The Campaigns

IMO this is the most worthwhile reason to play the campaigns. Sandbox mode is the heart of the game, so I don't know how much you'll enjoy the campaign missions, but they definitely do give the races more personality. I think the DA campaign probably has the most important plotline. You can also find a lot of information about the races by reading some of the development journals and Frogboy/Draginol's game examples. In addition, the TOA tech descriptions should help a lot.

As far as finding a summary of the campaign plotline, one way to do it would be to open the scenario files in the GalCiv2/Data/English/Campaigns folder with Notepad or some other editor and read the Description, Victory, and Defeat messages. I own the original Dread Lords, and it might not be possible to do this if you're playing only with the expansions, though.

I would also like to add on that your perceptions of the campaign have propbably been warped a little bit too much by these forums. I began playing this game in sandbox mode and began to fall in love with it (with the Ultumate edition, as yourself) for that mode alone. As the games went by, I began to troll these forums for strategies/just more talk about the game, and I found many postings about the campaign missions. I would have to say that over 90% of those posting involved ideas along the lines of- "The campaign is unbalanced," "The campaign is cheating me here," "The campaign is impossible," etc. While I agree that the campaign is not the place to learn the intricacies of the game, you will probably find, as most have (those of us who enjoyed the campaigns just don't seem to post as much), that the campaigns are a great way to switch to a completely different format of the game, all with its own new strategies and tactics.

My best suggestion is to play through sandbox mode as much as your heart desires, switching up the races as you go. You will be amazed how much personality actually manages to creep into each race of the game. After plenty of sandbox challenges (when you feel that the game would be fun with some very specific, hard to achieve objectives, move on to the campaign game. This will give you a deeper feeling for the relationships between the races/the background of these races.

However, if you are mainly looking for the narrative that accompanies these races, qrtxian has laid out your best resources for you. The development journals carry a great amount of background and help to bring the races to life.

Scanian8 - I think you misunderstood. I think the campaigns are quite enjoyable, myself, although I haven't played them much. Actually, I thought what the OP meant by "broken" is that the DL campaign has a number of bugs when played on the expansions. The most notorious one I know of is the bug in the scenario code that makes the "Apocalypse" mission impossible by requiring you to defeat the (nonexistant) Krynn rather then the Dread Lords you're supposed to.

I thought the races had a fair amount of personality in sandbox mode as well, but 1) I roleplay the races as I use them, and 2) I read the development journals right from the start, so I think my opinion is pretty uncommon. Actually, some of the backstory seems to work its way in very well - I've never once had a game where the Torians and Drengin didn't go to war (unless one was wiped out first).

Edit: Post above should say that the DA campaign is the most interesting, not important. I really like the fact that you play as the Drengin; it makes for a unique touch.

It isn't broken at all, one just shouldn't access the DL/DA-campaign via TA, or the DL-campaign via DA.

I played the DL campaign from the Ultimate Edition, TA 2.02. I had a problem with Apocalyspe. I fixed it with the scenario editor. On a scale of 1 to 10 computer skills, I'm about a 3. It wasn't even that difficult.

I did run into a problem in the last scenario, Escape, in what I believe was the last battle. I always got a negative invasion roll so I could never win. I gave myself a mental victory and moved on.

I'm about to try the DA Campaign. What problems should I expect? Is there anything I should do before i start?

The camapigns are not broken if you start them with ther associated gaem (ie - DL campaign from DL exe, Da from Da exe, and TOA from the launcher is fine)

I read of that bug before doing the mission ages ago and didnt have any issues. So it should be alright, I found the campaigns good to get an understanding of the game. Once you learn how to deal with the Dread lords you'll be fine. First 2 campaigns are good. TOA campaign i found could be traversed rather easily as there is alot of get a ship here & take this planet missions that could be easily tackled without any mass colonization.

Def do the first 2 campaigns. TOA you could prob give it a miss. Nothing special there, but then again its not much either so you should cover it of in about 5 hours or so.

I enjoyed them. But I enjoy that sort of thing. Sandbox is without doubt the heart and soul of the game. The campaign is mearly a prologue to that IMO.

From Reply #5

I did run into a problem in the last scenario, Escape, in what I believe was the last battle. I always got a negative invasion roll so I could never win. I gave myself a mental victory and moved on.

I have this problem also. "Draginol" indicates that the Terrans must get their ships as close to the Temple as possible to teleport to the DL home quad/dimension. I have surrounded Karion as close as possible with no action. I have tried to invade Karion numerous times and each time I have a negetive invasion roll. A substantial negetive invasion roll at that. I have improved my soldiering skills to best the game will allow and still cannot occupy Karion. There is absolutlely no movement on the part of the Dread Lords to improve the planet, or to manufacture ships. This appears to be a deadlock, a bug, or I am missing the point.

I need help, understanding, advice or tips on how to bring this to an end. Or is the end completing DA and TOA to see where it takes me?

I have Ultimate Edition and this is the first Campaign I have tried. Am somewhat a newbie, over 50 and fairly computer illiterate. Please keep this in mind when responding. Otherwise.....HELP!!

As far as I know the reason for this bug has never been discovered, unlike the one on "Apocalypse", and so there's no known 'fix'.

If you want to beat the mission, play it on the original Dread Lords. If you just want to get the final mission ending, open the GC2scenario file and read the "Victory" message.