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A long-running game of Crusader Kings, rejoicing in the campaign name "There Will Be War", will reach 1399 and conversion to the next stage within the next few weeks. Since this expands the arena from Europe to the world, some new positions will open up - in particular, the Timurids, Indochina, and Japan. If you have Europa Universalis III and both expansions, and are able to play Saturday mornings, 1000 Eastern time, speak up now or be colonised and misruled for the next 400 years!
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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There's a demo at the Paradox site, why don't you start with that? The demo is only a taste, though - the patches and especially the expansions are major improvements.
For reviews, I can't think of a better way to get a feel for the game (I mean, without actually playing it!) than reading some AARs. The Paradox AAR community is quite astounding in its literacy and skill, and I say this quite without any reference to my own Ynglinga Saga. For a tentative suggestion, start with the Aquileia learning AAR - he explains what he's thinking as well as what's going on. Or if that doesn't appeal to you, just go one level up and pick an AAR at random.
The expansions add a lot to the game (and you'd need them to join our MP game, although not to play on your own, obviously) but it must be admitted they are a little pricey. You can find the game itself for ~$10 on Amazon, but the expansions are only sold from Paradox's website and they're 20 a pop. For me at least this adds up to a reasonable chunk of change. I would definitely advise you to get the plain game first and see if you like it before adding the expansions.
Rome is a separate, standalone game, not an expansion for Europa. The expansions are Napoleon's Ambition (NA) and In Nomine (IN).
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Ouch. Okay, note to self: Do not bite over more than you can chew. I started a game as Vijayanagar (southern Indian principality) and began expanding. Ten years later I had won my wars with Mysore, Orissa, and Travancore, reducing the latter two to vassals and annexing five provinces. Unfortunately the casualties had run to several tens of thousands, increasing my war exhaustion to 14%. That gives revolt risk. Then you add the guerrillas in my newly conquered provinces, and at the worst I was facing more rebel troops, better led, than three actual states had been able to field against me! I gave up after the southern half of my empire declared independence and the Deccan - which was larger than me even before those dang rebels - took advantage by declaring war. Ouch. Maybe I'll stick to European states for a while.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
Any computer from 2000 and later should be able to "run" it, although you'll need a quickfix (which I know how to do) to get it to properly display the map if your using an intel onoard gfx card.
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Eh. I wouldn't advise playing it without the minimum requirements. It ran before I upgraded my RAM, but it was a bit annoying.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I believe there is a Mac version. I don't know if your particular Mac will run it. However, I think Mac and PC versions don't play well together in MP - at least that's my impression, I could be wrong.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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The Mac version will indeed run on my machine. I'll investigate, although I tend not to be around on weekends.
Added: Hey, what about play-by-email? I know that Alpha Centauri (SMAC) has that functionality and it works crossplatform. Plus, SMAC is awesome.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Not turn-based, so no PBEM capability. I'll ask in the MP forums if Macs and PCs will play together, though.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Blayne Bradley
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Considering the format of our games is a once a week 4 hour game in real time yeah I don't see pbem working
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I definitely can't commit to weekly games from 10 AM to 2 PM Eastern. I travel too much. Some months I don't spend a single Saturday in my apartment.
PBEM SMAC, though, I would do.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Ah well, such is life. I don't have SMAC and don't have time to commit to another game, even PBEM, so can't help you there. But maybe someone else would like to play? No need to limit this thread to just the one game. Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I downloaded the demo, and the game is extremely complicated. Even after going through the tutorials, I didn't even know where to start, and I was playing the 1492 scenario as Spain, which the game said was a pretty easy country to start with.
I guess the thing is, in games like Civilization, you start out with a single city and work your way up from there, so you're not completely overwhelmed. In this game, you start out with an entire empire. I guess I'll try starting out with a small province that's a vassal state to some larger power. Plus, the game's in real time, instead of turn-based, which is difficult to get used to, but you can slow down the game speed or pause it.
One thing that I thought was interesting, though, was that you can start from Crusader Kings and import your saved games to Europa Universalis to Victoria and finally to Heart of Iron, playing through almost a thousand years of human history.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Apr 2008
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You can, but really, you need more than one human to do so. The AI just isn't smart enough to put up enough resistance over that period of time; playing alone, you end up - short of strong self-discipline - controlling most of Europe by 1399, and from that base it's practically impossible to not conquer the world by 1550 or so. Which is why I'm inviting more people to play in There Will Be War.
As for Spain, start by declaring war on the closest Moslem country, that will give you something to do. Invest in government tech until level 4, that will give you a national idea - National Bank is a good one to start with. Then go for trade tech until level 7, and replace the bank with Quest for the New World, and start exploring.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Sounds like some of you may enjoy Ikariam.. check it out at Ikariam.org... its a gameforge online game... been playing it for months now, have 5 cities, part of an alliance, etc... and its not turn based, you play when you can, but i try to hit the site multiple times a day, but if you don't not too much goes wrong.
Posts: 176 | Registered: Sep 2006
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I'll ask in the MP forums if Macs and PCs will play together, though.
