I was awfully skeptical of purchasing this game, it is after all 'just' another RTS.
The Demo had me interested, but did not show me enough to warrant my spending $50 (married, 2 kids, I typically only buy 2 games/year at most).
Diligent savings had secured me enough cash, and I figured I could always take it back, right?
CTW was something I was anxious to try, but I found it lacking compared to such games as the Total War series that I love. Ready to pack it up and return it for a deposit on that 300 mm zoom lens I have been eyeing (photography is a little hobby of mine) I sat down for one last game.
I had heard so much here on changing the research to expensive and slow, so I booted up the quick battle on a Big Huge map, 8 players, VERY expensive/slow research and standard speed on moderate with me as the Aztecs.
This is an entirely different game all together! No matter what I did, it seemed the AI was out researching me due to my inability to generate enough Knowledge. That changed somewhere in the gunpowder age as by the end of the game I was the only one in the information age, and found myself killing off the researchers to make room for a larger army since I was already at the 999 research limit.
I had eliminated 2 opponents and owned a bit less than 50% of the map, trading nukes with some of the remaining foes and for the first time wanting to slow the game down as it was no longer 'just' another RTS, each unit, and tactics, were beginning to matter, not just a glob of units and a race to see who can produce more (an all too familiar scene in the RTS world). Suddenly the wonder timer began. Cursing at myself for not turning it off, I gave consideration to destroying one of my own wonders simply to prolong the game. However, seeing that 90 min had already flown by me, I allowed it to continue down to 0 for a victory.
My eyes are now open, guess this will be sitting on my computer for a while after all.
