The Evil That Men Do

The majority of the evening last night was spent Futzing around on various forums, solving a few puzzles of my own. Now that its done, though, there should be more time to nerd. A number of things popped up, that due to the way time flows linearly, I’ve not gotten to yet. I’ll address them soon enough, but here’s the short list.

Theros Spoilers/Plane info.
new Qupu kalki Starter pack (and other Infinity Releases)
Relic Knights Rules release
Wild West Exodus Rules release.
X com: Enemy within.

Its just piles of things to mutter my brain off about,
Last evening, though, we as spent listening to Iron Maiden and Playing Might and Magic Heroes IV.

Now, if you haven’t picked up this game, its pretty damned good. I’ve not played the series since 2 (3? I don’t legitimately know, but it was back before 2000), and this one feels right. Tons of heroes to fight, towns and forts to conquer, and monsters to recruit to your army.

There are a few gripes, let me get them out of the way first: there is a global army generation, and its not enough to defend all the towns and forts or be able to make all you’re heroes effective. I’ve adapted, and I have one Main Hero that takes all of my soldiers with him everywhere. while that means that all my towns and forts are undefended, that’s alright, because I can almost always come back and smash the guys who took my fort.

The difficulty is set so that you’re not really supposed to loose any troops. This has a tendency to make you exceedingly wary of going into any battle above “trivial” difficulty, because making it through to the boss with enough dudes is hard.

the final gripe is less aimed at the game than at the whole of the internet: I can’t find any good resources for strategies, tactics, thoughts or anything.
no one plays this game, somehow! I’ve really enjoyed it so far, though Haven makes me sad.

Now, the good:
Its hard, but in a way that makes you learn. Each map, if you’re not prepared, is going to slam your face into the dirt time and again until you have figured out what your supposed to do. I’m a fan of losing games. While I enjoy Skyrim and New Vegas as much as the next guy, you never get the sense of accomplishment that you do beating something you lost to before. This games gives you that, on normal. You can reload saves, but at a certain point, the balance tips, and no matter how many saves you reload, you’re behind the 8 ball, trying to scrape together a victory that won’t come.

The units are different, and each of the two factions I’ve played, and the four factions I’ve fought against feel different.
Necropolis has a huge amount of ranged potency.
Haven is a defensive melee based army with great support
Infernals are Super-fast Glass cannon
Sanctuary is fast and fragile, like Infernals, but with a lot of controlling aspects.

Each the Might and Magic Heroes feel different. Magic Heroes feel more directly-powerful, but the full suite of Buffs on a Might Hero are scary-effective.

I’m having a blast with it, as I’ve probably said a half dozen times already. Its triggering the nostalgia vein like Xcom did last October, and will again in November.

I’ll end up doing a small review of each factions campaign and what I liked/disliked about it, I’m sure, It’s just taking me a long time to make it through the game with all this rampant nerd stuff happening.

So. Last night.
The session started OK. I reloaded after making a catastrophic Mistake, but ended with me quitting the game in disgust after making a number of other terrible decisions that ended up with me having only one town left, and a decimated army. I’ll try again … Monday, maybe? after NOVA!. Tonight I’m gonna get in a game of Malifux, as well, Perdita v. some other Master, I am sure.

We’ll start off with a Necropolis review, here, too. You should read it.