Battle Brothers is fantastic, but as I've mentioned before I've fatigued myself with multiple restarts (learning the ropes, when I've got a 'bad' map seed, when my mercenary company has suffered grievous losses), levelling up a whole bunch of characters with traits and gear, and trying to figure out a strategy from various guides (the meta is strong with this one). This is the exact same thing that happens me with Darkest Dungeon (which I also restarted last week and will never look at that save again), and it is a pity, as both games are at the pinnacle of their genres. Well, it's hard to tell with DD, after multiple games lasting a few hours, but the presentation alone is amazing and worth checking out.
I'll definitely come back to BB and give it another go. Highly recommended, if you are into that type of thing.
Field of Glory: Empires - I have been playing this in a multiplayer-only context for the last month or two. Great game, really interesting mechanics. Of the multiplayer games I've played, a) I overextended myself as the Arverni, a southern French tribe, and got obliterated as a race within 10 turns. Shocking. b) played a co-op game as an Iberian tribe, where the other players also took a small tribe in the region; the idea was we would co-operate against the big regional powers of Rome and Carthage and forge a new destiny. This game ended when the Aquitani (human player) invaded Empioria (another human player) and the whole thing fell apart. c) played a game as Carthage, a major power. This game went the longest, and finished when Macedonia and Antigonos had a major falling out over Rhodes, leading to Macedonia leaving the game. I took my eye off the ball here (see map) while the Antigonids conquered the important regions of Egypt, and he then took a lead that would be difficult for me to make up without conquering Rome, a big ask, even though Rome had a civil war and is now ruled by an Usurper. I did unite Iberia and N. Africa though, all of whom were my allies d) still playing my OG Ptolemaios, this game is going very slowly (we're only on turn 34 after about 6 weeks) but I guess it will peter out eventually like the others.
Carthage game end state:
- Spoiler: show
- Spoiler: show
As a result of playing this, I also picked up a book, 'The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome,' by Susan Wise Bauer, about the period, which has been very accessible but in which I got a little bogged down around 1500 BC Need to pick that up again, it should be getting interesting from this point on.
Dicey Dungeons. Boy, everything about this game (art, writing, and (sorry, Colin) music) annoys me, apart from the gameplay, which eventually annoyed me enough that I haven't played it in a while. I was playing through methodically, doing the levels in order, but one has defeated me - Thief 3 - which is all kinds of bullshit. It was probably a mistake to play that way, I might go back in a bit.
Out of the Park Baseball - Perfect Team mode. Anybody who's read this far, congratulations! You can stop reading now. This is the multiplayer, 'collect cards, put together a team, and sim baseball games' offering from the OOTPB team. I had ignored it till now - this is its second year - but I read about it on another forum and thought I'd give it a shot. I was a bit perturbed by the loot box aspect - who is paying big money for this ephemeral card nonsense? - but I persevered and have to say I don't really get the point. I'm not spending any money, but that's kind of irrelevant anyway. There is no skill involved - if you have a position of weakness, you just buy a good player to fill that gap (each new season randomises the skills of the players you have, within certain parameters, so you always need to fill gaps). And the nature of baseball means that you can have the best team in your league, but the playoffs are so short and random that it's likely that you get knocked out instead of promoted. I've been playing several weeks and have two teams in the Bronze league (there is one level below this and three above it). I've made the playoffs every time with both teams, wiping the floor along the way, but haven't been promoted (except for Iron to Bronze). It's a bit strange. However, I still log on every morning to set my lineups for the day. For now, anyway.