Greg Recommends The Anno Series

UBISoft / STEAM / GoG

Dirt Cheap to $50 depending on the title.

The "Anno Series" are real time strategy games that blend city building with business and resource management. The first title, Anno 1602 launched in 1998 and the most recent title, Anno 2205 launched late 2015. Each of these titles is good and you can start with any one of them.

1601 - Tobacco Plantations. Good graphics for 1998.

Your goal in each of these games is to go out and locate a new home to settle, build up, and 'conquer'. I put conquer in quotations because the game is 98% settling, building, and perfecting. These are peaceful and often slow strategy games with a heavy emphasis on building placement and resource management over and above combat.

1503 - An army lies siege to your city! Graphics upgraded from 1602.

One of the core mechanics behind the series is that your citizens will require (demand?) certain things according to how fancy their house is, similar to the old Caesar classics but far easier to control. So taking the first game, 1602, when you create a new house the residents require that they live within a certain distance from the town center building and that your island inventory contain enough food to feed them. If you don't meet these basic demands the people will eventually leave and the building will collapse over time. Alternatively should you go above and beyond the basic requirements and provide some of their requests like being a certain distance from a chapel and have access to wool cloth, they will be happy to pay higher taxes and even improve their residence should the appropriate resources be available to them. These upgraded houses represent an entirely new class of resident with the former demands and requests now becoming the baseline to maintain them and a new list of requests being presented. So now instead of pioneers requiring community, a chapel, cloth, and fish you now have settlers who require all these things but now also request alcohol, spices, education, and tobacco. The higher the tier of housing, the more people live therein, the more money you can tax, but the more they require to stay happy.

1701 - Zooming in close to one of your ships. Large graphics upgrade from 1503.

As the population of your settlement(s) grow you gain access to new buildings that you need to keep growing or just make your existing infrastructure more efficient. To ensure that you branch out from your original island home no one island will have everything that you need to keep growing. Once you are established on your home you will find yourself loading up a ship in hopes of finding more new land, hopefully containing the right conditions to grow your own grapes or spices or whatever it is that your people need before they upgrade their houses again.

1701 - A lively port city!

The result is a game of mostly peaceful building with ships sailing this way and that delivering goods back and forth as you slowly add more layers of complexity to keep up with the needs of your people before meeting the map's win conditions. Later titles after 1602 add a few interesting twists like different types of resources, expanded diplomacy with other players, lesser NPC nations that hold exclusive luxury goods, tech trees, going underwater, additional society factions, or landing on the moon, but the core premise and game-play fixtures are always the same.

1404 - Everything is somehow bigger and crisper than 1701.

The graphics are always good for the time in which the game was released. Anno 1602 graphics were quite good for 1998 and Anno 2205 has great graphics for a 2015 game (read: beefy video card and processor required), but I have always found the details limited. Everything looks good, but it all starts to look the same after a little while. If you've seen one block of housing you've seen every block of housing and your cities tend to feature lots of blocks of housing. You can zoom in to see your people milling about in the newer titles but your people do little more than just mill about. This isn't like Tropico where every person is busy doing things on the island, the 'people' you see in Anno are just eye-candy and while the buildings and the countrysides look beautiful they are just representative of the real game of supply and demand and expanding your infrastructure to make your city bigger. I think that, in a strange way, the beauty of the game works against itself in that people expect to find a higher level of detail and personality in the graphics of a game that looks so good.

2070 - Welcome to the future. Everything is much bigger here.

One thing I have always appreciated about the Anno series is the music. Orchestral and dynamic right from good old 1602 onward. Many of the songs are downright gorgeous and make the game a joy to play. Here's a link to some good music from 2070 to show you what I'm talking about.

As for the combat it is minimal and the least interesting part of the Anno series. Should your expansion for more resources get blocked or if you're just greedy or a jerk then you build warships of varying sizes to go sink your rival's boats and blow up their coastal buildings. In the pre-2070 titles you can also build a handful of soldier types to land on your rival's island and take it over one warehouse at a time while the new titles employ airborne drones with which to bomb things. The defense against ships, soldiers, and drones is to build static defense towers to shoot at enemies within range in addition to having your own ships, soldiers, and drones. There is no strategy beyond 'attack as a big group' and taking out an opponent is a long and boring task.

2070 - An underwater base. Very important for producing algae, oil, and many rare elements.

The fun of this game is definitely in building a big city and setting up the supporting infrastructure. Whether that's lumber camps and clay pits in Anno 1602 or Oil Rigs / Processing plants and mass produced fast food in Anno 2070. Some of the production chains to get desired items can be quite involved; like creating service bots in 2070 which requires sand from a river, copper from a mine, corn from a farm, seaweed from an underwater farm, a chip factory, a biopolymer factory, and a robot factory. Getting the balance of lower tier resource gathering buildings to higher tier refining buildings mixed with the ever growing demands of your population can be a daunting task after a while, but this is part of the fun.

2205 - You thought things in 2070 were big? This is REALLY big.

There is also fun in just sitting back and watching a well oiled infrastructure servicing a city. All those ships coming and going and, depending on which title you're playing, either delivery people carrying wheelbarrows of goods this way and that or airborne drones ferrying cargo all over the skies.

The Anno series is about long term gaming. You can't really just play through it in a week and be done, completing a map takes a long time and there are lots of maps to play through should you desire them.

There is multiplayer, although I have never tried it outside of building peacefully with my family in 1602.

2205 - Building on the moon.

The one caveat I have on this series is that the DRM on Anno 2070 was so stringent that I couldn't actually play my legally purchased version of the game for years and their customer service team eventually just threw up their hands and said "we don't know how to help you." I eventually found the answer in a steam forum about which setting was off in my network that made the game impossible to play.

Other than that I think the games hold a lot of merit. They make infrastructure fun, they look and sound fantastic, and they are primarily a peaceful building game which we probably need more of in our violence obsessed culture.

Greg Recommends Sunless Sea

Website: Failbetter Games

Price : $18.99

The Sunless Sea is a stand alone game in the same universe as the Fallen London browser game. The year is sometime during the reign of the Empress Victoria, London was stolen by bats and now rests a mile under the surface on the shores of the Unterzee, that strange, dark, and ancient subterranean ocean full of mystery, adventure, and horror. You play as a Zee Captain in a setting that goes from refreshingly odd to unsettling to horror filled and back again as you explore the environments and narratives Failbetter Games lovingly crafted for you. The mood at zee is similar to Fallen London, dark, haunted, mysterious, Lovecraftian, and some dark dry humor. Instead of exploring and interacting with a handful of districts within Fallen London you have the entire unterzee and all of its ports of call to zail and explore. A word of caution though, death is a very constant (and often brutal) companion. This is what you might call a narrative / environment driven rogue-like exploration game. There is combat but you would be well advised to avoid it until later in the game. You make progress by exploring and advancing story arcs and the zee itself will prove a most formidable adversary even if you do manage to avoid the denizens who want to take a piece out of your ship.

The general formula of a voyage is presented thusly:

Every voyage begins at Fallen London. You'll spend 'echoes' (currency) to purchase food, fuel, crew members, upgrades, goods to sell elsewhere and other such things. You'll also check with your contacts in London to see if there are any story arcs or missions available should you perchance happen to be zailing in that direction or stumble upon interesting things in your adventures.

