Numerion's Rants

I have just finished playing a TW: warhammer campaign as the beastmen and I used the Shadowgave legendary lord from the start. I (again) didn't bother finishing off the dwarves for the long campaign, mostly because due to how the beastmen work, they wouldn't be able to beat me in a single combat anywhere on the map, but it would still take a lot of time to conquer all of their forts. Now for the ones who have no idea about beastmen in this game: It is a scavenger race, that doesn't have stable settlements and cities. Instead all you have are armies that can produce units if you set camp (which you are very heavily discouraged to do). Since for most factions, the settlements are what generates money, you are in a bit of troublesome situation early in the game. What you are supposed to do is attack settlements and loot them for money so that you can run at a deficit until you lower the upkeep cost of your armies under the default income...so that you can create more armies...

It is very popular in modern gaming to look up optimal strategies for games.  There are some obvious reasons for it. Major one being why bother trying to learn how to play stuff on your own and trying to catch up with everybody else the hard way, especially if it's a competitive game? That's pretty much like reinventing the wheel. It just makes sense. I also hate it.  For me, a big part of the enjoyment of games is figuring them out. I don't mind being somewhat ineffective or less than optimal, if it means I got to that point myself. Sometimes this leads to me discovering strategies on my own and then later finding out they are considered the best (mostly the other way around though).  But why do I hate it then? Surely I can live (ignorantly) in peace and leave it be.  Yeah, no.  If I am playing a highly competitive game like Starcraft, if I am matched against an opponent who looks up and tries to adhere completely to an optimal strategy, while I am in my...