My focus was on colonization (expansion) and eventual conquest. Yet I could tweak the sliders anytime, so I felt I was in control the whole time. By just setting (and often forgetting) arrays of sliders, I could effectively automate what I didn't care to micromanage. I did like combat better in Civ 5 than in earlier versions of the game, though for once, war wasn't a pain in the neck.īut MOO was more streamlined overall. I'd automate my workers, and I'd play whole games without ever opening a city screen. And I still didn't like the building/economic aspect of the game. Civ 5 was impressively modern, but on my little computer I had to stick to the 'strategic map' (2D) to make the game run fast enough to play. I really appreciated the elegant simplicity of MOO.

So, I'd been playing Civ 5 almost exclusively, and now I had MOO to compare it to-kind of a repeat of what I'd done in the 1990s. My wife had bought me my first laptop (actually netbook) computer, and I got Civ 5 as my first game to play on it. It's now my most-played game of all.Īs fate would have it, that was right around the time I was getting into Civilization V. Nevertheless, I persisted and relearned the game, and I quickly grew to like it all over again.

My fond memories of the game certainly didn't retain many specific details. I was astounded by how much I'd forgotten. I played MOO1 first, just because I like doing things in chronological order, I guess. Finally I'd have a chance to play the game I missed years before (and, incidentally, to revisit my old favorite). The MOO1 + MOO2 bundle was one of the first games I ever bought from them. I saw it at a friend's house, and he said it was great, but I never played.įast-forward to the twenty-first century, and GOG arrived on the scene. When Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares came out, I must have been between computers or into another game or something. The only thing I remember disliking is the fifty-turn limit on tactical battles it seemed too long to me-stalemates would drag on (especially with the slow computer I probably had back then). I took a liking to MOO and played a whole lot of it. Before then, I was playing Civilization-an impressive game, but one which went against my grain by including so much of an economic system and handling warfare in an odd way. I bought MOO1 when it was new, around 1993 or so.

Master of Orion was one of the first PC strategy games I played.

Master of orion ground combat