"Kosumi": Anyone Tried It?

[Androo]

Came across a review of Kosumi at wargamer.com. Does anybody have any experience with it?

It looks kind of fun to me. I really like the graphics used to illustrate various orders on the website, but I'm not sure if they actually appear in game. Pretty expensive to subscribe. Probably not for me- I'm just not into MP. If I were to try it, I would probably just come up with a method of calculating opposing strategies and play the solo game*, which is free.

*there is no AI for solo play, but you can switch between factions.

[The Scourge]

I was reading that same review myself last night ,and was wondering the same thing .
Although lurking around their forum ,it did seem like there wasn't that many playing it .But on the other hand you can try it for two weeks free .
The fantasy side of it put me off a little ,but that's just me .

[Androo]

Downloaded it. Lessons are playable, but not the solitaire game- looks like it may not be online anymore....

Later: emailed James, the creator I think, and received an impressively fast response. "Solitaire" had been down, but should be back up now. (I haven't tried it again, yet.) And the main MP game is still online.

[The Marcher Lord]

I would be interested to know what you make of the basic SP game Androo as I had also looked at this one. I'm not an MP player either and approx £10 a month looks expensive for something with static graphics and old style email play.

[Androo]

Marcher Lord, there really isn't a proper SP game. "Solitaire" is the equivalent to the "play all sides" cheat in a normal SP game. Which is to say, there is effectively no AI. (I know some people have said that about RTW , but in this case, it is literally true!) So "Solitaire" is useful only as a training tool, e.g."Hmm, what would happen if I attacked my enemy with a single army and she responded with a certain magic spell?"

I agree, 10GBP a month is a lot for this type of game. At least with a normal MMO, one can play for days per month, whereas in this game the actual play time would be quite brief. In the space of three months, one would have spent the equivalent of the purchase price for a new game with both MP and SP. However, it is a small download (44mb) so if one is inclined to MP, it might be worth a quick look. It was worth it for me just for the graphics which, though indeed static, are quite evocative in a pseudo ukiyo-e kind-of way. (Ugh, what a sentence- oh well...)

I will probably wait for Blue Lotus, which has some thematic similarities, rather than take the (expensive) MP plunge.