# Historical PC/Console Games



## Caledfwlch (Feb 26, 2016)

Does anyone else here play PC Games, with a fondness for ones based on Historical events or times?

I have been a huge fan of the Wonderful Total War series ever since the first Medieval: Total War came out. I checked my Steam Account recently, and on Empire: Total War alone, I have clocked around 220 realtime hours of gameplay! Napoleon: Total War is less, but not hugely less!

Sadly, until I build a better gaming system, hopefully next week, I cannot play Empire/Napoleon, and certainly not Rome II  I have never been able to decide whether my fave game of those I have played is Empire or Napoleon - Napoleon has the best graphics of all TW Games, prior to Rome II, but the Campaign Map is restricted to Europe, whilst Empire has the whole of Europe, North Africa, right down into the Indian Subcontinent, including the Island of Ceylon, and North, Central and South America. Empire & Napoleon were supposed to have been released with a simple to use Unit Editing application so you can create Custom Unit mods, but it sadly never surfaced. It is still possible to create mods - the entire Total War series has a huge dedicated base of Fan Modders, doing incredible things - to the degree that a couple of amazing chaps who created one of the most popular and stunning Mods for either Empire or Napoleon got a very unexpected Email from Creative Assembly!!!! They were offered Jobs, which I believe they sensibly snapped up!

Creating Custom Units for E&N is not actually difficult, providing you base your new unit off an existing one - as obviously, if you want your Unit to have a new texture/skin, or a Uniform style that does not appear in the Vanilla game, you obviously need to be able to either create the textures yourself in tools like Photoshop, or get help from other fans who can do the textures. Once you understand the Principles of basic Unit Editing, its a matter of using a fairly simple Fan designed tool, editing numbers, such as accuracy, range etc, and you have to then export your new Unit in a certain way, it's easy to make a misstep so the mod either does not work or crashes the game, but it is equally easy to retrace your steps and locate and correct the error.

In both E & N, I created several Units and amended a couple of Vanilla units due to a baffling oversite by Creative Assembly, baffling since they are British so should know better 
For my British Campaigns, I created the Welsh Guards, nearly 120 years early for N, and about 300 for E!  I then created the Royal Marines, an odd lack in the vanilla game (if you play as USA in E, you can recruit US Marines)

in E I then fixed a couple of oddities. Firstly, for some reason, there is a Generic Rifle Unit, dressed in the distinctive green uniform of the 95th Rifles, but named as "the Green Jackets" which was the name of the 20th century descendent of the 95th (Royal Green Jackets) until they were merged in 2005 with a couple of other light infantry units and renamed "The Rifles" So I renamed the Vanilla Unit to 95th Rifles, and using the same vanilla model, I then created a secondary recruitable Unit, the Royal American Rifles, tweaking the colour settings of the vanilla Green jacket model to give them red facings.

This bit is a bit of a ramble on the 95th Rifles, so put it in spoilers, to avoid a huge wall of text 


Spoiler



I suspect the reason for the generic name in the game is there was at least 1 other Rifles Regiment, the Royal American Rifles, who also wore the distinctive Green, but with a lot of red in the uniforms trimmings. I don't have a clue if the RAR were as revolutionary in their selection, training and Combat Methods as the 95th were - iirc the Officers of the "Regular Army" were horrified upon learning what the 95th were getting up to before they went into Combat, thinking it a mad and doomed experiment. The 95th were a total revolution from top to bottom, even in naming - If a Regular Officer say, asked a 95th man his rank, every man from the Colonel down to the newest Chosen Man would merely reply that they were a Rifleman, as a way of creating stronger, and greater familiarity and trust between the Men and their Officers.
They were created by Sir John Moore as a reaction to the huge problems Redcoat Companies faced during the American War of Independence, getting their asses handed to them by American Skirmishers, who often being Militiamen, or just non military trained volunteers rushing to fight for freedom, had no military doctrine or drill, or concept of ordered battle, which actually worked massively in their favour, as British Companies, trained and highly disciplined to fight by memorised drill and Officers orders simply could not react fast enough to deal with them.

I think that from the perspective of formal military, the 95th are very possibly the first dramatic bridging evolution from the old tightly ordered Line Infantry to the modern 20th and 21st century style of Infantryman. The Chosen Men had far more operational leeway, and tactical savvy than a regular infantryman, who's every movement was orchestrated by the Company's Officers during battle, as well as Crack Shots, Chosen Men had to be highly intelligent, think fast on their feet, operating well forward of their lines, often without an Officer present, or not within easy range for passing out orders, thus the Riflemen often operated completely independently from the command structure whilst between the opposing armies and tactical changes, such as the whole thing of working in Pairs, moving forwards fighting a fast, rolling offensive towards the Enemy skirmish & if Skirmishers seen off, or not present, the main infantry lines.