You pull out to zee way from the warm lights of the fallen city into the perpetual darkness of the unterzee with only the occasional beacon and the light of your rusty old zeeship to dispel the gloom. As you explore the unknown it will be recorded on your zee chart (world map) and for every island, reef, settlement, and strange thing you find you gain fragments (experience) which will enable you to level up and increase your captain's base stats. The unterzee is mysterious and unpredictable and so the islands rearrange themselves every play-through. Scattered about the islands you will find locations to land and interact with whoever (or whatever) is of interest there. You'll often be presented with story arcs and challenges similar to Fallen London (the browser game). You are given the odds of success as calculated according to your stats with something good happening if you succeed and something 'less good' happening if you fail. Depending on the nature of the challenge 'less good' may be anything from receiving a lesser reward to dying a horrible non-reloadable death. Typically though failure is rewarding and often gives you the chance to try again without consequence thus encouraging you to attempt challenges even if your chance of success is low. Between chance encounters and pre-defined story arcs and missions you can rack up a fair bit of experience and the potential for a lot of echoes by pursuing these island activities. I say 'potential' for a lot of echoes because most of the treasures you uncover really only have value if you survive long enough to turn them in / sell them back in Fallen London.

The game has a lot to do with choices where the consequences aren't obvious but are nonetheless foreboding. The almost dead 'Tomb Colonists' invite you to a feast and they look to be extremely hungry, do you go with them or decline? A wistful demoness wants to purchase your soul, do you sell it to her? The criminal underground wants you to pick up and bring back a package for them and will have "something sharp to say" if you return empty handed but will pay very well if you can smuggle it in, do you accept this job? The first few times I played I was very conservative and tried not to take too many risks. Then I began to understand the game in terms of exploration and narrative and I realized that the riskier choices were almost always more fun (and rewarding) even if I did fail.

The real danger, the thing that keeps killing me in this game, is not knowing when to turn back. You can stock up on food and fuel in other places than just Fallen London but it will be costly if it can be done at all. Should you run out of fuel you will either have to find something else to burn (food?) or you will be at the mercy of the Imperial Laws of Salvage (you lose your ship, crew, and cargo in exchange for a 1hp rustbucket with enough fuel and food to hopefully get you back home). Managing fuel and food is pretty easy though, its the sanity that can catch you off guard. That's right, sanity. As you float about in the deep dark cavern with the deep dark unterzee below you and God know's what below the surface or on the ceiling your crew starts to get a little afraid. Keeping your ship near shore and in the light halts their loss of sanity but you will not gain any back unless you're willing to pay for shore leave or return to Fallen London. Once your sanity reaches a critical level strange and terrible things begin happening. "The crewman stood near the edge of the ship and a large pale tentacle noiselessly pulls her overboard. You rush to the side but she is gone. Nobody seems to have seen or heard anything. You didn't... you didn't push her... did you?"

But here's the thing. The potential for reward and adventure get larger the further from London you zail. If you turn back too soon you may not make enough echoes to restock your ship, but if you keep going... This can quite easily turn into "just a little bit further... I have to see what is on that island" or "but if I can just fill in that piece of the zee map..." The rewards and adventure are greater, but if you don't turn back at the right time you may not get back at all.

Once you go out as far as you dare you have to make it back home. If you are low on supplies or sanity then you are especially vulnerable and the the shortest course back home may not be the safest.

Assuming you make it home though, limping into harbour with a half mad half starving crew and a cargo hold full of treasures, it's time to cash in, restock, and upgrade. The Admiralty Board pays you for every 'port report' you bring back to them (a reliable source of income and especially helpful for new captains), and fulfilling quests for your contacts also yields a good influx of echoes. Random events may allow you to sell your findings from the unterzee at a higher price than usual and the Black Market will often finance voyages if you agree to do their bidding.

Make enough voyages and you may earn enough echoes to buy yourself a decent house, a new ship, start a family, locate better contacts, and write a will to give your next captain a better start when you either retire or die at zee.

There are other, more subtle, creeping threats that can become a problem if you're not careful. Your sanity may be largely restored every time you return to London but if it had gone too low you will begin suffering from nightmares, and nightmares in a Lovecraftian environment are never a good thing. If you start associating with shady types (as most successful zee captains often do) then the authorities will start to take notice and should they suspect you of treason then searches to your cargo hold may not be the only thing you can expect from them.

The fun in this game is definitely in the exploration and the writing. It is atmospheric but unlike other games that are merely 'atmospheric' it is also challenging and death is permanent. They did a very good job at creating a world that feels like everything has a mystery behind it and even when you manage to solve some mysteries (or just survive them) the writing taunts you that there's more going on then you know.

Here are a few examples of the sort of stories and mysteries you may find zailing the unterzee.

A potentially sentient semi-omniscient coral reef and its many secrets. Why people have a difficult time actually dying in Fallen London. An island of soul devouring apes with warning buoys all around that say "beware of soul devouring apes. Assisting these beasts in any way is tantamount to treason and any that leave the island are to be shot on sight. They know what they did!!!" An island where kingdoms of hamsters and rats rage war for domination. An island where everyone wears masks that determine what you can and can not do. A top secret conspiracy involving esoteric 'science' that may or may not have something to do with the secret of actually dying in Fallen London. The Republic of Fire (Hell). The island of infinite paradoxes. The frightening winter beast Mr. Sacks. And of course there's also political intrigue, crazy religious orders, zee gods, pirates, unspeakable horrors, cannibalism, and all manner of questionable fauna and flora that may or may not be hostile.

I don't think this game is for everyone. I enjoy it because I am a sucker for good stories, I appreciate good horror and an honest rogue-like challenge. It is a slower game, one that requires some methodical thinking, and while some might find the absence of any quick travel options tedious it is something that I rather enjoy and I think the quality of writing and the environment more than make up for it. If you're not sure if you'd like this game then check out their free browser game Fallen London for a similar taste. Until then stay sane my tasty friend, and be wary of anything that appears human but isn't.

Greg Recommends Fallen London

Price: Free!

Website: Failbetter Games

As a general rule I do not like browser games. They're typically shallow, repetitive, and in some cases designed to be just fun enough to keep you playing but with annoying restraints in the hopes of frustrating you into paying money to access premium content. Well, much to my own surprise, I found a browser game that I actually really like. Enter "Fallen London," a narrative based browser game with a delightfully dark setting and fantastic writing. Think of this as a choose your own adventure novel for adults in the form of a browser game.

Here's the premise as listed on the game's home page.

Thirty years ago, London was stolen. Now it rests on the shore of the Unterzee, that old dark ocean under the world. Hell is close, immorality is cheap, and the screaming has largely stopped...

Welcome Delicious Friend. 

