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Pirates! yar! And a Merry Christmas
Last four days (since about Thursday evening) I've been playing Sid Meier's Pirates! non-stop, with the only breaks being those relating to food, sleep or other bodily functions.
1st conclusion: It has been four days of utterly glorious Christmasy relaxation for me. Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year, everyone!
2nd conclusion: This is indeed Pirates!. Ah, the joys of turning the formerly Spanish Main into English and Dutch instead!
Actually scratch that -- it's not just Pirates!, it's Pirates! new and improved. You needn't devote yourself to mindless plunder and treasurehunting alone -- now a part of the game becomes escort (accompanying governors, peace treaties, ultimatums, immigrants to their various destinations) and defense duties as well (you can see other ships engaged in combat and rush to the aid of one of them, as you choose). Or intercepting invasion fleets.
One example from the game I just finished. After I'd conquered almost all the other smaller Spanish towns in the area, I set my eyes on one of the biggest Spanish prizes -- the city of Havana. Travelling to Havana however about 350 or so crewmen, I noticed a Spanish invasion fleet *departing*. I chose to ignore it because I didn't want to lose troops that I'd need in the coming battle -- however before I even reached Havana, the game informed me that Spain had just conquered the town of "Florida Keys". After I had conquered Havana, I thought to take back Florida Keys as well, but my crewmen had diminished to about 100 by that point -- I wouldn't have the strength. I knew I could get more crewmen in neighbouring English and Dutch cities, but at the same time I saw fleets bringing more Spanish troops to Florida Keys. Knowing that this would reinforce the garrisson there to the point where it'd be hard to conquer it backm I intercepted and sunk them, first, before rushing to get more crew and taking back Florida Keys...
Anyway, after four days of play, spanning a carreer from about 18 year old to 45 years old, I had become Duke for the English and the Dutch, a Count for the French, had a large bounty on my head by the Spaniards, was married to an attractive governor's daughter in Port Royale, had saved my lost sister, uncle, aunt and grandfather, defeated all nine other dread pirates of the Caribbean, avenged the evil Marquis Montalban who had wronged my family, and discovered a lost city of the Incas.
Another cool thing was how smooth the transition in occupations ended up being -- from ship-plunderer to conqueror, I only realized how long it had been since I'd been interested in mere ships (rather than towns), when the first mate notified me that the crew was becoming hungry and I realized that I needed to start buying food supplies from merchants, when in years past I had just been looting it from the ships I attacked.
And then from conqueror, a smooth transition to what's essentially a law-enforcement agent of the Crown -- as the friendly cities increase, so did the friendly sources of information to notify you of the various spies, blackmailers, traitors that you can hunt down and arrest in several cities.
All in all -- utter coolness. And very nice nostalgia for me.
--
Went to cancel my army's postponement back on Thursday morning -- they told me I'll be called in in May. Which is a couple months later than I had expected actually. Anyway all good.
--
More posts later. Now that I've finished my first big Pirates' gaming session I guess I'll have a bit more time to make lj posts. Will go tomorrow to order the graduation photographs. And will probably make some movie-reviewing posts as well. We'll see.
1st conclusion: It has been four days of utterly glorious Christmasy relaxation for me. Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year, everyone!
2nd conclusion: This is indeed Pirates!. Ah, the joys of turning the formerly Spanish Main into English and Dutch instead!
Actually scratch that -- it's not just Pirates!, it's Pirates! new and improved. You needn't devote yourself to mindless plunder and treasurehunting alone -- now a part of the game becomes escort (accompanying governors, peace treaties, ultimatums, immigrants to their various destinations) and defense duties as well (you can see other ships engaged in combat and rush to the aid of one of them, as you choose). Or intercepting invasion fleets.
One example from the game I just finished. After I'd conquered almost all the other smaller Spanish towns in the area, I set my eyes on one of the biggest Spanish prizes -- the city of Havana. Travelling to Havana however about 350 or so crewmen, I noticed a Spanish invasion fleet *departing*. I chose to ignore it because I didn't want to lose troops that I'd need in the coming battle -- however before I even reached Havana, the game informed me that Spain had just conquered the town of "Florida Keys". After I had conquered Havana, I thought to take back Florida Keys as well, but my crewmen had diminished to about 100 by that point -- I wouldn't have the strength. I knew I could get more crewmen in neighbouring English and Dutch cities, but at the same time I saw fleets bringing more Spanish troops to Florida Keys. Knowing that this would reinforce the garrisson there to the point where it'd be hard to conquer it backm I intercepted and sunk them, first, before rushing to get more crew and taking back Florida Keys...
Anyway, after four days of play, spanning a carreer from about 18 year old to 45 years old, I had become Duke for the English and the Dutch, a Count for the French, had a large bounty on my head by the Spaniards, was married to an attractive governor's daughter in Port Royale, had saved my lost sister, uncle, aunt and grandfather, defeated all nine other dread pirates of the Caribbean, avenged the evil Marquis Montalban who had wronged my family, and discovered a lost city of the Incas.
Another cool thing was how smooth the transition in occupations ended up being -- from ship-plunderer to conqueror, I only realized how long it had been since I'd been interested in mere ships (rather than towns), when the first mate notified me that the crew was becoming hungry and I realized that I needed to start buying food supplies from merchants, when in years past I had just been looting it from the ships I attacked.
And then from conqueror, a smooth transition to what's essentially a law-enforcement agent of the Crown -- as the friendly cities increase, so did the friendly sources of information to notify you of the various spies, blackmailers, traitors that you can hunt down and arrest in several cities.
All in all -- utter coolness. And very nice nostalgia for me.
--
Went to cancel my army's postponement back on Thursday morning -- they told me I'll be called in in May. Which is a couple months later than I had expected actually. Anyway all good.
--
More posts later. Now that I've finished my first big Pirates' gaming session I guess I'll have a bit more time to make lj posts. Will go tomorrow to order the graduation photographs. And will probably make some movie-reviewing posts as well. We'll see.
Sim pirates
On an unrelated note, one of my lj friends made an amusing response to Ukraine's recent election
http://www.livejournal.com/users/iconoclast/311322.html
and I think you may get some amusement from it. Knowing what this is for you from yoru comments and for Europe's future, congratulations.
I imagine this may begin the end for Putin, along with his ceding some territories to China and Japan.
Went to cancel my army's postponement back on Thursday morning -- they told me I'll be called in in May. Which is a couple months later than I had expected actually. Anyway all good. So does that mean you will do your time sooner or not at all?
May your duties be as boring and safe as mine were (I get out in 12 days) if you do go.