10/4 Progress

Time to close down the Strategy Category! Space Empires 5. I'm not too keen on this game yet. It is the last one on the entire list that is sketchy. But, with no suitable replacement at this juncture, we'll press on!

Last time around, I had tried to make a treatise with the alien race that appeared near my initial space clusters. And they were complete A-Holes! They turned down both of my fair offers and countered with self-centered schmucky offers. When I turned those down, they assaulted and took an unprotected acquisition alone in a recently charted cluster, and destroyed a few of my scouts who were just minding their own business. For this, I begrudgingly respect these guys.

THIS MEANS WAR! Too bad I have no real warships. That is a situation that obviously needs to change. And so, awaaaay we go!

I realize that all I have in the system where those bastards took my colony, is another colony ship. I decide to move it the hell out of there, and I'll leave that situation alone for now. My primary problem appears to be a giant colony that I want to build lots of stuff on but can't because there's no resources available. I set up some ships to go over there and hopefully if I understand how to do it right, they will drop resources in a few turns. We'll see if that works out.

I gain a technology level in Medical Science. I drop that to zero and put some research points into Storage Facility research. Six more turns until I gain the first major technology area I put tech into: Mathematics. Based on what's in my first two systems, my next big one will be researching how to colonize Ice Planets. That will take 200,000 research points and I only get 5000 per turn right now to use. I clearly need to build research facilities on future colonies.

Here's my main system. All of the Red Bull Horns signify ships or planets I control. Yes, my symbol is Cattle or Beer, or Cattle Beer. That should strike fear into the hearts of my alien competitors!

Over the course of the next few turns I build a few more escorts and blaster ships, and start to move them into already existing fleets. Its going to be a long time before I am really battle ready for conflict with anyone else, especially since I am just learning the ropes on how to play this game.

Here's the second sector of space I have claimed as my own. Lots of ice planets! Brrrr!

I am starting to get a handle on the micromanagement aspects of this very complicated game. And as a result, it is starting to grow on me. I will continue to play this one and see what I can make of it, so our 48 game roster is, in fact, complete. It's clear that this is a very slow moving entity, which is a nice change of relaxing pace as compared to most of the PS2 games.

Ooh! News report on current events in the Empire! Neato Mosquito!

After a few more turns of examining building queues, and setting up existing colonies to build facilities a little smarter than I originally did, an hour has expired and my third round turn on this game is now up!

But, this game is starting to grow on me, like moss!

That's a checkmark!

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The Scoreboard for Round 3:

Three games to go, and two of them I just never got around to attempting this round. Once I complete one more of the three, I will have access to Round 4, that's one of the rules of my system, so I don't get stuck with the last two games. But, since the only one I've attempted and failed is the Ace mission on Mercenaries, we'll see if I can blow through Assassin's Creed and Dragon's Age Origin next.

MIND TEASERS: COMPLETE
Chess Titans - 3
Gabriel Knight - 3
Mahjong Titans - 3
Sherlock Holmes - 3
Spider Solitaire - 3
World Series of Poker - 3

STRATEGY: COMPLETE
Civilization 4 - 3
Gladius - 3
Master of Orion: 3
Space Empires - 3
Suikoden Tactics - 3
World of Mixed Martial Arts - 3

SHOOTER: COMPLETE
Crysis - 3
Fallout 3 - 3
Killzone - 3
Medal Of Honor - European Assault: 3
Ring of Red - 3
Star Wars Battlefront - 3

PURE ACTION: COMPLETE
Devil May Cry - 3
God of War - 3
Gran Turismo 3 -  3
Madden Football - 3
Soul Reaver 2 - 3
Soul Caliber - 3

SWORD SLASHERS - COMPLETE
Champions: Return to Arms - 3
Dark Cloud - 3
Drakengard - 3
.Hack Infection - 3
 Oblivion: Elder Scrolls - 3
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams - 3

EPIC - FANTASY - 5 of 6 defeated
Dragon's Age Origin - 2
Dragon's Quest 8 - 3
Final Fantasy 12 - 3
Suikoden 3 - 3
Suikoden 4 - 3
Suikoden 5 - 3

EPIC - OTHER GENRES 5 of 6 defeated
Kingdom Hearts - 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 3
Mercenaries - 2 (Super Long Ace Mission!)
Rogue Galaxy - 3
Star Ocean - 3
Xenosaga - 3

ROCKSTAR MISSION BASED 5 of 6
Assassin's Creed - 2
GTA: Liberty City Stories - 3
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - 3
Manhunt 2 - 3
The Warriors - 3
Urbz - 3

GAMES THAT GOT THE BOOT DUE TO SUCKAGE

STRATEGY
1) Europa Universalis III

SWORD SLASHERS
1) Shadows of Rome

SHOOTERS
1) Freedom Fighters