martiniii
Joined: January 2010
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Post by martiniii on Apr 29, 2014 1:15:30 GMT
I've begun my earnest, hardcore, absolutely-going-to-beat-it-this-time playthrough of this game. And boy howdy, it is hard. I had thought the reason I couldn't get beyond the Tree Realms of Alburga on my first attempt was just that I hadn't yet figured out the ins and outs of the game, i.e. the most efficient way to earn money, when to buy which item, etc. That may have been most of it, but even when I know what I'm supposed to do this game gives me trouble. I lost count of how many game overs I got while trying to earn enough money in the first two years of Tree Realms to buy the flamethrower so that I could handle the huge onslaught of Juggernaut Hordlings in year 3. My first problem was buying the knight contract upon reaching the Tree Realms, when it turns out you don't really need it until year 2. Without that 250 crowns, I couldn't afford to get my cow farm started, and so could barely even pay taxes for those two years, much less buy a flamethrower. So time to reload my save from the beginning of the Tree Realms. After that it took quite a few tries to get the optimum haul from year 2. I had to remove a couple cows in the last season so that I could have a chance at having enough to both pay taxes and buy the flamethrower - only to find that I'd forgot to factor in my knights' wages. Sigh... Reload the old save again. Then when I finally made it, I noticed that my cows weren't making as much money as they should. It was only then that I realized that cows which are standing on rubble squares don't make any money. Which means that the only sensible thing to do is reload the save yet again and try for more money. Sigh. It's almost funny, but despite all that, I'm having great fun playing this game. I've learned to play it in little sittings to keep from getting frustrated with it. And now that I finally have the flamethrower, it's quite a thrill to go from having to spend an eternity slowly whittling away at a Juggernaut Hordling to being able to vaporize one with just a single shot of the flamethrower. I hope they sent a half dozen out at once so that I can just laugh and roast them all like weenies. And whatever else is going on, there is always the simple joy of slicing hordlings into red goo, and the exquisite panic of trying to save as much of the village from the swarming horde as you can.
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Post by bradcap1 on Apr 29, 2014 2:24:00 GMT
I haven't played this in quite a few years but I really do like this game a lot. Who knew Kirk Cameron would become such a douchebag?
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
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Post by martiniii on May 1, 2014 23:37:09 GMT
Wait, you know Kirk Cameron? Cool. I do like his performance in the Horde; he's well-suited to the role. Speaking of the FMVs, I just saw the Horde's broadcast for the first time. I almost split a gut at "Mmm... Peeled eyes." And... After all these years, I finally beat the Tree Realms of Alburga! Twice, actually, since the first time I forgot that it was the last season and so didn't sell off my cows. I finished that area with a hefty sum in my bank and all the items I wanted purchased. On top of that, since it's been a few days since I logged in, and yesterday I was on a Horde binge, I've already finished the Fetid Swamps of Buuzal. I blitzed through the first two years there on my first try. It seems like each area has its own exclusive hordling type, and luckily for me, Swamp Hordlings are generally less troublesome than Forest Hordlings. I have to admit, though, that I never got the Fetid Swamps "figured out". My town's growth stagnated after the first year, due to being blocked off on all sides by swamp squares. The game says you clear swamp by planting trees, but that doesn't work very well. Peppering the area with saplings netted me very little dry land, most of it in isolated islands. Even where trees grew up, half the time it was right out of swamp water without creating any dry land. The only reliable way to create habitable land that I could find was to have cows create rubble squares and then clear the rubble, and given how insanely expensive it is to clear rubble, that's obviously not a viable option. Then there's defending cows. For the first three years there I did fine, but for years 4 and 5 I had to just sell them all rather than take a loss on the horde devouring them. Cows can go on swamp squares, but walls and knights can't, and Swamp Hordlings attack too quickly for Grimthwacker alone to stop them. Roscoe, while awesome, is really only useful if the horde attacks in a single wave; otherwise the second wave hits the cows while you're dealing with the first, and if you teleport back to the cows, Roscoe cooks them. So, I really can't figure out how they expect you to maintain cows in those conditions. I settled for harvesting trees to pay my knights' wages; didn't make any money those two years, but at least I got through. So, on to the desert! I know I'm still not even halfway through the game, but I'm beginning to think I really am going to reach the finish.
