Vernal Equinox

You can find Vic Davis's comments on his new patch for Armageddon Empires here.

I haven't really posted about AE in this blog before but this game is an amazing combination of turn-based strategy with collectible card mechanics. Most importantly, his 'Iron-Man' mode helped me discover something about myself - I enjoy these games (turn-based strategy) much more if I don't have the option to save and reload. More is on the line and the game is shorter, and of course it feels like more of an achievement when I win.

If AE were more of a commercial release, it would have multiplayer or at least allow us to compete against shadow data, have an online repository for high scores and custom maps, a smoother UI, etc. etc. But this game is still an excellent example of what you can produce with an indie design team. And it's amazing Vince Davis can give us this significant upgrade for nothing - if you haven't had time to read the link at the top of the post, the Cults patch adds in independent rivals for control of the wasteland that show up every game. This creates some of the randomness I felt the game was missing, and of course the novelty of meeting and fighting the cults will be a great experience at first.

So that's it - try Armageddon Empires if you haven't already. Remember there's a free demo available if for some reason you didn't know that already.