles on me, and my neighbour in Desmond decides this is a good point to send a large proportion of his levies abroad to help some Spanish relative in a war. This leaves his realm nearly defenceless. I resolve to take the opportunity while it lasts and by 1073 my forces have poured over the border, his main castle is under siege, and victory looks certain. It is all over by 1074 despite a small counter-attack on my holdings (I’m not sure if it was carried out by return troops or newly raised levies the game's military still confuses me) which I defend by splitting my realm levies away from my personal troops and sending them back north. With the war now over its time to consolidate. Despite me forcing him to bend the knee Desmond's duke still seems quite well disposed towards me. Furthermore he reveals his ambition to become my court Chaplin. A quick check shows the current occupant to be a talentless drunk, and the ex-Duke to be a exceedingly pious and quite competent man. So as I welcome my new Chaplin to my court, but just in case I take two of his sons and have them tutored by close members of my family. Where I am now: Leinster and Killdare seem the two most likely targets for expansion at the moment, my own domain seems relatively stable although my half brother seems to be growing more envious and ambitious. My plan: Killdare has a young daughter so I’m thinking of trying of marrying her to my grandson and then killing him off before grabbing the province for myself. Leinster is controlled by my nephew, he seems quite fond of me while his father (my marshall) isn't. If I can drive a wedge between father and son perhaps there's something that can be done here too, or perhaps I just need to kill off my brother quietly, and see if I can tempt his son to take his vacant place. A few Q's for the gents here: Is it always difficult to find wives for people who are 50ish? Or are there ways around it. Ambitious relatives: is there a effective way to buy them off? Or do they have to be 'taken care of'? And in the game!(someone bound to say this) Plus any advice comments on my plans for Killdare & Leinster would be excedingly welcome.

Had a great argument about football tactics with my mates over a few beers at the weekend, centring around how in such a fluid sport tactics became so standardised for so long, and how now you have teams like Spain breaking the mould again. So that book should be perfect for me. Has anyone read Moneyball? It's philosophy's seems to have become increasingly popular this side of the Atlantic, so much so I feel I should perhaps give it a read myself.

From what I understood from the podcast I 'think' that you are basically supposed to be very hard to stop once they are in the field, but are a big resource drain which a player could use as a window opportunity to mount a offensive. In some ways the way people talk about it they sound like true doomsday weapons, and the way their development works in particular sounds like it can easily end up resembling a nuclear weapon race in some ways.

It's not a bad idea certainly, and something id like to try when I feel less likely to embarrass myself . But time zones and life in general have a habit of getting in the way a lot when you have a group as diverse and dispersed as the Thumbs attempt to do multi-player games, which is why I suggested this 'parallel multi-player' format. Think what I'll do tonight is try playing as Munster and report back progress, and brkl & orv can laugh, and irishjohn can nod his head in solemn and silent acknowledgement of common woes!

My experiences with CK so far have all been so disastrous that the populations of my blighted realms were probably left wishing for locusts. So what I'm thinking is this: Misery loves company. Would Irishjohn or anyone else be interested in the idea of everyone starting a game with the same monarch and then playing through a 5-20 year block of game time before stopping and reporting back here the choices we have made and the problems we have had, then continuing? Think it would give us a chance to see what we have missed, and see out how differently things could play out. Perhaps one of the more experienced players like Orvidos or Gormongus could help out with suggesting a starting dynasty or perhaps playing along with us newbies. We could keep a pretty relaxed schedule about it, and we might get some interestingly divergent stories. I love the idea of this game, It's just in reality it doesn't seem to love me back. P.S thanks for that kersch link its helping things slowly fall a bit more into place.

That probably what they meant when they talked about the Olympics having a legacy, we brits will be moaning about it for the next 20 years More seriously I don't think most of the complaint's are aimed at the event itself but the manner in which some surrounding issues have been handled. I see it as a very positive thing that these issues get highlighted, take the outsourcing of public services part for example. Thanks to the Olympics everyone knows the G4S scandal, but far less people are aware of what (for instance) Serco has been up to. This is just my personal opinion but London does feel almost a country apart to me. Whenever I make the occasional trip to visit friends or stop off at a museum there, its problems, its extremes of wealth and poverty, its self preoccupation, all seem almost alien to me. Don't take this as a attack on London its not, I think London is a mazing city. It's just that politics, culture, and business (and with the Olympics sport too) seem to at times treat it as if its the only city.

You are at the heart of the storm in some ways then I guess. I'm sure your not alone in your enthusiasm but its a feeling that those of us to whom attending was never going to be a option, and to whom the economic benefits will never trickle down will always struggle to share. I think many of the issues the guys have mention here about the Olympics are symptomatic of creeping changes to the way modern society increasingly operates(globalisation's affect on regional economies, outsourcing of services, corporate invasions of public space etc), but that they only really make the news at times like this because of their stark contrast with the ideals that the Olympics claim to represent.

Ended up playing through the entire game in one sitting (with the subtitles off) last night after a minor bout of sleeplessness. I don't know if it was just that I was tired, or if playing it in a room with no lights and some good quality headphones on made the difference (or a combination of all of those factors), but whatever it was I hit a tipping point and my opinion went from tentative interest to outright adoration. I have no idea how to even begin talking about it without sounding incredibly pretentious, but gawd darn it that was amazing.