As you can see, the game paints the world with its words; well crafted and artistically styled words that leave lots of room for interpretation and imagination. The setting is delightfully dark and subtly sinister. Victorian London was stolen by bats and now resides a mile below the surface on the shores of the Unterzee, a Cthulhian influence if ever there was one that has had some strange affects on the residents of Fallen London. The game never outright says that everyone is at least a little insane but in quality horror writing fashion you are lead to believe that your surroundings are in fact quite ordinary as you brush shoulders with squid faced rubbery men, honey addled ne're-do-wells, devils, spies trying to leverage information in 'The Great Game', half-dead tomb colonists, and haunted Zee-captains, all under the watchful eyes of 'The Masters.' The writing is complimented by appropriately styled artwork which, even in its minimalist nature, adds a splash of color to make the setting all that more interesting and potent.

The core mechanic that runs this game is a limited action point system whereby players can use action points to attempt various "story-lets" that can succeed or fail depending on your stats and gear. Completing specific story-lets unlock larger story arcs which in turn unlock new areas or larger narratives. Players can have up to 20 action points at once and receive a new point every ten minutes. The restriction ensures that players do not just blast through all of the game content in a day which I for one would happily do if it were an option. You can pay a small month subscription to increase your action point total to 40 or purchase 'fate' (the premium in-game currency) to unlock the material faster or purchase premium narratives. The monetization method employed is unobtrusive and I have never felt like I was missing out on account of playing for free.

Your story starts in prison (the reason why is up to you) and you must find a way to escape. This little story arc acts as a 'tutorial' for new players. You can attempt an action whose chance of success is determined by one of your characters' four stats (Watchful, Shadowy, Persuasive, and Dangerous). Attempting an action will always improve the stat it requires, even if you do not succeed. In the beginning of the game success means moving the plot forward with a small reward (there are a dizzying amount of collectible and usable items in this game) and failure usually means you just need to try again. Later on though the penalties for failure can be cost you much more than just an action point. At the time of this review my character has landed himself back in prison after cumulative failures in his chosen profession (criminal) brought his suspicion level up too high.

There are also story arcs that you can only attempt once (unless you have a special item the guarantees a second chance). I have only run into one of these so far, but I really wanted to unlock the next piece of narrative in that particular mystery and so I made pretty darn sure that I would succeed, increase my stats accordingly and purchasing gear to assist with 'Shadowy' related things.

Generally speaking you have four main direction you can go at the start of your story, each direction corresponding to one of your four stats. You can jump back and forth between these arcs without any penalty whatsoever, but you can only have one profession at a time, and your profession will provide you with substantial weekly bonuses related to only one core stat. I chose Shadowy as my primary direction of choice with Persuasive as a soft second. My character has gone through a few criminal focused story arcs and from smuggling to burglaries to making underground (or rather 'flit top') connections it has been a very enjoyable ride fraught with menaces and intrigue all its own. The Persuasive line (so far) has me writing poetry about mushrooms, murder stories so grotesque that several schools were shut down on account of me, and using wily schemes to earn the trust of other aspiring artists for purposes that I'm not altogether sure of just yet, but it will be intriguing to find out. The Watchful direction will (assumedly) make you a hunter of secrets (Fallen London is rife with them) and a strategic player in 'The Great Game'. The Dangerous direction is (assumedly) for those who would like to bash heads or hunt monsters. I look forward to exploring all of them thoroughly.

There are some light multiplayer options that I haven't explored yet. You can get other players to assist you in specific challenges or take some of your suspicion upon themselves if they are so inclined. There may be other options to be unlocked but what I really appreciate is that the option is there and that it is only an option, not a requirement.

This is a lovingly and well crafted game about narrative with lots to explore with new content being released regularly for premium members to dig into once all the very substantial amount of free content has been explored. I haven't played many browser games, but I am sure that this is the best one I've ever seen. It seems to my limited understanding of browser games that they struck a generous balance between providing the player with quality content with an optional premium line of content and upgrades that is attractive but doesn't break the game or make free-to-play users feel like they are missing out. I suppose all that you need is imagination to enjoy the setting and patience to not get frustrated by limited action points per day.

So here's to a Cthulhu steampunk inspired work of browser game art. The game is free, so why not give it a try?

Greg Recommends Sid Meier's Civilization V : A Brave New World

Price : $32.99 for base game + $32.99 for Brave New World
Website : STEAM

I'm not sure how I could possibly do justice to a game as big and as in depth as Civ 5 without writing far more than most would venture to read. The Civilization series, if you've never played it before, is one of those rare video game gems that was foundational to all PC games way back in the stone ages of computer gaming (1991) that people still talk about and play. Even more rare is that the many remakes of the original Sid Meier's Civilization have been excellent games in their own right that the fan base fully endorses and celebrates, building on and improving the already excellent titles that came before. If you're totally new to Civ then Each edition of Civilization is essentially an enormous electronic turn based board game where you must lead your chosen civilization from humble stone age wanderers to a sprawling modern superpower (hopefully) head and shoulders higher than all other nations in the world. Placing cities, moving units, building improvements and wonders, it is essentially placing and moving pieces in a complex (and absolutely gorgeous looking) board game. As the turns go by your nation grows, your technology improves, and the game becomes increasingly complex but in all the good ways that make you crave to play just one more turn... Is Civ 5 worth playing if you already have and love Civ 4? Yes it is. Is the A Brave New World expansion really worth it? Yes it is. More on that later.

For anyone who has never played a Civilization game before here's how it basically goes. You begin by choosing from among a dizzying number of nations to play as, each with its own special perks. You start off with a settler and a warrior with a handful of tiles revealed around you and a huge map to explore. Once you build your first city with the settler you can work the tiles around that city to gain resources which affect how quickly that city grows, can build things, as well as your national gold / culture / faith / science / happiness points. If you want to build things quickly you can assign your city to work production heavy tiles like forests or mines. If you want them to grow quickly you can assign them to work grasslands, fishing tiles, and farms. Every building you construct adds a bonus to that city, a granary produces an extra +2 food per turn, a monument +1 culture per turn, a barracks for slightly stronger military units, etc. Everything takes time to build and gold to maintain and it is up to you to figure out what you need the most and what you will need to set up now so that you can gain greater returns in the future. Thankfully the user interface is friendly and useful, able to display a lot of information without becoming overwhelming.

The first turns are very quick as everyone only has one city and one or two units. You have a lot of encouragement to explore the map at this early phase. Being the first to uncover ancient ruins can net you free technologies, extra population, and free units. Locating city states (neutral one city AI controlled nations) will also net you a reward which is doubled if you were the first nation to find them. You'll want to be on the look out for good spots to build future cities so that you can claim special resource tiles (cattle, iron, spices, horses, cotton, etc) and strategic locations (rivers, bays, bottlenecks, etc). You'll also spend time avoiding barbarians who are roving the map looking for things to kill.

Strategy takes off in other ways as even just a few turns in you will be able to pick your first cultural tenant, start building the first wonders, found the first religions, and choose which direction your technological advancement will take.

Once you are ready to expand you'll find yourself pushing against those filthy barbarians and while it is unlikely that they will be able to take one of your cities, they will still capture workers / settlers, and lay waste to tile improvements (farms, mines, pastures, etc). You'll need a small squad to clear them out but if you are unlucky enough to be neighbors with a leader that wants to expand quickly (George Washington), or an overly aggressive leader (Gangis Khan), then you may want to adjust your expansion plans to accommodate for their competitiveness.

