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Post by iilforddave on Sept 17, 2009 17:57:16 GMT
if anyone remembers the "Machiavelli (merchant prince)" series of games from the early 1990s en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Prince_%28series%29 and enjoyed them, then I'd suggest this There is less of the political intrique that that game had, though the you can actually fight your sea battles in this one. And plenty of diplomatic options You pick one of 8 East India Companies to start (Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Holy Roman Empire (Germany/Austria) The map isn't hidden so you know who stocks what, you have africa, Middle East and Indian subcontinent to play with. There are pirates to content with. Its a good game, although the ships are expensive to build and run, and very vunerable if run on solo missions, so it could ruin your company early on if you lost a ship to pirates that contained most of your companies assets, IE 100 tons of tea will have cost you £170,000 to buy, a full shipment of high value goods can cost a packet. You can take over ports, but this can be a costly exercise, and I found early in the game, its best to wait for the crown to offer a fleet for the express purpose of taking over somewhere. Mainly as you will need far superior forces to succesfully invade somewhere, so you would need a fleet of 5, fully stocked with marines, to give you a 2 to 1 advantage in troop numbers. and once you own a port you have to maintain it, improve facilities (though the crown will offer you a bonus to do these things from time to time, usually about 50% of cost) I haven't managed to get to grips with the naval warfare part of the game yet, which is something I plan to do, maybe doing the tutorials, as its quite key to the game, you can do an "auto-resolve" on them , but it always destroys the enemy ships if you win, and sometimes you would be better off capturing them, 1 to nick their cargo, and 2 its another ship to add to your fleet. Your ships don't have an infinite range, so you must make sure certain ports are either yours, or neutral at all times, or you are fucked ..... You can attack a port, take the loot you find, and then "give it up" , this can be a handy fund raiser if you have a big fleet of Warships with Marines, but are stuck for a bit of cash flow, just go and plunder some port, can get upto £30k in loot from a neutral port, what you find in a rivals port will depend on how well they are doing, and they will probably declare war on you, which will put you trading vessells in danger from them. The only downer for me on this is that you can't access any other european port at all , even if that countries company goes out of business, or you are in an alliance with them. You could need a certain product from europe that is in short supply to trade on the otherside of the world, but if its not in stock in your home port, you are screwed. You can put ships on an "auto-trade" function, but its very basic, you can't set a level that they can spend on goods, or what they should buy, so generally they will buy the right stuff, but they will also clear out the companies accounts to fill their ship, and if they arrive and their is no cash in the account they will just bugger off again empty, so its best to micro-manage each trading fleet till your company accounts can handle the blow of 400 tons of tea being bought at once ;D |
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Post by rhodesy on Sept 17, 2009 19:34:55 GMT
Yaaawn
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Post by robscfc on Sept 17, 2009 19:41:17 GMT
zzzzzzzzzzzz
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Post by Funky on Sept 17, 2009 19:43:10 GMT
Shit Bin
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Post by bayernoatcake on Oct 3, 2009 22:47:27 GMT
This game sounds like the sort of thing I'd love! ;D
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Post by rhodesy on Oct 3, 2009 22:50:30 GMT
This game sounds like the sort of thing I'd love! ;D God your life must be boring ;D |
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Post by bayernoatcake on Oct 3, 2009 23:01:08 GMT
It is Rodsey but I also like military strategist games.  |
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Post by iilforddave on Oct 3, 2009 23:43:01 GMT
I've since discovered that you can actually enter another companies overseas ports if you are in a full alliance with them. I've had a good go at the naval battles, and they are tough, and you can't back out of them without some kind of skirmish. So if you are in a small ship, and get into a battle scenario with a bigger ship, its often best just to turn so the wind is right behind you and just ride the wind, fire a barrage as you get in range of the other vessel and keep on going , and hope their salvoy doesn't sink you, or rip your sails to shreds, using your greater speed to flee, having said that, if you are up against a 90 gun ship of the line, unless you are in something similar even a run like that will sink you, their broadsides are lethal, however they are big lumbering slow vessels and if you are in a small ship like a cutter or a sloop you can easily out run them, and no ships have forward or rearmounted guns
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