Ashes of Empire: Intro

Mark another one on the "I should really check games from prominent authors before dismissing them out of hand" board, because Mike Singleton is back with another early-FPS/strategy game. I hope it hasn't come off like I've been ragging on him too hard in the past, since outside of Midwinter 2 being a spy game where you gun down an entire army, he's been very interesting. Outside of the credit we give him for Lords of Midnight, he hasn't gotten enough.

I'll set out the long version of the story in the summary, because it's truly complex, but the short version is that you're the not UN, United Coalition forces commander of a vague nature, going into the recently destabilized Confederation of Syndicalist Republics, which is like if the Soviet Union had Yugoslavia's ethnic tensions. Your job is to stabilize the country before radical elements of the CSR's rapidly failing government decide to deploy nukes within their own borders. To do this, in each of the five republics, you need to perform four tasks, called Building, Demolition, Pacification and Ethnic Harmony. This is, I should point out, before things in Yugoslavia got truly dicey and the UN's peacekeeping attempts were seen as a joke. This game was released in either 1992 or 1993, so this was some timely game design.

There is a wealth of introductory materials. A manual which has over 140 pages, not sure the exact number since nobody actually digitalized the whole thing, a reference card for commands and a VHS tape serving as a tutorial. Like you'd get in games proper just a few years down the line. There's a lot to break down here, but to make the story short. You need to complete all the aforementioned tasks in a province to pacify a republic. The manual straight up says you have to complete all the tasks, no doing part of it. To pacify a republic, the capital and two other provinces need to be pacified. All five republics need to be pacified to win, within a time limit of 150 days. Because the CSR isn't above nuking itself and the nuclear tension rises every 50 days.

These are not entirely related to their name. Building could involve you having built some of the buildings you're supposed to build, or just capturing existing ones. Demolition, meanwhile, doesn't count as finished if you capture the building. Even though there is no reason for you to destroy a building you control. Pacification is just ground combat, force enemy military units to surrender by shooting them. Ethnic Harmony is all about collecting votes, which is done by convincing professionals, wandering NPCs, to join with you by giving them stuff. Professionals are doctors, generals, engineers and administrators. They can also be used to make up the special teams. As these seem to be a highly limited commodity and most professionals provide incredibly useful things, like votes and destroying buildings, this is kind of hard to work for.

Then there are commodities, which you can use to trade with people for their services. Gold, diamonds, food, wine, goods, tools, medication and clothing. Along with vehicles, because you don't get unlimited anything unless you find it in a province. Everything is airdropped to you, but you can't do this if you don't have fuel. There's also papers, movement, which means enemies won't shoot you if you don't shoot them, interdiction papers, which allow you to enter enemy controlled buildings. There's also fire fighting teams, who fight fires saboteurs set, emergency medical treatment, which saves you time, and power cells, a ground attack which allows you to capture enemy vehicles.

The game is very dense when you start it up. You get a long, text introduction about the events that have resulted in you being called in. It repeatedly makes a point about these events not being very good. They're all incredibly grim, real-world things that games today try not to touch. The Adlib music, honestly, feels incredibly...off to such dark things. The game automatically loads your last save or starts up a new game. 

This looks more like the bit of Russia that borders the Baltics, specifically Estonia.

The proper in-game stuff is more fitting. More frantic. It works when you first start it up, but it plays throughout the game. There are a few other tracks, but I hope you can get used to aggressive Adlib music. As you can read, I need to pick out a border providence to start my operation in. I choose Moldenia, because it looks small enough to start with.
 

This game could do with a bit of "We do not reward failure", right about now.

The situation is grim. Very grim. I'm really not sure how much time 11 days is. It seems like a low amount of time to stop a famine, but at least I know how to stop it, supplies. I need to build certain amount of buildings, of which I am not yet clear on what I need to do that, but I see I have to destroy certain buildings and destroy certain people. That much I can do. I'm sure that convincing people to vote for...me (?) will follow once I make the trains run on time or whatever it is we're doing.

"You may have saved us from dying...but that's really only worth 20 bars of gold."

And here's what I get if I can save the province. Seeing as I have a rough time limit in each republic of 30 days, currently 21 to pacify the republic, that's not that helpful. Gold and diamonds are goofy to see, though one must admit, having money to pay people is oh, so, important. 

Soon to be filled.