Two cocoa resources side by side in city view.

Once you've got your borders more or less established and those nasty barbarians have been beaten back it will be time for foreign relations. If you are of the 'conquer the world' mentality then this will mean building an army and taking over cities. If you want to be friendly or if war just isn't the best option yet then you can trade resources with other civilizations or try to impress city states by fulfilling quests or giving them gifts. If they view you as a friend they will give you a small bonus (extra food, culture, faith, or happiness) and if prove yourself as an ally they will give you a larger bonus plus all of the resources in their territory. Acquiring new types of luxury resources (even if they are only on loan) is the quickest and easiest way to boost national happiness which takes a hit every time you build a new city or grow in size.

You will constantly be competing with the other nations on various levels. Militarily, if you are at war, politically to keep city states as allies, racing to build world wonders, getting ahead technologically, culturally, and geographically. The amount of points required to unlock new technologies and cultural tenants scales according to the size of your empire so depending on your strategy you may want a sprawling empire of many cities or a small empire with large cities. By the middle of the game (Renaissance era) a whole new level of diplomatic opportunities becomes available through the use of spies (God's and Kings Expansion) and the convening of world congress (A Brave New World expansion) where every nation gets to vote on global proposals that will help some and hinder others. Every turn is full of choices where you can get to choose one of several possible bonuses and need to weigh the pros and cons of each. This is where Civilization-addiction starts. A city has finished building something, do you want to build a university in 13 turns (+2 science per turn +17% science for the city as a whole) or is it better to get the artist guild in 5 turns (begin generating Great Artists) or maybe you should try to build the Hanging Gardens in 22 turns (+6 food per turn, 25% bonus to generate Great Persons but if someone else builds it before you do then all that production is wasted...) Your laborer unit has finished constructing a farm on the wheat tile outside a city, is it better to chop down the forest in the next tile for more food or should you build a lumber camp for more production? Oh, now you can choose another cultural tenant and you get to pick from a large number of possible bonuses. Research is finished, what new buildings / units / abilities will you work to unlock now? All those little bonuses and decisions stack up together and by the industrial age it will be apparent which victory condition each nation is striving towards (military, cultural, diplomatic, or scientific) as the turn by turn decisions have evolved into distinct and substantial advantages.

By the end game you'll be working with some very impressive units, buildings, cultural and diplomatic options. Even if you were not able to rise above the pack of competing nations Civ 5 (with A Brave New World) allows for the underdog to still have options to be influential and win which is a welcome change from previous titles. Eventually someone will take over everyone else's capitals, build a space ship to colonize Alpha Centari, or pull off a cultural or diplomatic victory (see below) which ultimately ends the game.

Sometimes the border can get a little tense...

For everyone who has played Civilization before Civ 5 took a few departures from previous titles and I am among the many who are glad for this.

Combat has had a complete revamp. For starters, the square tiles were replaced by hexes but more importantly units can no longer be stacked on the same tile and much more emphasis has been given to the advantages and penalties for how you are attacking. In past titles players could just pile their army into a single doom tile and just roll over all but similar sized doom tiles but now positioning your troops is vital to a successful military campaign. A well placed pikeman unit fortified in a castle on a hill across a river can hold against many foes (even early gunpowder units) while your archers rain damage down upon them. Cities are now formidable combat 'units' in their own right able to take and dish out a lot of damage. It will require multiple turns of constant attacks from multiple tiles to capture cities. Over all combat now feels 'Chess-like', which adds a welcome depth of interest and complexity to what was a rather simple 'Risk-like' system.

Culture was also completely revamped. While it still causes your national boarders to grow it will now also unlock a plethora of 'cultural tenants' which will give you specific advantages and in the A Brave New World expansion, allow access to even more powerful ideology tenants which have a drastic affect on how the late game is played. The cultural victory condition is another innovation in Civ 5 wherein you generate 'tourism' (the amount by which other nations are envious of your culture) by displaying great works and historical artifacts in your cities, building world wonders, and choosing certain cultural tenants. You can multiply your tourism output through trade, espionage, open border agreements, technology, religion, and ideology. As your tourism rating starts to over take other nations' cumulative culture you will receive bonuses when when attacking, trading, or spying on them. If they follow a different ideology than you do then your tourism rating will start creating unhappiness in that nation as the people want to adopt your way of life. If you're tourism rating overtakes every other nation's cumulative culture totals then you win.

At the beginning of the game you only have a few trees to choose from.
I usually choose liberty because the free laborer and setter really fit with my play style.

Religion also got an overhaul in the Gods and Kings expansion. Similar to culture points you can acquire faith points through a variety of means. If you can get enough you will be able to start a Pantheon, a pre-religion, which can grant you one out of a dizzying number of small bonuses that you will take with you throughout the game. Later, once you have enough faith points a great prophet will spawn in your capital and you can use him to create a formal religion. Similar to a pantheon you will be able to choose two bonuses from a dizzying number of options, one bonus for the religion founder (you) and another bonus for every city that follows that religion (you + others). The next Great Prophet allows you to pick two more 'reformation tenants', one for the founder, another for every city that follows that religion. While religions benefit every city they spread to it is almost always in your best interest to spread your religion as much as possible as your founder benefits are often dependent on how many cities follow it and you get a tourism bonus with nations who share a common belief. Choosing which religion to create or embrace is a very strategic option. Extra culture for specific tiles worked, or extra gold per 4 followers, or being able to purchase military units with faith points (maybe a religion you would rather not spread) are just a few examples of what religion can do. These subtle benefits can change the outcome of the game over time, especially if your play style or other bonuses can be used to multiply or leverage those benefits.

The dynamics of the middle and late game were the target of the A Brave New World expansion. The option to create trade routes with AI controlled caravan / cargo ship units opens up gold based strategy like never before but also affects the spread of religion, tourism, and science. The amount of gold generated by trade routes is substantial and, just like every other aspect of the game, can be improved upon depending on how your cities are structured, which wonders you've built, your religion, technology, and cultural tenants. Trade routes can be raided though, and the AI caravans / cargo ships will stick to their shortest route regardless of danger. Hunting down enemy caravans and trade ships is an excellent way to hurt your foe while also netting yourself a substantial gold boost.

A Brave New World also adds the world congress which is founded when a civilization has met every other nation and has discovered The Printing Press. The host nation and the nation who has the most representatives both put forth a global proposal that everyone gets to vote on. The resolutions passed affect everyone and range from military tax to trade rules to naming a world wide religion / ideology to influencing the rate at which specific 'Great Persons' (Artists, Generals, Prophets, Architects, Scientists, etc) are generated. The number of delegates you get primarily depends on the world era, and how many city state allies you have. This means that city states become a resource in and of themselves and a savvy political player can win the game with a world leader vote if he has enough support (or close to enough support with good espionage). The addition of the world congress makes the middle and end game more interesting and can shake up an otherwise inevitable outcome. Higher military taxes, a trade embargo, and being unable to use specific luxury resources will create all sorts of problems warmongering players while resolutions that boost tourism can make pacifist players a serious threat.

Take away everyone's whales or make it so that artists are more common and scientists / generals / engineers are not. Hmm...

