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I'm going to be going to Turkey for a month and am probably going to have nothing to do for most of the time. That being said I'm planning to bring a lap top and a couple games. Any suggestions on which one I should buy considering no internet connection so no multi player.

I like both turn based games and rts so no decision based on that.

They're totally different games. One is an econ and dip focused, thoughtful game full of bad ST tipoff fanfiction. The other is an ugly, unbalanced clickfest. GalCiv is certainly cheaper, and Sins without Entrenchment is basically broken.

I didn't think it was /possible/ to mis-spell Galactic that badly.

That said, I'd prolly pick GC2 if I had to pick one or the other, especially for a laptop since its graphics are basically on par with Microsoft Excel.

I find GalCiv one of those games i can just play over and over.. Its "Safe" its nice and easy, sure the AI is wonk and stupid at times, but I know my war around, and i NEVER tire of building my own ships

If you think th GC2 AI is stupid, god knows how you play any game ever. . . especially Sins. It took a paid expansion to have them say 'oh whoops yeah we're doomed'.

I have yet to ever have a enemy force surrender to me. No mater how overwhelming moy force is or how crushing i am in playing they will fight to the bitter end. The closest I ever got was having one or two Enemies surrender to ANOTHER AI in the game.

Sounds like someone sucks? The GalCiv enemies generally surrender in any longish war; it's just stupid and annoying that they give their shit to someone who isn't you (and who don't inherit the state of war). Like a lot of ideas in GalCiv, it just doesn't make sense; who'd accept planets under attack by one of their allies? Turns out the answer is 'everyone because it's free and there's nothing you can do about it'.

Stark wrote:They're totally different games. One is an econ and dip focused, thoughtful game full of bad ST tipoff fanfiction. The other is an ugly, unbalanced clickfest. GalCiv is certainly cheaper, and Sins without Entrenchment is basically broken.

Sorry Stark, what does dip mean in this context? I'd google but with no idea at all, it's a bit of a shot in the dark.

Sorry. I mean 'diplomacy'. The GalCiv2 diplomacy game isn't nearly as simplistic or daft as in pretty much every other strategy game (which is certainly not to say it's without silliness, but at least generally the silliness makes sense). It's a lot more complex than 'roffle kill all the players' and your allies will actually not instantly betray you, will assist you overtly and covertly with technology, industry and economy. By the simple feat of having a screen showing you what is affecting their attitude towards you the diplomacy game is transformed from inscrutable and largely random to something you can actually use.

Of course, it's not perfect, as they can do diplomacy actions you can't (grr) and you can't set YOUR attitude 'pointers' to others (in order to influence the AI's conduct toward you). But it's still pretty much the best TBS dip game available in principle if not in detail (there's nowhere near the massive variety of treaties, relationships and exchanges as in SE4/5 for instance). It's just... MoO2 diplomacy, only working.

Sins... isn't. It also has an economy system that's totally redundant because trade port spam = unlimited money = buy all the vespene you want = lol.

Crossroads Inc. wrote:I have yet to ever have a enemy force surrender to me. No mater how overwhelming moy force is or how crushing i am in playing they will fight to the bitter end. The closest I ever got was having one or two Enemies surrender to ANOTHER AI in the game.

What the funk are you talking about? I often disable the AI's ability to surrender, since once I'm powerful enough they have a tendency to hand over all their territories, messing up my economy with the sudden influx of unhappy underefed mouths to care for!
And no, you can't refuse when they give up (at least on the expansion-less game).

So I take it that Sins of a Solar Empire is a no go? Any other suggestions to keep me entertained?

If you get Sins, get Entrenchment too. Sins without Entrenchment is a decidedly inferior product.

-With- Entrenchment I think it's actually pretty neat, but there's no 'value pack' or anything and I'm not sure it's worth the ~60USD.