Shadow Empire - Mad Max meets Operation Barbarossa

Yes - but via food. Maybe a better term for that resource would be “sustenance”. I think the developer rightly assessed that it isn’t worth having two resources to nourish troops, if one is already an intermediate of the other.

I don’t see how to attach a filer here. Upload says it has to be a picture file.

Edit - And now a few turns later I’m running out of both food and water?! This is starting to remind me of whack-a-mole.

Is it possible your issue is your logistics network? If your logistics is overloaded, your goods can’t get from your producers to the zone warehouses.

I have three hexes near the capital that are yellow (74%) and four hexes near my front line that are also yellow. Everything else is green.

The combined terrain / terrain icons mod is out. It combines the higher contrast terrain features with the super obvious terrain icons. Link at the top of this post:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4938637

Those little icons on top look very handy to get a good grasp of the situation.

This game is tremendous fun.

Thanks! Moving Shadow Empire graphics right into the 2000s!

Maybe '99

We have released a new major update for Shadow Empire.

  • You can now craft Stratagems . You do this by expanding Scrap Points you can earn by scrapping Stratagems you do not need. The crafted Stratagems are random and procedurally generated and thus always a surprise.

  • AI turn speed has been increased

  • Two new Planet Classes have been added. The Morgana Class and the Hydra Class .

  • Sentient Alien life can now evolve on Planets. If this happens on the Planet you are playing on you’ll very probably face some Alien natives during your game.

Check out the full changelog below. Asterix (*) at end of item means it requires a new game start to go into effect.

v1.08.01
• Fixed glitch in Alien Minor Report
• Reduced number of Asset Types eligible for usage in procedural Scrap Stratagems.
• Finetuned downwards the Charismatic Union Chief demands *
• Fixed that Open Contact could be played on Alien natives Minors. *
• Increased difficulty for making Alien natives join you a bit.*
• Fixed some glitches in the Militia growth algorithm.
• Fixed a turn processing crash (related to AI aircraft movement).
• Fixed an issue with Private Economy not seeing it was already producing enough Food. An optimization for speed didn’t work out. Removing it for v1.08, will try again with subsequent open beta’s.
• Added Hydra Class Planets, humid with plenty of swamps, rivers and seas. Almost always home to alien lifeforms.
• Added Morgana Class Planets, arid and dry, but with plenty of oasis areas dotted all over these planets.
• Added Minor Alien Regimes functionality for more variety. Native Aliens can now evolve during the Planet Biosphere phase, they’ll impact colonization and the aftermath of the Dissolution war as well. 5 Different types are present (like Cephaloids, Reptiloids) and they can use local wildlife as ‘cavalry’ as well. They’ll form their own Minor Regimes and a special kind of diplomacy will be allowed with the Xeno Diplomat Stratagem. They’ll also can contact you themselves, like other Minors.
• Fixed new organisation PP cost glitch if continuing from loading a saved game.
• Fixed some glitches with the Corporate story module (fixed some crime impact on corporation as well as better corporate spreading to other zones)
• Fixed bug with credits disappearing due to having only one zone and it being a unincorporated one.
• University production now increases with education tech
• Barracks production now increases with security tech
• Fixed construction cost for High Speed Rail
• Fixed an issue with renamed Unit name not being properly displayed for the Commanders job.
• Went back to speeded-up build mode, .06 should be faster turn processing than .05/.04 and equal to .03.
• Fixed a small glitch in the QOL score calculations which could cause small temporary decreases in them.
• Fixed model issue with Techs Launcher Optimization and Payload for SAM Launcher
• Fixed model issue with Conventional Guns Optimization and Flak Gun
• Plugged an exploit with scroll bar movement not updating button
• AI should construct tanks with HV guns as well now
• AI now tries to keep movement of Reserve Fronts to their targets more on roads (in order to benefit from potential Strategic Transfer)
• AI now makes use of Strategic Transfers Mode (limited number of units allowed to do this)
• AI now actually plays any Artifact Stratagems it has obtained during game *
• AI now also more interested in constructing Recycling Assets on top of Archeological Finds *
• AI now creates new Zones when they reach a size where if it was subject to administrative strain it would suffer penalties. *
• AI now also re-arranges its Zones.
• AI now has more difficulties in general to build roads and especially difficulties to build roads over mountains.
• Cards 31,32,104 now use 31.png, 32.png, 104.png instead of 1.png *
• Cards 546,547,548,549 now use newly added 546.png, 547,png, 548.png, 549.png *
• Added 8 new portrait part graphics (named groupXextrahair) for modders to have no double use between portrait groups. *
• Shared some help documentation for make graphics mod over on: Shadow Empire Gfx Modding Hints PUBLIC - Google Sheets
• Fixed big crash bug caused with 1.07.04
• The glitch corrupted some data and could take a few turns to surface to turn into a bug. Corrupted savefiles due to 1.07.04 play are cleaned up as well.
• Added Very Slow AI speed and made regular Slow mode less slow. See Prefs Tab.
• Fixed bug with Zones losing their SHQs ! Apologies. It was caused in a previous open beta.
• Fixed the missing Stratagem generation info
• Scrap Strats no longer give “Market” Asset (which is an asset still in development and not meant to be given yet)
• Scrap Strats no also can give some Private Mining and Private Farming Assets
• Alien Fauna now makes sound in combat
• Switched back the compilation mode to the one used in 1.07.02 to see if it fixes some weird calculation errors or not.
• Double Artifact Stratagem fixed and also the amount of Artifacts you’ll find should be lower due to this fix.
• Several Private Assets including Private Hospital have had their way too high Population need reduced by factor of ten *
• Made some relatively good speed improvements to turn speed. However this also made me change some compilation settings and might give some unwanted bugs, didn’t find any, but lets see. Stay aware this is an open BETA. capitals for emphasis.
• Minors with whom you have “unclear” relation can no longer take your locations.
• Fixed a crash when player gets more than 300 stratagems in stock (caused with 1.07.02)
• Nomads when losing a conquered city now are NOT removed from game anymore
• Added possibility to scrap Stratagems and craft new Stratagems (spending Scrap Points) to the game. You can find all new functionality in the Stratagem Tab when you flag “Scrap Mode” in the top-right corner. *
• Fixed propper average of attack and hitbonus skill % in Leader blocks in combat results window
• When tolerated equipment is switched for better equipment during replacement troops phase it keeps the soldiers (the xp, rdn, mor) where they are and only switches the equipment.
• MissileLauncher and RocketLauncher and other mechanized Launchers now use the Gun Tactics Skill (instead of Tank Tactics)
• Rail Stations now also profit from LogBonus *
• No longer very occasional n/a skill learning with Leader XP where Leader did not use any skill that turn
• Made fixes to the max logistical % settings for SHQ which were being overly optimistic (euphemism for not sticking to the limits)
• Fixed issue with Deception Skill being wrongly used in the combat mechanics.
• Fixed crash with older version savefiles and trying Strategic Transfer
• Automatic scrapping of most doubled Stratagems after you have more than 300 of them. To prevent too huge piles of Stratagems. *
• Fixed a nasty loss of Credits due to a bug to structural damage caused during battle code.

