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Rob Zacny

Three Moves Ahead Episode 490: Micro-RTS Games

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Three Moves Ahead 490:

Three Moves Ahead 490


Micro-RTS Games
Not every novel must be Inifinite Jest, not every RTS game must be Starcraft 2. Sure, sometimes you need to hold your copy of Starcraft 2 with the cover facing out so people at the coffee shop KNOW you're playing Starcraft 2, but sometimes you just want to play a quick game of something and get out. This week, Rob and Cameron Kunzelman discuss three RTS games the can be played in less time than it takes to listen to this episode. So once you are done loudly asking if the barista has a second bookmark you can borrow for the footnotes, take a listen to our discussion on Circle Empires, Escape Dead Earth, and Death Crown.

Circle Empires, Escape Dead Earth, Death Crown

 

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Interesting listen, and a subject I can relate to as life keeps me from playing these games as much as I used to. And frankly, the "board game length" games feels a bit more satisfying in being efficient with my time.

 

Regarding short Civilization games I did try Polytopia a while back on phones, and that did scratch that itch a bit. Apparently it's now also on PC: https://store.steampowered.com/app/874390/The_Battle_of_Polytopia/

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Hail Michael Hermes, The Sound Wizard! After a long--well deserved--holiday from the podcast, he is finally back! Can't wait to see what nicknames for Troy Goodfellow he has in store for us.

 

On a technical note, I found the intro to this episode to be very odd. It's almost as if the first two or three minutes of the show are missing and it cuts directly into the show itself. Nothing major, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

Now, about the games. The only one from the list that I knew about was Circle Empires (not to be confused with Cliff Empire) and I've pondered long and hard if I should buy that game or not. From what I've seen and from the discussion on this episode, the game reminds me a lot of the flash rts' that I used to play back in the early 2010's. They were, by necessity, smaller, less complex and invariably 2D pixel games that took between 5-15 minutes per session. I used to enjoy this sorts of games a lot, but nowadays I find myself to enjoying games that require wiki diving for the mechanics or long periods of study more than simple games, even tough my time available to play games is decreasing with each passing year.

 

That said, Death Crown looks amazing and I'll most likely give it a shot based on this episode discussion of it.

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Fun episode and an interesting dive into the genre. Usually, when there's talk about microstrategy I think about something like Into the Breach and other turn-based games, but those seem to be different beasts.

 

Also a great guest. His Baldur's Gate epic is worth a watch!

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