Dune: Spice Wars - 4X/RTS from Wartales developers

[anvi]

Another purple one.

 

[AdamReith]

Ix is a DLC while "Ecatz" made release.

 

[Trithne]

Ecaz has fuckall unique mechanics, Ix has more involved stuff.

That DLC is way overpriced though.

They also released a sizeable patch with a significant change to combat and a lot of other mechanics, including the new Hero units, so now you can have Duncan Idaho fight Rabban on the map.

 

[Hellraiser]

Ix is a DLC while "Ecatz" made release.

Meanwhile somewhere in an Axolotl tank...

*angry tleilaxu bubbling*

 

[Storyfag]

Oh. Ordos without being called Ordos.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Oh. Ordos without being called Ordos.

This is nearly 25 years old and nu developers can't even get near these...

 

[Storyfag]

Nobody makes FMVs like Westwood. Well, EA continued for some time after it consumed them.

 

[covr]

Oh. Ordos without being called Ordos.

This is nearly 25 years old and nu developers can't even get near these...

It has some charm, but without nostalgia glasses on, it looks like crap nowadays.

 

[Hellraiser]

Emperor's still look quite decent, apart from full CGI shots (dat lens flare, reminds me of VD's mock preview of Mass Effect 1 back in the day). But the greenscreen background in the Executrix chamber aged quite well IMO.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Man, fuck this shit. Just bought all Westwood classics on Steam today and gonna find both Dune 2000 and Emperor Battle for Dune from abondonware sites. This weekend is the RTS fire baby!



Also, on topic, got Spice Wars recently and played 1 campaign map with the Harkonnen. It felt nice but can't see myself playing whole campaign like this?

 

[Trithne]

Man, fuck this shit. Just bought all Westwood classics on Steam today and gonna find both Dune 2000 and Emperor Battle for Dune from abondonware sites. This weekend is the RTS fire baby!



Also, on topic, got Spice Wars recently and played 1 campaign map with the Harkonnen. It felt nice but can't see myself playing whole campaign like this?

Campaign maps (as in the Conquest campaign) will mix it up, changing the maps (maps with no spice, maps with no sand, etc) and objectives (you'll get missions that require you to win certain ways or one case I saw was a mission where you have a Hero, 10,000 Solari, and can only hire mercenaries, your goal is to rampage through the map etc), so it will be different, but it's very much a long-form thing, play a mission every now and again.

 

[ArchAngel]

Man, fuck this shit. Just bought all Westwood classics on Steam today and gonna find both Dune 2000 and Emperor Battle for Dune from abondonware sites. This weekend is the RTS fire baby!



Also, on topic, got Spice Wars recently and played 1 campaign map with the Harkonnen. It felt nice but can't see myself playing whole campaign like this?

Campaign maps (as in the Conquest campaign) will mix it up, changing the maps (maps with no spice, maps with no sand, etc) and objectives (you'll get missions that require you to win certain ways or one case I saw was a mission where you have a Hero, 10,000 Solari, and can only hire mercenaries, your goal is to rampage through the map etc), so it will be different, but it's very much a long-form thing, play a mission every now and again.

There some really different missions, like one where you need to assassinate enemy commander using spy system and for a bonus you have limited time to do so. Only mission I had to restart due to not knowing you need massive Intel and Gold bank to succeed

 

[Galdred]

Oh. Ordos without being called Ordos.

This is nearly 25 years old and nu developers can't even get near these...

Possibly, but the Dune theme was not really a strong point of the RTSes, unlike the hybrid Cryo game. You are still fighting over Arrakis with quads and sonic tanks in the end. But I suppose Spice Wars is way behind Dune 92 too in the theme department, too.
How is the pace of the MP? If it is a 4X adjacent game that can be completed in a single sitting without using simultaneous play like Civ, that could be reason enough for me to try it.

 

[Trithne]

Oh. Ordos without being called Ordos.

This is nearly 25 years old and nu developers can't even get near these...

Possibly, but the Dune theme was not really a strong point of the RTSes, unlike the hybrid Cryo game. You are still fighting over Arrakis with quads and sonic tanks in the end. But I suppose Spice Wars is way behind Dune 92 too in the theme department, too.
How is the pace of the MP? If it is a 4X adjacent game that can be completed in a single sitting without using simultaneous play like Civ, that could be reason enough for me to try it.

Dunno about MP with randoms, but a game typically takes 2-3 hours, it has variable speed so if everyone's comfortable with the game you could bump to x2 and complete it in 1 and change.

