Field of Glory: Empires

Started by -budd-, November 20, 2018, 10:51:16 AM

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JasonPratt

Quote from: JasonPratt on July 29, 2019, 12:58:37 PM
It occurs to me that I should pick a minor nation available in all three general campaigns -- Imp, FogEmp, and Aggressors -- and play a comparison game between them for a video AAR...

I attempted this, but I just could not feasibly summarize or even introduce Impy.

It's a lot more colorful and high-production, and a LOT more complicated than FoGEmp and Aggy. Moreso than both of them put together even! So by that metric, its playstyle is a lot different, not least because it has direct economy management (like Vicky2 though not as complex), and character management (like CK2 though maybe not as complex). It also has the largest map, with part of Scananavia north of Denmark playable (there but unplayable in FogEmp) and all the way east past India into the arc leading to Indochina (though not quite there). Aside from sheer mapsize, the map also has the most territories (categorized as cities and their surrounding areas.)

Aggressors has by far the smallest (standard) map (no further north than the other side of the Alps, no further south than the Sinai, no further east than the east bank of the Jordan.) But of course there are mod maps, and much more importantly it's the only one of the three games which can generate random maps (and good ones, too). It only has 20 playable factions (in the standard non-modded campaign), although there are independents on the map. But not nearly as many as in the other two games, where every territory or city is its own faction. The turns are IGOWEGO. It's much the simplest game, but there are a lot of subtle things going on under the hood.

FogEMP has WEGO turns, and 77 playable factions in its grand campaign (proportionate to its map size; Impy with its larger map has more). It's far less than half as complex as Impy, but somewhat more than Aggy, and like Aggy it has a lot of subtle things going on under the hood. Like Impy, it's an irregular territory map; Aggy on the other hand is a square-grid map. (Not hexes, but the actual map art on each square usually looks circular.) Like Aggy, the turns are 1 year each, which can get very weird weird, though not quite as weird as in Aggy.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Rayfer

Quote from: JasonPratt on August 08, 2019, 03:10:11 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on July 29, 2019, 12:58:37 PM
It occurs to me that I should pick a minor nation available in all three general campaigns -- Imp, FogEmp, and Aggressors -- and play a comparison game between them for a video AAR...

I attempted this, but I just could not feasibly summarize or even introduce Impy.

It's a lot more colorful and high-production, and a LOT more complicated than FoGEmp and Aggy. Moreso than both of them put together even! So by that metric, its playstyle is a lot different, not least because it has direct economy management (like Vicky2 though not as complex), and character management (like CK2 though maybe not as complex). It also has the largest map, with part of Scananavia north of Denmark playable (there but unplayable in FogEmp) and all the way east past India into the arc leading to Indochina (though not quite there). Aside from sheer mapsize, the map also has the most territories (categorized as cities and their surrounding areas.)

Aggressors has by far the smallest (standard) map (no further north than the other side of the Alps, no further south than the Sinai, no further east than the east bank of the Jordan.) But of course there are mod maps, and much more importantly it's the only one of the three games which can generate random maps (and good ones, too). It only has 20 playable factions (in the standard non-modded campaign), although there are independents on the map. But not nearly as many as in the other two games, where every territory or city is its own faction. The turns are IGOWEGO. It's much the simplest game, but there are a lot of subtle things going on under the hood.

FogEMP has WEGO turns, and 77 playable factions in its grand campaign (proportionate to its map size; Impy with its larger map has more). It's far less than half as complex as Impy, but somewhat more than Aggy, and like Aggy it has a lot of subtle things going on under the hood. Like Impy, it's an irregular territory map; Aggy on the other hand is a square-grid map. (Not hexes, but the actual map art on each square usually looks circular.) Like Aggy, the turns are 1 year each, which can get very weird weird, though not quite as weird as in Aggy.

Interesting comments JP.  I only have two of the games, FoG:Empires and Aggressors: Ancient Rome.  I find FoG:E far more complex than Aggressors. But I've enjoyed both.  Imperator Rome doesn't appeal to me...too complex for my ancient brain to wrap around.

MengJiao

Quote from: Gusington on July 23, 2019, 09:53:51 AM
Worse 🤮

I'm playing Easy Macedon.  Its pretty fun.  I've never liked playing Macedon, but in this game its fast and fun to be Easy Macedon.

JasonPratt

When I'm not skinning my teeth as Saba in the multiplayer game (primarily because I played dumbly at first), I'm trying to work out how to survive and thrive as Rhaetia in singleplayer.

Rhaetia has an interesting challenge. They aren't the absolute dreg of the game -- they start mid-tier, really. Then they plunge instantly into the lower tier, and start picking up aging tokens. Not great, although they do hold one legacy-marker territory.

Presumably that territory is their homeland, but it isn't their capital. That's in the alps, in the main north pass out of the Italian boot. This area has great natural defenses, but it's also hard for any powerful units to defend there. More importantly, it starts with only a Tribal Council (if there's a tier-0 government building this is it), a Training Ground (for heavy infantry I can't afford, much less use effectively in the alps), and a random other culture building (which often comes with decadence attached, and the Rhaeti suck decadence down like a sucky thing already due to other game factors). I usually end up disassembling that immediately.