I actually thought that a "Chosen Man" was a specific 9th Rifles title for its Riflemen, to mark the fact that they were sharpshooters, but discovered recently, that it is actually an NCO Rank, which eventually evolved into the modern rank of Corporal - so every Rifleman was a Corporal - I suppose it made sense to give the additional authority to them, because of how they operated as constantly in motion pairs, thinking on their feet, rather than being instructed by an Officer. And of course, the 95th I suppose are arguably one of the first units to begin using the concept of Camouflage, as their dark green & black uniforms blended in far better when operating in lush countryside and fields. They also had a special "Rifles March" which allowed them to travel much faster, and further than regular Infantrymen, 140 steps vs regular army's 120, and rather than having orders relayed by Drums like regular infantry, they used Bugles. Standard Issue Bayonets did not fit the new Baker Rifles, so Riflemen, officer and Chosen Man alike were issued with Swords, hence the order for readyness to close quarter combat was not "Fix Bayonets" but "Draw Swords" and unlike the regular Army, the 95th, and its modern descendant Regiment did not, and do not have Kings & Regimental Colours.
Absolutely fascinating Regiment, especially for a Sharpe fan like me 
This site has some good info on the 95th
http://www.warlordgames.com/unit-history-the-chosen-men-of-the-british-95th-rifles/
And a pretty picture of some Riflemen








The other baffling thing in the Vanilla game, was the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. For some reason, like I said, CA should know better being British and history buffs, The RWF are classed as Grenadiers - they were not a Grenadier regiment, nor as far as I know did they ever have a Grenadier Company, my Father who was a Royal Welsh Fusilier pointed out that the clue is in their name - *Fusil*ier, ie a Line Infantryman who uses a Fusil an early name for Musket.
It was a massive annoyance because firstly, whoever at CA decided on and entered the range ingame Grenadier units threw their Grenades must have been loopy - they would only throw the bloody things when enemy troops were about 8 foot away, and the range they threw at was so limited that the blast would often reflect back and kill the throwers. The other unusual decision they took was to have vanilla Grenadiers unable to form Square when Cavalry is charging. So I amended the Vanilla Stats giving the Fusiliers a more realistic Grenade throwing range, that wouldn't wipe the throwers out, and gave them the ability to form Square.

Creative Assembly have got both the Total War & The Fantasy Community absolutely dancing with awe and glee, as they have for the first time Officially Licensed the intellectual property of a particular tabletop Wargames Company.....

Oh Yes! Later this year I think is expected release date, the Trailers look absolutely incredible Fandom is gleefully awaiting the Total War Franchises first Foray (outside of fan mods) into a non Historically accurate Game. They are bringing us

*Total War: WARHAMMER  !!!!!*
*



*​
The Trailers and early Alpha gameplay test footage are fantastic!

I play a game called Mount and Blade: Warband. The Vanilla game is a fantasy setting (it's fantasy in the sense that it is set in a made up World, but it's all humans, and medieval weapons etc) Warband is extremely fan moddable and was built that way, and there are some incredible fan (TC) total conversion Mods.

The 2 TC's I play the most are Fantasy mods, Prophecy of Pendor, and Perisno.

Pendor, is a continent, like all the mods, divided up between several Kingdoms, there are Elves, but they keep mainly to their woods, and don't intefere with the other kingdoms, many humans despise them, their castle is hidden by magic, they are as usual fantastic warriors, especially as Bowmen, but they have lost most of their Magic, except for crafting runed weapons that are more powerful than Humanity's. There are also 2 Contingents, who appear throughout the map most of often in small groups, or small armies, but ocassionaly as large holy cow look how many there are Forces. The first is the Snake Cult, they are loony cultists dedicated to a Snake Goddess, but in Pendor all the Gods exist, and Snake Cult Armies, and smaller groups contain both fully human Cultist Warriors, ranging from peasants with sticks to Armoured Men at Arms, they also have Heavy Cavalry and Infantry units, some, completely "alien" and some are Cultist's who have volunteered to be transformed into things more than human. The Second Group are The "Heretics" these guys work for another Evil God, and their armies and smaller raiding parties etc are again a mix of Human Worshippers, from fully human Peasants and Armoured Warriors, bowmen etc to various Human/Demon Hybrids and actual Demons riding evil black lizardy horse things called down. You know there is going to be a very large Heretic Army on the loose as you get messages stating that the Heretics have successfully called Demons into our Plane of existence. There are also a couple of "Anti Hero" characters who the Heretics manage to call, such as the major demon, Eyegrim the Devourer.