So the map, this screen is incredibly obtuse. You automatically start here and have to go get other information through the function keys, I got the situation that way. There's seemingly nothing you can actually do here, just find out what your surroundings are. Right now I'm just focusing on the reference card and none of the buttons are for doing anything on this screen. Clicking somewhere gets options of viewing this screen differently. Which is...not helpful. There's an auto-move I have yet to figure out, but doesn't really seem like I need it just yet.

Into the golden void...

Most of the game is played via the main screen. And memories of Midwinter come flooding back. Memories of flying around in chaos and not hitting things. Because the aiming sensitivity is way too high. This time I solve that by just lowering my system's mouse sensitivity. Now it's just a question of flying and hoping you reach someplace. Because all you get to find something is the map unless something is really close, and it's slow switching back and forth. Later, I did discover you can open an expanded version of the radar map, which usually makes things easier.

Not pictured, civilian vehicles in the distance.

Eventually I find a town and some vehicles. Blue vehicles are friendly, dark red dots are buildings. So I approach the town, slowly set myself down, get out and enter the radar station.

"I'm not going to help you if you don't give me stuff, but I am going to help you anyway."

Much like Midwinter 2, people want favors in exchange for doing stuff for you. The game advertises 665 professionals who move from town to town, but the true number is much higher. Domenico here is a regular civilian who is just working the town radar station. I just need to get him to join the side that isn't about to start the events of Midwinter, and to do so I need to give him a barrel of wine. Which I have and can easily give him. This is done with the barter icon, simple enough. Or you can try to persuade them using the icons below. 

"We grant you the title of doctor, but you can't introduce yourself as Doctor Marceline."

Using the lion-shaped door knocker, I can switch over to the other building, a hospital. Marceline, meanwhile, is a bit greedier. (well, a hospital needs that stuff more than a radar operator needs wine, but this is quibbling) I see no reason not to give it to her, and then have to ponder if I should wait for the surgeons or try to track them down. I mean...It already took me 2 hours to reach this place, by the time I figure these places out they're likely going to be back here again.

Quality aside, Midwinter 2's faces were better, simply because they didn't look goofy and move around like crazy. That's a caricature, not a face that belongs in a serious war game.

So I wait for Fokine, a name which makes me glad I'm not a video reviewer. Fokine offers a significant amount of stuff in exchange for bringing him 20 cases of medication, 20 sets of interdiction papers and 20 sets of movement papers. I apparently don't have this, which isn't surprising since that's a lot of stuff. On the other hand, he is willing to give me so much in exchange. I then wait for Nahhas, who is known to be a Ruzakh. He asks for something I can easily give, a military team and some of what I need for Fakine. The manual says something about either getting resources or getting their services as a professional. Not sure how that's going to work out, but whatever. I decide that I'll do it, I still have one, having 2 of each type of team I can have and I can check out how effective they are as allies when I actually see some combat. Since they cost resources to use I can't afford to use them willy nilly. 

I guess it's a caliber issue, but it feels just so abstracted away in a strange way.

With the radar station obtained, the map shows a lot more stuff, including a town with some nearby soldiers southwest of my location. I go there, occasionally checking my map, and find the two offending vehicles. I start attacking them, with bullets and bombs. They don't attack back. I burn through my entire supply of bullets and most of my missiles and nothing happens. I quit in disgust at this and check the manual. No, those were hostile vehicles and yes I'm supposed to shoot at them. Copy protection poorly removed? Or is this going to be one of those annoying games where you can only shoot something when you have the proper style of vehicle? I'm in a VTOL/plane and they're in armored cars, so that could be it. Combat is given lip service in the manual. Hey, you wrote a manual that's over 140 pages, do you think we could find out how to shoot something as opposed to how soon the people will be dying of hunger in the streets? I like story more than the next guy, but you need at least playable gameplay to go along with it!

Time to fight fire with fire!

So, I check the instructional VHS tape, and I'm really not sure what I'm missing here. The tutorial just has it as point and shooting, but noticeably, he never shoots a ground vehicle despite being in a plane. Curious. The next day I start up the game again, losing some progress, but technically making it up by just rushing to the town. This time I get to the Ruzakh before he leaves and secure his services. I also discover that your vehicle disappears if you enter a building with it, but you can also airlift a vehicle to you. Basically any vehicle. And it turns out that it's probably just mismatched attack types. VTOLs can't shoot armored cars, but armored cars can shoot armored cars just fine. In my case, I eliminate the armored cars with a few shots. Heck, yeah!

