Corporal Jones

Thanks for the update Brit, and hope the injuries heal soon!

I'm running 1.01 12532, which I think is up to date. I didn't know you could pay to increase your research rate, and I've not investigated the tech tree enough to know about the food enhancements. It was only my first game, so I guess I have a bit still to learn.

I think I've come to the end of my first full game, and it was great fun. I created a fairly large map (I think it was 3000x2600) with 30% land mass. I've now completed approx 215 turns, and I control roughly 90-95% of the map. As a result the enemy has tried to resign a few times now, but I didn't accept and carried on to learn more about the game. My queries are: ~ The AI enemy seem not to to have wanted to expand their territory, thus allowing me to gradually grow my empire to the point where I had over 50% of the map before we'd even bumped into each other once. I've now gained over 90% of the map and only in the latter stages did I fully realise how small their territory was. I had AI difficulty on the meduim setting, so what differences would the harder setting mean? ~ Despite wanting to launch a final assault on the enemy's 5 or 6 cities (I must have 30-35) I know I'll struggle because their tech advances are greater than mine, and their bombers are at tech 4 lvl, while my planes are only advances to lvl 2. I'm assuming this means the AI went down a few specific tech tree routes, whereas I got a broad increase in abilities? Am I right, and is there a tech tree guide & tips thread anywhere? ~ Food. I obviously captured a lot of land and sea food resources, however in expanding my empire I had a lot of units. I therefore had to set roughly 2/3 of my cities to produce wealth, as I needed all the cash I could get to buy food. This included selling repeated chunks of my Iron resource. I appreciate I probably produced too many units, but it was a big map, with a lot of sea to explore, but does anyone have any tips on avoiding bankrupcy and/or starvation? ~ Does anyone else have the same problems I'm experiencing on this forum. All other websites load quickly, but this battlefront site seems to be slower than a dial up connection from 15 years ago. I just want to understand it all a little more before starting game 2. Thanks

I've saved my single player game twice, as "game1" and "game1backup". I always try to have a second save... just in case. To do it, click on the save game button, then when the window opens write a new game/file name. When you want to resave again after a few turns, or when you're switching off the game, just save again twice, once for each file name. Hope this answers or helps with your query.

Yes, I'd noticed the reduced price, and bought and downloaded EoS last night Then spent the whole night on a fresh game on a largish map with 70% ocean space. Really enjoyed it although I'm struggling to get transports to pick up troops from cities, and so my expansions plans have been delayed a little. I click on the transport and select "pick up unit X" and then unit Y, but it doesn't. I think the problem is that some load okay, and others dont, so I'm not sure what I'm doing right and wrong?? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Aside from that I need to learn more about the tech tree, but I'm having fun Will check out the empire deluxe rules too, thanks.

Finally Rewind 20-25 years, and I used to play Empire for hours, weeks, and months on end, mostly against a friend (as the AI was not so good in those days). I used to love creating large maps, with a lot of ocean space, as for some tactical reason I loved the naval side of the exploration, as well as creating fleets of units for both offensive and defensive duties. The graphics and AI may have been poor by today’s standards, but the gameplay was awesome… and good tactical gameplay overrides any quality of graphics in my opinion. Oh how I wanted a more up to date version of Empire, and over the years people have suggested the Civilization series and other similar games, however none have grabbed me in the way Empire did all those years ago, until 10 days ago… I had posted a thread on the Matrix Games forum asking for suggestions, and somebody told me to look at Empires of Steel. At the same time, my laptop blew up, and until today, has been off at the medical centre. So when Mrs Jones wasn’t looking, I borrowed her laptop, downloaded the Empires of Steel demo, and played it for a bit. The map was small, and the islands too bunched up, but wow… this was a descendant of Empire without a doubt. Today my laptop was returned, and is working okay so far! I thought I’d post here before buying the full version of the game… as once I’ve done that I’ll be buried in it for a long time I think… or until I’ve a few questions. Keep up the good work Brit... I’m looking forward to diving in.