Wargamers, modders, researchers, we Salute you !
Evenin all !
Here is a little account of how I came to be playing SPQR and writing long boring posts in the Total war centre
My first model soldiers
Many moons ago my father worked for a jewellery company designing and making original pieces of decorative jewellery and cutlery . In his spare time he would carve little metal soldiers from the Napoleonic wars, research the uniforms and paint them. As a child I would watch in fascination as he slowly pieced together little regiments of foot, artillery and cavalry from the Armies of Napoleon and Wellington. He would then create scenery for his units and act out skirmishes for me on our kitchen table. Time passed and several companies in England began to mass produce professionally die cast models of soldiers from different ages in a 25mm scale. As I grew older he taught me the history of the era and I learned how to paint the tiny pieces.
My first War game
Together we built a collections of soldiers that numbered more than 2000 pieces. In the evenings armed with tape measure, dice and rule books we would act out battles and vent a lot of anger. I loved the hobby but was never happy with the need to recruit other reluctant players, memorises rule books and pray that I wouldn’t role another 1 on the blasted die ! Eventually my father started a collection of Republican Romans and I began my own collection of American civil war figures in 15mm scale. The smaller scale allowed for bigger battles on a smaller table. To this day I still find myself eyeing up large kitchen and dining tables imagining the surface covered in a green cloth with thousands of little figures upon it.
The age of Electronics
Time passed and one day I found myself glued to a copy of Panzer General the age of computers finally grabbed my attention. Any of you guys old enough to remember Panzer General, Centurion or 486 machines ? I thought it was fantastic ! A chance to change history and only one player required ! So my little soldiers were retired to the display cabinet where they stand proudly, a memeorial to a different age. I must say It was a pass time that kept me out of trouble (well mostly) and I never had the time to be bored ! Now I was never a couch potato, but running around a field wearing shorts in the depths of winter and trying to hit people with a hurley stick takes a special kind of determination ! I tried rts games for a while, Age of Empires and Dune held my attention for some time but I tired of the build and bash routine. Then Shogun total war hit the shelves ! I upgraded my computer and bid farewell to socialising and relationships. This game was definitely a leap ahead of the rest, the graphics and the game play were incomparable. With war drums beating and warriors chanting in deep resonant tones, my armies fought to unify Japan and keep the greedy Europeans at bay !
The age of Modding
Shogun evolved into Medieval war, and eventually Viking total war. A new field of conflict, many rival nations to combat and numerous excellent additions to the game play. Yet despite the variety I was little unhappy with one element of the faction list. I could not play the Irish on the large map and thus bring my nation into the grand European field of conflict. I was in university at the time supposedly studying Medieval history and archaeology, here was the prefect opportunity to answer an age old Irish question . What would happen if the Normans had successfully conquered Ireland , continued to adapt to the culture and language and created a unified Norman-Gaelic Island with a central Government in Dublin. That’s when I decide to investigate the game engine and see if I could implement this historical supposition. Thanks to Activision’s mod friendly coding and many hours of trial and error I managed to achieve my goal. I created an entirely new culture with units, skins, buildings, characters, banners and appropriate music. It was the most fun I have had with computers in years. I realised I had actually taken a step back, here I was painting little men again, creating landscapes and watching my armies fight it out in campaigns and different scenarios. WICKED ! Oh ! To answer the historical question, well they are speaking Gaelic in Barvaria now lol
The Age of SPQR
As we all know, Activision attempted to bring the Total war genre one step further with Rome total war. In fairness they did a great job. Although many of us were unhappy with the details of final result the engine was there and the potential. However when it was released I was rather busy working and getting into adventures and had not time to attempt my own mod. I enjoyed the few games I played but found the overall affect lacking at best. Then one day I got broadband and began downloading anything and everything to do with games I liked. I stumbled across something called SPQR 3.0 and lost interest in all my other pc games. You see, for me its all about the battles and the little men on screen. One can not deny that when it comes to this area of modding Mr. LT 1956 is unrivalled. I investigated some other large and very interesting mods but I always found myself drawn to the place where the big battles were happening. Versions 4.0 and 4.6 left me with a big smile on my face. I was happy with knowledge that I would not be spending hours modding another version of total war because somebody else had the situation well under control. I must admit I still spend many hours adapting or creating new skins for my little Romans, but once a painter always a painterI did quite a lot of 3D work for the Archaeological field (is that a bad pun ?) and now I hope to waste some hours messing about with little Roman models. So like my father before me I can actually carve new men, yes I know it is much easier but it is close isn’t it ? So to all you gamers and modders out there thanks for reading this far lol Thanks for all the hard work and if you remember half of what I was writing about then like me you are getting old ! Oh ! And thanks Mr. LT1956 keep up the excellent work, I am enjoying 5 very much and anxiously awaiting 6
GACH MAITH DIBH,
SLAN for now
Nuada
You cant soar like aneagle when you are flying with turkeys
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I thought it was a great game but my friends always preferred Risk. I loved the Risk board, I learned most of my geography from board games ,lol but I hated the heavy reliance on dice. The only way I could get my friends to play Axis and allies was to set up the board before they arrived and promise not to play Germany. Panzer General II was great fun, but I was so disappointed with the third instalment . Did you ever try Mighty empires or space hulk ? 
Recently I visited the capital and to my amazement a Games workshop store was open and full of kids. I used to dream of having a military modelling shop in my country. I asked the kid behind the desk about a few different games and companies, with a contemptuous look he informed me that they didn’t exist ! 
Kids these days lol If you prefer the EB skins you can easily import some of them, perhaps with your background you should be painting your own, adapt those skills to the electronic age. 
Originally Posted by nuada
