Magazines I read on a regular basis (2)

I have subscribed to some more magazines, thought it has meant I am less likely to read them all. See my earlier post for a list. I have a few more subscriptions now.

1. Poets and Writers Magazine
2. Poetry Magazine. I remember reading one when I was an undergraduate in India.
3. The Smithsonian magazine. Only $10 a year. Can get a good article every other month.
4. Wired. Only $10 a year. Why not?

I will update this list if I start reading more magazines. It's getting hard to balance a job and other ambitions/interests. With the economy in a bad shape, I'm having to work harder! And I don't like that :)

Caesar III and Addictive Real-Time Strategy Games

Caesar III came out in 1998. I was in graduate school at that time, and had a lot of time to fill in between experiments, and found Caesar III demo from download.com and played it. I loved it and bought the game. I have spent hundreds of hours, maybe even a thousand playing and perfecting my strategy at Caesar III. I didn't realize games could be so addictive. Sure, games like Wolfenstein and Doom were addictive, but how many times could you play the same level with the same demons at the same location? In Caesar III, you could play a game many times over without repeating the progression of events.

Micro-management to the extreme
Caesar III gave you basic building blocks of a city. Roads, farms, gardens, fountains, clinics, theaters, prefectures (police stations), engineer posts, mines, workshops, bridges and so on. You can build
farms only in a certain location in the map. You want to make sure that there are enough workers living near work. And you have to keep them happy. They want everything -- clean water, market access, food, entertainment, schools and theaters. The happier houses are, the bigger they get and pay more in taxes. Yes, you have to collect taxes to balance your budget. Yes, you have to balance the budget! You need to keep the Roman gods happy or they make your life hell. It is very addictive to try and build the perfect combination of services and houses so that everyone has everything. You have to make sure everything your populace wants is given to them. Their expectations are low at first, but become gradually steeper until it becomes a challenge.

The Walkers
Caesar III uses the ideas of walkers. Every building, for example the prefecture would have employees (prefects) come out of the building and walk on roads. At every junction, the walker will randomly choose one road. If a building has not been passed by a prefect for a while, its risk of catching fire goes up. Similarly, workers will leave their home and walk the same way in search of a job. If enough walkers come regularly to a farm, the farm will have its complement of employees and food would grow in it as fast as allowed by the game. This makes it critical to build homes and workplaces near, but not too close as to annoy the citizenry.

Military Aspect
There is a military aspect to it as well, but it's primitive -- nothing like Age of Empires. You bring your units to enemy units and they take over, you have no control over them. The best defensive approach is to build walls around your city and to build towers from where you can throw missiles at an attacking force and inflict good damage on them without taking any losses. Legions are the best fighting units here; the other two units are worthless -- they have mobility but poor striking power.

Summary
In summary, Caesar III was a perfect game with endless micro-management and many maps to play. If you haven't tried it yet, I would recommend it. You have to make your brain work for you in this game, and you will be challenged. The graphics are awesome (keep in mind they date from 1998). They made a sequel, Caesar IV, but I found that boring and too slow.

Caesar III has many cities as maps you play on. It is often a challenge to bring food, pottery and furniture to the people, as you may be forced to manut