State of the Game

[ReluctantSamurai]

Sure as hell doesn't seem like you guys are playing the same game

I've never bothered much with diplomacy since the beginning and Shogun 1. I do have to admit that I'm a sucker for an ally that actually remains loyal, and I will do everything in my power to make sure they survive. The most extreme case I can remember is an alliance I had with Macedonia in RTW 1, playing as Armenia. It lasted for nearly 100yrs. even with a long common border. When the Romans started making an all out effort to eliminate them, I put my expansion on hold for several years in order to spank them back into place. The three provinces I 'rescued' from Roman rule, I gave to my long-standing ally fully expecting them to finally turn on me. To my astonishment, they proceeded to pick up where I left off and continue to run the Romans out of Greece.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I got a great deal of enjoyment out of that game simply because I had gotten an alliance that actually worked.

I don't get it. If I'm to participate in the game through these systems by making choices, hopefully meaningful ones, I have to be allowed to do something, I can't get these guys to even talk to me.

One reason I still love playing GalCiv 2 is because there are 4 ways to win a campaign....the usual kill everyone and sort it out later; a tech victory by accumulating a certain amount of technology points; an influence victory by having your political influence dominate a given % of the galaxy; and a diplo victory by having your alliance be the last races left (and this can be with multiple allies). Very satisfying to pull off a win without having to vaporize everything not flying your banner. I once won a campaign without fighting a single fleet engagement. I just kept feeding advanced starships to my two allies (though not my best designs just in case they turned on me) and let them do all the fighting. When ever a planet went rebel, I moved my transports in to take over. I still consider that game to be the most enjoyable of all the GalCiv games I've ever played.........

[Myth]

@easytarget with Rome one minor mistake in the first 5 turns can lead to chain DoWs or to smooth sailing into NAP land.

On turn 1 Athens and Sparta don't care much for you, but they don't hate you either. If you ever start a scrap with Epirus however, they will like you more. Trade with Athens is possible as soon as you upgrade 3 resource minor settlements to tier 2. Once you trade with Athens, you can NAP Sparta (you must have a full legion by now). Once you NAP Sparta, you can NAP Athens. It's a snowball effect.

If you disband any units on turn 1 before recruiting more, you might just get chain DoWed by both of them.

[easytarget]

@easytarget with Rome one minor mistake in the first 5 turns can lead to chain DoWs or to smooth sailing into NAP land.

On turn 1 Athens and Sparta don't care much for you, but they don't hate you either. If you ever start a scrap with Epirus however, they will like you more. Trade with Athens is possible as soon as you upgrade 3 resource minor settlements to tier 2. Once you trade with Athens, you can NAP Sparta (you must have a full legion by now). Once you NAP Sparta, you can NAP Athens. It's a snowball effect.

If you disband any units on turn 1 before recruiting more, you might just get chain DoWed by both of them.

Yeah, I think you and Slaists have hit on the problem, part of it was right off what I tend to do is get the peninsula under control and get rid of the Etruscans. This was not some mad expansion, I took maybe 2 or 3 provinces, but between that and starting out as Junia everyone hates me. And to that I can only say, so be it.

This will cause my initial expansion to be slower because I'm being slowed down by a lack of funds. I've had to rethink taking Carthage out because I've had to keep an eye on the Greeks and the guys they are allied with, I barely survived a wave of them coming at me. I'm not much of a fan of the way combat works in this game I'm not going to lie, I like MTW2 a lot better and even Shogun 2 better. The whole feel of battle is all wrong for me. Again, whatever. I'm just in this to see what I make of the current state of Rome 2 after 13 patches, and I've got to say I like it better than when it initially launched that's for sure. But I'm also 100% confident I will never like it as much as MTW2 or S2, the unit mix and magic button business so annoys me there will never be a fix for that.

[Slaists]

I'm just in this to see what I make of the current state of Rome 2 after 13 patches, and I've got to say I like it better than when it initially launched that's for sure. But I'm also 100% confident I will never like it as much as MTW2 or S2, the unit mix and magic button business so annoys me there will never be a fix for that.

Just forget that magic button exists. I never (almost) use it.

As to unit mix. Probably what bugs me most at this point with patches is how vulnerable to frontal missile attacks they have made pikes. I don't think we can find a historical reference to pike phalanxes being destroyed by ancient missile fire from the front. Come to think of it, Alexander was facing numerically superior Persian armies filled with missile types and we know who came up on the top. If you ask me, pikes should be vulnerable to attacks (missile and melee) from flanks and the rear, not the front.

In the current state, pikes are probably the most useless use of a slot in the whole roster of Hellenic factions...

Having said that, after since the latest missile nerf, pikes are probably the only kills AI missile units get... Pikes and cavalry, LOL...

[easytarget]

One reason I still love playing GalCiv 2 is because there are 4 ways to win a campaign....the usual kill everyone and sort it out later; a tech victory by accumulating a certain amount of technology points; an influence victory by having your political influence dominate a given % of the galaxy; and a diplo victory by having your alliance be the last races left (and this can be with multiple allies). Very satisfying to pull off a win without having to vaporize everything not flying your banner. I once won a campaign without fighting a single fleet engagement. I just kept feeding advanced starships to my two allies (though not my best designs just in case they turned on me) and let them do all the fighting. When ever a planet went rebel, I moved my transports in to take over. I still consider that game to be the most enjoyable of all the GalCiv games I've ever played.........

Yep, I've seen victory conditions and diplo done better, no surprise that. GalCiv was well done on that front. And funny, come to think of it, your example of winning by feeding allies units is something I've often done in Civ V with the introduction of those little client states they scattered all over the map. That was a very cool way to help keep another power in check w/o directly going to war with them, used to feed them units and money to wage a war by proxy.

Would be cool if in R2 diplo if I could give units to allies and certainly it would be nice to give them settlements.