Perisno, is similar in that there are Elves, though in this the Elves are a major Race, not almost bystanders like in Pendor, they have a proper Kingdom, with Castles, Towns etc, somewhere in the Continent are also things such as Giants, but I have not yet encountered them and you are not limited to only riding Horsies! Horsies are so Passe and retro these day....  Me? My Human Character, His Grace, Lord Caledfwlch ap Meriadoc, General and Lord Marshal of the Redwood Defence Forces, Sworn Man too & Defender of Her Royal Majesty, Arlina, by the Grace of all the Gods, Queen and Protector of The Redwood Elven Nation rides a young Mountain Wolf the size of a Horsey into battle.

Here is Lord Caledfwlch posing with Gellert, his beautiful Battle Wolf - Gellert is 3 years old, a Virgo and he enjoys Tummy rubs, lots of red meat, being brushed down, and scaring them idiot Horsey's on the battlefield, the old lush also likes a bit of mead in his water bowl of an evening at Camp.


Spoiler: Images Spoilered due to size





 


 



There are all sorts of large beasties available for use as Cavalry Mounts, Tigers, Elephants, Griffon's. How Mount & Blade: Warband works is, it's like the Total War Games, you have a campaign map, cities, castles, villages, one main difference is the Battle map is in first or 3rd person, like a first person shooter game, and you have plenty of commands for deploying and ordering your troops around. 

I am currently having ago at a TC mod called L'Aigle - it is set in the Napoleonic War era, as Warband also works brilliant for Musket era Warfare - L'Aigle is not fully completed, it's still being updated but it's still in a very playable State. A lot of the Modders really do have incredible skills, especially scripting and designing textures, and weapons and so on. And there are also some brilliant scripting and behind the scenes Mod's that fans developed to act as base modules for people building total conversions to use - for example L'Aigle makes use of a mod that adds in a suitable command interface for ordering your troops around on the battlefield, in mods that are using musket's and other early firearms, for example when you have entered the battlefield you can either allow your troops to remain on the default "fire at will" or for more authenticity you can use 2 key shortcuts that allow you to replicate "Front rank fire, reload, second rank fire, reload " combat to rip your oponents troops to shreds, other similar behind the scenes mods allow you before entering the battlefield to order your troops into positions you want - like as soon as you enter the field, you can have it set so your Skirmishers to deploy 50 paces ahead of your Line, on Fire at Will, whilst your Line Infantry spreads out into a line of 2 ranks, with Fire at Will switched off, so you can use massed company fire, and order your Cavalry to trot off forward and well off to the left, say and await further orders.

Unlike Total War you dont recruit entire units in one go, you recruit and if necessary train recruits 1 by 1, like I went to a village in England, did a couple of quests for the Village's benefit, which raised their appreciation of me hugely, I then asked the Elder if "...any lads fancy joining me for foreign travel, fun and shooting at the Crapauds.." and because they basically adored me for helping them with the quests 60 men of the Village agreed to sign up with me, and I have recruited them as Light Infantry, and will train them up into 95th Riflemen. You can also recruit Mercenaries in Taverns, and you can recruit "Hero Companions" who are very important to gameplay when you carefully level them up (there are RPG elements) to their specialties. Like for example, I might recruit a Doctor, or a Priest who has medical training, so rather than building their combat skills, I would build up their medical skills, and the higher their Surgery/First Aid skills get, the less of your troops die in Combat, they get injured instead, and recover a day or so later. Equally, if you meet a guy who is ex Cavalry, you buy him a decent mount, and level him up as whichever type of Cavalryman you fancy, Lancer, Dragoon etc.

So I am giving this L'Aigle mod a go earlier, and I went to the Tavern in Sheffield, and blow me down, I bump into bloody Monsieur Major Pierre Ducos!!!!!! Any of you guys who is a fan of Sharpe, or have at least watched several will of course know that the Bespectacled and little man Ducos is Richard Sharpe's very special Nemesis, one of Napoleon's best Intelligence Officers, a Major who can order Generals and Marshalls around, and the Murderer of Teresa "La Aguja - The Needle" Sharpe - the Spanish Guerilla Leader who Sharpe marries and has a daughter with early on in the peninsular war stories. I shall post the screenshot, it even looks like him, after doing some googling, it appears that Richard Sharpe himself is recruitable as a Hero Companion, and oddly enough, looks amazingly like a chap from Sheffield called Sean Bean!!!



 

Just to point out, my current PC has a 10 year old graphic card which has only 128 meg of Ram  and cannot handle greater than Direct X 7 - thankfully Warband allows you to load in DX7, this is why the graphics in my screenshots don't look terribly great, if you run Warband on a PC with a modern graphics card, it looks a lot better, especially with all the fan made texture and graphics tweaks. I am astonished the game even works at all on such an old graphics card.


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## svalbard (Feb 27, 2016)

Medieval Total War II was the high water mark in the TW series for me. It was so immersive, loved playing as the Poles or Venetians. 