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savaroth
Joined: September 2012
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Post by savaroth on May 2, 2014 10:18:14 GMT
Wait, you know Kirk Cameron? Cool. I do like his performance in the Horde; he's well-suited to the role. Everyone who watched "Full House" should know who he is. I believe that these days he's known for his religious, anti-gay BS.
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Post by dquick on May 2, 2014 12:05:35 GMT
Full house? He was the star of Growing Pains
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Post by bradcap1 on May 2, 2014 15:18:35 GMT
Full house? He was the star of Growing Pains You are correct. But he got the rest of it right. Cameron is a douchebag.
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,116
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Post by martiniii on May 6, 2014 16:01:45 GMT
Everyone who watched "Full House" should know who he is. I believe that these days he's known for his religious, anti-gay BS. What makes you think it's BS? Sounds like an unnecessarily elaborate deception to me. Besides, that hardly seems like enough to earn a "douchebag" label. Anyway, I had quite a frustrating time with the first two years in the Kar-Nyar Desert. The Flute of Schmegu is unavailable for the first year, so dealing with the Desert Hordlings in the final season is a pain. They're too fast, aggressive, and resilient to deal with using old Grimthwacker; they can't be attacked while outside of town so you can't use the Flamethrower or Roscoe without destroying everything; archers help but are insufficient; and there's no place to put walls or pits. After some 50 tries, I reached year 2 with barely enough money for the Flute. In my next play session, I loaded up my save to find it had been corrupted; items I hadn't bought were in my inventory, and items I had brought were either back in the store or completely missing! Luckily I've been keeping saves at the beginning of each area, so it only took another three hours of reloading that save over and over to beat year 1 with sufficient money again. Eventually I determined that Flue of Schmegu + Roscoe is an unstoppable combination in the desert. I just needed to run to the uninhabited rubble pile nearby, lure the horde there with the Flute, and have Roscoe toast the poor fools. Usually I'd need to seek out a couple wayward hordlings at the end, but I managed to do this with Roscoe only burning down a house or two. I completed years 3 through 6 this way without having to restart once (either due to death or significant damage to my town). I reached the maximum of 30 cows for the first time. It was almost boring. Expanding the town kept it interesting, though. Irrigating the desert is mercilessly tough, since the land won't get moist without water within two squares, so you end up blocking off the town's growth with the very waters that are supposed to encourage it, and in turn the town's growth frequently blocks you off from extending the waterways! It's actually a fun and engaging dilemma to work your way out of. Unlike the Swamp, though, I think I can safely say that I got this one "figured out", walking away with a sprawling town and a bounty of cow-produced cash. So I'm moving on to the final area, the Frozen Wastes of Vesh. Though I don't know what awaits me there, with over 6,000 crowns in my pocket, and the unstoppable Morningstar and Flute in my equipment, I think I'm more than good to go. The only items I haven't purchased are the Rock of Healing and the Bomb, both of which seem like no more than unnecessary clutter for the weapons menu, especially now that I have the Morningstar. I think I'll be beating the game today!
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Post by bradcap1 on May 6, 2014 19:56:23 GMT
He is without doubt a douchebag.
