Yalk

I'll tell you straight up what breaks the absolute fuck out of this game If one of the players has played a few times and has cracked the code of "as the empire, spread out" and the other player has never played and is tricked by the game into thinking his rebel action figures actually mean something and tries to use them...basically, if you own this game and have played it, you can never again play with someone new, or introduce it to anyone ever, the experienced player has to play so poorly and so against the strategy that they know they should be playing, that it turns into a tutorial session where the new player is almost guaranteed to win, which takes away the tenseness and the excitement of pulling cards (cause your real play through will be your second game), you will never have the "ah-ha" moment that Sean and Rob had.... ...maybe the only way for this to work is that the experienced player HAS to play rebels, but even then, if the empire player groups up and doesn't spread out (because your trying to crush the rebel, obviously) they're hosed and don't even know it, cause they don't know the cards the rebel player can pull later....if the empire player is experienced then good luck to the rebel player when the empire spreads out and you never get to pull even half your cards... The other thing is that, there is some semblance of strategy to the empire side that you can kind of count on, but for the rebels, your entire strategy boils down to what cards you pull, when you pull them and your dice rolls, if any of those things don't line up or fail you, your done, gg...this might be the reason experienced players HAVE to always be rebels due to their inherent extreme luck based nature, they won't necessarily be able to put their experience to full use if the card draw says fuck off... Also, the combat overall detracts from the game, and is only there to lull you into thinking you should actually be fighting...the game is all about hero placement, die rolls, card drawing....the actual game is very much under the surface of what it appears to be, this is one of the pit falls for new players, no amount of telling the new player what they should be doing will prepare them for the fact that they should actually just not worry about the rebel pieces at all...the best thing that can happen to a new player playing rebel is to have all their shit destroyed within the first 2-3 turns (which a spread out imperial player can still easily do early on due to how picking starting planets works), that forces the rebel player to play the real game, which has nothing to do with the mini's, since all their powers derive from cards and hero powers Overall, its ok, mostly its just going to be frustrating....the rebel player will constantly be frustrated (by shit cards, shit dice and the imperial player existing) most of the game till maybe the very end, and the empire player will be enjoying the game until maybe the very end when they suddenly lose... ...I'll probably never play this again, too much setup, too complicated in the areas it shouldn't be, the actual game being obfuscated by pretty mini figures, and taking forever to complete.....maybe if its played like a team game with more that 2 players and everyone is incredibly drunk, maybe.....

Just listening to the podcaste I haven't played this, but have been intrigued one thing I'd like to comment on, you guys acclaimed the army system. Is it like the Rise of Nations system? cause that game did that, and from listening, way way better, way back in 2004....and didn't even need a army number assigned to it, units just straight up joined the group and started fighting. Cannons stayed in the back, pike units where in front, cavalry skirmished etc, you could shift click attack all of one unit, etc etc etc. and never really had the problem of the "army" getting confused from adding units to the control group (which acted like armies), ofc in RoN you also had a entire Civilization game to focus on as well as the RTS parts. Just curious, I wish more games took the micro away so you could focus on the macro, but I'm not sure from the sounds of it that this is the best system either...

PARADOX ....I will "pay you for love"

So I tried Act of Aggression, and wasn't that surprised by the negative tone of y'alls podcast about it. My overall take was similar, and many of your points fleshed out in my mind what I hadn't been able to put a finger on. Thus, I play tested steams new refund system, it works as advertised. RoN is a great game, "Civilization you can play on your lunch break" idk, ever since Company of Heroes came out I lost interest in the traditional RTS "spam all the things" and win by economic attrition....I like being able to stick guys or units out in the field and know they won't get killed immediately without me at least knowing what killed them. Yes, a Flak88 will do very bad things very quickly to a Sherman, but, you will have enough time to realize your mistake and save the rest of your forces....I think some of this is that I'm older now and literally can't be asked to put in the effort to play a fast paced twitch RTS anymore... To add to the list of "old school RTS" : I've been enjoying Homeworld Remastered, while I don't like the fact that they basically reskinned HW2 with HW1 unit skins, I can appreciate the effort, and they are still updating and patching the game, I think they only have a couple guys working on the project still, so updates are slow...but, they are still coming...

pretty excited for this....been looking for a space grand strategy that IS NOT Distant Worlds, and look! here it is!

