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Entries from April 20th, 2010

Three Moves Ahead Episode 61: Classic Game Analysis – Imperialism

April 20th, 2010 · 27 Comments · Design, Podcast, Retro, Three Moves Ahead

  Troy, Tom and Bruce look at the classic Frog City/SSI games Imperialism and Imperialism 2. What makes this series one of the greatest grand strategy experiences of all time? Can a game this difficult and time intensive be made again? Bruce has a theory, Tom keeps calling Colonization the wrong name, and Troy is […]

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Difficult Problems

April 18th, 2010 · 8 Comments · Me, RTS

When it comes to RTSes, I’m not a noob. When I review a game, I start on “normal difficulty” to see how things work for the average gamer, but often bump it up to “hard” before long. I only pull back to “easy” when I need to see how a campaign story plays out and […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 60: Achtung Panzer and WW2 Tactics

April 14th, 2010 · 25 Comments · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead, Wargames, WW2

Troy, Rob and Bruce participate in the wonkiest Three Moves Ahead ever, as Dr. Geryk makes up for weeks of absences with another tour de force rant. How does Achtung Panzer compare to Combat Mission? What do we expect from a WW2 tactical game, and how do these expectations mesh with reality? Turn based, real […]

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A Wargame Collector’s Edition?

April 12th, 2010 · Comments Off on A Wargame Collector’s Edition? · Wargames, WW2

Sure it’s only in Europe, but a Collector’s Edition of Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 has been announced. I’m not really big on CEs in general. My office is a cluttered enough space without even more crap to deal with. A DVD on German tanks is a nice idea, but the History Channel has probably told […]

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Making Time

April 8th, 2010 · 11 Comments · Blogs, Me

The big problem with being a strategy gamer is that so many of them take a lot of time. I’m still slowly working my way through the Command & Conquer 4 campaign. I want to put more time into Distant Worlds. I want to get to the RUSE beta before it expires – maybe later […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 59: Distant Worlds – Space is Big

April 7th, 2010 · 12 Comments · Matrix, Podcast, Sci Fi, Three Moves Ahead

Troy, Tom and Rob talk about Code Force’s Distant Worlds, a 4x Space RTS that tries to tackle the challenge of ceding control. How can a game get past player paranoia about letting the AI handle things? When does a player choose to intervene? How can the AI failure at basic tasks undermine your confidence […]

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