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,116
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Post by martiniii on May 8, 2014 19:30:17 GMT
He is without doubt a douchebag. Oh, come on. Even if you don't like how bananas taste, surely you can recognize from a purely scientific viewpoint that their design is frickin' brilliant. He didn't even get into how easy they are to slice and use as a topping. There's a reason it's called a banana split and not an ice cream split. Back on topic: Yes, I did beat The Horde yesterday. Please start the parade. How many people have beaten this game, anyway? The Frozen Wastes of Vesh, while long, weren't too much trouble. Oh, there's plenty of menace thrown at you, more than any previous area, but with the money and experience I'd accumulated over the previous areas I was able to pretty much cruise through it with only a handful of reloadings. It did take me a while to figure out how to expand the town, I'll admit, even with the hints they provide. And it wasn't until after I'd already beaten the game and was doing a bit of final experimenting that I discovered that placing bombs melts huge swaths of snow! Could have made quite a bit more money if I'd known that. I decided against buying the Trident of Wimbli, as it seemed way too much to spend on an item that you only get for the last few years. I just thwacked the Horde using the flute in combination with Grimthwacker, flamethrower, or morningstar (whichever the occasion called for), supplemented with a couple archers, and I got by fine. Pretty much broke even each year, even without knowing the trick with the bombs. The Ice Hordlings are tough, but very fun to fight! The ending was... odd. On the one hand, they took the predictable route to resolving the Chauncey/Chronus Maelor conflict, to my disappointment. But in doing so, they raised about a dozen questions which are left unanswered, and the whole feel of the ending scene was different from the rest of the cutscenes. There are a lot of awkward (in a bad way) moments, too. It's as though a different director did that scene. Doesn't keep me from feeling like a million bucks just for having reached it, though! By the way, anyone else notice that when you go to the Kar-Nyar Desert, you can see written on the edge of the map, "Here there be Sequels." That got a smile out of me.
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Post by bradcap1 on May 9, 2014 2:02:39 GMT
Wow! Congrats!
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Post by bultje112 on Sept 9, 2015 13:34:15 GMT
is this a hiddem gem? I read good things about it and it's some kind of medieval strategy game right?
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,116
Location:
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Post by martiniii on Sept 10, 2015 4:28:14 GMT
is this a hiddem gem? I read good things about it and it's some kind of medieval strategy game right? Yeah, it's a very unique blend of simulation game, real time strategy, and action/adventure. It's definitely a good one but very, very difficult - not for the impatient.
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Post by xDerekRx on Sept 10, 2015 6:56:30 GMT
Horde is another one of those games that I passed over at Blockbuster thinking it looked awful. Although Ive heard very decent things. Might be due for another try. Astal was the other game Id pass over at BB all the time, even if there was nothing else to rent.
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Post by bradcap1 on Sept 10, 2015 9:00:58 GMT
Horde is another one of those games that I passed over at Blockbuster thinking it looked awful. Although Ive heard very decent things. Might be due for another try. Astal was the other game Id pass over at BB all the time, even if there was nothing else to rent. You still have Blockbusters?! And they have Saturn games?!
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Post by xDerekRx on Sept 10, 2015 22:00:46 GMT
Horde is another one of those games that I passed over at Blockbuster thinking it looked awful. Although Ive heard very decent things. Might be due for another try. Astal was the other game Id pass over at BB all the time, even if there was nothing else to rent. You still have Blockbusters?! And they have Saturn games?! I figured the past tense would give you good idea I was referring to 1997ish Back in 96-97 when I had only a Saturn, Blockbuster Video had a horrid selection and never really updated it. Although like I said games I considered awful back then I love now. Astal as I mentioned I wouldnt even consider renting but now its a gem of the system. I would rent Tomb Raider for Saturn and get bored but last year after beating the 360 one, I ran through the entire Saturn version and loved it. I used to tell my friend at school that Sony was paying off BB to have more of their games for rent I swear for about the last year they had maybe 12 titles for Saturn in a small area. And the entire 1997 they may have added 1-2. One was definitely Fighters Megamix I remember. I think Sega worked a deal to have that for rent early. The other was either Duke3D (which I owned) or 1-2 sports games. The games I remember renting back then were Shellshock, Black Dawn, Robotica, Thunder Strike II, Tomb Raider, Corpse Killer (lol), Soviet Strike maybe. So ya it was pretty bad. Most of those helicopter/plane shooter games were popular and well reviewed, just not my bag. Tomb Raider was probably the only good thing I rented. But again I passed over renting Fighters Megamix, Panzer Dragoon, Astal even Nights until my friend bought it, and I think I even passed over Gallactic Attack.
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