[Panpiper]

I've been playing turn based strategy games since around the age of five. They were just relatively simple board games back then, Risk, Stratego and the like. Given that I am now 48 years old, things have evolved a lot and my gaming interests have grown along side. I discovered both role playing games and war games pretty much at the same time at the age of 18, so 30 years ago. My interest quickly grew to a virtual obsession with point build design systems, an obsession which after a couple of decades has at least receded into a mere fascination.

My favorite games back then had massive rule books, binders inches thick when everything was collated. Star Fleet Battles, Advanced Squad Leader, the Europa war game series were my bread and butter, Axis and Allies was a game children played as far as I was concerned. My game boards covered ping pong tables. High Guard and Trillion Credit Squadron ate up a year and a half of my life, the Hero Games System more than that. I was a hard core gaming fanatic. It inevitably became my job where I managed a hobby game store for ten years. For those years, there was virtually no one on the planet who knew more about gaming than me.

About fifteen years ago, computer games started taking over both the market and my interest. I've never been a fan of first person shooters or real time gaming. Anything where victory requires reflexes or an intuitive recollection of a zillion esoteric key stroke shortcuts is totally out of my league. I suck at any such game. I like to think, to analyze the situation and plan strategy. I've tried online multiplayer role playing games and would be happy to enjoy them if they featured real time chat within the game client (to my knowledge, there has only been one such game released to date, and yes I enjoyed playing it). Solitary RPGs where I can move at my own pace or turn based games have always been my style. RPGs with a turn based combat resolution are among my favorites (Fallout, Jagged Alliance, etc.)

Master of Magic I adored when it first came out. I still have Master of Orion on my system and it still gets played. Civilization stole years from me. I've purchased literally hundreds of computer games over the years, played most of them for but a few weeks and then on to the next. Those that I go back to repeatedly are few and far between. I prefer games with a lot of meat to them. It has been a constant frustration to me that pen and paper games could be insanely complex, but computer games, where one can have a computer to assist with the complexity, those almost invariably have ludicrously simplistic game mechanics. I understand how market forces have driven the current domination of simplistic 'twitch' games, but I very much regret it.

I first discovered Dominions in 2004 and played Dom2 extensively. I only recently purchased Dom3 and it has again rekindled my interest. I expect Dominions is one of those games that will stay on my system to be returned to year after year. It has the level of detail and scope that I liked in the games of yore. All it is missing is a point build system for race design. But DrPraetorious is working on that and I am paying close attention.