Monthly Archives: January 2016
Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai
Gus takes on Fall of the Samurai for your weekend entertainment ~
Lloyd Sabin, 22 January 2016
I love you, Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai. You are truly the pinnacle of the Total War series as far as AI wilyness, graphical atmosphere, and all around immersion. But oh…how I hate you as well, never having been able to beat you. I am the closest I have ever been right now, with the help of the Radious mod, which adds a giant rice bowl’s worth of features, including a tamping down of the dreaded Realm Divide event that occurs in the late game pitting whatever clans are left against the player. I presently hold 10 of the required 14 domains needed for a Short Campaign victory by 1882…the year of my last turn is 1870. I am moving on Kyoto, with plans to take Musashi as my final move. The last time I played, a few years ago, I actually ran out of time while besieging Musashi and lost the campaign by samurai’s hair. Not again…not again!
Early in my campaign, capturing the island prefecture of Tsushima was one of my first victories. Looting was not yet on my mind – I didn’t want all of Japan turning against me so early in the campaign due to bad battlefield behavior.
The Zombie Apocalypse, Part 7: When is it time?
Will you know it when you see it? ~
Jonathan Glazer, 22 January 2015
Most discussion of preparations for the Zombie Apocalypse and activities undertaken during it ignore an important element: The start. At what point do you go from your comfortable position in society as a part of an economy and a civilization to a defensive operator acting in ways to secure your and your family’s safety? It is easy enough to answer that question with “when I perceive a threat”. But what is the trigger that makes you openly carry a firearm, create a defensive perimeter (or perhaps move to a better position) and ready yourself to take a life (or stop the advance of the undead)? There won’t be a message from the emergency broadcasting system alerting you to the need to act like you are Mad Max. The news may initially report craziness afoot, but at a certain point, the authorities will put the lid on really bad news and even the media will not be reporting what is truly happening. If you ever have the chance to talk to Gulf Coast residents about what happened immediately following hurricane Katrina, they will tell you that they were in the dark, figuratively and literally for a long time.
Gaming Nostalgia – Car Wars!
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Hell on the highway! For some of us, this is our daily commute. For others, it’s escapist fantasy.
click images to enlarge
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Tracer Rounds – My History of 4X Gaming
Rearranging history, one X at a time ~
Anyone that pays even half-conscious attention to GrogHeads knows that I’m a sucker for a good 4X game. Heck, most of the time, I’m a sucker for a bad 4X game. I can’t help it. They appeal to me in a way that no other kind of game can. And what’s odd, is that despite being a wargamer (albeit a bad one – another column for another time) it’s rare that I win 4X games by rolling over the world under my armored boot. There was one epic Civ2 game where I once played the Celts and conquered everything but maybe 1 city, and had every wonder you could build in the game in my clutches, but outside of that game about 15 years ago, I’ve rarely been the warmonger. (edit! I did conquer a bunch of the world the first time I played Venice with the Gods + Kings expansion to Civ5).
My love affair with 4X games predates the term, even. Alan Emrich is usually credited with coining the 4X term in 1993. My first foray into 4X gaming dates all the way back to 1983, with Dragon Magazine #77 and King of the Tabletop, a Tom Wham game about building your realm and crushing your neighbors. You had a “playing deck” full of critters you could recruit, along with cities, treasure, magic, and mines. You had another “land deck” full of lands you could draw to build your realm; and note to MtG players everywhere – the lands in KOTT way back in 1983 were swamps, forest, mountains, and plains (and deserts instead of islands, but go with it). You had mercenary characters to recruit, and monuments to build. Random events might bring on an earthquake or brushfire. And for a bunch of 6th-graders playing at lunchtime with each other, and occasionally their student teacher (here’s to you, Mr Blankenship!) it was a ton of fun.
