sins of a solar empire

[Italian Jew]

Civilization has a little bit of strategy, but it fails when a Spearman can defeat a tank. I mean wtf? Game is more of luck and economic strategy, but the economic strategy part relies heavily on choosing the correct things on a tech tree. No warfare strategy whatsoever, it is just luck and trying to get a unit that has many health points.

[Captain Colon]

Civilization has a little bit of strategy, but it fails when a Spearman can defeat a tank.

Uh yeah a tank that's been weakened to the point that it has less fighting power than a spearman, and the spearman will still take heavy losses. Considering how much it would need to be damaged it'd be like a horde of spearmen attacking a pair of disabled tanks. It's not supposed to be one spearman vs one tank, it's like a regiment of spearmen at full strength vs an armored cavalry regiment at 10% strength. Combat in civ isn't complex or even sophisticated by any standard but there's more to it than just building a lot of something.

 

You can usually tell that a game has little/no strategy involved when there's only one way to win in the game. "Researching tech and building units till you win" doesn't count. For instance, the command & conquer strategy is to simply build a shitload of units until you win. Doesn't matter if they're just cheap shitty riflemen, you'll win if you have a screen full of them. In sins I've taken out empires with fleets of 30 or less because they were well-equipped (as far as strengths/weaknesses) to take on that enemy. That's why you don't see many strategy games without unit caps or some kind of "unit upkeep" anymore, it gets rid of the problem of "I'll just turtle and build until you can't stop my army anymore no matter what."

[phatman76]

I think there is strategy in SINS, however, once you get a strong fleet or two together and start steam-rolling, the game is over. The endgame has no strategy really. It is a race at first to develop, then a battle to get a majority of planets, then a long, drawn out massacre by the victor. Once you lose a decisive fleet battle, you've basically lost the game. That is my main problem. I loved Alpha Centauri and Civilization, but in those you could lose a few battles and not lose a game you had invested 20 hours in. Finally, there is little to the economic and cultural aspects of this game. They can't induce victory, you can't win by getting all the tech or making everyone love you.

 

I like the game, don't get me wrong, it just is limited. I love the graphics, scope, and battles. I especially like the way they did the stars and space background parts, much more realistic than some other space games.

[Italian Jew]

Yeah C&C and Starcraft and the lot are all rushing games. Fun but not that strategic. And for the record it was a full tank vs. a full spearman. I got jipped in the vs. system because it is set per game. My tank died, I reloaded the game and it died again. It was like 20 hits for the spearman in a row or however many points a tank has. The turnout of a battle is set before you actually fight which is a dumb system. Basically you must try and build units to rush and hope you get lucky.

 

I play Total War games myself because its got the whole package. Just attach the realism patch and make it difficult....good times, epic battles, smart AI...oh buddy.

[Captain Colon]

I got jipped in the vs. system because it is set per game. My tank died, I reloaded the game and it died again. It was like 20 hits for the spearman in a row or however many points a tank has. The turnout of a battle is set before you actually fight which is a dumb system.

Not true. Before a game you have the option of setting the seed for the random number generator to either be constant for the entire game or to change each time the game loads. If you check that option then you can just keep reloading the game until you win.

 

The spearman had like a 1% chance of winning the fight (if that, depending on what his promotions were); but there are no guaranteed wins, which makes sense considering there's no guarantees in combat. Is a group of spearmen LIKELY to defeat a group of tanks? Probably not, but COULD they somehow pull it off? Sure.

 

BTW that's why I always get at least two or three units in a stack that have maxed-out first strike and withdrawal promotions, it's brutal

[Italian Jew]

Well I mean a tank would just sit back and shoot the damn spearman. They coul,d also choose to run them over and seeing how spearman don't have any way of getting through tank armor or even opening the hatch, how could they win? Even if they were Spartans it would be impossible.

 

I just don't like complete turn based games. Too much luck

[Slavic]

Well I mean a tank would just sit back and shoot the damn spearman. They coul,d also choose to run them over and seeing how spearman don't have any way of getting through tank armor or even opening the hatch, how could they win? Even if they were Spartans it would be impossible.

 

I just don't like complete turn based games. Too much luck

 

Step 1: Ambush tank from behind

Step 2: Chill on top of tank till its crew comes out

Step 3: Stab crew with spear

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit

Step 6: Make Italian Jew mad

[Captain Colon]

Yeah, tanks are a lot more vulnerable than everyone thinks they are. They could just plug up the exhaust and kill the engine, then the tank wouldn't have any hydraulic power to move the turret and there's no way you're going to keep up with any close-range targets when you have to aim it manually. There's a reason IFVs were invented.

[Slavic]

Yeah, tanks are a lot more vulnerable than everyone thinks they are. They could just plug up the exhaust and kill the engine, then the tank wouldn't have any hydraulic power to move the turret and there's no way you're going to keep up with any close-range targets when you have to aim it manually. There's a reason IFVs were invented.

 

True, tanks can only be used efficiently if they work with other supporting units as a whole. Especially in urban fighting which is seen constantly in Iraq. Tanks are no good unless they have supporting ground troops so that they can be used to full efficiency.

[Italian Jew]

I am talking about open warfare as in Civilizations...not that any ancient spearmen would know what the hell a tank is anyway. You don't even need the main gun, just use the machine gun on the top.