There are other features and tweaks made in Civ 5 that I just don't have time to cover. Over all, compared to previews titles, the game pacing is better, there are more interesting and deeper features, and all of the features intertwine with each other allowing for a multitude of diverse strategies and approaches. The classic strategies of rushing certain techs / wonders / unit types are greatly augmented by the new cultural / religious / diplomatic options giving way to a multitude of new strategies. The improvement of the middle and late game in A Brave New World are especially pronounced and even though I thought Civ 5 was amazing before the expansion now that I have it I can barely imagine how game didn't feel incomplete or broken with out it.

As for Gods and Kings my personal recommendation is to skip it or wait for a really good sale as all of the features added in God's and Kings also carried over to A Brave New World with the only exception being following nations: Austria, Byzantine, Carthage, Netherlands, Celts, Maya, Holland, Ethiopia, Huns, and Sweden. Given A Brave New World's inclusion of Gods and Kings' features and the large improvements game I highly recommend A Brave New World for the definitive Civ 5 experience, it really isn't the same game without it.

Civ 5, even without any expansions, is without a doubt a quality game both deep and wide. It will consume your time by the hour and playing a round of Civ can take days if not weeks or months. Here is to the 5th edition of the quintessential grand strategy PC game. 

Greg Recommends Portal

Price : $10.00

Website : STEAM

Portal, in my opinion, is one of the greatest games ever created. Originally released in 2007 by Valve Portal is a physics puzzler with more than a few twists. I won't spoil it for you, but I will explain what the game is generally about and what sort of fun can be had with it.

You are a volunteer test subject for the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Centre. Your job is to test out the new portal gun technology by completing various tasks and puzzles with the physics bending tech under the instruction and encouragement of GLADoS, the artificial intelligence in charge of the facility. How much fun could this possibly be? Lets just say this game racked up the awards, continues to get overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and gamers, and is most definitely in my top 5 best games ever played list.

Of course the game isn't just about puzzling with portals, that might be interesting but it doesn't get the incredible amount of praise that this game gets. No, there is more going on than what originally meets the eye, and the game unfolds its hidden plot one tantalizing string at a time. You clue in pretty early that something isn't entirely right with GLADoS. Random static, fade outs, and some verbal queues make you wonder if she's maybe due for an upgrade. A few levels in and the tests start becoming hazardous. While GLADoS assures you that it is only the appearance of danger meant to provide you with a more enriching experience you begin to wonder if something's a bit off with her morality core. A few more levels in and you begin to wonder if GLADoS just has no concept of what qualifies as 'hazardous' to human beings or if she has no regard for your life at all. Then there are the hidden messages and secret nooks and crannies that GLADoS does not seem to know about. She offers you cake if you complete all of the tests, but the places GLADoS can not see spell out a different story...

From the physics engine to GLADoS dialogue to the humour spread throughout this game is brilliant. It also features some very well executed reveals, definitely above and beyond what you would expect to find in a game about physics puzzles. The game also features some of the best deadpan dark humour you will ever encounter.

Seriously, if you haven't played this game yet then buy it now and play it. This is the best $10 PC game in existence. And once you've played it go buy Portal 2... you'll understand once you play the first one.

Greg Recommends The Stanley Parable

Price : $16.99

Website : STEAM

Originally released a mod for Halflife 2 in 2011 The Stanley Parable was re-released as a stand alone game through STEAM in 2013. You play as Stanley, a faceless employee in a mega corporation whose job is to push buttons but on this particular day nobody else showed up to work and you need to find out what happened to them, or at least that's what the Narrator tells you. You quickly discover that all is not what it seems... It isn't really a 'game' in the traditional understanding, but I *highly* recommend everyone who enjoys games to give this a thorough play through at least once in their lives.

The Stanley Parable is difficult to describe without spoiling so *spoiler alert*.

You start off in your cubical with the Narrator explaining thusly:

Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee #427. Employee #427's job was simple: he sat at his desk in room 427 and he pushed buttons on a keyboard. Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk, telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what order. This is what Employee #427 did every day of every month of every year, and although others might have considered it soul rending, Stanley relished every moment the orders came in, as though he had been made exactly for this job. And Stanley was happy. 

And then one day, something very peculiar happened. Something that would forever change Stanley; something he would never quite forget. He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not one single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow. No one had shown up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say 'hi.' Never in all his years at the company had this happened, this complete isolation. Something was very clearly wrong. 

Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley found himself unable to move for the longest time. But as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk and stepped out of his office.

And you, Stanley, begin moving about the office in search of your missing co-workers. The graphics aren't anything special, but they do work for an office environment. As you search the Narrator will chime in every so often. And then you are faced with a choice. Two doorways. The Narrator says that Stanley picks the door on the right...

Well Stanley? Do you go right or left?

Such a simple choice but oh, what wild and far flung possibilities exist when we play the choices game. You could go right and continue the story, but what would the Narrator say if you went left instead? The Narrator has a story to tell you Stanley, a good and rather exciting story that he put a lot of work into, but do you want to follow that story? You see Stanely, you are not alone, the Narrator is the other character in this game, and although you never see him he works with you and against you to give meaning to your actions. Depending on your choices the Narrator may lead you through a conspiracy plot, a dream sequence, a daring escape, or put you into a completely different game entirely, he may plead with you, applaud you, or just kill you out of frustration. Without him the game would be an empty maze. No Stanley, you may be the hero of the story but you need the Narrator and the Narrator needs you too...

There are many paths you could take, each one something different and something special. This game is more than just a game, it breaks through the fourth wall and acts as an interactive parable on the philosophy of game design. Do you really have choice when you play games? Does the Narrator have choice in what he says? Well of course not, his lines are pre-scripted, but does he know that they are pre-scripted and does it really matter if it seems to you Stanley that he is actually interacting with you and not just pre-programmed? Are your actions pre-scripted Stanley? You, with your conditioning to press buttons when instructed to do so. What is a game really? What happens when you break a game open and run amok? Is it better to have few choices or many choices and at what point do they become meaningless? These are the types of questions and commentary The Stanley Parable asks and investigates and the result is something brilliant, enjoyable, and memorable.

The Stanley Parable is especially fun if you've ever looked into creating your own games as the running commentary will address questions and issues that you've probably run into. This is a seriously clever game that was pulled off flawlessly although the subject material and wit may be lost on the casual gamer. My only caveat is that its rather short and maybe that is more of a compliment than a caveat because I would have absolutely loved to have spent many more hours playing as Stanley and interacting with the Narrator.

The Stanley Parable gets all my love. I Thoroughly enjoyed this title and I think most gamers will too.

Greg Recommends Planetary Annihilation

Price : $29.99 or $39.99 with Titans Exansion

Website : http://store.steampowered.com/app/233250/ (original)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/386070/ (Titans Expansion)

I was a little hesitant to put Planetary Annihilation on my Recommendation list. It was over-hyped in production as an Indie kick-starter success story that raised well beyond the stretch goals but turned out to be a different game than what the funding crowd had anticipated. The launch was plagued by bugs and Uber Entertainment's difficulty in communicating with the community / their questionable marketing practices. The game also had a some features that different review sites took issue with. For these reasons there have been a lot of negative and angry reviews on this game.

