Matrix Games Forums

It seems like a lot of comments on this title have dried up. Of you that have made the purchase, is it a "Keeper"? How is re-Playability?

It looks like there is more activity on Slitherine's forum. Does that mean not too many Americans are taking to this?

This is primarily Slitherine's release and it's doing quite well, but understandably since they are the creators of the tabletop rules as well, the bulk of the discussion is going on over there (including gamers from around the world).

This little game is a blast! This is one of the best deals I have had in gaming in a while. I bought Armada just before this and I have played FoG much more. Replay ability is not like Civ4 or similar, which are about endless, but it comes with a lot of scenarios and also an editor that you can learn in minutes. The replay value comes from going against different terrains and unit types.

The editor is so easy to use that I make a scenario and am playing it within thirty minutes. I haven't used the online gaming option but I know if I did, I would be hooked on that. This is a perfect game for it.

For the price, you can play a couple scenarios on the couch at night with your laptop, and feel it's a great deal. I played three scenarios the other night and had more fun than playing my more complex games. It's a great game to come back to in between the harder and longer games.

All true, and it's slick and pretty bug free as well. I believe they may also be working on the fix for the non-blocking elevation issue that Larry mentioned in another post.

It's stable as a rock so far and I have a lot of hours into it.

When I had that conflict of DX acceleration, it would lock up, but when I came back into the game, it had saved the game and asked if I wanted to reload it from where I left off. That happened several times before I fixed it. I thought that was pretty cool. How many games will do that?

Thanks for the info. It sounds good to me. I'll probably take the plunge tomorrow! I've mostly read good things about this on the Slitherine site too...

I've been playing it for two weeks now, definitely a keeper. One of those games where you don't have to have lots of rules in the back of your mind when you play.

Onto my third and fourth PBEM games as well.

If you issue a PBEM challenge they're usually accepted within the hour!

cheers

ORIGINAL: Treale

It seems like a lot of comments on this title have dried up. Of you that have made the purchase, is it a "Keeper"? How is re-Playability?

It looks like there is more activity on Slitherine's forum. Does that mean not too many Americans are taking to this?

I didn't care for it. It seems a bit dry on all sides. Not much detail, graphics are horrible and the ai is pretty bad and not very challenging even on harder settings. Looks like this one was made pretty much for multiplayers as not much of a single player game there and very few replayable scenarios that are worth replaying.

Not much detail, graphics are horrible and the ai is pretty bad

we're obviously not playing the same game

Detail - plenty but not overwhelming. Easy to differentiate slavering barbarian hordes from civilised steady Roman ranks and the weapons and tactics of choice at the time...

Graphics - the unit graphics are images of painted figurines, around 1200 of them painted for the game - nicely represented and unlike Tin Soldiers don't go all fuzzy when you zoom in. The terrain graphics are ordinary but certainly not horrible. We have COTA for horrible terrain graphics At least we have a Matrix game published that caters for all monitor resolutions (even netbooks - kudos).

AI - is average for this type of game. It could be better but hey, no AI is going to match playing someone else. It's certainly aggressive and understands how to flank. But yes it could be improved on - rinse and repeat for all computer games.

Replayable scenarios worth replaying - OK I'll leave that one for the guys with tin foil on their heads....

The thing with this game is that multiplayer is so well implemented within the game system that it's a no brainer that people will gravitate towards MP. It's just all too easy, no need for email clients and attaching files, all the hard work is done by the developers and it's all done within the game engine. Other developers please take note!

cheers Chris

Sorry but those graphics are horrible look like 8bit or 16bit and hardly detailed and defined like Tin Soldiers series. Don't be fooled by the fanboys of Slitherine this game is below the mark in all aspects of gameplay and graphics.

AI is well below the mark of even the idiot ai's out there. Rome Total Wars ai is better than this and it's probably the worst of the bunch out there.

Only 18 scenarios most are small ones and no random placement or new setups when you play them again. Two of the scenarios are tutorial or multiplayer balanced.

It's basically just a weak version of Punic Wars and Gallic Wars you can get from HPS. I'd rather play them than this low detail beer & pretzels game.

I hate grainy graphics and this game is not grainy at least. I think the graphics are fine. When I zoom in the miniatures look nice.

Replay ability is kind of a relative term when it comes to games at least. What's replayable for me may not be for someone else. I like to go back and try different tactics as well as use the advantage scale and give the AI side more. If you play a scenario on normal, then there are two more levels against you to play. That's replayability for me. I'm not one to replay the same scenario again, but I will with this game.

I think the goal of making this game was to imitate the board game and if so, they did a good job. Board games are fun so why would this not be?

