[PCarroll]

OK, I'm back--and this time I know what I'm talking about. I've read the manual, and yesterday I played (and won) my first full game of Dom2.

At this point, I'm wondering why it was such a hurdle to get used to the UI; actually it's pretty straightforward. I guess I've been away from board games for so many years that I'd forgotten how they're played; I've been spoiled by the blinking units and drag-and-drop features of modern computer games. But now that I've played my way through a whole game, the Dom2 UI makes sense and works just fine (though I'm still annoyed by the extra "Host" click required due to its being geared to multiplayer).

Is it good? Well, it captivated me enough that I spent most of the day yesterday playing it. Furthermore, I played it on our upstairs computer, because my wife had the other one tied up all day. Our upstairs computer is older and slower and evidently needs a new video card. I was unable to view any battles (because they play at a frame rate of less than 1 per second even with resolution set to its lowest), and there were serious delays in scrolling (which made me wish there were a strategic thumbnail map I could click on to quickly see some other part of the world).

I played Caelum, with Mictlan as an "Easy AI" enemy. After reading the manual, I finally found out how to choose a regular map instead of a scenario (my earlier attempts were all scenarios, unbeknownst to me). I chose a map with a "bottleneck," and I made a point of racing to that bottleneck and fortifying it--which left me free for the rest of the game to take my time conquering independent provinces and learning the magic system. The end of the game was anticlimactic; Mictlan was a pushover by then.

So, it's a good game. Kinda long, though. And I'm surprised how tough some of those independent provinces can be to conquer. Some highlights were hiring a mercenary assassin who managed to kill the enemy God; casting Hurricane on enemy provinces; summoning some army-enhancing creatures; and as a sidelight, building a "fish" army to conquer the surrounding oceans.

More later. My wife needs the computer again.

--Patrick