Let's see... what else...
The quests are all clones of two types. The hero is largely useless in combat and when you do figure out how to make use of him or her, the awkward targeting and controls make it a chore to ride head-first into battle. The units are not really balanced. The battlefields can be too cramped with obstacles in seemingly random locations. My list goes on, but I'll cut it short. For a flash game, it's satisfying and fun, but there's not much too it, and the blemishes are too numerous to ignore.
Another complaint is that your soldiers are too expendable. All that equipment you gather is nothing more than vendor trash. I want to arm my knights and footmen with new equipment, even the occasional magic item.
Also, there's no difficulty curve. Once you've conquered your first castle, you know you have the ability to conquer ALL castles, so it's just a matter of taking the time to actually travel around the map doing it. Very anticlimactic, and ending with a "Congrats! Now here's the sandbox portion of the game that exists for no reason."
My kingdom for a dictionary! No, seriously, I'll surrender any number of my conquered cities if the developer can just learn to spell "points" correctly, not to mention the other few dozen jumbled words. Trying to read and collect information in this game is almost a simple word game in itself. "Is that supposed to mean compassion or concussion?"
This game is worth playing - fun, even, if you can forgive it its inadequacies - but also deeply flawed.
One of my largest complaints is that the battle is too chaotic. Half the time your men, who can't be controlled, are just bumping into each other. This game would be wild fun with Yackety Sax playing in the background.
Scorched Earth was better. Can't access the multiplayer component, so I won't comment on that, but Scorch was simple, and a successful clone of that ancient game should have been easy to put together. This falls a bit short, imo.
Absolutely adorable, and the puzzles have some weight to them, so it's never boring, unless you've beaten it or your brain isn't functioning properly.
For the most part it's pretty easy, though. Not too challenging. Is there another mission?
Lukarejec,
It's painfully slow in the beginning, but you can speed it up a few ways. Create a character with a 7 or higher in Agility. This will give you at least 6km walking speed. Now hire only mercs with 6km+ walking speed. There are two in the Poca Cosa - Caganel - Drushlak triangle. Once you've completed that first run of PC-C-D, you should be able to easily afford a horse and cart in Poca Cosa. Buy them. Sell all other animals and stick with horses alone until you get vehicles. Expand your trade to Okaidi, hire Pakuna Whirlwindhorse, arm your team as well as possible, and make a bee line for Qubba. In the Qubba region you're safe from robbers, so build up your cash supply and get vehicles (and fuel in Hara) ASAP. Once your carvan's travel speed is 15km+, travel is a breeze. Also, set the map travel speed to FAST in the options.
[part 2]
Soon, Qubba will produce Jewelry. Wait for it to hit around 800 dollars per piece. Buy it all. Find a city that wants it for around 4000 dollars. Sell it all. It should immediately devalue back to 800. Buy it again from the city you just sold it to. Now find another city willing to buy for 4000. Repeat until you have trouble finding buyers, then move back to the gold trade so Qubba can produce more Jewelry. I'm sitting on 30 million at the moment, which is both ludicrous and a measure of how bored I am at work.
This is, of course, a bug. You shouldn't be able to buy back the Jewelry immediately for such a huge discount. The economic system in this game is fragile. But, it helps with fund-raising, and you can do it at any point in the game.
For anyone struggling to raise those millions, or unsatisfied with how slow the Alcohol trade is, try this out for size (it's almost certainly a bug exploit):
[part 1]
Get plenty of fuel barrels. Fill up in Hara. Travel to the two far NE settlements. Sell the Fuel (leave yourself enough to travel back to Hara) and buy all of their gold. If they don't have gold, wait a day or two after selling the fuel and they will. Now travel back to Qubba and sell it all. Back to Hara to refuel.
Repeat.
Tuyop, Caganel is directly west of Poca Cosa, where the game begins, 258 degrees.
Primus, go to your complete cargo list and find the manual. You can use it from there and it will open up, allowing you to thumb through it page by page with a magnifying glass thing. Look for a section near the end on commands. All you need to know is the shutdown sequence. Unfortunately, though it tells you how to launch, you can't launch the missiles at Qubba or anywhere else. All that happens when you do is you lose (you're caught because of the commotion).
Yeah, Shaun, that part confused me at first as well. Here's the missing piece of what's puzzling you - you can't ride animals. Your caravan's speed is bound to the lowest speed value in your group. Party members can only have their individual speed increased by riding in a vehicle - a car or ATV. A caravan composed entirely of horses is still going to be bound by the speed of your slowest party member - probably 4 or 5km - until you put that guy, and the rest of your party, in ATV's or a Jeep or Hummer.
Shaun01:
If you get hurt that badly in battle, you're going to lose men. I think just moving when your character is that injured is going to inflict further damage, but I'm not positive. First, make sure you have enough food and water stocked - if you run out, you lose health. Second, go to your caravan's general screen and set healing to all wounded party members. Finally, when injured like that, STOP and wait until you've been healed to 50% or so before you move. Or reload. Medicine is used automatically, each hour, if you have it.
Primus, you might be the unfortunate victim of a bug, or you might have screwed up at some point in that quest's wonky time structure. Pay close attention to any time limits the NPC's seem to attach, directly or indirectly, and follow them strictly (to the hour, in game time).
I hope you saved in multiple files...
(The quest design in this game is one of the worst aspects by far.)
Primus:
Did you speak to the colonel while you were in the base the first time? He takes your pass away. You might need to go back to the counterfeiter and pay him for another one.
[end]
After battle, stay in front of the desert patrol troop that you're protecting, and wait as long as possible before engaging the next army regiment. Let your medical skills kick in and patch up as many wounds as possible. Before engaging, rearm your rocket launching soldiers and give as many grenades as they can carry to each soldier that used them in the last battle.
Repeat.
[part 5]
In combat, focus fire on the enemies with rocket launchers and grenades. Ignore those with rifles or machine guns. Take advantage of high strength troops by having them fling grenades from a long range, unless they're firing rockets. Have your snipers kill the rocket launcher baddies, then spread the bullets out among grenadiers. Remember that wounding the enemy also reduces their AP and makes it more difficult to move, shoot and throw.
The biggest problem here is if you are unlucky and end up positioned RIGHT NEXT to the enemy. They're too numerous to kill before they get to act, and a single army soldier throwing two or three grenades into your troops will ruin you. Remember that you need to obliterate EVERY army regiment, and you will need to be HEALTHY.
[part 4]
REMEMBER - the desert patrol troops can each defeat one army regiment. The second they encounter will defeat them with 100% certainty, but they will weaken them. Your goal here is to force the vast majority of the army regiments to engage the right half of the desert patrol wedge, they'll win, but the remaining army regiments will be weakened. Now loop over to the left and quickly engage the army regiments that are near the left half of your desert patrol wedge. Let each patrol take one regiment, then engage. Remember that you need to keep ONE desert patrol troop alive.
[part 3]
Travel to see Sheppard and tell him you're ready.
Travel north, keeping in range of your wedge.
When you notice the opposing cluster of army regiments, SAVE THE GAME. It's useful to replay from this point if you mess up.
The key to this, unless you're really good and prepared far better than I was, is to remember what Sheppard said - only one Desert Patrol regiment needs to survive.
Move forward to the front of the army regiment cluster. Attract their attention and draw as many of them as you can to travel to the right. This should leave the left part of your desert patrol wedge to deal with only a few regiments.
[part 2]
Now spend some time fighting police and looting their grenades. Or, just buy them with your own money. My strategy was to equip every soldier with a sniper rifle, 50+ rounds, military body armor, and as many grenades as they can carry. I made four exceptions and equipped my strongest soldiers with the best rocket launchers (look for the ones that have 60 explosive power), 2 rockets, and as many grenades as they could handle (it varied depending on their strength, but they should at least have 2 grenades and 2 rockets).
You're well-armed now. Don't worry about trading or keeping your caravan light. Load up on fuel, food and water so you can be sure you won't run out on the trip south and then back north to the capital. Buy lots of medicine, hire at least one really good doctor even if they're not very useful in combat, and all the +medical gear.
Just finished the game, finally. The end truly is punishing. In case it helps, I'll share my tactics. [part 1]
By this time, money should be no barrier to your preparations. Raise an extra million, at least, when you're doing the fund-raising portion of the rebellion.
With this money in tow, buy 4+ Hummer 1's. Hire as many people as will fit in the vehicles now, which is 5 per Hummer 1. I used 4 Hummer 1's and 20 mercs. In retrospect, another Hummer 1 and another 5 mercs might have helped.
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