Mission 1: Off we go.

After enjoying the intro movie (more on that later) we find ourself in the start screen, from which we can access the first 2 missions. This is deliberate as the first mission is a tutorial. Actually the first 4 missions are tutorials in a sense, so in the Good Old Games version the first 4 are already unlocked.

The first mission tries to introduce you to the game, and does a pretty good job to boot. This mission you start out with a tent. Sending explorers to the south will find you your shipwrecked galleon.

Build up your game and keep going. The first time, back in the time, this took me several hours. I didn't even realize I completed it at some point. Today this mission can be done in about 20 minutes or so, no idea. Fast anyways. It is a nice island however, one I know by heart. There isn't much room for farms but frankly, you don't really need them. Just experiment and move on to mission 2.

Granite, and a blast to the past

I must have been 7 when I first played the Settlers 2. I didn't even play The Settlers 2, but the demo. In this demo there were some restrictions, but it was one of the best demos imaginable as the single possible map showed a lot of fun mechanics. Everyone remembers the red ships sailing by and wanting to make those yourself. Everyone cheated to level 4 to have fun with ships. And whether you liked spitting Vikings or masked Asians more, these you would play in the full game.

One other thing the demo showed however, was Granite Mines.

For the longest time I believed these things to be useless. Even my first "adult" playthroughs years later I didn't build a single one. Funny how bad habits can stick. The reason being that the Demo did not include catapults. Catapults require stone, and without catapults, stone loses a significant amount of value.

In the full game however, Catapults are an integral part of battle strategy. For some reason, catapult attacks to do not break alliances and do not declare war. As such it is possible to whittle down a strong enemy until you can roll them with your troops. This is often the case as the enemy tends to have lots of gold in the later missions while the player doesn't. The player does tend to have lots of stone on the other hand, including many locations for granite mining.

This means stone is no longer a building resource alone, but actually worth a dead enemy General. For not needing to go through the whole production process, it is actually a very efficient weapon too.

To go on a slight tangent that will underline many further articles: Winning in Settlers 2 is not so much about battling the enemy but rather battling the game mechanics. I have no idea why catapults maintain peace. The Cold War would not have been cold with the two powers exchanging rocket bombs. North Korea won't slowly annex South Korea by bombing all military personnel while maintaining the current sort-of peace. Catapults are, to me, a mechanic that breaks immersion, yet in this game you will battle the rules, not play a strict simulation.



Note: A full review of the Demo Mission will also be written eventually. It is pretty good.

Old Game, New Blog

As many Settlers 2 fans know, there is hardly any community for this game. It is a pity because Settlers 2, after more than 10 years, is still the defining Empire Building game. Games such as Anno, Settlers 3++ and the single player Rome: Total War build on the precepts of this game. Most of these games have many User Interface improvements, which, in my opinion, dumb down games in a sense.

I agree that the Settlers 2 is arbitrarily very difficult. The reason is twofold:
- Old games tend to be difficult
- Micro Management is different from other games
The first one can spark a lot of controversy, but in the distant past, games were only completed by the biggest of fans, hence no easy mode in Settlers 2. Ask any old Settlers fans you may know, and you will most likely find none of them has ever completed the Roman Campaign, let alone the World Campaign.

Micro management on the other hand is entirely through the interface, not by controlling characters individually. Directing priorities has profound effects on how your economy works, changing road layout can change the flow of resources for better or worse and more. Some of these should be obvious, yet I once added flags in a savegame of some guys Europe map, which annoyed him because he believed it was less efficient.

I must admit, currently I am only on map 7 of the Roman Campaign, and I'm on a quest to complete it. The aim of this blog is as follows:
- Provide enticing reviews of each level, to invite people to progress
- Provide strategic and economic insights so people can boost their game
- NOT provide walkthroughs
Why no walkthrough? I have read the handful of walkthroughs on the internet, but in this game they are virtually useless. If you can't make a smooth economy, no walkthrough is going to help you. If you can, a walkthrough is not necessary.

Furthermore the following are not core aims but can help your game:
- Guides to install and configure DosBox
- Split Screen Multiplayer guide
- Suggested guides and tips
- If possible with such an old game, build a community
In time these will come. I can't promise a timeline on new articles, but I will try to make this blog as comprehensive as possible in a short time, so people have an in depth Settlers 2 resource to come back to.

Please leave comments if you'd like specific things to be written, or contact me if you would like to post your own ideas.