That's it. The other two territories have literally nothing built at all. At least they all have two workers to start with (some slaves, some citizens), but two workers in the alps don't go for: with raids quickly arriving from the Celticoi and the Boii(s) down south, I need at least fifty years to grow a third worker group -- if I'm lucky and they don't get raided out! My starting army is decent, but not decent enough to take out any of my neighbors in the first couple of turns, and they quickly overwhelm all my food if they're concentrated in one place to strike out somewhere. They can (probably) take a nearby independent, of which I have several options, in the mountains and in the plains to the north, but then I'm stuck defending four crappy territories instead of three, with no more troops and possibly fewer than before!

The good news is that my three territories are nicely placed in a mutually reinforcing triad; and the two north of the Alps are in very decent land where, although I don't have much population and literally nothing on the ground to start, I can bootstrap up in twenty or thirty years to the point where I can afford to build an assault group with enough punch to take over management of a nearby indy (though not necessarily a nearby NPC faction). And I can evenly spread out my starting army to be such as to dissuade outright invasion (and sometimes the occasional random raid. But those often slow me down anyway.)

The game would be significantly easier if I could migrate workers among my territories, so that I could bring workers from the northern fields into my vulnerable "crown" area. I'm also playing with the idea of abandoning my "crown" region altogether and putting the troops I normally guard there to something more useful, so that they aren't eating so much of the meager food (allowing my population to grow faster). But then I'm literally rolling the dice that my capital isn't captured by the Celticas or the Boiis, pretty much at whim.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

devoncop

 You really do like the tough choices don't you?  :)
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=534&t=92000

Link to Field of Glory Empires MP forum with Slitherine Games

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on August 13, 2019, 12:47:41 PM
Quote from: Gusington on July 23, 2019, 09:53:51 AM
Worse 🤮

I'm playing Easy Macedon.  Its pretty fun.  I've never liked playing Macedon, but in this game its fast and fun to be Easy Macedon.

  Things were going well.  Macedon was in 4th position on the CDR.  Then a mob came and killed the king.  Now Macedon is pretty far back on the CDR.

devoncop

Quote from: MengJiao on August 13, 2019, 03:48:40 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on August 13, 2019, 12:47:41 PM
Quote from: Gusington on July 23, 2019, 09:53:51 AM
Worse 🤮

I'm playing Easy Macedon.  Its pretty fun.  I've never liked playing Macedon, but in this game its fast and fun to be Easy Macedon.

  Things were going well.  Macedon was in 4th position on the CDR.  Then a mob came and killed the king.  Now Macedon is pretty far back on the CDR.

Sometimes its best not to use phrases like " Things are going pretty well"  :hide:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=534&t=92000

Link to Field of Glory Empires MP forum with Slitherine Games

Gusington

My ancestors (Judea) learned that lesson about 5000 years ago. And it's still relevant!


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

MengJiao

Quote from: Gusington on August 13, 2019, 06:47:53 PM
My ancestors (Judea) learned that lesson about 5000 years ago. And it's still relevant!

Mazel tov!

MengJiao

Quote from: devoncop on August 13, 2019, 03:51:31 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on August 13, 2019, 03:48:40 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on August 13, 2019, 12:47:41 PM
Quote from: Gusington on July 23, 2019, 09:53:51 AM
Worse 🤮

I'm playing Easy Macedon.  Its pretty fun.  I've never liked playing Macedon, but in this game its fast and fun to be Easy Macedon.

  Things were going well.  Macedon was in 4th position on the CDR.  Then a mob came and killed the king.  Now Macedon is pretty far back on the CDR.

Sometimes its best not to use phrases like " Things are going pretty well"  :hide:

  Except in Easy Mode...Macedon is way down on the CDR (and has a completely decadent king for example)...but is still expanding on the ground so to speak.  And wow!  Athens has everything (once Macedon takes it anyway): mercenaries, ships...uh...and stuff!

Tripoli

Quote from: JasonPratt on August 13, 2019, 07:18:01 PM
Still going, though!



Interesting, that.  No other nation has been effectively wiped off the map, not once, but twice, yet is still around after 5000 years.  Almost like they have divine protection..... O:-)
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" -Abraham Lincoln

MengJiao

Quote from: Tripoli on August 14, 2019, 06:18:09 AM
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 13, 2019, 07:18:01 PM
Still going, though!



Interesting, that.  No other nation has been effectively wiped off the map, not once, but twice, yet is still around after 5000 years.  Almost like they have divine protection..... O:-)

  I can think of some close competitors -- the Gataka (Kiowa Apache), the Navajo (before and after the camp at Bosque Redondo), Poland, Lithuania, various prinipalities in Wales, the Golden Horde (and similar Khanates).  Moreover, you could argue that if the Kingdom of Israel is "still around" as Israel, then its the Samaritans (their old capital in Samaria being the old capital of the Kingdom of Israel) that have made a triple come back since the Temple in Samaria was destroyed by the Judeans in 103 BC.

Gusington

Guess we really are that difficult to wipe out.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd