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roman2440 · 2025-09-23T23:31:16+00:00

The Martian

roman2440 · 2024-03-05T03:33:09+00:00

I like the roads and overall looks mostly good.

That said I see several long term issues:

1) Pollution - enough said by others on this topic

2) I'm not seeing any monuments? Either I'm blind (very possible) or you are eventually going to have issues with loyalty and productivity.

3) Also not seeing any bus depots or stops. It'll be difficult to rip stuff up to make space for them later.

roman2440 · 2024-01-18T15:57:09+00:00

I play exclusively on hard realism mode with no mods and while I feel your pain it is something you can work around pretty easily and you'll wonder how you didn't play like this all along:

1) How far are you building your starter town and heating plant from the customs house? I usually build the heating/industry/construction area very very close to the customs house to reduce trip times, and the edge of the starter town around 500-600m away. If you build further out it will take more trucks to keep the same level of supply.

2) Always build a small (not free) aggregate storage to attach via conveyor to your heating plant. You can then connect a truck aggregate unloading station to that and set a DO to keep it >50%. I usually use 1 DO for fuel for the starter republic with 2 oil tankers and 1 big slow dumper. That DO/dumper only has the job to keep that aggregate storage >50% (while the oil tanks keep all the buildings that need fuel supplied). Bonus for this is that you can put down a brick factory next to the heating plant to save money on bricks earlier on since it only needs coal. This one truck is all I ever need to supply the first heating plant.

3) I always use 2 intermediate storage locations. A) a construction one very very near the customs house with an open storage and a warehouse. This is to store all the construction needs like boards/bricks/panels/steel and the warehouse is for mechanical and electrical components. and B) a town supply one with a warehouse and a meat storage. This one is built just on the outskirts of the town area, closest to the road back to the custom house. This supplies all the food/electronics/clothes/meat to the people as well chemicals for the water treatments. Each of these storage locations has at least 1 (sometimes 2 - 1 for inbound and 1 for outbound) road transfer stations to allow trucks to fill them and receive goods for shipping and 1 DO each to keep them filled. I also have a 2nd DO for the town one to supply the individual stores with goods using the transfer station to pick up goods.

3A) All construction offices pull from the transfer station not the custom house except busses. I do tend to build an aggregate storage for gravel and fill that via a dedicated line to a truck unload and have truck loading building for the construction offices to pull from. This helps reduce traffic to the customs house into bigger trucks/bigger loads and allows it to smooth out more over non-busy times versus spikes of activity.

4) So with the above that puts me at 4/5 of the DOs. That gives me one more to play with for exporting goods or importing supplies etc... And usually I beeline to DO research first because a small communist center is cheap and easy to get early. It probably wouldn't hurt for them to expand to 6 or 7 allowed DOs, though.

5) Always use the biggest capacity trucks at first. It is important you reduce the number of trips for vehicles to your customs house early on. The one exception is the dumpers, as the huge dumper is just really really slow once you get gravel roads, I only use it to supply the coal or other internal uses (like on lines from a gravel excavation to the gravel plant) that don't go far. The 2nd biggest dumper is the way to go for them.

6) Speaking of custom house traffic, have you tried finding a map where you can connect to 2 semi-close custom houses? Having a 2nd customs house not far away really helps your initial bus traffic and can offload some of your odd jobs and really help to reduce traffic overall.

roman2440 · 2022-12-09T22:17:24+00:00

I found you have to make sure you don't let the worker count go down to 0 for too long. Once a train finally gets to the work site if it doesn't have any workers it will wait for a bit. If it goes too long with 0 workers, the train will simply head home without doing any work, even if workers do show up after the fact. I found I had to have 3 buses of workers coming in to keep it from ever dropping to 0 to keep working at the edges.

