Wargamer's Corner

Oh, and... It's crashy.

Thanks for your impressions Robert. I saw that and was tempted, but I also recently picked up Bomber Crew and it looked like ABC copied that in a lot of ways (I couldn’t find any connection between the developers though). That didn’t seem too promising to me, as while Bomber Crew is entertaining it’s not particularly deep in the end.

It's Robear, not Robert. Thank you for your cooperation, citizen.

I think it's just fun driving around in WWI tanks and shooting things lol.

I've added it to my wishlist to keep track of as it develops. Design-wise, it immediately reminded me of Bomber Crew.

Me too. It's lightweight and fun. Not as much to keep track of, as with a plane.

Cross-posting is love-posting...

Field of Glory II is the Star Deal on Fanatical today @ $7.49, which is the lowest it's been. Sadly, only for Windows. Even so, I bought it so fast I think I hurt myself.

That is an amazing deal. Y'all need to do some classical-era leaping on that.

Robear wrote:

That is an amazing deal. Y'all need to do some classical-era leaping on that.

Agreed, it's a very good game.

Thanks for the heads up! I just picked this up too.

Robear wrote:

It's Robear, not Robert. Thank you for your cooperation, citizen.

I think it's just fun driving around in WWI tanks and shooting things lol.

Oops, I usually catch my autocorrect issues.

I’ve wishlisted it anyway. I suspect I’ll find it fun as well after some time away from Bomber Crew.

Some people think my name is Robert, so... Just checking lol.

Field of Glory: Empires is out. Haven't had a chance to do more than go through the tutorial videos yet, so I'm reserving final judgement, but it looks good.

Difficulty Level: Insane

At first, it will feel like a game on the Difficult level. And then the AI will start to play for real.

Aetius wrote:

Field of Glory: Empires is out. Haven't had a chance to do more than go through the tutorial videos yet, so I'm reserving final judgement, but it looks good.

Difficulty Level: Insane

At first, it will feel like a game on the Difficult level. And then the AI will start to play for real.

A) I'm dying to hear more about this. Strategic layer with tactical "Field of Glory" battles is my jam.
B) Please don't post any more about this so I don't buy it.

PWAlessi wrote:
Aetius wrote:

Field of Glory: Empires is out. Haven't had a chance to do more than go through the tutorial videos yet, so I'm reserving final judgement, but it looks good.

Difficulty Level: Insane

At first, it will feel like a game on the Difficult level. And then the AI will start to play for real.

A) I'm dying to hear more about this. Strategic layer with tactical "Field of Glory" battles is my jam.
B) Please don't post any more about this so I don't buy it.

I heard that FoG2 owners get a discount.

Wow, this looks really good. Wishlisted.

At a glance, it reminds me of CK2 or EU4, which is not at all a bad thing.

I'd be interested in hearing impressions.

And I see you can get 25% off (so, $29.99) if you have Field of Glory II and buy the bundle.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Wow, this looks really good. Wishlisted.

At a glance, it reminds me of CK2 or EU4, which is not at all a bad thing.

I'd be interested in hearing impressions.

And I see you can get 25% off (so, $29.99) if you have Field of Glory II and buy the bundle.

This is awesome! Also can't wait to read how this is!

One thing to know is that when the game generates FOG battles, it will modify units according to their capabilities in the strat level. So if they have earned experience, they will be better than standard. This means that battles are not guaranteed to be balanced. They may be a walkover for one side or another, based on the strategic situation.

Also, some units will be converted if they exist in the strat layer but not in FOG. I smell more modules coming for FOG...

Natus wrote:
PWAlessi wrote:
Aetius wrote:

Field of Glory: Empires is out. Haven't had a chance to do more than go through the tutorial videos yet, so I'm reserving final judgement, but it looks good.

Difficulty Level: Insane

At first, it will feel like a game on the Difficult level. And then the AI will start to play for real.

A) I'm dying to hear more about this. Strategic layer with tactical "Field of Glory" battles is my jam.
B) Please don't post any more about this so I don't buy it.

I heard that FoG2 owners get a discount.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Wow, this looks really good. Wishlisted.

At a glance, it reminds me of CK2 or EU4, which is not at all a bad thing.

I'd be interested in hearing impressions.

And I see you can get 25% off (so, $29.99) if you have Field of Glory II and buy the bundle.

Well, you just cost me $30. Thanks for NOTHING!

PWAlessi wrote:

Well, you just cost me $30. Thanks for NOTHING!

Awesome!

I didn't even make the connection that I just bought Field of Glory 2 last week on that Fanatical deal.

Makes me feel like I'm destined to get this, but wow, so many good games I want to play now. I'm drowning!

And talk about a crowded field. Imperator: Rome, Field of Glory: Empires, and Aggressors: Ancient Rome

Field of Glory Empires is made by Ageod, a veteran grand strategy development studio in their own right. (Interestingly, they were even briefly owned by Paradox.) They made Alea Jacta Est, Pride of Nations, and many others, so I'm not surprised that this is well-received.

So that means that Empires of FOG2 have different developers, which I did not expect. Then again, one game is a battle simulator and the other is grand strategy; having two different developers seems like the absurdist conclusion to the schizophrenia of the Total War series's two halves, for example.