Every town looks like this, the difference is in the icons down below, a Professional is in the middle building.

First order of business, meet with random house owner in Frelgorsk. He wants quite a bit for a few extra days and some wine, if I wanted I could negotiate with him, but more impportantly, there's a nurse here. In exchange for 5 sets of interdiction and movement papers, along with 5 cases of medication, he'll give me 5 courses emergency medical treatment and 4500 Ossian votes. Emergency medical treatment being a way of recovering from injury faster. You can't truly die unless you run out of time. I unfortunately, don't have the resources right now. Fortunately, I can perform parlor tricks to convince the housekeeper to join me, anyway. Since you can only save by pressing F9 and reload by F10, one could engage in a bit of savescumming. It's the only chance you'll get since there's only one save. I'm not desperate enough yet.

The rest of the town has a fort and a depot, which I believe are vital to my war efforts. The fort comes with unlimited amount of ammo, assuming I can find a mine. The depot meanwhile, adds vehicles to my overall pool. I use resources for the former, food and wine is an easy way to a man's heart, but try the persuasion system on the later. It's intentionally Russian Roulette with 8 chambers. Get the right option and you win; Get the wrong option and you lose time. The Fort is something I'm supposed to capture, yet the depot I'm supposed to destroy. Not much point in destroying something I own, but the objective isn't to capture them. Hopefully I don't need to completely solve the objectives before winning, because I would be oh, so, annoyed at having to do that.

I wonder how you discover towns without radar?

With that done, I decide to go southeast, to Spitchagan, which has some Professionals, but more importantly, a mine, which I think will prove quite useful. Driving around in an armored car is quite bouncy. You get every single bump and crease as you drive along, which is a lot, so high speed travel is quite...disorienting, not just to the player but to the actual direction you're going in. There's also a radar station, some resources and a little negotiating later and I have unlimited ammo, but not unlimited fuel and air vehicles. Anyway, let's see what I can now see...

Judging by the rate at which enemy vehicles seem to drain the Pacification Programme, I'd have long accomplished my goal by the time I finish with that area.

Yikes, that's a lot of guys. Almost all ground vehicles, guarding effectively a hospital. I decide that it's best to go north first, since there's a control tower there, a vital building to take, and more importantly, not thousands of vehicles. Though I must admit, that the game is willing to go this hard this early on is a sign that this is going to be very difficult. I'll also start exploring around the place.

My guy must be really ugly if she isn't looking at me. Then again, I'm not looking at her, either?

Celestine doesn't want much for her services, but now I'm suddenly not concerned about her. Rather, I'm more interested in this Medical Coordinator. There's a system in this game where if you recruit someone's superior all his subordinates join up. I don't know if it's conditional, or if it automatically happens, but either way I think I need this guy. Possibly gal. Either way, I give resources to the kind air traffic controller and then look around at the rest of the town. There's a bombproof factory here, which gives unlimited aircraft in this province. Well worth what the director is asking for, one article of basically everything I can give. Muahahaha! Now, to the place he is said to be.

"I, an important member of the community, am going to travel all the way to the very important random farm in the middle of nowhere."

He's gone a significant distance over many towns. That's quite the trip, not sure how he's doing it in under 6 hours, but that's game logic for you. So I head there, making sure to stop on every town along the way that I can. First stop, Vidalsk, complete with another control tower and...a Commandant regularly walks around here. So I try to charm this person, eventually succeeding, and walk over to the barracks, another target I have to take out, where the Commandant is.

In retrospect, I'm not quite sure if I'd do this, since that is a steep price.

That's a pretty high price, since I haven't gotten anything to replenish them, but I can't deny that these services are of vital importance. More assault forces means friendlies for my eventual assault south, and that's one set of buildings I just don't have to worry about. Not quite, but I'm not sure how to destroy them just yet. The administrator is in the opposite direction entirely, back west, the opposite of where I'm headed at the moment. So more east.