Well....your only a year late commenting.... The version that is on steam now, Emperors something is actually....ok....they've patched out lots of the issues listed in this thread, its still not great, but, its serviceable.. Civil wars are actually dependent on numbers now, etc, but that's also made it easy to game the simple system into never having one, they also take generals and armies under your control away from you and split the provinces between you and the rebels...this is one example of how things are better Is this the Rome 2 we wanted? no...but its much better now than what it was when released...lots of patches have made the game...........enjoyable, its not a super deep strategy game, but none of them have been....the campaign has always been a means of setting up the battles, and it does that now adequately enough to over look some of the built in shallow aspects....

I for one am ALL behind 3 moves ahead just turning into EU 4 moves ahead....more EU4 discussion needs to happen I'd really like at least a half episode on "Common Sense" now that its out...although waiting a week might be good since there are a number of bugs Paradox graciously included...

Yeah, I don't remember the one I took. Its the one for when you go to the Amazon. I know it was refrigerated and you had to take it every week for 4 weeks or something...

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html I can confirm however that the drugs you are normally given (the refrigerated pills I think) do in fact give you crazy ass vivid hallucinogenic type dreams...I tended to have the most vivid odd dreams the day or so after taking a dose and they would fade over the next few days until my next dose.

Since they just had a EU4 revisit I could get behind this I've also gotten back into CoH, and now I'm playing "The Great War of 1918" mod for it...total conversion mod of vanilla CoH that turns it into WW1 1918 era...free download on steam, might be interesting for Troy and Rob to square off and then give feedback on...(I know they just did a year of WW1 related material however)

"Interesting" literally translates for EU4 as "easy" idk, I love me some EU4, its my comfort game. It's the game that when I'm bored or just want some down time, I flip on and can casually develop my nation. Unlike CiV, I get...distracted? my interest is actually broken by having to click next turn over and over. I really enjoy EU's "realtime" aspect, as I can just let the game run. If I'm waiting on something to happen I don't have to keep clicking "Next turn" I can just let the game do its thing while I watch TV or explain some history to the kiddo. .....or if I'm really into the game I can turn the dial up to eleven (5) and get to the interesting bits.... I've tried to enjoy...and I like the idea of, CK2...I really do...in my head, its the perfect game...however, I can drop EU4 for months, but when I want I can pick up my last save and pretty well get back into it. CK2? forget that shit...no way I can remember wtf was going on...its also, idk more stressful? somehow...having to figure all the shit out that's going on.....its great when I'm really in the mood but, I can fire up EU4 when I'm NOT in the mood and then get in the mood....CK2 I'll just quit if I'm not feeling it....I just find that a disaster in EU4 I can still find some enjoyment in the game, if I misclick or misread some blurb of text in CK2 your game is fucked, yeah you could come back, but its not enjoyable to me to untangle the yarn at that point.... On the other hand, watching a "lets play" of CK2 is WAY more entertaining than a EU4 "lets play"....I recommend the IdleThumbs 13 youtube videos where they play CK2, its pure gold.

CHEESE WHY!!!?!?!?!!? literally, maddening....nice troll through, *golf clap*

I think a revisit of EUIV is in order, especially after the upcoming Art of War. I'd like to know how they feel about the game now as opposed to a year ago.

yeah, being allied is a two way street...you can screw them just as hard fyi, if not harder and without the optional lube... Has anyone taken a look at the new Art of War expansion that is coming out Oct 30th? It seems a true expansion, lots of new things and revamps....it was stated that conquest will be made easier starting passed 1628 or somewhere there abouts (simulating Napoleonic conquests - not correct time period, but they want you to have time to play with the mechanics) and the farther in the game you go the easier it will be to create a large empire. I think the idea being, early you'll be restricted the same as now, small wars spread out over time. However, as time progresses those restrictions will be lessened through revamped ideal groups allowing more rapid expansion on the order of Napoleonic France. I'm still looking to see if the 15 yr truce will be changed or not, as that is a major buzz kill....I've always thought that the peace treaty should be something negotiable, part of the war score...100% warscore should mean you can dictate whatever length of peace you want, maybe at the risk of higher AE penatly (other nations viewing a shorter peace as a sign of intent to aggressively expand) ....would work something like demanding money except have AE attached below a certain thresh hold.... Vassals are being reworked, there will be more interaction with them and the ability to turn them into a buffer state (march) and press their claims means you'll no longer be prodded to absorb all your vassals...they can remain....after a certain time (1628) you'll also be able to create custom vassals to begin feeding too. New revamped religious stuff more provinces (probably a nerf to world conquest actually now that I think of it) New Rebel mechanics ....lots more thoughts?

You made the right choice....EndlessLegends>>CiV:BE the fantasy elements get in the way of me truly getting sucked into the game...if I could blend BE and EL into a unholy union of 4x I would do it in a heart beat.....