I still recommend it though as a fun and refreshingly different RTS, one that I thoroughly enjoyed playing and wish I had time to play more of. I've regrettably never played the Titans Expansion so everything here is for original PA.

So PA is an innovative RTS whereby advanced robotic commanders are awakening all across the galaxy to wage endless war upon each other across the stars. Humanity is long gone, it's just the robots now, and there is no story line to play through except that all the other robot commanders are hostile so it's either you or them. If you kill the enemy commander then all of their stuff blows up. If your commander dies then all of your stuff blows up. Your objective? Kill the enemy commanders by any means necessary. How is this innovative? Spherical maps. Travel (and combat) in orbit around and in between said spherical maps. No unit cap. The ability to destroy entire spherical maps (and everything on / around them). There's also a full set of units with unique properties that give the game balance but every RTS worth playing has that. What makes PA's balance stand out is that creates what some enthusiasts have called a 'pure RTS'.

So let's talk about the spherical maps. In most cases RTS maps are flat with Planetary Annihilation being an exception. Flat maps allow you to see everything at a glance via a mini map that usually hangs out in a corner of the UI. Flat maps allow you to see all the possible routes you or your enemy could take towards each other and there is no confusion about which way is up. Spherical maps by contrast mean that you will never be able to see everything at a glance. Nobody can be cornered, enemy movements can be difficult to predict, and sneaky enemies can simply attack your base from a direction you weren't expecting. You can't see what you're units are doing half the time and said units could reach their destination and then be lost out of sight until you randomly spin the map and find them again. Uber added the option of using minimaps that could display the part of the planet that you were currently not focusing on but many gamers found spherical maps frustrating and thought that they should have just stayed an interesting concept and put forth arguments for why they take away from the game in practicality. I disagree. I love spherical maps. I love the ability to expand attack or be attacked from any direction at any time. I love the tactical options they provide. I love taking my enemies by surprise, hitting them from a direction they weren't expecting. I love how you get a huge advantage just by scouting your enemy to see where his troops / buildings are. Spherical maps aren't for everybody, but I loved them and maybe you will too.

The action isn't just on the surface of the planets, it is also taking place in orbit around them. If you zoom out far enough you go into 'orbit mode' which allows you to see the entire planet (or at least the side currently facing the screen) along with what is taking place in space around it. Your units and buildings become too small to identify and are replaced by minimalist icons that (once you get used to them) will easily distinguish what is what and allow you to command your forces without needing to go back down to the planet. Not only can you expand, attack, and be attacked in any direction, "any direction" also includes "up". Take care not to neglect the orbital game because a clever player may begin building orbital guns platforms above your base (I literally cackled with glee when I did this to another player for the first time) or build a mobile death laser satellite to snipe your commander out of the game. You can avoid this fate by building an interplanetary radar system (on the ground) early which will let you see what's going on in space as long as it has power. You can also build 'umbrella' turrets to shoot down orbital enemies or simply go into orbit yourself and create a fleet of spacecraft or construct your own orbital gun platforms.

This is strategy in three dimensions... or at least an outer spherical map around the smaller planet-side spherical map. But it doesn't stop there. Depending on the solar system there may be multiple planets, each a spherical map of its own that can be traveled to.

The level of destruction in Planetary Annihilation is unparalleled by any RTS title. With no unit cap you will be routinely commanding hundreds if not thousands of units at a time. Imagine that your opponent has an entire planet swarming with of bots, tanks, and aircraft. How would you attack that player? Well, to start a full scale planetary invasion all you need to do is build a gateway on the surface (which you can do from orbit) and start sending your forces through. Keep in mind that you only need to kill their commander and PA gives you a few options for how to do that when conventional forces aren't going to do the trick. There is the 'bombard them from orbit' option, but this can be countered by umbrella turrets and orbital defenses. There is the 'Planetary Canon' option which which you can literally shoot your army at a specific location on another planet. They do damage when landing and then more damage once they start shooting and three dozen advanced combat bots will make short work of a commander. Interplanetary nukes can end a game pretty quickly once deployed but they can be countered by anti-nuke missiles (assuming your opponent has them). If things are still not working out then it may be time to consider building thrusters on the moon so that you can SMASH THE MOON INTO THEIR BASE!!! (there is no defense against the moon smashing into your base) Or, if the solar system includes a metal planet, turn it into The Death Star and BLOW UP EVERY PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM!!! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! All of this to an orchestral soundtrack and robotic affirmation noises that just sound so epic together.

So those are the innovative things that make PA unique. Now let's talk about what an actual game of PA typically looks like. Depending on the game settings your commander is either automatically deployed to a location on a planet or you get to choose your starting location manually. Auto-deployment ensures a mostly equal start for all players while manual deployment is a lot more... interesting. If everyone picks one planet while the last player picks another he will be able to expand and build up undeterred and will probably win the game. If you are unlucky enough to land right beside another commander then you may just die within the first minute of the game or have your start severely slowed down.

In any case, the first objective for new players is to start harvesting minerals and generating energy, the two resources of PA. Minerals are automatically harvested by mining stations built on mineral nodes scattered throughout the map (small green triangle icons). Energy is generated automatically by power generators that can be placed nearly anywhere. Your commander can quickly construct these.

The second objective is to start unit production through one of the four factory types, land vehicles, mechs, air, or water. Each of these factories can construct the basic units of their type in addition to fabricators that can build new buildings or speed up production of factories. Land vehicles are your tanks, flame throwers, and mobile anti-air. They are slower but pack a punch and have a lot of staying power for front line combat. Mechs are weaker but faster than land vehicles and are ideal for raiding. Air factories can build fighters and bombers which are very fast and pack a heavy punch but are expensive and have few hit points. Ships are expensive and slow but carry a lot of firepower and boast exceptionally long range (ideal for leveling coastal bases).

You'll build a few scouts and set them to auto-explore to find where your enemies are. If you're aggressive you'll send some bots to go mess up their resource nodes while using fabricators to claim your own. Depending on what your enemy is doing you may want to build some static defense turrets and you will definitely want to put up radars to let you know if any enemies are incoming.

The economy works on an income / depletion ratio. Units and buildings, whether you are building them or upkeeping them do not cost lump sum of resources (as opposed to StarCraft or Age of Empires) but deplete them over time. If you have resources incoming at a faster rate than they are being depleted then your stockpile gradually goes up. If you are spending resources faster than they are coming in then your stockpile starts to go down. If you run out of either minerals or energy all of your factories keep producing, just at a reduced rate. Radars (and I think turrets) go offline if there is no power left in your stockpile. The 'macro' of PA is to keep expanding your income and while also keeping up production to use all those resources to maximize efficiency.

Once you have secured your position it's time to pick a target and look for ways to kill their commander. Massing tanks is an easy and effective tactic, especially if your target is otherwise occupied fighting another player. If you can't see any way to quickly kill a commander then you need to assess whether it is better to go after his base, keep to raiding, or lie low to build up your forces.

