Hey all! I haven't posted here in a while, but wanted to share a love I have recently rediscovered -- Kohan: Ahriman's Gift. I'm really into this game right now, and basically wanted to see if any one else has played it or wants to try.
It's a really interesting RTS -- you create/control "companies" instead of individual units. Companies have 4 of a unit as the front line, and then 2 slots for support units in the back (which can include casters or other units that give bonuses to the company). This system eliminates some micro - you just move your companies until they engage enemy companies, at which point they automatically move into position and attack, and support units cast spells and all that. There's still plenty of micro-ing with correctly positioning. retreating/kiting, etc. Similarly, you don't build individual buildings on a map; you just build settlements and then make buildings in menus in the settlements (like Civilization or something). The economy system is also pretty unique, with gold as well as a number of other resources that aren't a raw number, but a +/-. It's hard to describe -- you'll have to see it or play it.
There's a tiny community that plays this game, but it's not much, and all they seem to do is big team matches. Like any SC player, I'm into 1v1s, but it's next to impossible to find players, aside from the one friend I play with. The game-finding platform, GameSpy Arcade, was shut down years ago, so the only way to play is to direct connect to a host's IP, or use a P2P network like Hamachi. I'm in the US, by the way.
Just for fun, I commentated on a game my friend and I did recently and put it up on YouTube. I'm gonna keep making more, because I just had a lot of fun doing it, but it would be more fun to have matches to cast besides just between the same two people.
There's a few hoops to jump through to get it to work on modern operating systems. The game is available on steam (I linked it above), and there's a post on the Steam community board that can help you get it set up if you have Windows 8 or 10. Since official support of the game ended a while ago, there's been some community patches made (they're in that post). I use 1.3.10. I'm more than happy to help anyone set it up, learn the game, or anything like that.
It's my dream to get some more people into this game. I'd love to have some more people to do 1v1s with, and maybe get enough where we could set up a tournament. If you've played RTSs before, this one shouldn't be too hard to jump into.
Stuff like this appeals to me because it's just super fun to explore a relatively unexplored game -- and I do legitimately think it's one of the best RTSs I've ever played. 99.9% of us are never gonna figure anything out in BW/SC2 that hasn't already been found out, so playing a game like this can let you flex your creative-strategic muscles more.
Thanks for reading.