Chris is right I think about the game being best played multiplayer. However the AI is plenty smart and yes it does know how to flank very well. [:@] [;)] The AI also knows how to bait you to draw you into a trap. I am amazed at how often I keep falling for this trick. [X(]

I also understand that every game is not for everybody and I appreciate someone not agreeing with my views. [:)]

ORIGINAL: killroyishere

Sorry but those graphics are horrible look like 8bit or 16bit and hardly detailed and defined like Tin Soldiers series. Don't be fooled by the fanboys of Slitherine this game is below the mark in all aspects of gameplay and graphics.

AI is well below the mark of even the idiot ai's out there. Rome Total Wars ai is better than this and it's probably the worst of the bunch out there.

Only 18 scenarios most are small ones and no random placement or new setups when you play them again. Two of the scenarios are tutorial or multiplayer balanced.

It's basically just a weak version of Punic Wars and Gallic Wars you can get from HPS. I'd rather play them than this low detail beer & pretzels game.

Fanboys of Slitherine? Now that's funny. [:D] I needed a good laugh this morning, thanks!

AI below the mark of even the idiot AI. You clearly have not been playing this game much.

No random placement? Upon the start of every scenario you have the choice of "Random Placement."

Only 18 scenarios. That's a lot. I remember one game here at Matrix that has one scenario and it is quite popular.

HPS games. I have a pile of them and I have played this game more than all of them put together. I guess I like weak games.

Personal question: why is it that posters like you seldom have even a birth date in your profile? [&:]

Even if the birthday is there, you wouldn't know if it was a "Real" date or not? Don't look at mine. You might think that I belong in a nursing home....

ORIGINAL: Treale

Even if the birthday is there, you wouldn't know if it was a "Real" date or not? Don't look at mine. You might think that I belong in a nursing home....

No, there is no way to tell if it's real. Just some kind of information like a name would be nice. It's hard enough talking to people and not seeing their facial expressions or hearing their tone of voice. Then add to it no age, name, hobby, occupation, location, and you pretty much are talking to a wall.

Nursing home? Hardly. That's not necessarily age dependent. At least you filled out your profile quite nice. Now I know who I am talking to, Tony. [;)]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: Treale

Even if the birthday is there, you wouldn't know if it was a "Real" date or not? Don't look at mine. You might think that I belong in a nursing home....

No, there is no way to tell if it's real. Just some kind of information like a name would be nice. It's hard enough talking to people and not seeing their facial expressions or hearing their tone of voice. Then add to it no age, name, hobby, occupation, location, and you pretty much are talking to a wall.

Nursing home? Hardly. That's not necessarily age dependent. At least you filled out your profile quite nice. Now I know who I am talking to, Tony. [;)]

I've been wargaming since Tactics and AH. Back then their games were distributed by 3M. I've been into computers before we had hard drives. You had to use BASIC to write your program and hit the run key to make it happen! I thought that I was in Heaven when DOS and 40 MB hard drives became available to the public! Of course DOS would only recognize 32 MB, so your drive had to be partitioned.

I got in on the last part, DOS and 32mb hard drives. I started programming then. Actually that's when writing software was fun. Now it's a drudgery. Too many things to watch out for, IDE's too complicated (they crash too much themselves), too many rules and threads. I miss a lot about DOS but I will always appreciate multitasking.

How close is Carson City to Vegas? My wife and I are thinking about flying to Vegas next June for our anniversary and maybe taking a trip to see The Grand Canyon...

I'll PM you as we might get in trouble for being off topic.

Well I think Jim Zabek from the Wargamer says it best:

So I will simply summarize with this: Field of Glory is, at its heart, a multiplayer game. The AI isn’t terribly challenging even at the toughest settings.

Which is what I said earlier. It's a multiplayer game moreso than a single player game. The ai is bad and the graphics are still horrible. I might as well play Centurion Defender of Rome as the graphics are just as good and at least the ai is one of the few good ones in computer gaming.

ORIGINAL: killroyishere

Well I think Jim Zabek from the Wargamer says it best:

So I will simply summarize with this: Field of Glory is, at its heart, a multiplayer game. The AI isn’t terribly challenging even at the toughest settings.

Which is what I said earlier. It's a multiplayer game moreso than a single player game. The ai is bad and the graphics are still horrible. I might as well play Centurion Defender of Rome as the graphics are just as good and at least the ai is one of the few good ones in computer gaming.

Killroyishere

I am considering buying this game. However, I do appreciate good graphics to go along with my 24" LCD. I wonder; could you be so kind as to put up a couple of screen shots of this game? Perhaps you could include a situation where the ai is being less than intelligent?

You know what they say Killroyishere; a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps you can save me some money. I'll be watching this thread full of anticipation for your screen shots and analysis. Thanks.

BTW, just to help others understand your observations, perhaps you should mention the scenario which you use in your analysis. Thanks again.