Apologies for Yesterday

Hi Everyone. My apologies for not posting yeasterday, but my ISP was running like a dog, and I couldn't even log into my mail to download everything. Now I have 60 unread e-mails sitting in my in-tray. Dagnammit!!! Went to the local PCYC and set up there training network. One of the guys who will be running the training has also asked if I can come along and become a member of Rotary. I'm considering it. Next Monday I am having my business plan either accepted or rejected. I'm also going to be starting another course. This one is a Cert IV in Training and Work Place Assessment. (As opposed to the Cert IV in Small Business Management I just did ... both have Cert IV in the title, and I don't want people thinking I'm starting the same course again!) :-) So I got leave from the trainer to skip Monday but I will be picking up the training manual on Monday afternoon and then having to read it all and do a catch up of the first day. Apparently, the first two days are the most crucial, and if you miss one of those days, then you're screwed for the rest of the course. Another difficult task, but I'll do it easily! :-) I've been keeping my mothers spirits as high as possible with silly comments and jokes (so business as usual for me) :-) We were watching the news and they showed the Florida Hurricane. There were all these cessna's [planes] lying on their backs. I cracked my mother up by saying, 'Oh no! They've killed the aeroplanes!' [Yeah, migh tnot be funny now! Was one of those jokes you had to be there for, so I dont 'expect any one will laugh at it over the internet.] I also spent a lot of Monday & Tuesday shopping with my mother (and the other day as well). She was buying nightgowns for the hospital stay. I went in search of Terry Pratchet's Monsterous Regiment, but can't find it in any of the local stores! I think I might have to get it on Monday when I am in the City. I also went a little beserk yesterday. With the prospect of being all cashed up, I raced around and bought a few things. First was a thumb drive I need to take my business plan [in electronic format], into the city on Monday with. One of the panel has already told me she wants to make some changes. I also bought a copy of Red Dwarf IV. (I have I and III and my mother has VI - plus I've been meaning to borrow II from my brother, as I bought that for him last Xmas). While there, I thought, 'Hmmm, this game is only $5 ... and this one is only $18 ... and ...' you get the picture. Came home with a LOT of games. [All curencies are AUD]

1. Medal of Honour $18
2. Golf Resort Tycoon $5
3. Real Estate Tycoon $10
4. O.R.B. (Off-world Resource Base) $5
5. Jagged Alliance 2 $5
6. Europa Universalis II $5
7. Celtic Kings $5
8. Patrician II $5
9. Legion $5

With the PC off line most of yesterday, I spent a lot of time playing Europa Universalis II (which I've already won playing as Russia. Lots of fun), and then Medal of Honour (Till I realised it was midnight and then went to bed). Today I loaded Golf Resort Tycoon and already totally creamed that game. Glad it only cost $5, as I would have kicked myself silly paying any more for it. I'm already bored with it and ... well, it was too easy to play. I think my brother Jeff might like it ... he's run off with my copyof Sims. :-) Anyway, Medal of Honour I thought was going to be like Call of Duty. In Call of Duty you're with a squad and it's like being a member in 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Band of Brothers'. Medal of Honour isn't like that at all. It's still a first person shooter, but instead it's more like 'metal gear solid', or some of the other ones where you're by yourself. You're more of a special agent dropped behind enemy lines rather than being with a squad. I've only played the first scenario, where you infiltrate behind enemy lines, save a British SAS guy, and then basically run around shooting a lot of Germans. It might change, but I've started the second scenario, and I'm still on my lonesome with the SAS guy. Europa Universalis II is my sort of game. It's basic Strategic take on the world type thing, set between the 1400's (from about the time of the Hundred Years War), to 1820. I was a bit sad that I couldn't play my beloved Japan. You can play China though. As I stated earlier, I've already won playing Russia. It has a slight incompatibility with my machine, and every now and then it just dies. (Stops completely). I messed around till I found an autosave, but it will only autosave every year in game time as a minimum. This means when it freezes, you might lose a lot of what you've done - especially if it freezes on December the 29th, then you've lost an entire year of gameplay if you didn't save sometime of your own chosing. Due to the freezing, I lost the first few games I played (I started as England in the American War of Independance scenario, then tried it in a Napolenic time). I liked playing Russia and after losing one or two of the first attempts due to freezing, went in search of the save. [Having not read the fine manual, (NRTFM), I had to go searching for all the options and stuff]. Once I found the autosave, I continued. It froze a few times during the game, but thanks to the autosave (and a few other mid year saves I did), I was able to complete the game. I got the hang of what I was doing. Early on, I was getting a lot of revolts in my own country, though my stability was at a maximum. I also had an early war with Poland (and annexed three of their provences), and then a war with the Ottoman Empire. I was trying to take Armenia, but they wouldn't accept my peace terms. Then, I was really surprised, when they turned around and OFFERED ME FOUR PROVENCES AND MONEY!!! It was one more provence than I'd been asking for and had some money attached! WOW! Anyway, annexing Armenia was worth a lot of victory points for me and put me well clear to win the game. I should add some descriptions about the game. First - It's strategy with NO tactical bits. (If you are familiar with Total War, it has both strategy and tactics. Strategy, for those unfamiliar with war/wargames is the BIG picture. Tactics are more battlefield sized related. If you are looking at a map with lots of differnet cities, you are probably playing a stategy game - if it's one or two cities and lots of land or water, then it's probably tactical. If it's a muddy field, it's definitely tactical). Second - It's more realistic than a lot of games. In Europe in the five hundred years leading up to Napoleon, a LOT of countries would gang up on any other power who got too big. Especially in Continental Europe. In this game a similar thing happens. Get too big, expect to be fighting almost EVEYONE!!! Due to the fact that it isn't a 'build up and totally cream everyone' type game (like a lot of them, where you just get more and more powerful as you take more and more land), it means the victory conditions can't be 'Total World Domination' as it's almost impossible. (Or maybe it is possible. I haven't tried). So there are a number of different things which can be set as Victory conditions. In the case of me playing Russia, I set the conditions to 'the country with the most Victory Points at the end of 1820'. In order to win victory points, you can do several things, but one of the main things for victory points is setting goals and achieving them. The goals will depend on the nation you are playing. One of my goals was to annex Armenia from the Ottoman Empire. I did that. Another one was to have a Royal Marriage with Georgia. I did that too. I didn't try for the Royal Marriage with Wallacia. I did try to build a 'ship building port' in the Crimea, but I didn't get that done in time! (Darn!) So I actually lsot points for NOT acheiving a goal. So, if you are into STRATEGY (Not tactical) games, then this one is a good one. I know a lot of these sorts of things are not everyones cup to tea, which might be why they don't sell as well as Civilization (another great game), Age of Empires, Warhammer etc. For someone like me they are gems to be found in the bargin bins. A lot of these good strategic and tactical type games don't even get mentioned in the PC magazines, so I often don't know what I am buying. I'm looking forward to trying the other games I bought. If you don't hear from me for a few days, it'll be a combination of the training course and the games! :-) [And answering my 60 odd e-mails!] :-)