My next destination is Krenomsk, which has a vault. With gold. I really don't think I need the gold. I would just pass over this place, but he mentions an Administrative Coordinator, so I should stick around. So I look around the rest of the place, there's a windmill, which has a power cell but is otherwise unimportant, a mosque, nothing special, and the final control tower I need to have one third of the construction requirements met. The Administrator proves useful, because he offers plenty of Moldene votes, and more importantly, where to find an engineering coordinator. He just wants diamonds, gold and wine. Nothing too valuable. 

I end up in combat with another group of enemies a bit further east. I find out some interesting things now that I'm on the ground. Firstly, enemies are not obstructed by your limitations. Planes can shoot ground vehicles just fine and ground vehicles can usually shoot planes just fine. Seems like there are limitations to what vehicles can do buried in the manual, and I just overlooked it since, hey, it's Midwinter set in the Soviet Union, why do I need to know that? I reload and instead come here in a tank. It seems like the better option even if practically everything in this game is torn apart like tissue paper. This seems to give me a little more protection, though it's mostly just using missile to take out enemies before they're within range.

Bagrolsk, one of the last places before I reach the place I want to be, has a power station, which is completely irrelevant outside of giving me power. I don't actually know if I need power yet. I'm sure I'll find out when it's needed most. In the meantime combat is proving interesting, fights aren't luck, but it feels like you have no proper way of countering everything, you will always be under threat from some enemy force. The only real anti-plane vehicle is the fighter, but that leaves you vulnerable to ground fire. It's an intentionally screwy game of rock-paper-scissors, with the consequences being two hours of your time.

Finally, I make it to Dokenko, where the Medical Coordinator isn't actually at. Well, better make the most of this. There's nothing of value here, except a cache of building materials, of which I need someone special to make use of. I just have to wait for the guy. He knows where a surgeon is, gives more medical treatment and some Moldene votes, but the real prize is that he'll win over all CSR troops with 50 kilometers. As an American, I am legally obligated to not know what those are, but I'm pretty sure that's a suspiciously high number. That seems like more than the entire distance I've gone. The speed and distance I've gone is clearly not that amount. 

Looking back through my screenshots, I'm not even sure that missing dot west is one that got removed by it, I just took them out.

Lo and behold, the game is not quite to scale. 50 kilometers is akin to at most, 15 seconds of flying at top speed. Which in reality is quite impressive for how fast I'm going, but in the game world means I've been cheated. At least I get a few groups in case I need support. Military teams and in-combat teams are two different things. My next plane, get some of these more important people around. Two of the more important guys are in Smetajan, right in the center of those remaining teams.

Like an eagle in the sky.

The only group I end up encountering are groundhawks, which are planes, which I didn't quite get until I spotted one. I went there with a bomber, so I wasn't able to take them out...and also somehow crashed it. Which is quite impressive. Unfortunately, I crashed it, seemingly into air. Guess I hit the hitbox of an object which isn't boxy shaped. The town has some interesting stuff. A processing plant, which, when I get a pump head, will give me unlimited fuel. The manager wants some stuff, but since I have some time before the two big boys come back, I just haggle with her. Eventually while trying to negotiate for a fuel dump, more fuel, the engineering coordinator will tell me where to find a constructor general, and some goods and tools, all for 10 diamonds and gold. Sweet deal. Unfortunately, when I eventually meet with the surgeon, he wants a ton of stuff, which would be a stiff sell if I had 50 interdiction and movement papers, but I don't. Also, Surgeons are titles, but sometimes generic civilians are also surgeons.

Either way, I look around, and spot a Pump Head south, located away from anything I know to be important. I end up stopping at that town west, which has some vehicles guarding it, natch. And lucky me, I find out that the Captain of Works hangs out around here sometimes. And the factory here will give me unlimited underwater craft. I don't see much water here, but it couldn't hurt me. When I eventually meet with the Captain of Works, whose name is Giulio Agricola, which sounds suspiciously Italian to me, he offers me a lot, all for a military team. The important thing is that he gives four processing plants, one of the buildings I have to build.

I'll leave things here, as I'm starting to get something of a beachhead. The basic gist seems to be, it's one of those games where you have to spot your enemies on the radar first, shoot first and ask questions later. Everything comes down to time. Your vehicles can be airdropped in, but you have a usually limited number, and airdrops cost fuel. Everything can be gotten by either wasting time negotiating or giving other resources. The latter will eventually run dry if the player doesn't negotiate. I'm not sure that I'm doing too well, but I'm not yet sure what I could be doing better.

This Session: 1 hour 20 minutes