A promotion for Wyndstar for an insightful post.
Wow, great! What an honor. So what does this make me, rank 2? I know I've heard "rank has its privliges"... so what are my new powers?

Seriously I'm glad if I can be of help. I've always really appreciated your response in fixing the combat imbalances I preached about from the very first version of DA, so I'm happy to do anything I can.
Other than that, the AI is one of the best I've seen in any game of any type, so I'm loathe to complain too loudly.
Oh, I agree. The AI for this game is stellar. I wasn't intending to flame the AI or the game. This game is awesome. This was more me just talking shop with a few of the other very experienced players (my so-called "splitting hairs"). This was really just a discussion of my beliefs on the difficulty of different overall map settings and how they combined.
I wish there was a replay system (like in RTS games)because you guys sound redicolusly good. If you can seriously tell if your going to win or loose 1 turn into the game... well I am thankful I dont have that ability thats all. Still a good/entertaining read none the less.
Well thanks. I'm not sure I'm good so much as I'm obsessed. While my metaverse profile shows that I have played around 80 games... that's only my metaverse games. I've actually played well over several hundred. At some point this product moved past being just another game on my shelf and actually became a seperate hobby unto itself for me.
As to whether I'm good, with no multiplayer we will never know for sure

I'm pretty confident I could hold my own against most of the players here if there was multiplayer, although I by no means claim to be the best (and Purge officially holds that honor, credit where credit is due). This whole thread is really just a couple of longtooths sitting down and talking shop. I HAVE played this game enough to the point where the AI researching half a dozen techs in one order or another makes the difference between a walkover game and a tough challenge. I already know much of what I will face, which is what allows me to predict a win very early on in very specific situations. That may mean I'm a good player, it may just mean I'm a freak (or both). There comes a point where you become familiar enough with the game where you can exploit just about ANY weakness your opponent shows, even something as simple as research order. I tried to warn at the beginning of the thread though - I'm really splitting hairs here. Most people won't notice these differences.
As for a replay ability like an RTS, no this game doesn't have that feature. However, I have written up an AAR that goes pretty step by step through how I played a game (although its pretty old now). By all means check it out at
Altarian Rebellion AAR. It is probably the best you are going to get at watching me play a game. Even there, though, some people thought that I just got lucky in the comments following the report.
Purge also has an excellent AAR out there that even includes save game copies so you can watch step by step. I don't remember the name of the thread or I would provide the link. Hopefully you find these game reports informative.
Good luck,
- Wyndstar