If you can take out a commander or two with your early units then all the more power to you. If they prove difficult to remove then you may want to consider either going orbital or investing into advanced factories. Advanced factories can build advanced units (which are very expensive but exponentially better than standard units) and advanced fabricators which unlock all of the other advanced buildings. This is a true investment as your first advanced factory will take a long time to build and be a huge drain on your economy. The advanced units will greatly improve the effectiveness of your army though and the advanced fabricators can upgrade existing mining nodes and build advanced power generators to send your economy soaring. As for the advanced buildings, they include a variety of of defensive structures, heavy artillery that can shoot across half a planet, nuclear missile silos, anti-nuke silos, planetary canons, Hailey planetary thrusters, and catalysts that can turn metal planets into planet destroying Death Stars.

You always need to be assessing your enemy, trying to figure out his weak spot. Could you overrun him with tanks and just demolish his base? Does he have Anti-air? If not, then 25 bombers will kill his commander awfully quickly. Does he rely too much on air units? They die very quickly if countered. Does he have surveillance? If not then it would sure be frustrating and confusing for him to be attacked on two or three fronts at once. Are his power generators vulnerable? It would be a terrible shame if something where to happen to them... Does he have orbital? No? Time to build some orbital gun platforms over his base. Does he have anti-nukes yet? Is his commander susceptible to a swarm of suicidal boom bots? Remember, once you kill the commander, all of his units and all of his buildings are also destroyed and if you are clever you can put things in motion to kill a commander before the enemy can react to stop you.

Just remember that when a commander dies the blast will destroy everything within a large radius and you may want to pull half your army back when victory is assured.

If you are lucky enough to kick everyone else off your planet then you will have time to scout out the other players, identify their weaknesses, and then also have the sort of economic might to leverage them. Just don't neglect your own defenses, as your enemies can still snipe your commander whilst your are unaware...

Planetary Annihilation isn't perfect but it is innovative, unique, and put together well. I have a few personal caveats that I should put here though. Once your forces get beyond a hundred (as will often happen when there is no unit cap) it is difficult to manage such a large force beyond basic "everyone go this way and shoot all the things" type of instructions. Thankfully none of your units have deployable abilities except for your commander, so it's not a huge issue. Managing bases on two or three planets at once is a real hassle though. I think most players just manage a main base on one planet and then also a forward base on your chosen front of combat. Transport units (at least when I used them) are a real nightmare to use and may just get shot down while you fiddle with their finicky load and unload options.

The campaign is... lacking. You get a map of the galaxy and can travel from system to system. If the system is empty you get to unlock a new technology to take with you, if the system is occupied then you fight the AI using what technologies you have acquired so far to hopefully pick up another new technology. It was an interesting challenge at first to adapt strategies against the AI with a gibbled tech tree but got boring and samey half way through a medium sized galaxy. You can unlock additional commander skins by playing through the campaign but even though I've done half a dozen compaigns I've never had the opportunity to unlock said skins... either the planet required to conquer didn't spawn or it was owned by the wrong faction.

Personally I have had the most fun with playing 6 - 12 player free for all and the 1v1 competitive matches. Other players have really gotten into the alliance mode where you play with a friend to control your faction together. If I had any friends played this game then I would have been all over that.

Overall I think Planetary Annihilation is a fine game. It is a lean mean and streamlined RTS that 'cuts the fat' by getting back to doing the basics well and there's no point in being upset because its different than its predecessors. Anyone who poopoos it for not having more unit types / factions, for using spherical maps, or for Uber's marketing techniques either never understood what PA was before purchasing or felt entitled for some reason. Nobody forced people to purchase the beta for the full price of the finished game and nobody forced people to purchase additional cosmetic commander skins for an exorbitant price. If you're not happy with how much something costs then either wait for a sale or just don't buy it.

In any case I really enjoyed PA and if the user reviews on STEAM are any indication then Uber seems to have appeased their critics with the Titans expansion. I wish I could justify spending the time to play this game again.

Greg Recommends Age of Empires III Complete

Price : $39.99

Website : http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Age-of-Empires-III-Complete-Collection-PC-Game/productID.253711400

I grew up with Age of Empires and have played every game in the series to death. I remember standing in a long line in the cold to pick up a Boxing Day special for AoE3 at Future Shop and then spending more than what I saved taking my parents out for breakfast as bribery payment for getting me there at an ungodly hour and then waiting for the store to open. It provided me with years of quality entertainment so I think it was a good investment. I achieved the rank of Major (above average) in the online competitive ranking system but had to let it go when more important life issues came up and haven't been able to justify the time commitment to play competitively since.

For those who have never heard of the series, Age of Empires 3 is a real time strategy game set within 1500 - 1800 in "The New World" (North / South America). The original AoE3 allows you to choose between 1 of 8 different civilizations while the War Chiefs expansion adds 3 more and the Asian Dynasties adds another 3. Each civilization has unique strengths and weaknesses that will greatly affect how you play the game but the basic gist of it is "gather resources from the map, build up a base to create military units and then use your military to burn down everyone else's bases and kill all their people." That is every RTS in a nutshell but Age of Empires 3 has a few things that make it stand out as an RTS title.

The first is an Age of Empires hallmark, being able to advance through the ages. An 'Age' in Age of Empires represents a significant advancement in history and technology. There are five ages (Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial, Imperial) Someone in the 'Colonial Age' can build basic military units and research basic upgrades while another player in the 'Fortress Age' will have everything from the Colonial Age plus advanced and specialized unites, new buildings, and better upgrades available to them. Each age builds upon and improves the units, buildings, and upgrades presented in the ages previous. Advancing to a new age is an expensive and time consuming move to make, and knowing when to make it is key to victory.

The second is a unique 'card' system whereby you can build a deck of shipments to send from your home city to your settlement in game. As you earn XP by exploring, building, and fighting you will earn the ability to send these shipments. The cards (shipments) in your deck can be anything from a squad of military units, extra villagers, unique technologies, extra resources, permanent unit buffs, or free buildings. There are different tiers of cards that correspond to the different ages; so a Colonial card can be sent once you reach the Colonial Age but a Fortress card can only be sent once you reach the Fortress Age. The higher the card tier the more potent / valuable the effects (usually). This ensures a wide variety of strategic options are available to you and so you can build as many decks as you have strategies to try out.

Here are some basic strategies to give you an idea how this works:

An aggressive 'hit them hard right from the start' strategy will rush to the Colonial Age and use military shipment cards combined with all the units you could build in the meantime to give you a formidable and quite possibly game winning force at the 5 minute mark at the expense of your economy.

A counter-strategy for this would be to send free guard tower buildings and crossbow units in addition to what you were able to build before your enemy attacks. (Crossbows are the early cost effective counter to building destroying spearmen)

Alternatively you could linger in the Discovery Age before advancing to build up your economy, send food and gold cards when you reach the Colonial Age, and jump straight into the Fortress Age to get elite military units and cannons while everyone else is still mucking about with spearmen and crossbows.

Your civilization bonuses, the map, and which civilization you're playing against are all factors to consider when deciding which strategy to implement. You can have as many decks as you like but you can only choose one to ship from when you claim your first shipment.

