riadsala

A bit of a disappointing episode I thought... you guys took over an hour to say "It's a Paradox game, so it shares many of its mechanics with other Paradox games, and like every other Paradox game, is a little lacking on release, but will no doubt offer a deeper, richer and broader experience as it expands over the years". Isn't this exactly what we'd expect? And you somehow missed given (m)any actual details that would be specific to the game. For example: - what time period does it cover (from the discussion, I'm guessing it doesn't yet cover the kingdom, or have the mechanics to support the late Empires? Would make sense that they'd add this as DLC. - are you playing as a character, like CK2? Sounded like it's more like EU (which I haven't played). - do you recommend picking it up now? Or should am I better sticking with CK2, buying a Stellaris bundle, and waiting a year or so? It would be great to get an interview with the dev team, to find out more about their plans for the future. Or get Troy on to chat about it in his professional capacity (assuming he still works for the man)

I agree! i nearly always enjoy listening to what Bruce has to say, even though I'm very unlikely to ever play any of the games he talks about!

Agree entirely. This was one of the best shows you guys have done in a while! Other episodes I really enjoyed were the Chess episode and the one in which Michael and Troy talked about Aurora (? am I getting the name correct, that crazy complicated space game). Which is actually pretty interesting, when you consider that I don't play chess (my heart has already been given to Go), will likely never try Aurora, and haven't played a city building since Sim City 2000. But the discussions where top notch. In the same way, I find that Bruce always has something interesting to say, even if it's on a game i will likely never play. On the other hand, I don't find the regular panelists have much of interest (to me, personally) on the games I actually enjoy playing. (with the notable exception of Fraser, but that might just be because he's Scottish). The problem is most likely with me: playing a lot of Go gives one different perspective on computer games, complexity, losing, etc. I suppose if I was to sum it up, the usual panelists seem to really enjoy the 'strategy game as power fantasy' side of things. Which is fine! But just not something I'm really that interested in. And to echo Sorbicol's point of view, I have no interest whatsoever in listening to 3MA talk about culture wars/identity politics stuff. Again, this isn't to say that they're no important topics (they are!) but, I work in a university, and have to deal with, and think about, these things all the time (in some ways, university campuses are the frontline for a lot of these issues). Sure, perhaps I am a privileged, entitled person, but if I'm listening to a podcast about strategy games, it's because I want to mentally unwind and take my mind off things like that. These topics are covered in lots of detail elsewhere, by very knowledgeable, well read academics and other thinkers: there are plenty of places to find out more [I quite like https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qy05]. I've gone from listening to every show, for years, to skipping most of them But this one was really good! I nearly ended up working in planning (and have an MSc in a related topic), and could really identify when Justin was talking about generations of town planners growing up having played Sim City! I've always found city builders really odd, as living in the UK (i.e., the old country), they really don't correspond well with our idea of what a city is!

How about Fate of the World?

Great episode. Nice to hear some of the original team back again!

I really enjoyed the second half of this show with Troy giving his take on it all. Some of the best 3MA in a long time.

Kind of a weird podcast this one. There wasn't much enthusiasm on display, or at least, not enough to make me think I should give this game a go. Any sense of WHY you are still playing this game after all those hours was lost between the gripes. I got the impression that you all played the game as that's the game you played.

Great podcast. I've bounced off the series myself a few times (participated in a couple of Dom3 mulitplayer games, bought Dom4 but never spent much time with it). But it is still a lot of fun to hear you guys chat about this. i'd love to see the Dominions lore used in some other games. They've got a really interesting twist on a lot of factions, for example the Romans turning into a death cult (if i remember that correctly?)

Listening to this review, 2017 comes across as incredibly underwhelming for new strategy games. The top picks being more Total War Warhammer, and more XCOM2. And there didn't seem to be any genuine passion around any of the games. This show came across as very stale to me. I'm not sure if it's the fault of the games on offer, or I've now heard this week's panel articulate all their thoughts on these games several times already. [In contrast, the enthusiasm and joy on show when Michael, Bruce and Troy were talking about Dominions 5 the other week was much more enjoyable to listen to!]. I felt no desire to go buy any 2017 games after listening to this, and the panel failed to make me feel like I'm missing out on anything. I guess that means 2017 was a mediocre-to-poor year for strategy games? Request for 2018: Please don't do a show on a space 4x unless it's one you guys are actually excited to play and talk about :-) oh, and happy new year.

