EPT
I wasn't consciously prepared for the decision of quitting BW when it happened. It was a split second "right now" decision and an accumulation of feelings of being addicted to BW that caused me to uninstall the game from my comp and throw the disc into the trash. I quit BW so suddenly and after the obvious disapproval of my mother of me playing the game, it just motivated me to quit BW even more.
In the aftermath of this life changing decision that I over dramatize, I then levitated towards new interests, like beat boxing. Beat boxing was an art form consisting of one of the most catchiest sounds and beats that could come from a person. You could mix it up with a slow one with some wah wah wah wah sounds, or maybe some mmm mmm mmm quick paced beats. I would constantly watch Sc2 games which I find more watchable than Sc1 games, probably because of the larger screen which Sc1 was restricted from having because of the lack of resolution when it was developed. Huskystarcrft was my go to man when it came to watching classy shoutcasts with a bit of a humorous edge.
Discovering Rome Total War
Overall, a void was left within me when StarCraft was gone from my life. Then came another RTS game by the name of Rome Total War! I first discovered Rome Total War by watching on Youtube a Let's Play series from jefmajor whose humor, good narration of his thoughts, and explanation of the game combined for an engaging, successful experience overall judging from his high viewer count.
At the same time I soon discovered a youtuber and RTW(Rome Total War) player who would consistently upload videos of his RTW games by the name of "princeofmacedon." He's a prominent figure in the small multiplayer online community for his knowledgeable tactics in RTW which people can learn from as he explains the strategy behind the game. He's most famous for his incredibly long winning streaks which of course aroused suspicion of him only uploading his wins, choosing only to fight against noobs, etc. At the same time he has shown his bad mannered side and has thrown negative unjustified insults to people who either made honest mistakes or comments that weren't even looking for an argument. He also has his fair share of bullies where defending himself is justified. These comments usually are not talked about, but they do show the more ugly side of PoM(princeofmacedon). Here's a very good example:
WNxBrutus: Scythian (pronounced "sith-ee-yin")
Princeofmacedon:Only if you're a pretentious #@!$ who believes there's only way to pronounce things. Open your eyes, you uncultured moron. Not everyone comes from the same place.
The Strategy of RTW
I'd like to make some comparisons between Rome Total War and Starcraft and mainly some of the basics of RTW strategy.
The game has absolutely no macro to speak of, in fact, you start a game by first selecting one of 21 factions such as the Romans, the Greek Cities, Dacians, Britannia, Germania, Seleucids, Scythians, Parthia, Pontus, and Carthage to name a few. Each had their own pros, cons, and special units, but some barbaric factions have recycled armies like the Gauls, Britannia, and Dacia where most of the units are the same with different coloring. Units had phalanx formation, a cantabrian circle for horse archers so they could shoot while not getting shot by archers, and the Romans had pila, a short ranged missile weapon that roman soldiers were supplied with 3 apiece with. In volleys of pila, units would be devastated and then rolled over as roman units charged. You have a set amount of denarii (10,000 is reasonable) which you can use to purchase units and upgrade their armor, weapons, and experience points(which upgraded both armor and weapons by 1, but was worth more than 1 upgrade and 1 armor upgrade combined together).
There are also several factors accounted into RTW that are non existent in StarCraft. Such things like how tired your soldiers were, their amount of confidence which can be effected by the death of their general, the unit type, the hill advantage, and other such factors accounted in battle.
You could also get a surround on units, and most notorious of tactics that I learned from PoM was the hammer and anvil. When you do a hammer and anvil, your enemy has 1 unit of infantry busy fighting another unit of infantry. You maneuver your cavalry in such a way that you charge the backsides of the enemy unit infantry while they're occupied fighting the infantry units in front of them. The "charge" factor which would add something like +3 to +7 attack for cavalry was a humongous factor in effectiveness, and assaulting the backside of units was highly advantageous.
Skirmish armies employing large amounts of archers will decimate heavily armored units from the backside. It was entertaining to watch the arrows shower down upon enemy units, kind of like the Battle of Thermopylae in that 300 movie with Robert Downey Jr. and the Spartans. I learned quite a bit of history from RTW, and while some things were inaccurate, the majority was informative and I learned quite a bit of ancient warfare in those times.
6 months later
I eventually get a new copy of StarCraft BW well into the near end of summer vacation and the near beginning of the school year(sigh). I eventually stopped playing RTW altogether since some things made me mad about that game.
Skirmish armies consisting mainly of archers and cavalry were the most viable and best army to use by far. Armies having a mix of infantry, cavalry, and archers would not work. Also, the Carthage faction was completely overpowered. You can compare the stats to Roman troops and clearly see that let's say these two units have the same cost, but the Carthage unit most likely has 4 more attack or 6 more defense for whatever reason the developers had. There was a popular set of rules going around known as cwb(clan war belt) that restricted the use of elephants and artillery. How could this be! Also, you would get constantly hourglassed where the loading screen just stays there and doesn't budge. This would happen often for many people using gamespy (the battle.net for RTW).
Some may describe my decision to get another copy of SC after throwing it out as indecisive of me. Some may say that I'm in a constant cycle of limbo. I can't say I don't admit that I'm these things. I remember some BW people I used to play with. I saw Outlaw_Star only one time after getting back from my long break. He was hosting Team Micro Arena that night, and boy, I wish I could've done a 1v1 with him. I still have RTW disc in my bedroom, but haven't decided to pick it up again, mostly because of getting hourglassed so frequently. Now I'm back to playing StarCraft. I plan on moving onto Sc2 some day when I can afford a better computer. Thanks for reading.
