I was a war gamer, Avalon Hill board games if any of you can relate to that. I played Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz, The Arab-Israeli War Game, culminating in Squad Leader, that series of games. Squad Leader is a great game, by the way. Those cardboard game pieces would be impossible to play with now after having played computerized war games but it was a great game in its moment.
I had played Wizardry on the computer (an Apple if I recall correctly) but I acquired a Windows PC next and went looking for a computer war game, something with tanks. I found something, I don't remember the game but I do remember the company was Sierra. I also remember that it did not install correctly on my computer (Windows 95 I believe). I took it back to the store and they accepted the game back but would only give me an even up exchange for another copy of the same game or store credit. I was turned off by the installation problems I had been having so I didn't want to exchange for the same game and therefore went browsing through the game shelves looking for something else. I noticed that Microsoft had just released a game. I figured that a Microsoft game would have to work properly with Windows. I looked at the box and I wasn't sure if I would like a war game set in ancient times but at least it was a war game and it seemed like it might be worth a try.
I loaded it up and started to play. The scenarios in single play proved difficult at first so I went to the internet to find some help. I typed Age of Empires into Yahoo Search and up came Age of Empires Heaven. I have been in and out of here ever since. This forum helped me solve single player and then gave me the information that there was an active on-line community playing each other at something called the Internet Gaming Zone. I went there and started to play and have not been able to play single player for anything but start practice ever since.
This game has given me countless hours of enjoyment. It has been a wonderful companion and a continuing challenge.
My favorite games? 3 on 3 tiny map RoR, random civ, no reveal, with two English guys as partners (I live 7 time zones away from those guys, we had to play mostly weekend afternoons for me, late into the weekend nights for them). Ancalagon was always one of the two, there were several guys who filled the other spot, English friends of Anc. That game is pure and total mayhem and it never, ever, ever reaches Bronze. Tool as fast as you can, get a tower up. You want your first wood pit (heck, it might end up being your only pit) near both wood and stone so that you can also start to mine stone. You are going to need stone both for more towers and for slingers to combat your opponents towers. Combat begins almost immediately. A basic strat for that game is to group your villagers into groups of 3 and when the clubbers appear 3 vills can bone down a single clubber with ease. Get them back to work, keep trying for Tool.
Tiny map Mediterranean is a hoot, this narrow strip of land around a little bathtub of a lake. In tiny map Continental 3 v. 3 you often begin the game, even in No Reveal, with one of your enemy's Town Centers within your range of sight. As I said, combat begins almost immediately.
Countless hours of enjoyment.
Pay no attention to the ManBehindTheCurtain.[This message has been edited by GreatWizard (edited 10-15-2005 @ 10:09 PM).]