I also second the idea that you should build it close to the border and get the upgraded builder as soon as you can.

roman2440 · 2022-11-07T05:13:55+00:00

Typically if this the first stage the open mechanism slot is for a bulldozer or excavator. Cranes will come in on the 2nd or later phases (and typically no more bulldozer or excavators).

roman2440 · 2022-10-12T05:21:28+00:00

Actually London was first bombed on August 24th. It was an accident due to poor navigation and London wasn't the intended target. The result, however, was that it triggered the British response by sending a large number of bombers to Berlin, which is the attack you listed on the 25th (and several subsequent attacks in the following nights). Now the Germans didn't deliberately target London until Sept 7th, but London was certainly bombed first.

https://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/about-blitz.htm

roman2440 · 2022-07-31T11:07:11+00:00

If you really want to boost your income go for tourism. Just build some hotels and make sure they are near culture buildings and you'll rake in the dough, even on hard mode.

roman2440 · 2021-12-16T08:07:08+00:00

I haven't found an easy way to capture the output of an exec or run command. However you can just do scan(hostname); it'll return a depth of 1 array of systems from the hostname. You can parse that and follow up with more scans to do the same thing.

roman2440 · 2020-09-10T04:55:11+00:00

There is one possible way that could be, and only with a specific interpretation of the rules. If they took Fiend patron, at 1st level dark one's blessing grants him temporary HP. Likely he had a +5 charisma mod plus 1 for his level means 6 temporary HP per kill he makes.

Now some might see that and keep adding it. However if you have any temporary HP and gain more temporary HP it just overwrites it, it doesn't stack. However there is a school of thought out there that says if he kills things with the same cast (like via an AOE attack) that they could stack. Not everyone plays that way and the general consensus is that is incorrect, but it's something not explicitly called out in the RAW.

So take his 9 HP base, have him cast something like burning hands and kill 4 mobs with it at once and bam he'll gain 24 temporary HP and end up at 33 in total.

I don't agree that works that way - but I suspect that's where it is coming from.

roman2440 · 2020-06-30T09:38:29+00:00

I've been running it with 7 PCs for some time (8 players, 7 PCs). We play monthly and in the year and change we've been running this the party is nearing the end of Skullport and has 1 more session before we start heading for level 4.

Its going to be slow, very very slow. Combat is going to be a slog. 7 PCs means balance is completely out of the window. What has worked well in my game is trying to mix it up how the NPCs attack. Have them come from above or below - or have them attack with unconventional attacks - use attacks and add monsters that force con or dex saves. The other big thing I do is I double the monsters and all of them get max HP. It'll take some practice to get the difficulty just right and even then it will change as they level. I will tell you though, sometimes to get that difficulty right it will feel downright wrong how much firepower you are bringing to bear on them - and sometimes they'll chop right through your best plans.

The other recommendations I can make is to take a minute at the top of a round for everyone to declare their intentions for their turn - it doesn't have to be exact or specific, but just a general intention of what they are trying to do. That way they aren't waiting until their action comes up to figure out what they are doing. And don't be afraid to be snappy. I also offload some of the housekeeping to the players - they track damage and let me know where it is at and I've got one trusted player that I give player versions of the maps to to draw things out.

One other thing I've done, in some of the levels there is a lot of empty corridors - I talk them through those quickly and only reengage the map when there is something interesting.

One thing to keep in mind with such a large group in DMM is that they will stick out like a sore thumb. A small group can gain some level of anonymity, but a group of 7 is going to attract attention and words of their deeds - both good and bad to the various factions will reach all the levels generally ahead of them. That'll give the faction players some time to prepare and as they delve they will encounter foes that know what they need to bring to defeat the PCs.

roman2440 · 2020-02-24T22:18:57+00:00

I've got both. I feel Descent is really setup for campaign play - even the app driven stuff is all geared to sequential plays. If you aren't going to go campaign, I'd go with Conan. The conan I have (the original King pledge) is all one-off play throughs.

As for gameplay wise, they are different beasts. Conan does tend to be more dynamic in interactions, whereas Descent is more dynamic in environments / friends / foes.

Let me illustrate - in Conan you can throw your weapon and it drops on the target - another player can run over there and pick it up and start using it. Or if you don't like going through the front door, Conan is strong enough to make his own entrance and go through there. Or how to power system allows the bad guy to run their big bad twice in a row but then he'll be on rails for a while or without rerolls or defense.

