New season for Timecommanders

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-21 06:48am

Well, it started again on BBC2. For who doesnt know it, a team of 4 players play a historical battle with the Rome: Total War engine. I always loved the previous episodes but to be honest, this one was so-so. They changed some of the editting and "effects" but imo it was a step backwards compared to the previous season. None the less, I was fairly ammused and I'm planning to watch the following episodes.

About this episode: I almost started yelling at those 4 guys. Their setup was sound but once the battle started... They made every mistake they could make and eventually won by dumb luck. Strategic genius my ass

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-21 07:51am

I never knew they'd bring it back for another season. Must've done quite well. Still, it seems odd given now R: TW is out now and all and the fact that the only battles in that show are Roman Empire era ones (I had wanted them to do a variety of timezones from Rome to WWII or something).

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2005-02-21 07:54am

I saw some of that show when I was overseas last year. Talk about idiots trying to play a game they obviously have had little experiance in, either that or they just naturally sucked.

It was painful to watch.

Probably doesnt help that I'm a reasonable RTS player.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-21 07:57am

There were some tragic battles. It was fun watching them spend the best part of an hour setting it up only to be totally defeated by barbarians within minutes. But then they'd usually have pros playing the week later who kicked some royal arse.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-21 07:59am

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I never knew they'd bring it back for another season. Must've done quite well. Still, it seems odd given now R: TW is out now and all and the fact that the only battles in that show are Roman Empire era ones (I had wanted them to do a variety of timezones from Rome to WWII or something).

Actually, this one was the battle of Troj (not the siege but at the plains). Also, they modded the units (visual and probably also in stats)

In the previous season not all battles were with the Romans also by the way. I remember a battle with Spartans and another with an early eastern army

Admiral Valdemar wrote:There were some tragic battles. It was fun watching them spend the best part of an hour setting it up only to be totally defeated by barbarians within minutes. But then they'd usually have pros playing the week later who kicked some royal arse.

Yesterday was a tragic

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2005-02-21 08:25am

Gah. Why must you Brits get all these interesting shows that I'll never have any chance of watching over here. ;_;

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-21 11:17am

Archaic` wrote:Gah. Why must you Brits get all these interesting shows that I'll never have any chance of watching over here. ;_;

Haha, you live in Japan and yet you don't have "interesting" shows? I find that hard to believe.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2005-02-21 12:45pm

Putting the language barrier aside (Good enough to watch anime, not good enough to watch the nightly news), the fact is that Japanese TV is, by and large, crap. Excluding pay-tv, which I can't afford) You've got the occasional interesting drama series, the anime of course, and that's about it. Most TV is surprisingly banal. While the lack of real censors on anything that isn't a naked body is refreshing at first, after a while, it all gets same-ish. Especially with the fact that the various TV personalities are "owned" by stables, not stations. It's not unknown for a TV personality to be hosting over half of the programs on at any one time on free-to-air. Several shows even have no set regular host week to week. At times, it'd be entirely possible to go 24 hours watching shows only hosted by your favourite celebrity.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2005-02-21 03:12pm

Sounds just like TV here then...

The BBC only has the slight advantage of having to justify the lisence fee, so they occasionally take more risks, especially BBC2.

For the rest of the world, there's still Bittorrent, AKA the magic television.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-21 03:19pm

Archaic` wrote:Putting the language barrier aside (Good enough to watch anime, not good enough to watch the nightly news), the fact is that Japanese TV is, by and large, crap. Excluding pay-tv, which I can't afford) You've got the occasional interesting drama series, the anime of course, and that's about it. Most TV is surprisingly banal. While the lack of real censors on anything that isn't a naked body is refreshing at first, after a while, it all gets same-ish. Especially with the fact that the various TV personalities are "owned" by stables, not stations. It's not unknown for a TV personality to be hosting over half of the programs on at any one time on free-to-air. Several shows even have no set regular host week to week. At times, it'd be entirely possible to go 24 hours watching shows only hosted by your favourite celebrity.

I guess I should visit one day and really see for myself as I keep planning on doing. My dad never really watched the TV when he was there on business in '91 or thereabouts. Mind you, it seems most TV is crap nowadays. Other than say Spooks and 24 from the UK and US and various animé from Japan, there's precious little else on. I remember when there'd be a programme on every hour that I'd love to watch. Now I have 400 channels of shit.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2005-02-21 03:55pm

Vendetta wrote:For the rest of the world, there's still Bittorrent, AKA the magic television.

While this may be true (*Hugs 100mbps Japanese "Hikari Fibre" cable internet*), not everything I want to watch is available on torrent. Spooks is, but I haven't seen the first two series, which makes it a bit difficult to get into, even before you have to contend with missing episodes. This series seems to be, but again, not every episode, and not the first season. And no matter where I look, I can't seem to find any episodes whatsoever of Spy.

Oh well, I'm returning to Australia soon, so I suppose I'll be able to get the DVD's there. Maybe. Or if I'm lucky, it'll be on the ABC.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-27 12:34pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I never knew they'd bring it back for another season. Must've done quite well. Still, it seems odd given now R: TW is out now and all and the fact that the only battles in that show are Roman Empire era ones (I had wanted them to do a variety of timezones from Rome to WWII or something).

well tonight will be the battle of Hastings. Might be interesting

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-27 01:40pm

Archaic` wrote:
While this may be true (*Hugs 100mbps Japanese "Hikari Fibre" cable internet*), not everything I want to watch is available on torrent. Spooks is, but I haven't seen the first two series, which makes it a bit difficult to get into, even before you have to contend with missing episodes. This series seems to be, but again, not every episode, and not the first season. And no matter where I look, I can't seem to find any episodes whatsoever of Spy.

Oh well, I'm returning to Australia soon, so I suppose I'll be able to get the DVD's there. Maybe. Or if I'm lucky, it'll be on the ABC.

Series 1 and 2 should be on DVD in Australia anyway. The second series was actually out there before it was here, but I think it had less features. It's pretty useless watching the third series without the other two given, while most episodes are standalone, a lot of it still follows an overall theme (e.g. Tom's problems with keeping a normal life and life in MI5 separate).

As for Spy, I don't think you can do anything other than get torrents since there's no DVD, but it's got a book which I bought soon after seeing all the series again which was after that laughbly dull The Apprentice.

wautd wrote:
well tonight will be the battle of Hastings. Might be interesting

Now that sounds interesting. I only ever caught Roman battles in the first series. I checked Radio Times too, this is the 7th of 8 episodes. Damn, missed most of them.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-28 02:25am

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
wautd wrote:
well tonight will be the battle of Hastings. Might be interesting
Now that sounds interesting. I only ever caught Roman battles in the first series. I checked Radio Times too, this is the 7th of 8 episodes. Damn, missed most of them.

It was. A lot better than the week before. Altough the team lost, they were a better team than the previous team. 1 general took care of infantry/archers and the other for cavalry so we saw a battle with a lot going on. Their strategy was exactly what they were supposed to do, only that they never exploited the gaps they created in the enemy lines.

My issue with the editting still stands. Instead of showing the battle fullscreen all the time, they show a lot the battle on the left screen (too small to see much detail) and the team giving order on the right (who cares).

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2005-02-28 10:56am

Watching random people out off the streets refight past battles is not my idea of fun - I would prefer reading a textbook on how the battle went, then figure out what could have happened. You can get the old episodes off RTW websites anyways, although the quality is sad.

...Wait, Battle of Hastings !? I want those models for RTW ! Forget everything I just said, even though there is CTW and everything!