davidachamberlain
Posts: 326
Joined: 1/21/2014 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: wolfe69 Wasn't sure if this game is for me, sadly it doesn't have AI after what I review the official page. My questions is that what do I get if I buy this? Is it hard to find players?? The only things that worries me that if there is no AI, how do factions manage to play out this game? Note there can be minor factions and majors, not sure how many players is needed to set this up. The odd for one or more players leaving the game and surely ruin the game itself. So this game is pretty pricey, not sure how much it would be in USD. At the official site, you see three hardcover books, etc. Does that comes in with it too? Anyway I need to do some research on this and see if I am willing to buy it and play it, I may or may not like it, but I do like complex war games. After doing some research, I decided not to get this. Sorry to see that you made your decision to not try the game. I do understand the interest in the AI, but frankly, I don't think that this will ever be a good fully capable AI game. You mentioned that like complex games. This is probably the most strategically complex games I have ever encountered. To play out the entire WWII with a world map of thousands of hexes and thousands of units of hundreds of types representing 7 major powers over 6 years (36 turns) is something that I can not imagine an AI being able to be able to represent competitively. Chess has only 32 pieces comprised of 6 types of pieces representing 2 sides on a playing board of 64 squares. I think that this will probably always be a game for just humans. An AI can help make the game easier and faster, but this is a full scale war game with lots of complex rules. Your research should have told you that the games is US$99.99 and that the hard cover books are optional, but will impact shipping costs, since that extra couple pounds of weight has a cost to ship, but the books can be downloaded to save that and is okay to work with. There are a good number of players in the Netplay community, but many are in different timezones. There are some in US and Canada and others in Europe and others in Asia. I am not sure how reliable that will be for regular play. I play with a group of friends in other cities in North America who I played the cardboard and paper version of the game for many years before we went our separate ways across the continent - currently in 3 timezones. Our experience was over several years playing for a day per week for several months. Now, we are trying this with a combination of Netplay and TeamViewer with 4 (of the 6) playing. Each has their own copy of the game, but currently Netplay is limited to 2 player - that is where Teamviewer comes in. We manage to get in a few hours every week or two and that will take some time to get through. Others may be able to play more often. I suggest that if you are keen (though not now), you check with those who are posting the After Action Reports. You might be able to set up something to allow you to get in a small game on one of the simpler scenarios. You might also consider checking if someone might be willing to try a game out with you using Teamviewer to get the experience of setup and playing a few turns. Personally, I think it is a very good game. Between my Netplay sessions, I have been playing the game solitaire. I give that more credit now than I started with. It amazes me how challenging this can be as solitaire. You do know the strategy for both sides, but the fog of war (weather and combat results) throws a wrench into that strategy and keeps the game fresh. It also helps me to better prepare for the real game between sessions by wargaming the potential results so that in that game, I have a better idea on the strategy. I will leave that decision to you, but you might want to consider checking things out. Again, regarding the AI, it is expected to be developed at some point, but I can not imagine it as being satisfying since the game is so complex. Dave
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