I'm a Loser

[duncan]

No, not the Lennon/McCartney song. I've been playing Spartan since it came out here in Spain back in june 2004. I stopped playing it on a regular basis when I bought RTW, and I really liked this new game and I played a lot until I learned about a bug that spoiled my game. I can't play it right now because I know that bug exists, It may sound silly but that's the way that it goes. So I reinstalled Spartan and I found out it was as enjoying and rewarding as always.

But I'm loser. When I stopped playing back in october I was playing very hard with Rhodes and the likes. I can'y say I'm a strategy god, I've been a disaster in almost every game I've played, from EU2 to Caesar (painfully bad at this game), but I was able to win with almost everyone. Now I started a Grand Campaign with Spartan on very hard and AI is kicking my ***. I restarted two times before I could barely advance with my whole mini-empire intact to Spartiates and then I said "Well, it's all over, spartiates are back in town, I'm going to beat this damned AI. No pity". But, heh, this isn't the truth. Well, I have my spartiates, but they eat like elephants. No food to have them wandering around Peloponnese. Ok, let's build some farms. Oh no, not enough building materials. But I haven't got money to buy bricks or to go east to Athens. Well, I'll build slowly my empire, sit back few turns and then I'll go after them. No luck. Arcadians are coming, Zacinthians are coming and bloody Athens pounding on my back door. Oh, man. People are getting angry, they don' have temples to pray their gods. Ok, use my diplomats. The arcadians are happier with me. My armies are enough to keep the zacinthians at bay. Let's go east. All armies to Athens, please. Ok, everythinhg in place...oh, no, the arcadians have betrayed me and I'm losing all of my western cities to them. I think I'll restart...


I know many of you play Spartan on "impossible" highest difficulty level. Hats off to you. And hats off to the dev team, because I still find the game challenging after all this time, even if it's because of my inept playing. It's good to see that you're beat by the AI from time to time even if you're experienced player. But I nearly throwed my CPU down the window yesterday.


Tell me that it's not only happening to me

[bodidley]

It's only happening to you.

I mean the part about throwing the computer out the window, those things are expensive

[anguille]

Don't worry....i haven't been able to win once with Rhodos. The game is challenging and that's one of it's greatest qualities. Haven't played for a while as i am busy with Chariots of War....haven't won a single, yes SINGLE, game yet

CoW is the most difficult for me...

[duncan]

throwing the computer out the window, those things are expensive

Don't know how to say to my girlfriend that I want one of those new fancy graphic cards

Chariots of War....haven't won a single, yes SINGLE, game yet

CoW is the most difficult for me...

Pffff....I won my very first game on normal , then swichted to hard and get my *** kicked again.


My gamer days are ending... ...I'll start cooking or something. (well, I cook now anyway)

[efthimios]

Don't wait till someone else attacks you. Attack them first, fast and hard.

[honvedseg]

The hardest part about a Spartan campaign game is getting started. If you take the big risk at the start, and take one extra city, you can then sit back for a while and build. The extra edge that city gives you should be enough to tip the scales. If your initial gamble fails, and you get trampled on by the neighbors, you can always just play again. I almost always concentrate on improving food and brick production immediately, rather than pumping research into military tech and lots of troops right away, because without the infrastructure and food, those armies are going to starve, and will soon be outclassed anyway.

I usually play Spartan on the "Hard" setting, as it is enough to give me a challenge when the AI launches its counter-attacks, but is still managable. Any lower difficulty and the AI seems to just park, and setting it harder makes the AI churn out enormous waves which steamroll my cities, and wear down my defenders by sheer numbers, even if I win against the first two, three, or even four army stacks in the same turn. Favorites in the early scenarios include Corinth and Argos, while in the Grand Campaign I've have good luck with the Spartans, Carians, Pisidians, Bythinians, and Boeotians, plus a few others, but don't always play the scenario out past the "inevitable" stage.

With CoW, I have never played the Grand Campaign out to its bitter end, but have essentially "beaten" it several times. After taking about 70 cities or so, and being the largest power in the game by a substantial margin (but still at only 600 points or so of the 1000 needed to win), I get tired of all the micro-management and restart. I've won most of the smaller scenarios using a variety of powers, a variety of difficulty settings, and widely varied approaches to the problem, and have only had one game last long enough to see cavalry, before beating the scenario. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally get crushed like a bug....