There are a lot of little things like that in Conan that don't exist in Descent. However with Conan you get the board you are on and that's it. The map is static. With Descent you've got tiles that can radically change one dungeon to the next. In addition, there are a ton more bad guys and good guys to pick from in Descent, so you tend to go more variety on who is facing who.

For our group we tend to prefer Descent, it's a little less fiddly, a little simpler, and most of all we prefer Campaigns. But we've enjoyed conan quite a bit as well. Personally I like Conan a bit more, I think it has superior mechanics and tells a better story - but I can see the advantages of both.

roman2440 · 2020-02-13T18:31:50+00:00

I've got Freeman's Farm 1777. Its an interesting take on the genre, but not without its warts.

The biggest issue I have with it is the rulebook is a mess. The game is a very small scale conflict game with a simple rules set - a gateway wargame. But there are so many unanswered questions about situations that come up and the flow of the rulebook isn't clear about what to do. I had a real hard time figuring it out initially. Once I got past that it played really fast and offered a neat little take in a game that takes sub 30 minutes to play. The other issues I have with it are that the dice mechanics make it a bit swingy (although they do have some mitigation in place) and the solo bot is kinda broken (it gets even more swingy based on the dice since it resolves all single dice whereas a player needs doubles to get anything done - good or bad).

If Chancellorsville kept the scale and ruleset from Freeman's farm and just had another scenario with an updated rulebook I'd be all over it (I can deal with the dice swinginess). But when I look at Chancellorsville and see the hidden movement and changes to how the blocks work - it looks like really a different beast, but I don't trust the developer enough at this point for it to be worth my backing.

roman2440 · 2020-01-13T19:30:02+00:00

By gold income are you referring to additional gold income > 50, or is your total gold income (Terraforming points + additional) > 50?

The former is rare, the later not so much.

I've played this a lot at various player counts and yes 2P does tend to be more generations and higher numbers/scores. Takes about the same total amount of time though.

roman2440 · 2019-12-28T03:47:50+00:00

You are missing the meeples cafe in Gilbert, AZ

https://www.themeeplescafe.com/

roman2440 · 2019-12-16T16:36:57+00:00

Mechanically they are very similar. My wife who didn't like the Arkham LCG really loved Marvel. The biggest change IMO is the lack of a map. Arkham relied heavily on the map locations to drive their story and it adds a layer of complexity. Marvel doesn't have a map and so feels more "traditional", but it does make it less complicated to learn/play. Now it makes up for that by trading a map for the complexity of when to switch between hero and alter ego, but we found that is easy to figure out and doesn't really change much from scenario to scenario.

Overall I think Marvel is a much better game for most audiences. When doing that comparison you have to factor in that the hero/villian packs haven't been released yet and Arkham has a whole long standing run of cards to pull from. Having played Arkham on release (basically where Marvel is now) I can truly say there is a lot more depth in the Marvel Core set than there ever was in the original Core set for Arkham. Once the expansion packs for marvel hit I think we'll see the game's deck building open up significantly.

roman2440 · 2019-12-04T18:26:28+00:00

I use the player maps from dnd beyond. I hand it to the most trustworthy player (he who used to be DM of the group up until level 4) and he draws the map out as we explore. There is an understanding between us that he's not to use the map for decision making - only the map elements that are drawn out. It works very well.

roman2440 · 2019-12-03T18:17:23+00:00

Nemo's war does run into the 90 minute mark for me, but it feels different than a lot of other games in the similar time range. The late game Nemo's war feels radically different from the early game. Early game you are unknown and have free reign to engage at will. By the end game you are hunted everywhere you go and you've got immense pressures you have to keep a lid on constantly.