I just noticed buried amongst the mounds of reduced price games is the news that Pre-order for Orc's Must Die 2 appears to have started. The original game was one of the pleasant discoveries of last year, it arrived without much fanfare and then surprised me providing a fast paced, good looking, inventive and (in later levels) genuinely challenging take on the tower defence genre. Now as we all know Co-op makes everything better so this should be pretty damn awesome. The Originals still at 50% off in the sale as well.

@ Gormongous If we are going to try and melt Troys's brain by exposing him to dubious anime re-imaginings of historical charcaters lets go flat out. @Troy click if you .The click a second time to fully understand the horror. Everyone else don't worry its perfectly safe (if silly) for people without a history degree to view, Troy on the other hand may never fully recover.

Thanks for the advice Orvidos & Cigol, think I'll grab just the original, then if I enjoy it I'll I can always see if I can persuade a few others to get grab a copy and have some multiplayer mode fun next time assault squad is on sale.

Any opinions/advice on which part of the Men of War series its best to grab as a newcomer? I'm assuming Assault Squad or the original game? I seem to remember both Red Tide & Vietnam having rather fearsome reputations which is currently putting me off them.

I picked up Dear Esther yesterday as part of the steam sale, so far while it's holding my interest I can certainly see why a fair few people would react negatively to it. Though at the price I paid I don't think I will regret buying it even if I do feel more negatively with it by the time I'm done. So far my biggest complaint would probably be the voice over and in particular the subtitles(which come switched on by default)which often feel somewhat jarring. With so much of the game seemingly focused on a sense of ambiguity (so far) it seems strange to have the dialogue there in black and white, the idea that I might mishear or misunderstand something is a possibility that I think I would prefer left open, so I'm thinking of switching the subs off for the rest of the game.

neither! I think that you were actually quite close to the ideal tile size with your original post. That sort of medium-sized tile helps to give the world a varied look without making the maps seem cluttered or overly complex.If you look at the way civilisation 5 or warlock handles terrain titles everything is represented in multiples. For instance a tile never features just one tree but three or four. Ultimately though I think your combat mechanic and the pacing you want the game to have should probably have more bearing on world size than aesthetic choices.

This podcast feels a bit like a missed opportunity, it's not that Troy or Nadia put in a bad performance more that a lot of questions were left unanswered and many viewpoints left unexplored. I would have loved to have heard from Matthew Burns about if the theme and mechanics were a good match, or have Julian, Todd, or Jenn chip in. I think the reason they don't call the setting Japan instead of Ransei is simply to further distance it from being accused in any way of slandering/or making light of a national icon, just look at the games Japanese title "Pokémon Nobunaga's Ambition" and take a moment to play some mad libs on that theme (I'm sure someone's done this already but nevertheless it made me chuckle for a moment). <Children's entertainment franchise> <Famous Patriotic Leader> <Emotion> The Wombles Churchill's Intent: Making good use of the things that they find, Churchill's Womble army drive back the nazi threat with tanks made of recycled food can's. I've got a lot more thought's and (more importantly) questions about Pokemon, historic fiction, and DS Strategy games and i'll try and do a proper post on some of that when I get back in the evening.

The weird thing I've noticed is that I (& most people I've talked to about it) feel less interested in the London games as a event than I did about the Beijing games. Yes people who follow individual events are enthusiastic about watching those events on TV but they are no more enthusiastic than they were 4 years ago when it was on the other side of the globe. People even seem genuinely worried that the games are going to be a embarrassment.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Space Asshole 75% off

If I remember rightly at th If I remember correctly the case for the bid was centred around the rather nebulous concept of a 'Legacy', a combination of economic and social benefits, with a aim of increasing nationwide participation in sports. Now obviously the promises of nationwide funding for greater participation in sports is long gone having been a early victim of austerity, that left the venues and the boost it would give the local economy. Now as you point out the economic value to business is starting to look dubious, which just leaves the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on infrastructure which will at least be of benefit .. oh wait no it seems it's all going to be either sold off to private firms &/or demolished. Oh well never mind at least we've spent £80 Million + on some fireworks.

Anyone have any experience with Tropico 4 and also the Modern Times expansion? Theya re 75% off atm. Just re-listening to episode 133 of 3MA & trying to decide whether to make the plunge and whether to just grab the base game or get the whole pack. Troy Goodfellowseems to talk about it in what is a not particularly glowing manner but idk what the general consensus is, ATM I think i'm just going to grab the base game.

Really enjoyed the original Defence Grid but I agree 100% with Chris about the way the tiers are presented. They had a fair amount of goodwill left over from the first game, but that this feels like its going to burn through that in short order. In short if you back it and they don't meet their stretch goal you wont get DG2 even if they do go on and release it at a later date, which just seems a big kick in the teeth. If they removed the word 'funded' and replace it with 'mentioned' it would make tme far less uneasy with the way the tiers are organised. However at the moment it feels like they are telling me "pay for Defence Grid 2, get some maps for Defence Grid instead'

Kohan 1, 2 & it's expansions are in the current steam sale at 75% off, seems like a great chance to try it out if like me you hadnt yet.