Age of Empires 3 features a strong "rock / paper / scissors / lizard / Spock" approach where everything is good against something else but can be countered by a different unit or strategy. Musketeers are a tough all-round balanced unit with a melee bonus when engaging cavalry but get torn to shreds by skirmishers and cannons. Skirmishers get a damage multiplier bonus against heavy infantry (muskets, spearmen) but will quickly fall to a hussar's saber or be blown away by a cannon ball. Cavalry will demolish artillery and light infantry but need to watch out for pikes, spears, and ranged cavalry which have significant damage multiplier bonuses against them. Add to that basic structure all of the unique units that come with which civilization you choose, the unique units that come with allying with indigenous peoples, and which cards you play / upgrades researched and you have yourself a very complex game of attack, counter attack, and counter-counter attack.

Knowing what counters what is essential when it comes time to engage your foe's military. "But isn't that all the time?" you may ask. No. Another key element of a good RTS is importance of raiding and harassing your enemies before going toe to toe with them directly. Killing enemy gatherers means they can't get as many resources which means they can't produce things as fast which means when it comes time to crush them they will not be able to resist you. Denying a gold mine or huntable animal herds early in the game will force your opponent to improvise or fold as you keep up the pressure and slowly strangle them for resources. Of course even here you have to be careful not to allow your enemy to kill your raiders or allow an opening into your own vulnerable economy.

Let's talk about maps for a minute. AoE3 features lots of map types which will generate a new random map every time the game is played. Typically players start out in the Discovery Age with a randomly placed Town Centre, a handful of villagers, and some starting resources with gather locations (huntable animals, berries, fish, gold deposits, trees) nearby. Depending on the map type some resources will be plentiful on the map while others are sparse. Some maps mix it up a bit by giving the player extra resources or a free economic building or free towers to start with. Maps possess all the usual obstacles and features you'd expect with cliffs, lakes, and forests placed randomly according to the map type and enemy players *usually* placed equidistant from each other on opposite sides of the map.

Where AoE3 mixes things up a bit is that there are treasures scattered throughout the map that your explorer can claim and specific locations along pre-determined trade routes and indigenous villages where you can build trade posts that net you new bonuses or abilities. The treasures can range from free resources to free units to permanent buffs for your explorer and can shave precious seconds and sometimes minutes off a strategy if collected. They are guarded though, so you will have to weigh the risk / reward ratio. Your explorer has a massive damage multiplier against treasure guardians and a 'snipe' ability that will kill a single treasure guardian in one shot but it has a long recharge time. Depending on your Civ and the cards you send you may be able to rack up a lot of treasures to give you an early game advantage. (Spain is a natural treasure collector)

The trade posts cost a heft 250 - 200 wood to build but if placed on a trade route will produce bursts of XP to speed up your shipments. Upgrading the trade route at any trade depot along that route (even if you are not the one to do the upgrade) will speed up the bursts of XP and allow you to get bursts of a chosen resource instead of XP. Placing a trade post at an indigenous village will allow you to train their warriors and unlock special technologies that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Some cards can be used to specifically enhance or get free indigenous units. Depending on the map you the indigenous units can be your key to an early victory! Even late game they can provide an edge over your opponent.

Here are some examples of popular maps:

Great Plains : A large wide open map with plenty of bison but few trees and scattered gold deposits. An ideal map for raiding. One long trade route that runs down one side of the map with Lakota and Comanche villages (melee and ranged mounted warriors with cavalry tech).

Yukon : A winter map split by a river with crossings on the top and bottom. On the right side are all the players with a trade route along the river and on the other side are valuable treasures, plentiful resources, and Cree and Nookta villages (powerful sniper and powerful building destroyer / cavalry killer)

Amazonia : A tropical map cut down the middle by a large river well stocked with fish with players taking positions on opposite sides. One side has a trade route with three nodes while the other side has three villages that could be Carib, Inca, or Zapotec. Claiming the river is essential for victory.

How does it compare to Blizzard's genre defining StarCraft 2? I would say that the RTS formula isn't as refined or as well packaged as SC2. Managing four resources (food, wood, gold, XP) at various points around the map as opposed to managing 2 resources that come gift-wrapped as part of natural base expansions means that you have more things to be aware of and divide your attention. There are a lot more options and possibilities in AoE3 (civ bonuses, cards, unique units, more techs, raiding) which, on the one hand give the game tactical and strategic breadth while on the other hand make it a bit unwieldy to play by comparison. AoE3 does not have the sort of 'micro' game that SC2 has. Your military units (with the exception of your explorer) do not have any special abilities, just raw attacks with varying damage multipliers according to who is attacking what. While 'micro' in SC2 is a professional skill in and of itself that can change the entire outcome of a game the 'micro' in AoE3 is still important but more simplistic and not quite as game changing.

SC2 hits the sweet spot between simplicity, depth, and what I'll call 'potency'. Three very unique and diverse factions (Terran, Zerg, Protoss) with 15-18 unique and diverse units each has been the foundation of a lean mean and powerful RTS engine that is currently driving International E-Sports. AoE3 is not as simple and its depth is in different locations. 13 different (but often overlapping) civs with dozens of units or variations of base units shared between them feels 'muddy' when compared to SC2's 'clarity.' The end result is that AoE3's RTS engine isn't as 'potent', as in, AoE3 struggled to become an E-Sport and has never really been mainstream while SC2 defines both E-Sports and mainstream gaming.

Personally, I love AoE3. I love all the choices, I love the overlap, and while the engine is older and isn't as refined or well packaged it still runs great.

The expansions (The War Chiefs + The Asian Dynasties) added a few things to original AoE3 to mix it up a bit. The three Native American civs added (Iroquois, Sioux, Aztec) are *very* different from the European civs from the original using a completely different building, units, and card set with 'big button' technologies that get stronger the longer you wait before using them, reusable cards, and dance circles that allow you to pick an buff (free XP, stronger units, everything trains faster, etc) and become more potent the more villagers go to dance there (up to 25). The Asian civilizations (China, Japan, India) are also suitably different from the European civs utilizing, another completely different building, units, and card set with wonders that give buffs while standing, and the ability to recruit powerful mercenaries by offering a small percentage of all items gathered in exchange.

Deck sizes were increased from 20 to 25 with adjustments made to existing civs to balance things out. Spies and Mercs can be hired from a saloon building instead of only being available through card shipments. Europeans Civs can declare independence instead of advancing to the Industrial Age which turns all of their villagers into colonial militia and they can build powerful colonial units and a powerful new colonial deck but can no longer gather resources. The new 'trade monopoly' victory condition and timed 'treaty mode' (no attacking for X minutes after start) were added.

The original game and expansions each have their own campaigns which are 'ok'. Definitely not the caliber of storytelling you'd get from a Blizzard title, but still alright. The original campaign recounts the connected story lines of a family of explorers and adventurers in The New World. I played through them all a few times and to be honest I only really remember about 5% of what happened beyond just blowing up the bad guys and feeling satisfied with that.

AoE3 is a solid and sometimes complex RTS with a lot of depth to explore. I don't know what the online community is like right now but it is still a $40 game so I suspect the community is alive and well. The game is great for LAN parties and has been integrated into STEAM which makes finding other players easier. If you're into RTS (or would like to be) then keep an eye out for this title.