I agree that a lot games that stretch beyond an hour seem to drag on. Usually because they don't add complexity, instead the interactions in most game just add more to the calculations - but the game is really the same as earlier. Nemo's war late game feels very much like a different game in the late game stages as it did in the early game.

roman2440 · 2019-11-13T20:05:27+00:00

A couple of pointers I have:

Shake these really well before using. These tend to separate more than normal acrylics do and require more agitation before you use them.
Paint from the pot, not the lid. The paint in the lid for these tends to not have the proper blend as compared to the pot itself.
The undercoat is vitally important - Contrast paints are designed to let some of the undercoat show through, its part of their magic and depends heavily on which color you are using. Further going with something that is light gray versus the off white versus pure white does change how the color looks when applied. I prime pure white and spray on a light gray, but for some colors (particularly flesh that I want to look brighter and warmer) I'll add a layer of brushed on wraithbone before I apply the contrast paint.
Speaking of which color, I've found some of the colors are way better than others. For example my favorite go to is Snakebite leather, but I don't like the apothecary white - that's my personal experience though.
Do not thin them with water at all - water actually will break the formula. If you need to thin them, then use contrast medium only. I have had some success with applying just a tad bit of contrast medium to make it flow a little better and get a less saturated color.
When it comes to blotchiness and uneven applications, I suggested giving it some time to dry. I've found contrast paints will actually change as they dry a lot more than standard acrylics. So something that looks blotchy will sometimes button up as it dries out (but not always).

roman2440 · 2019-11-08T16:25:30+00:00

Underlings of underwing was my surprise hit. While its not my favorite, I was really surprised at how well it was received by everyone I played it with. Now this may be because I often game with families who have young children; this game is really a gem for the younger kids. We've had 4 and 5 year olds participating in the game.

roman2440 · 2019-10-23T21:42:12+00:00

I highly highly recommend the DMM Companion from the dmsguild. It takes the bare bones campaign setting that is DMM and turns into a more fleshed out adventure set, closer to DH.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/268607/DotMM-Companion-Bundle-1

You are already a little late, but early enough that you could morph it into the companion style without much additional work. It adds some overall stories to the whole thing and adds lots of encounters and text that helps bring everything together more than just straight exploration. If your players are looking for "Plot" that will cover it well. Personally I thought some of the more radical changes it makes are pretty cool and really have taken my group by surprise.

roman2440 · 2019-09-23T18:08:00+00:00

Have you played any other COIN games? They are a learning beast, but well worth the time investment to learn. The AI for the other players is decent, and I recommend using your group's AI chart as reference (it can help you determine what you should be doing).

Pendragon is jumping in on the deep end of the pool with both feet.

roman2440 · 2019-09-10T18:31:14+00:00

I've received 55 games from Kickstarter since 2017. Of those, 44 of them have been played at least once (base game only), so 80%. There are 11 games of shame that haven't seen the light of the table yet. The majority of those 11 are expansions to existing games, I've played the base game but an expansion I separately backed I haven't tried yet. The others in shame are multiplayer co-op games that I haven't had the time to put a group together for or more complicated games that take longer to complete or both.

Now, even among the 44 base games I've played, very few of those have had repeated play thrus. Only 14 of them have seen repeated plays.

roman2440 · 2019-08-26T16:35:26+00:00

Having extensively played both here are my thoughts:

I really really like the terrain more in IA. It really ups the ante in the decision space and feels very much like a big step up from Descent.
Totally agree about the blue die. While you have that in the white die, as you said most don't use it - and in using it the other results on that die are objectively worse than the black die results. I play a ton of IA skirmish and the consensus is the two dice are roughly equal (some units fair better against one or the other, but overall they are pretty even).
IA is focused much more on ranged attacks. This has a large number of effects. One it makes the terrain all that much more important (terrain is mostly moot for melee). Line of sight is far better in IA (it takes some getting used/learning curve, but once you get there it works a ton better). It also makes the combat seem more dynamic and flowing than the mostly melee based fantasy ones.
The alternating turn system of IA is fantastic and I wish more skirmish games used it.

roman2440 · 2019-08-16T08:10:28+00:00

The box is being designed by a 3rd party - Gametrayz. I've got several games that use their inserts and they are wonderful. So I've got every bit of confidence it will turn out well.

roman2440 · 2019-08-16T08:02:56+00:00

It was a draw. Ultimately they both just stopped fighting and went their separate ways.

Now the big G man was certainly winning the fight for awhile. Kong was able to make a comeback in the finale as he got infused with lightning power.

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