Siege of Avalon was a staple of my childhood. The graphics, the art, the lore, the soundtrack; I got so lost in the game. The combat didn't matter, the story did and there was so much dialog and detail you just spent all of your time reading; it really was an interactive story book. I absolutely adore the game and it's a gaming memory I'll never forget.
Civilizations: In reality it's more Continental Regions. They're basically templates a player chooses from. Each have their own tech tree, building and unit sets. This is different from Empire Earth 1 where you had one building set and one tech tree. In EE1, strength came from the Civilization bonus editor and unit stat boosting throughout the game. I can see why people are put off on this, because EE1 had a large list of bonuses to choose from which gave players different ways to approach the game and every unit could be boosted in attack, speed, health, range, area damage, etc.. Which can be done as the game progresses. There is a civilization editor in EE3 though and you can select through a point system what researches you start with and what units you start with. So you can inject some variety into your skirmish games. Epochs: Around 5 of them a departure from EE1's 14 epochs. Ancient is EE1's Bronze/Dark, Medieval is EE1's Middle Ages, Colonial covers EE1's Renaissance through Industrial, Modern covering Modern, and Future covering Digital/Nano. Path Finding: Pain in the ass. Made more obvious in the game with how sluggish units are and can be frustrating at times trying to get anything to move through terrain. Resources: Down to Wealth, Materials, and Research. Less time spent of eco management to encourage more focus on combat I guess. Combat: Follows the same Rock, Paper, Scissors formula like EE1. So no change there. Naval and Air combat is still there, Mechs still exist too. Dialog: Tad annoying and childish, lot of dad jokes. Graphics: Nothing really pops out and wows you. Characters look like dwarfs. It does have weather, seasons, and the environment looks nice. Civ color though seems to drown out a lot of detail on units and buildings. Music: Didn't really pay attention, but music does change when you enter combat. I think had they not called this game EE3 it would have been saved from being compared to EE1. Maybe even standing on it's own.
To this day I still love this game. The visuals and sounds were amazing and I would waste hours just playing. There's always something going on in each level, either enemy soldiers moving about, turrets guarding an entry way, gelatinous creatures ready to devour you, and much more. Oh and don't forget boxes, boxes everywhere, which will either hold a bomb, nothing, or a prize inside; I loved shooting them every single time and I loved watching them drop out of the sky or carried by a conveyor belt in certain levels. I'd also say conveyor belts have been with Duke for a long time, making appearances in Duke I, II, and 3D (Don't recall if they were in DNF), they're really entertaining to watch, almost mesmerizing..... huh! Oh sorry... Anyways, yes get these games. Also, apologies if I didn't say anything about Duke I, all you need to know about it is that is that it has killable energizer bunnies, which is enough to warrant it's purchase, just beware falling acme signs.
I remember getting the original CotNW (yes the non-Deluxe version) for Christmas one year and had immense fun with the game. Until a few days ago I had no idea that CotNW was still being sold until I created my account on GoG and found this jewel whilst searching for old games (and it's the Deluxe Edition to!) Looks like I'll be spending my weekend either federating Native tribes or declaring my independence from the mother country again thanks to GoG! If you own the regular edition and are not sure if you should go Deluxe, go Deluxe. One of the features of the D.E is that you can actually read the whole gazette now (thanks to the added arrow buttons and the kind pause until you finish reading), than you could if you had the regular edition. The Deluxe also comes with a scenario editor and if for any reason you need to, you can have the computer take over your turns. The only minor issue I have is the the intro cinematic is not included. But again it's a minor issue. The rest of the game is great!
