Why I'm not rich, part 1988
Aug. 27th, 2017 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lovingbothI can't remember how I discovered it, but I've been playing one of the original '4X' ( eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) games 'Classic Empire' in its Empire: Wargame of the Century incarnation for almost thirty years.
It's one of the reasons I didn't gasp with admiration when Sid Meier's Civilization came out, because 'all' it is is a cross between the 4X mechanisms of Empire WotC and the theme and tech tree idea of the Civilization board game which I'd been playing since 1980.
It is probably a good thing that I've never kept track of the hours I've played Empire WotC: even though there can be months between having a game, there will still be an awful lot of hours.
My favourite involved discovering one of the computer rivals on a particular island, being gradually pushed off it, trying another approach involving a sweep around the flank and eventually capturing it. Then there was a huge ocean between me and the empires of the two computer players. Trying the usual low key 'armies in a transport' invasion failed because of the numbers of enemy armies and the ocean was too wide for aircraft support. Too many transports were getting sunk by enemy submarines too.
The solution involved creating an armada of transports (to carry the armies), aircraft carriers (to ferry the aircraft), destroyers (to find and sink the enemies' submarines) and battleships (to clear the beaches I was going to land on, and fight off any enemy surface ships). I wish I'd kept the saved files.
Anyway.. I've also got the Empire Deluxe version, but I've never quite taken to it: the additions take away from the original's purity without, for me, adding enough to the game.
But when I heard about it, it took me about two seconds to pledge for a copy of an updated version of Empire Deluxe on Kickstarter with all sorts of interesting features.
If you like turn-based strategy, get it, but don't blame me for the time spent playing it.
It's one of the reasons I didn't gasp with admiration when Sid Meier's Civilization came out, because 'all' it is is a cross between the 4X mechanisms of Empire WotC and the theme and tech tree idea of the Civilization board game which I'd been playing since 1980.
It is probably a good thing that I've never kept track of the hours I've played Empire WotC: even though there can be months between having a game, there will still be an awful lot of hours.
My favourite involved discovering one of the computer rivals on a particular island, being gradually pushed off it, trying another approach involving a sweep around the flank and eventually capturing it. Then there was a huge ocean between me and the empires of the two computer players. Trying the usual low key 'armies in a transport' invasion failed because of the numbers of enemy armies and the ocean was too wide for aircraft support. Too many transports were getting sunk by enemy submarines too.
The solution involved creating an armada of transports (to carry the armies), aircraft carriers (to ferry the aircraft), destroyers (to find and sink the enemies' submarines) and battleships (to clear the beaches I was going to land on, and fight off any enemy surface ships). I wish I'd kept the saved files.
Anyway.. I've also got the Empire Deluxe version, but I've never quite taken to it: the additions take away from the original's purity without, for me, adding enough to the game.
But when I heard about it, it took me about two seconds to pledge for a copy of an updated version of Empire Deluxe on Kickstarter with all sorts of interesting features.
If you like turn-based strategy, get it, but don't blame me for the time spent playing it.