by Debaser » Mon Sep 01, 2003 9:24 am
If you think you'd like this game, I'm pretty sure you'd do well to buy it, especially considering that I managed to grab it for ten bucks.
Basically, it's kind of an RTS, which scared me off from buying it at full price, but the way it works is that there's no resource gathering or base building or anything like that. Basically it just means there's no turn-based movement, and once you've gone into the message settings and set everything to "display and pause", you don't have to worry about reflexes or anything. Just turn the speed up to fastest, and hover your finger over the pause button.
There are several "campaigns" which start at various times in European history. The longest, and the only one I've played thus far is is the "Grand Campaign" which runs from 1419 to 1819, and is really and truly grand. The campaign I started up Sunday from 3 PM to 3 AM this morning didn't even manage to go 100 of the 300 years play span. You can play literally any nation that existed in 1419, including very minor and non-European ones, though my experience as Naples suggests playing a lesser nation basically involves a lot of sitting around, hoping not to get conquered.
Aside from size, the thing that will definitely impress is the way the game manages to stay historical the entire time. I't the early sixteenth century in my current game, and France has beaten back England and various minor nations to come to control what, historically, is France, Aragon has conquered all of Southern Italy, Spain and England are starting to form overseas colonies, and the everything in that regard feels "right", with some minor variations (for instance, Scotland has conquered most of Ireland).
Also, while you can play warmongering conquerer (I have been), the game's really set up to discourage it. Making war on nations of the same religion, or against whom you don't have a proper causus belli reaks havoc on both your internal stability, and on your relations with the rest of the world. As Austria, a series of wars to take the traditional Hapsburg lands in Holland (the game gives you a bonus for taking historically accurate lands, by giving you an automative causus belli against the nations that own them and by eliminating the post-conquest "nationalism" revolt risk), as well as the peaceful annexation of various vassal states in Germany has pretty much ruined my international standing, while a couple decades ago I was popular enough to be regularly elected Holy Roman Emperor. And that's not even counting the expense: It's only by sheer luck I've managed to keep my inflation rate manageable.
I can't comment on the trade model, as I still only half understand it, or on the colonozation model, as Austria hasn't yet developed any of the explorer characters I need to "discover" the other continents, but rest assured that the game does allow you to exploit indineous peoples, a feature I'm chomping at the bit to try.
If you think you'd like this game, I'm pretty sure you'd do well to buy it, especially considering that I managed to grab it for ten bucks.
Basically, it's kind of an RTS, which scared me off from buying it at full price, but the way it works is that there's no resource gathering or base building or anything like that. Basically it just means there's no turn-based movement, and once you've gone into the message settings and set everything to "display and pause", you don't have to worry about reflexes or anything. Just turn the speed up to fastest, and hover your finger over the pause button.
There are several "campaigns" which start at various times in European history. The longest, and the only one I've played thus far is is the "Grand Campaign" which runs from 1419 to 1819, and is really and truly [i]grand[/i]. The campaign I started up Sunday from 3 PM to 3 AM this morning didn't even manage to go 100 of the 300 years play span. You can play literally any nation that existed in 1419, including very minor and non-European ones, though my experience as Naples suggests playing a lesser nation basically involves a lot of sitting around, hoping not to get conquered.
Aside from size, the thing that will definitely impress is the way the game manages to stay historical the entire time. I't the early sixteenth century in my current game, and France has beaten back England and various minor nations to come to control what, historically, is France, Aragon has conquered all of Southern Italy, Spain and England are starting to form overseas colonies, and the everything in that regard feels "right", with some minor variations (for instance, Scotland has conquered most of Ireland).
Also, while you can play warmongering conquerer (I have been), the game's really set up to discourage it. Making war on nations of the same religion, or against whom you don't have a proper causus belli reaks havoc on both your internal stability, and on your relations with the rest of the world. As Austria, a series of wars to take the traditional Hapsburg lands in Holland (the game gives you a bonus for taking historically accurate lands, by giving you an automative causus belli against the nations that own them and by eliminating the post-conquest "nationalism" revolt risk), as well as the peaceful annexation of various vassal states in Germany has pretty much ruined my international standing, while a couple decades ago I was popular enough to be regularly elected Holy Roman Emperor. And that's not even counting the expense: It's only by sheer luck I've managed to keep my inflation rate manageable.
I can't comment on the trade model, as I still only half understand it, or on the colonozation model, as Austria hasn't yet developed any of the explorer characters I need to "discover" the other continents, but rest assured that the game does allow you to exploit indineous peoples, a feature I'm chomping at the bit to try.