Yes, the whole episode I was thinking to myself "Doesn't Endless Legend have most these issues?" Don't get me wrong, I enjoying playing around with EL, it's a fun toy with a pretty map. But it's a pretty terrible strategy game, and I've never figured out what the appeal is beyond some pretty graphics and cutesy lore. Thanks for saying doing a better job of saying what I was going to try and say myself!

another note: if anybody else has been on the fence about this game, you might be interested to know that a new patch just game out that adds 'tactical pause' to single player game. That should make playing on classic difficulty a lot less stressful for those of us who are more interested in the tactics and less interested in apm, etc.

I think another thing I really enjoyed about it was the simplicity of the campaign. It's been a while since I played a campaign that's simply a string of scenarios [as opposed to XCOM, Total War etc]. The game is also pretty relaxing. Great art style and soundtrack. We should try some multi-player at the weekend :-)

I finally got around to buying, and playing this. Lovely campaign, really enjoyed it (although, yes, why aren't the cutscenes skip-able?). A little on the easy side, but hey, I'm replaying on Classic now. I've also picked up Grey Goo, so, I'm slowly slowly catching up on modern RTSs!

Nice episode. Always a pleasure to here Troy talking about games and subjects he loves. How robust and easy to use is the multiplayer?

you can learn to overcome that though. I used to be the same with Go, but now I find loses more interesting than win

Have anybody mentioned Chaos Reborn yet? Also, never underestimate the joys of Chess (and Go, which is my game of choice, but it's harder to get into and the software/servers don't seem to be as good). If you don't like randomness, then maybe this is something to think about. Check out the 3ma episode on Chess is you haven't already. It certainly encouraged me to return to the game!

Yes - strategy games are like wine and whisky :-)

I thought some other people here might be interested in this: https://deepmind.com/blog/deepmind-and-blizzard-open-starcraft-ii-ai-research-environment/

Did you guys see that a different AI has recently beaten pro-DOTA2 players? As expected, now that we have come up with a method than work well for Go (which has been a huge goal in AI since Deep Blue and chess in the mid 90s) the floodgates are opening.

I just logged back on to say pretty much exactly the same thing. Troy: you've been missed. And this was one of the best recent review shows. This game sounds like it would make a good gift for a few people I know. I get the feeling that Rob is wanting to have his cake and eat it (which he kind of admits during the podcast): it sounds like the game is simple and limited in scope by design. Like Kingdoms, isn't that ok? It's priced pretty reasonably, so surely a few hours of fun before you exhaust the possibilities is ok?

I'll be listening to this on my walk home. Looks like a topic that's close to my heart, although a shame it's looking like it's focused on Paradox again - here's hoping the panel have some new stories to tell (I really like Ck2, but I think I've heard everything I need to from the 3MA regulars on it. A few of my fav examples of set-backs in games that I'm guessing aren't mentioned: - Civ IV with the Legends of the Revolution "commercially viable" expansion pack. It did a good job of having civil wars, and if your empire got to large, it could splinter. - multi-player Blood Bowl leagues. Working out how to struggle to the end of the season without having any more players die, then take a demotion to a lower league, and build up over the next season! - Solium Infernum! 3MA covered this years and years ago. A fantastic multiplayer indie game in which the rug can be pulled out from under you at any time. - Frozen Synapse - playing a friend, and down to one guy. Can i keep him safe, out of sight, and pick off enough lucky kills to steal the victory? Usually not, but with a bit of second guessing my opponent, quite possible. - Going from an early lose in Diplomacy, to becoming king maker. - losing a group of stones in Go, but then working out how to make it a meaningful sacrifice and force my opponent to over commit to one area. Keep up the good work

Steam please, as I don't know if he already has as gog account or not (assuming that my gog version can talk to his steam version!) Thanks

Yeah, I've noticed this. But I think the timers are a really good mechanic which really adds to the tension!

I have a friend I'd like to gift a copy to, so we can play each other. But perhaps first wait and see if anybody more deserving asks for the code

So I finally picked this up in the gog sale. Only half way through the tutorial, but it seems like a really smartly designed game. The way the bluffing/illusion mechanic interacts with the %chance of casting is inspired. I look forward to getting in bit more practice then trying to multiplayer. Also, I remember Rob (? I think ) not liking the % chance to cast, but he's ok with % to hit? [Or something like that? It's been a while since I listened to this show]. I quite like the way the game treats chance, and I think it fits with the theme. Magic is hard to cast, but it you manage to cast ok, then it will work as intended. As opposed to magically casting a spell, but then missing with it.