Re: Game mechanics do you like?

On 14/01/2025 15:39, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

  I am thinking of something like those old city builder games I used
to play like Settlers 2 where if you wanted this, you have to build
that. But if you wanted that, you needed something else as well.
Creating efficiency with all of these systems appeals to me.
>
Why it appeals to me, I can not tell you.

 I like those kinds of games too but there is a narrow band where they work and a lot of them don't get the balance right.  And too often all the focus on getting it right is in the early game.  So when you hit mid- to late-game things kind of fall apart with either way too much or way too little material.

I rather liked playing Caesar and Pharaoh but both of them suffered from a similar problem in that later in the game there's just so much to juggle it starts becoming a chore. One of the things I do like about Civ is that it give you a range of options as to how hands on you want to be. The simple adding of being able to automate workers is such a good feature to have.
It falls inline with I like my wargames but I only play those have a limited number of units at any one time so say up to around twenty or so. That keeps it so you have enough flexibility to employ tactics but I still keep focused on what I'm doing. I look at something like Gary Grigsby's War in the East and dread to think how long it takes to complete a single turn let alone a campaign.