Tol Barad, STO Fleet Action, C4 Snipers and More

Hello again readers and thanks for coming back around. In this post I will write about some of the more interesting things I have experienced in my gaming world in recent times. I will make this a regular entry on the blog and try to inform you guys on the better experiences from the games I play.

World of Warcraft

            I finally got into Tol Barad this week. I was so excited as this was only my third chance to see the new PVP zone. I have had nothing but problems getting into this place because of the competitive balancing system in place. (Hmmm sounds like a good future post.) Right now I am only at about a 15 percent successes rate for getting in when I Que. Unfortunately for me my server, Windrunner, has a huge imbalance between Alliance (me) and Horde. In fact the total for the Alliance team in this match hovered between 10-12 players the whole time. I mean lol come on seriously???

            Also I am having problems finding fresh recruits for my newly formed guild. Could this possibly have something to do with the new Guild ranking and Rep system? I tend to think so but I’ll share my thoughts on that one in a future post.

Star Trek Online

            Still having fun playing this game as I learn to play and make my way around the galaxy. I reached the rank of Lt. Commander 5 and joined a rather large fleet as well. Still having some problems with some of the way the game is set up, but I’ll get into that another time as well.

            I got to do some ground based fleet action questing for the first time and I still say this is the true gem of this game. Running around with a handful of other players trying to stop the Klingons plans was very entertaining and is as much fun as the Space fleet actions. The reward of 300+ skill points felt adequate for the time I spent. I really need to write something about STO in general so look for this in a future post.

Supremacy 1914  

           

            Ok I am aware that most of you right now are scratching your heads on this one. What the heck is Supremacy 1914? Well under the games I’m playing section please click the link and check it out and click here to read my brief write up about the game. Anyways I am presently running 3 different games at the moment, 2 as Great Britton and 1 as Austria-Hungry. So far am doing quite well in all three although one has a peace period of 14 days. I have never done this type of game before and I am finding it quite unusual not being able to attack for so long.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

            I am trying not to brag, but I must admit that I am killer in some armor. I can normally survive quite awhile when using the engineering kit and can really rack up the kills. My number one nemeses has got to be those loathsome C4 packing snipers that with one click of the mouse button can turn your modern day death rig into a burning scrap pile. I dislike this so much that I often wish they would do away with C4 altogether, but I understand this isn’t going to happen.

             I mean some maps its so out of hand as more than half the player base is running around in Ghillie suits and throwing motion sensors everywhere. Either way if you play this kit most often, just know that there is an angry and vengeful, even downright militant soldier out there gunning for you.

           

Introduction to Supremacy 1914

So one day while surfing the internet looking for a casual and easy browser based game to play I came across Supremacy 1914. I was looking for a slow paced simulated combat game with some minor troop and resource management. Lucky for me 1914 fit that bill exactly. In this post I will give a brief, but information filled post on the finer points of this game.

Game Premise

The setting is World War I in the year; yup you guessed it, 1914. You the newest leader of your nation must use the tools available to conquer the world. Depending on the type of game you play the map consists of either Europe along with Western Russia or Europe, Russia and the Americas.

Game Basics 

            The map is determined by the number of players that are allotted for the game. This is either 10 Players (Smaller European Map) or 30 players (Larger map including North America.) The game also has 2 types of matches’ regular and gold round with the biggest difference being the types of weapons available to players. (More on this in a moment)

            Players are given a new territory named after a real world country, Great Britton, Russia, Iceland, ETC. with 10 territories in each. Each territory also has 1 type of resource including grain, fish, steel, wood, coal, oil and gas. Territories also have population and the most important thing to note with them is morale which I will get into later.             

            In the beginning of the game you have only infantry to use, but as the game progresses and depending on the type of game (Regular or Gold) you unlock additional troops to include Artillery, Tanks, rail mounted Artillery, battleships, Submarines, Observation balloons and Airplanes.

            Additionally several improvements can be built in each territory to include recruitment office, barracks, forts, railroads, harbors and factories. Also in gold round games you have the ability to construct Aerodromes for airplanes. Each of these improvements cost a certain level of resources to construct and provide a certain benefit to the player. I won’t go into detail here about what each provides, but I bet you can guess most just by their names.

           

  Playing the Game

            The game consists of rounds that are broken down into individual days. That’s right each round is one day. That’s one of the better things about this game in that it isn’t rushed; everything takes place in real time. A single game can last for several months if it consists of some good players. For instance it takes 3 days to construct certain buildings. That is 3 real world days to complete construction without the use of speed ups.

            Each player is able to go when ever they want during the course of the game, there is no turn for each player and it’s a constant state game which means when you’re not logged in the game still plays. The goal of each game is to capture territories while protecting your own and the game provides many ways by which to do this.

The Rest of the Game

           

            The game adds a lot of depth with the inclusion of Diplomacy among players. You are able to set your status from at war to ally-share maps with other countries and each has different levels of influence to the game. Many regular players will tell you that it is almost imperative to be allied with someone in order to win. Although I don’t believe it to be this extreme, I do believe diplomacy is a very important aspect of the game. Players are able to sign treaties, make deals including trading resources, territories and so forth. Also the game includes an Auction house where players can buy or sell resources.        

            The game also includes spies that you can use for several different types of activities. You can place a spy in your own city to capture any spies or place them in enemy territories to carry out missions like sabotage, decrease morale, gather intelligence or steal money.

            As I have mentioned several times in this post citizens and troops have morale which is scaled from 100 to 0. Everything affects morale from having enough resources to distance from the capital. Morale is an important key in this game as an army with better morale can win quite handedly against one with less. Low citizen morale may cause them to revolt, killing troops or even declaring the territory for a neighboring country.

            One final note is the use of Goldmarks which allow you to get an advantage in game by increasing moral, speed up production and so forth. You are given a set amount of Goldmarks the first time you play the game, but need to earn more beyond that. This can be accomplished by either purchasing them for real money or by voting for the game on certain rank sites. Keep in mind that it is quite possible to play this game without ever having to use Goldmarks which for me is important to the games overall Likeability.

            Well that’s it for now if you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer them. It is an easy to play and fun game and I hope you take some time to check it out. I plan to write up a simple beginners guide for this game in the near future so check back and also let me know what you think of the game if you decide to try it out.