 

[Galdred]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

 

[ArchAngel]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

Getting 30k hegemony points might be fastest one. That one requires a lot of villages, completing all spice quests and getting some special buildings that give hegemony per day.

 

[Galdred]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

Getting 30k hegemony points might be fastest one. That one requires a lot of villages, completing all spice quests and getting some special buildings that give hegemony per day.

Hegemony was not available in this one, but it was not as bad as I thought, as destroying one house made it much easier to acquire CHOAM shares. I should have beelined for the Harkonens, but these HQs hit hard in the end.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Even as Harkonnen, CHOAM is the easiest way to victory sadly. Get many villages, pump out that oppressing building, profit.

 

[ArchAngel]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

Getting 30k hegemony points might be fastest one. That one requires a lot of villages, completing all spice quests and getting some special buildings that give hegemony per day.

Hegemony was not available in this one, but it was not as bad as I thought, as destroying one house made it much easier to acquire CHOAM shares. I should have beelined for the Harkonens, but these HQs hit hard in the end.

Taking out HQ is the only one you need. You can try to beeline to area next to HQ, conquer it, heal your troops, bring in reinforcements and then take out HQ. Use Supply Drop intel operation to reach that area. Use other intel operations to soften main base while attacking it.

 

[Galdred]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

Getting 30k hegemony points might be fastest one. That one requires a lot of villages, completing all spice quests and getting some special buildings that give hegemony per day.

Hegemony was not available in this one, but it was not as bad as I thought, as destroying one house made it much easier to acquire CHOAM shares. I should have beelined for the Harkonens, but these HQs hit hard in the end.

Taking out HQ is the only one you need. You can try to beeline to area next to HQ, conquer it, heal your troops, bring in reinforcements and then take out HQ. Use Supply Drop intel operation to reach that area. Use other intel operations to soften main base while attacking it.

Does orbital strike help much against HQ, or is it more meant to be used against large concentration of troops before attacking?

I also tried assassination, but failed both times. Am I supposed to engage any force coming to clear the village of the cell or is there a subtler way?

 

[ArchAngel]

I like the way most things work, but it feels very slow indeed. The campaign victory conditions can be a bit overwhelming: wiping everyone out seems out of question (given that attacking from across the map is a bit difficult, between supplies, sandworms, and hostile militias), and getting closer to the enemy HQ takes forever waiting for government point to replenish.
The CHOAM shares also take forever to acquire, and getting elected several times in a row would also require a huge supply of influence points. I guess CHOAM still the only feasible way (to complete the map in less than forever), or did I miss something?

Getting 30k hegemony points might be fastest one. That one requires a lot of villages, completing all spice quests and getting some special buildings that give hegemony per day.

Hegemony was not available in this one, but it was not as bad as I thought, as destroying one house made it much easier to acquire CHOAM shares. I should have beelined for the Harkonens, but these HQs hit hard in the end.

Taking out HQ is the only one you need. You can try to beeline to area next to HQ, conquer it, heal your troops, bring in reinforcements and then take out HQ. Use Supply Drop intel operation to reach that area. Use other intel operations to soften main base while attacking it.

Does orbital strike help much against HQ, or is it more meant to be used against large concentration of troops before attacking?

I also tried assassination, but failed both times. Am I supposed to engage any force coming to clear the village of the cell or is there a subtler way?

Orbital Strike is the superweapon thing?
I have not used super weapon yet, it says it damages relations with Laandsrad and I always played all sides even when going for specific victory.

Assassination is hard, you need lots of intel and money before you start doing it. You must have 3 agents in that faction intel group and keep sending 200 intel worth assassins to fuck up their counterintelligence. And have enough money and intel to survive the penalties that ramp up. To start assassinating leaders I would wait for 1000+ intel and at least few thousand extra credits (and at around +500 daily gain of credits)

 

[Trithne]

Using a nuke will help with destroying a Main Base, but it won't guarantee it.

Specifically, it will take out half of it - It used to break half of the base's armour before the combat rework.

It also sets your Landsraad standing to zero, so expect Punishers to show up on your doorstep every week.

Taking out a base is intentionally difficult, but eminently doable. It does, like everything else in the game, require a bit of forward planning though. Set up supply drop ops and base sabotage, and bring the appropriate units. Expect to have to make a couple of passes, they don't regenerate health unlike everything else.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Taking main bases with the Harkonnen is easy, as long as you clear most of the enemy beforehand. Their ranged units can attack very fast and strip armor. Combine this with spy power that sabotage enemy base missile strength and you'll melt it pretty quick without taking much damage. Also some there is a Landsraad option that lowers base defences strength even more.