(Still holding out for the FOG2: Ultimate Collection -- probably some time in 2026.)

I'm definitely interested to hear opinions of Field of Glory Empires.

It's interesting that it's one year turns. Don't know what to make of that, since I have not played yet, but that seems the grandest of grand strategy.

I just played through the tutorial scenario twice as Rome, just using the quick battle system.

In the first run, I replaced the army's leader with someone who had better offensive stats, and moved south to engage Pyrrhus. This turned out to be ... what's the right word ... catastrophic. My army was short on skirmishers, and replacing the leader made them temporarily weak. They were slaughtered, and then slaughtered again in the pursuit phase. I then tried to retreat to Rome, but it was too late - once Rome was besieged, I couldn't raise any units anywhere in the province and I was overrun.

The second time, I bought a LOT of skirmishers and stayed at Rome after replacing my leader. I lost Campania in the first turn, which caused some bad things to happen. However, when Pyrrhus attacked Rome, he couldn't take it and I was able to defeat him and break his army. I then retook Campania, and eventually took the capital of Tarentum and won the scenario.

My takeaways:

- Losing a major battle is a really, really big deal - recovering can be difficult or impossible if you're pressed. I suspect depth is the only thing that will save you here.
- The general pattern of war looks like you build a core of strong, elite units in peacetime, and then add on cheaper support units as the war starts. If you screw up your threat assessment, see #1.
- The trade system seems very complex, and I suspect most of the time in-game will be spent optimizing trade and building bonuses to maximize your production and income (and then watching your careful design fall apart when someone invades).
- I like that building construction is from a semi-randomized list. You can't just build your optimum building pattern, because what you need may not be currently available - you'll have to reshuffle and wait.
- You can't raise units in a province (group of regions) if the province capital is under siege. There may be a way around this that I'm not aware of, like breaking up the province. I'm not sure how I feel about this, as it really makes things snowball when you're losing, but it does seem pretty realistic.
- I got a large boost of Legacy points for winning the scenario ... which caused EVERYONE on the map to declare war on me. Caveat emptor if you surge ahead in Legacy and are winning.
- I haven't fully figured out the Culture / Decadence / Legacy system, but I like it so far. Bigger isn't necessarily better, and I think it models the problems of ancient empire expansion very well. Do you go big and try to ride the tiger to gain massive Legacy, or do you stay small, cultured, rich, and vulnerable?
- It played quickly, but I think that's because I didn't know what I was doing. I suspect I'll go slower in the campaign because of the need to study the trade web and optimize.
- The quick battle system is pretty basic, but makes sense. Cavalry on the flanks, heavy infantry in the middle, skirmishers do ranged and then fall back, and everyone else wherever they fit. A balanced army is generally better, and various factors like terrain and leadership are important.

Aetius wrote:

- I like that building construction is from a semi-randomized list. You can't just build your optimum building pattern, because what you need may not be currently available - you'll have to reshuffle and wait.

I love this. Such a simple idea.

I also played the tutorial scenario with Rome and went pretty slowly, which worked out.

I raised extra units in Rome on turn one to get a second army, but lost Campania to Pyrrhus immediately. Thankfully the General in charge of the I Army had extra power in open ground, so when he moved south on turn two he pretty much smashed up the Epirus army, forcing them south.

The new II Army moved over to the east coast and defeated Tarentum at Aufidus, which meant we'd blocked out a route into the Roman mainland from the south - even more so when I Army took Lucania.

At that point it felt like we just needed to do some mopping up, except the Etrusci declared war at the entire other end of the country in a position to threaten Rome itself.

While I was working out how to respond to this the game itself gave me an answer with what I presume is a random event - a III Roman Army appeared out of the fog from the north "returning from campaigning against Barbarians."

The army was small but the leader was excellent, with bonuses to supply needs, movement speed and combat ability in rough ground, so he was able to march over the hills into Etruria and beat the main Etrusci army and kill their General.

In the same turn Pyrrhus put all his men in boats and went home to Epirus and the game declared I'd won. And everyone else immediately declared war on me.

It was a lot of fun for essentially a tutorial. It showed me some of the random stuff that could happen and I didn't even look at trade routes yet.

Thanks for the mini-AARs! This is getting harder to resist. Sounds like a deep, well executed game.

Yep, thanks for the feedback !

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Thanks for the mini-AARs! This is getting harder to resist. Sounds like a deep, well executed game.

This ^

So this is where AGEOD is going? Sounds like it could be a fun weekend...

Wargamer review of FOGE.

Link to Player Manual. Reading this while doing other stuff at work today. Picking the game up tonight.

tboon wrote:

Wargamer review of FOGE.

Link to Player Manual. Reading this while doing other stuff at work today. Picking the game up tonight. :)

I'm looking forward to hearing your thought, tboon! Please compare this with Baldur's Gate.

I read that review yesterday, which is pretty glowing, isn't it.

The only thing holding me back is that I've started a half dozen games I want to finish, just bought Aggressors: Ancient Rome, and preordered Age of Wonders IV.