Slitherine

I saw the other thread on "Custom Battles".

I understand the issues. I only play SP.

I find the game near perfect for my purposes. There is far more meat than any TW battle with the best mods.

A wealth of options and nuanced units.

I like the simplicity of there being 3 main classes of units and a few subtypes. I like there being a few main categories of terrain. I like the armies starting in visual contact.

What I am saying is I like that there is real strategy and replayability without overwhelming complexity. So, I can be into a game and have a plan in 30 minutes.

I like MIUS and CM, but you could easily spend 2 hours on map study, unit reviews, planning ...

There is something to be said for rich play without a big up front investment before every fight. It is this upfront investment that keeps me from starting many games these days.

* NOTE: Aging studies show "executive function" (planning) of pre-frontal cortex falls off with age, and I don't doubt it. So, for me at this state FOG2(M) are near perfect. I recently bought GG's WITW/WITW2. They are brilliant pieces of work, but I probably get in 2-3 turns/day. I think the older I get, the less I am inclined in investing huge chunks of time on staff work and little on playing. I want to be playing.

Thanks, Richard!

A nice post. Yes, good to critique and ask for improvements but essentially the game is a masterpiece. I have played a lot of strategy games on the PC and there is nothing like this out there. Quite a few PC wargames reach a reasonable level but few become truly great (especially in the tactical turn-based genre). What makes the FoG 2 series truly great is the streamlined design, appealing graphics, and prompt battles. There aren't huge amounts of instructions or lots of information to process in order to play a game. Most of the time, you can learn as you go. That old adage 'easy to play but hard to master' comes to mind. As underneath the hood there is a lot happening as you can see from all the posts about deep streams, missile damage, armour advantage, and how to play cavalry heavy armies, etc, etc.

Also, there is a lot to look forward to with all the DLCs still to come!

Thanks guys.

Awesome Richard the whole series is fantastic

Do you think you will expand into FOG Napoleon ?

JacobTheGreat wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 2:50 am Awesome Richard the whole series is fantastic

Do you think you will expand into FOG Napoleon ?

It might, but don't hold your breath.

JacobTheGreat wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 2:50 am Awesome Richard the whole series is fantastic

Do you think you will expand into FOG Napoleon ?

It will be the ultimate experience in the turn-base strategy games

It will be the ultimate experience in the turn-base strategy games

That would be upgraded Pike and Shot!

Upgraded Pike and Shot would be cool. With a map reaching to America

The only thing this game need to do in the future is add variety of unit textures also add new appropriate unit models.Such as Anglo-Saxon hirdsmen,Gallic warbands,Early Roman cataphracts,the current Roman cataphracts in 197-284 AD list use the late's models(Which wear the berkasov type helmets from the 4th century AD,really wired) etc.The other parts of the game are indeed perfect and I really enjoy the game,already played hundreds of hours.Thanks to Mr.Richard Bodley Scott and God bless him long live.

Yes, for me, the biggest improvement that could be made would be to add more unique units to the games like the Persian Immortals and Spartan Pikes in Ancients, and the Islemen, Welsh Spear, and Highlanders in Medieval.

Also adding more unit textures as Dux says. A bit less of a uniform Shieldwall mass, etc.

Still hoping for FOG2 Fantasy and the Lord of the Rings/Hordes of the Things mod (somebody has to make the 3D models first though). Seriously, it continues to amaze me how balanced the game is and how the suspense can build through a game, with the result being on a knife edge right to the end, particularly against human players.

Whilst disagreeing with Vakaar about the need for a fantasy expansion (at least while there are so many other historical eras still to be explored,and expansions of the Biblical armies) I totally agree about the wonderful balance in the game given such asynchronous armies and I dont know of another game where there can be such swings of fortune between sides in the course of a couple of dozen turns.

Really fine game.

Seriously, it continues to amaze me how balanced the game is and how the suspense can build through a game, with the result being on a knife edge right to the end, particularly against human players.

For a long time, it was a tossup for me as to whether the original Combat Mission or Field of Glory 2 series was the best game I have ever played. My final conclusion is FO2 is my favorite game of all time. The amount of action, challenge, suspense and tension in a quickly played FOG2 game is simply unmatched.

If I was being ultra critical I would say that some of the DLCs were average in terms of what they added to the base game. Immortal Fire excluded which was great. Things went up again with Medieval and its first DLC.

Biblical is probably my least favourite era. I hope the next Biblical DLC will ramp the action up.

With the imminent release of the 2nd Medieval DLC I am hoping it's time to finally get the Swifter Than Eagles biblical DLC done.

SpeedyCM wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:26 am With the imminent release of the 2nd Medieval DLC I am hoping it's time to finally get the Swifter Than Eagles biblical DLC done.

I think the plan was to complete or do more Medieval DLCs and then do the Biblical DLC after that. This will be clarified in time I am sure!

I have many sins... can't wait to redeem myself in the crusades