No Open Games?

[gavril]

I've been trying multiplayer for a couple of weeks, and it is a steep learning curve - but then I expected that! What would be useful is a brief tactics guide, similar to the tabletop DBA tactics guide on the old Fanaticus website. This listed separate info for how to handle Warbands, Knights, Blades etc., as well as more general tactical and army composition notes. At the moment - unless I'm missing something (quite possible!) and there's an online manual or something that I've missed, a new player has to just learn by painful trial and error. As Richard (I think) pointed out earlier, while losing the majority of your games as a newbie is to be expected, getting thumped in almost every single one can be a little demoralising, particularly if you can't work out what you're doing wrong...

BTW, I posted on the tech support list but haven't had a response so far about plans (or lack of them) to make Immortal Fire available as a disk rather than just a download. I'm an old-fashioned sort, and get nervous about just downloading new stuff. Even if the download works fine, how easy is it to back it up - is it just a set of easy-to-copy files, or does it update your existing game as it downloads? Anyone have any info/views on this?

Thanks!

[76mm]

At the moment - unless I'm missing something (quite possible!) and there's an online manual or something that I've missed, a new player has to just learn by painful trial and error.

There is an online "manual" here:

http://www.hexwar.com/field-of-glory/he ... index.aspx

But this document was never well-written, very accurate, or easy to use, and by now is also probably hopelessly outdated because of changes in the last several patches. Kudos to the devs for all of the patches, but this manual is really awful.

Even if the download works fine, how easy is it to back it up - is it just a set of easy-to-copy files, or does it update your existing game as it downloads? Anyone have any info/views on this?

You just save the file when you download it, you can back it up anywhere or anywhere you want to. I don't see any need at all for a CD. Just keep the serial number as well. I usually print the order confirmation (with serial number) as a pdf and keep that along with the saved game file. Easy peasy.

[gavril]

Thanks for that!
J