Tempting to get back into this amazing game, but I need to wrap up my plays on Anno 1800 and few others first - as once I get back into Shadow Empire there will be no room for anything else.

Watching a Das Tactic playthrough with the air units, and he mentioned they do plan to add naval units at some point.

Currently on sale on Steam for $25.99.

Thanks - I ended up grabbing this, even though it looks like something that I’ll bounce off of as well as maybe needing some more work, but I want to support this kind of game. Seems like something I’ll get super into some day, so why not!

Is playing stratagems the main means of getting leaders/commanders?

Don’t be too quick to assume you will bounce off: if you are gaming dilettante such as I am? the game is pretty easy to get into and got that fascinating special “something” the likes of alpha centauri or Armageddon empires which makes you think about it a lot.

It is

Yes. You need to create the appropriate council(I don’t remember the name but it should be reasonably easy to guess when you see it) and then fund the appropriate area. For a number of those councils all the funding does is go to generating new stratagem cards.

I agree with this. I still haven’t been able to put my finger on why this felt surprisingly easy to pick up, but it really was more intuitive than some simpler strategy games I’ve picked up in the past.

I haven’t built one yet, but I’m guessing the staff council?

Yeah, it seems not too bad to get into, but there is a lot of things that you can dive into like the model design. It seems like it will be a lot of fun.

Just looked at the manual, it’s the Interior Council and then you need to fund the Human Resources department within that. I believe all the Interior Council does is generate new stratagem cards. The Staff Council is also important as that is what will let you get new OOBs so that you really can use your new troop types.

There is a ton of stuff in the game that isn’t immediately obvious or intuitive, but for me I was able to get the basics where I felt like I generally understood what was going on and what I wanted to do. From there it was a matter of filling in the details and learning about some of the other things that weren’t necessarily intuitive(including using the Staff Council to get new OOBs).

JFC. Getting old is crazy. I was reading your reply wondering what you were talking about (in the email alert) and had for a bit there forgotten I bought this… just hours ago!? Good grief.

Thanks for the words of encouragement - if there wasn’t a lot on my gaming plate atm (there is), I’d give it a run this weekend, but it’s in my “Ongoing” group so I plan to dig in soon.