Three Moves Ahead

Rob, Bruce, and Troy "They Call Me Pony Express" Goodfellow attack the mailbox. We asked 3MA listeners for questions and got them in spades, so tune in to find out the panel's favorite games, podcasts, and desert island picks.

Bruce and Rob are joined by game designer Ananda Gupta to discuss the idea of historical accuracy in games. Bruce gets down to the point by looking for a definition of "historical accuracy" and whether it's a bonus, a detriment, or just another facet of wargaming.

Rob Zacny and Troy "Flava Flavius" Goodfellow examine the latest Total War game, Attila. Following the dizzying heights of Shogun 2 and the despair-filled depths of Rome 2, Attila shows that Creative Assembly can still soar like so many proverbial eagles. The praise is effusive in this show as both hosts are happy to see the series return to form. Rob breaks it down: "Attila... basically awesome."

Rob, Rowan, and Sean Sands fulfill our listeners' requests by taking a deep dive on the newest expansion for EU4: Common Sense. The latest DLC (and associated free update) brings notable changes to the game's systems. Are they all for the better? Should this be called EU5? How many kids are on Rob's lawn, and should they get off of it? Credit for the episode title goes to listener @semitext, who angers me by coming up with something as good as "EU4ever" before I could.

Paradox returns to World War II with the upcoming Hearts of Iron IV and a recent press event found Rob, Rowan, Fraser, and Gamers with Jobs' Sean Sands playing a preview build of the simulation. The results? Mixed feelings. Amidst glimmers of hope for an improved HoI on the order of the successful EUIV and CK2, the panelists found a confusing interface, a lack of direction, and plenty of room for improvement before the final build.

In the beginning, there was Panzer General and it was good. Soon after that came Panzer General 2 and it was even better. After that was another game we don't talk about. Fast forward a decade or so to Panzer Corps and things were back to good, unless you asked Troy, and some time after that we reach this week's topic of Panzer Boat. Rob, Tom, Bruce, and Troy "HMCS Uganda" Goodfellow get together to talk about Order of Battle: Pacific, a game that superficially shares a lineage with the venerable Panzer Corps and other Slitherine games. Rob and Troy took a shine to it while Tom and Bruce decide that they've sung this song, danced this dance, and sunk that carrier before. Hello Kitty is invoked, JRPGs are explained, and the Pacific Theater in general is likened to Warhammer 40K.

Roguelikes. They're not strategy games, but they're everywhere. Well, parts of them are. Very specific parts, but rarely all of them, at least not enough to make everyone happy. To discuss these finer points, Rob gathers a veritable rogue's gallery of panelists and experts. Tyler Sigman: game designer and creator of the upcoming Darkest Dungeon. Darren Grey: Roguelike developer and current host of Roguelike Radio, an entire podcast about the genre. Michael Hermes: 3MA audio guy with the ability to bug Rob until we finally do a show about roguelikes. Absent: Troy "I Only Play Minotaurs" Goodfellow.

Rob and Troy talk to Jamie Cheng and James Lance of Klei Entertainment, developers of Invisible, Inc, a turn-based tactical game that focuses on stealthy people doing stealthy things.

This week, Bruce Geryk hosts Kim Kanger, designer of Dien Bien Phu: The Final Gamble, as well as a series of wargames covering France's 20th century colonial wars. They discuss the appeal and importance of the wars in Algeria and Southeast Asia, as well as the unique challenges of designing games around them.

MoO-ve over, other space 4X games -- Star Drive 2 is here and ready to impress. Fraser Brown (it's definitely Fraser this time) and Rob discuss the finer points of perpetuating genocide on a mass scale for the best reason possible: a lack of any other viable option. Star Drive 2 improves on the original and brings a ship building module that Rob actually enjoys, a feat not seen since GalCiv2 which is only accurate because I am writing this summary and Rob is not. Also, Endless Space is a great game. Love, Michael.