The Settlers II - Awaking Of Cultures

[Adagio]

A new Settlers II game has arrived... in Germany. So now we have three Settlers II games

Screenshots: Link


The game looks pretty much the same as The Settlers II - The Next Generation, but there's been some changes (which unlike other Settlers games actually are good changes IMHO)

The basics of the game is still the same, so any Settlers II fans shouldn't have to worry


The game has three races: Bajuwaren, Scots and Egyptian (A Settlers game without Romans?). Each race is unique, more unique than any Settlers game before. Here's a few examples (haven't played as the Scots, so can't comment on them):
The Egyptians doesn't need wood for buildings, instead they need clay (which just needs water). They do need wood for bows (There's two different types of soldiers: close combat and long-distance, but the battles are almost the same as in The Settlers II). But Egyptians can't plant trees (which could hinder the bow-production when there are no forests around)
The Egyptians also needs water for the farms. Also they have goat "farms", which produces both goats and milk. Together with milk and wheat you get bread (no mills for Egypt)
Hunting gives meat for Egypt, while it only gives leather for Bajuwaren. Egypt doesn't have an equivalent to pig-farms, which makes it more difficult for them to get meat


The economy has also changed a bit. Now there's leather, gems, milk, salt and cheese just to name a few.
And there's only a universal tool this time (so if you have one tool and wants to build something, pick the building then the tool is used as a hammer. When the building is done you get the tool back and another one can pick it up to use it as an axe)




The game is fun, but there's a few downsides:
1. Stupid story written by something who was very HIGH at the time. I thought the story in Rise of an Empire was bad, but this one is even worse
2. Messages system is just as bad as in The Next Generation
3. No Romans!
4. No diggers. I miss having the diggers around, flattening an area before the building could get built
5. The universal tool (ok, I'm not sure if I want to put in into the negative or not, it's both good and bad, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people hates this)
6. Only in German

[Main_Brain]

Egyptians also need the Wood to build Tools but can use a Minor Wonder to produce Bows.
Overall the Space won due to cutting down every Tree in Sight is very useful for clay brick/goat Production.

I did not play Settlers for quite some Time, but I remember that Mining never went to Zero production but continued to produce (although at a lower rate) in earlier parts of the Series. :/ I wonder if new resources can be found inside the old thoroughly mined hills..

Egyptian Military is bad, really bad. Especially in Close Combat, I just lost a Skirmish against the Scots despite having +1Level and a 2:1 Number advantage

Bavarians seem well balanced but I cannot stand the Music after a while

Geologists always checking out the places i cant build on first


Overall:
Good:
+balanced wonders, no more I turn over your Army to me
+Settlers being 'cute' as always
+ interesting cultures
+wellused roads are automatically upgraded
+Only in German

Bad:
- Way your Roads are plotted is sometimes insane
- No Radius Display for Geologists
- Music
- No customizing of messages possible, a bulk of unimportant information clutters out the really important messages (So you found more Salt in the Salt Hill.. oh and I lost land due to a border movement?)
It is only possible to completly filter out every economical message, which is nuts if you have to redeploy your woodcutters every once in a while or every military/diplomatic etc. message

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
Egyptians also need the Wood to build Tools but can use a Minor Wonder to produce Bows.
Overall the Space won due to cutting down every Tree in Sight is very useful for clay brick/goat Production.

I don't like the wonder sacrifice part, they should have cut that out of the game. And you can't always use the wonder to produce bows. I'm currently playing a game as the Egypt where there are no trees anywhere and the wonder doesn't give me any chance to build bows

Originally posted by Main_Brain
Egyptian Military is bad, really bad. Especially in Close Combat, I just lost a Skirmish against the Scots despite having +1Level and a 2:1 Number advantage

You got that right. The sword fighters of Egypt cannot upgrade and they have at level 1 only half the health of Bavarian level 1 soldiers. Which makes the above mentioned level very difficult (any fight will be lost)
And to make it worse I have a low production of weapons as I don't have many tools, and I can't make more tools as I don't have any wood left



On another note: I still miss scrolling through right-clicking. Right-clicking in this game (like in The Next Generation) is extremely useless. I still can't understand why they replaced a useful feature with a useless feature

[El_Cid]

Is it better than the original "Settlers 2" version though(the gold edition)?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/settlers-ii-veni-vidi-vici

If not I will have to pass, especially if it's only in german. I'm still waiting for the settlers to go back to it's roots and improve in other areas other than adding a 3D engine and bubble-head cartoon characters