Soren's New Game

[Unorthodox]

Well, anyone ever get this thing? 

[Solver]

Yes, and it's awesome

[Buster's Uncle]

Tell us more, stranger...

[Solver]

I can only encourage people to buy it and judge for themselves!

[Buster's Uncle]

So it's actually finished now?

[Solver]

Yes. There will of course be tweaking, balance patching and all that, but it's a complete, released game, and it's really good.

[Geo]

What's the timeline on this game? Does it play entirely in the old/ancient world? Or does it progress through the ages to modern times?

[Solver]

It's all ancient - classical antiquity pretty much. There are, intentionally, no dates in the game but  you could say it begins early in the Iron Age and ends sometime around the fall of Western Rome. Or in Civ terms, the game is Classical Age, with the final techs going a bit into Medieval.

Old World then doesn't have the global feel of Civ, but has a much more focused and in-depth experience for one period.

[Buster's Uncle]

So what's the word on full release?  I heard a rumor that something's close...

[DrazharLn]

It has been released since June 2021 on Epic. They've announced that they're coming to the steam store on 19th May with a new expansion.

https://mohawkgames.com/2022/04/15/old-world-steam-release-may-19/

I don't know where they're at with updates and bug fixes: they still release tweaks and bug fixes every few weeks, but when I played it prerelease it was pretty good so I'd say it is ready to play now.

If you're curious about it, maybe pick it up when it comes to steam and you'll get the expansion for free for a couple of weeks, too.

[Rusty Edge]

I didn't notice this when it was timely. I haven't been playing games much at all since the pandemic started. More focused on real life, although gaming probably would have prevented me frm grinding my teeth and other stress effects.

Anyway, since Civ IV was my favorite game of all time, and I enjoyed the way Dale and Solver modded it, I figured Old World was a must buy for me. It reminds me of a child of Civ V and Rome Total War, although an improvement over both.
Still in the tutorials and introductory scenarios. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes fun, it's immersive.  I'm learning. It makes time fly. So, it has the makings of a great game, but it's too soon for me to say much else.

[Rusty Edge]

I'm playing a game, drew Rome. If you don't know, this game has designated city sites. Some open, some held by barbarians, some held by tribes such as the Vandals and Numidians, others held by rival civilizations.  I did a good job of scouting early on, and secured 4 city sies, thwarting Carthage. Trouble was the borders of Carthage swelled and trapped me between them, a mountain range, and the borders of the map, so I might as well have been on the Italian peninsula, and cut off from my 5th secured site, with no way to get there. (I made some wrong choices and Babylon and Assyria declared war on me, but they couldn't reach me. I built up my army. Eventually they asked for peace.) Now Carthage has declared against me.

I love it when a strategy game simulates history. Well, if I take Carthage I'm not raising it. Hopefully I can do it in less than 3 wars!

[Rusty Edge]

I'm really enjoying this game. Usually it's on a lower difficulty level so that I have more flexibilty to explore a "what if" I've never tried before (or didn't remember what happened when I did).

I loved the Civics system in Civ IV. It enabled me to "shift gears" as needed, like in times of world war. Hated the tree system in Civ V because it was a maze, and you couldn't change once you made a decision. You were on a path.

Olde World gets it Right!  You can change your laws when nescessary, for a half price sum of gavels. It doesn't matter if it's because you made a poor choice, or circumstances changed, or your strategy did. It lets you adapt.

Enjoying the role-playing dynamics. Do I take a lover/consort in hopes of producing an heir, but risking political consequences, or creating mortal enemies? It seems Biblically epic. When Sarah was childless, Abraham used her slave girl to produce a son, before she eventually had one of her own. When Jacob took a wife, it turned out to be a package deal of two sisters. When the sisters started competing to produce the first son, they got their servants in on the act, eventually resulting in 12 sons, but they didn't get along.
I'd like to see a David event chain in the game, triggered by a slinger unit killing a spear unit, following through with him becoming a member of court, becoming king, adding wives only to have the prince rebel against him , eventually dying and leaving the kingdom to Solomon, with some wars along the way.

 I liked seeing Jonah the prophet. It gives you an ancient world king's perspective of what a pain in the axe an Old Testament prophet could be.

Sure it can be frustrating in the game when your heir elopes, or becomes a useless drunk, or goes insane, but sometimes there's a worthy niece waiting in the wings. I've always been one of those guys that thought being able to improvise creatively after some bad luck or a surprise twist was as much a test of skill as a demonstration of logic, patience, or perserverance.

In a recent game ( I usually play random) the 2nd generation queen was asked to step down, the criticism being that she was no Queen Dido. I decided to roll with it. Abdication turned out to be a wise move, because when I installed the 2nd generation queen as Ambassador, she had a +95 foreign government score, and I was able to win peacefully.

[Rusty Edge]

I would have posted here more, but the forum was down.

Since l last posted I've been exploring the choose your nation/family/leader, etc. based upon starting position.
The first time I had an elephant in my starting location, so I took the Carthage/Hannibal approach. He died young. I tried a replay and he still died young. By that I mean 30ish.

Next game I drew a desert start and decided to play Egypt. I started with a 16 year-old king. Maybe he was a herbalist, or became one young. HE ruled for over 60 years and became known as "The Great" built about 7 wonders and dominated the board. At age 77 the 16 year old new king of Rome challenged me to a duel. Kinda weird, in that Rome loved me, but he didn't. I figured I was due to get sick and not recover, so why not explore this option? Not much to lose. He must have been too quick for me, because I died. But peace was preserved, and my heir won the game shortly after that.

So 61 years is a personal record for longest reign. I think my oldest monarch was Dido's daughter, who lived to be 82.