I have tried Rome II, but still find myself going back to the original Rome.


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## Caledfwlch (Feb 27, 2016)

I have found a Screenshot of Richard Sharpe from L'Aigle, to go with Ducos. Though with his hair so long, he is looking more like a younger Sean Bean in Boromir mode rather than as Sharpy.

For anyone who has never seen Empire or Napoleon Total War gameplay:
This is a video of just 1 Company of British Foot Guards vs 1 Company of French Imperial Guards, deployed 2 deep to show off Company Fire by ranks






It is hard to find videos that show off a large battle with full sounds, as most have the video maker rabbiting inanely on over the game, just in case we fail to understand that those troops with flying the British Union Flag are, erm, British Troops, and other equally important things we don't need to know  the above video gives a bit of an idea, you get drums and flutes playing whilst companies are marching, and there are plenty of mods that add bagpipes, and band units playing various period tunes, stuff like that. The game gives an idea of how deadly various tactics were, such as the damage a Company that has formed Square will do to a Cavalry charge that has committed too late, and cannot pull back in time. Wincing territory.


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## thaddeus6th (Feb 27, 2016)

Not much. As a console gamer I have a limited range of strategy games. I did enjoy Kessen III for the PS2 [not really strategy, as such, though]. I'm currently playing Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence, which is for PC or PS4. I'm regretting a bit shoving the difficulty to Easy (recommended in a review, and the last proper strategy game I played was probably Civilization II, which came out about 1999). Finding it enjoyable but rather too easy (as might be expected). The Kessen III connection [that game was also about Nobunaga/the Warring States period in Japan] also makes it easier to get the historical situation.


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## Venusian Broon (Feb 27, 2016)

Caledfwlch said:


> Does anyone else here play PC Games, with a fondness for ones based on Historical events or times?
> 
> I have been a huge fan of the Wonderful Total War series ever since the first Medieval: Total War came out. I checked my Steam Account recently, and on Empire: Total War alone, I have clocked around 220 realtime hours of gameplay! Napoleon: Total War is less, but not hugely less!



Erm...checked my stats.. 471 hours of Empire. 

I don't have the stats on Rome I or Medieval I & II (and the various Kingdom expansions) but since I purchased these games, starting with MedI in ~2002, I'd say the real amount would dwarf that figure. 

I do have Napoleon Total War and will get round to playing a game sometime, but currently I'm rampaging through the Roman Empire with Spanish barbarians on the odd occasion that I relax by killing thousands of digital men.


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## Caledfwlch (Feb 27, 2016)

I can imagine that the Total War Series would be an absolute nightmare to try and play on a Console, unless Consoles can accept a full keyboard and mouse input these days, and if they can, I am surprised games that are too complex to be controlled by a console controller are not being ported over with the option to use keyboard & Mouse.

From what I can see, RPG's like Dragon Age and Skyrim aren't the best on Console either, not in comparison to PC, given a keyboard & mouse system gives far more and easier control options, not to mention customised controls and hotkeys. 
My hand/eye coordination is not terribly great, I get by fine with Mouse & Keyboard, probably from 20+ years of use, but modern console Controllers totally outwit me, I just cant use them.

One big reason, even if I was ok with Controllers, that I would still choose to play RPG's on PC, is that with the Console version of Skyrim, you are stuck permanently with the Vanilla game, once you complete all the quests it's game over, and every replay may differ a little in the way you play your way through, you will still be playing the fixed game of your first runthrough.
My gaming PC Dramatically died - Graphics card fan stopped working whilst playing I think either Bioshock Infinite or Skyrim, something that was extremely graphics intensive, so you can imagine how hot the card very quickly got with no operating fan, the PC just sort of made a little bang and died. On opening the case, the Graphics card's fan had melted onto the motherboard, and blown the whole system to pieces  boiling hot liquid plastic and motherboards packed with sensitive components do not mix, sadly. Because of the bang, and the fact the system basically overheated and died a quick but very hot death, I had to bin everything, I just did not think it would be safe to buy a new card & motherboard and keep any of the components which may have survived, which was just the Power Supply Unit, the DVD Drive and the hard Drive given a strong risk that if any of them had borked, especially the PSU, I would end up frying a new motherboard and stick of RAM.

Before it did, my Skyrim had over 50 fan mods installed for my second runthrough and they made an entirely new game almost, so games that allow modding are much more value for money on PC. I am sure I saw somewhere that they have been experimenting with allowing Mods to be installed onto Xbox Games, as there is no real reason why it cannot be done, I assume though that it would have to go through a proprietary purpose built application for hosting mods, and downloading them, like how Steam now has Steam Workshop, unlike PC - I have had a user account with the Nexus mod site ever since Oblivion, and it's the main, busiest place for mods, apart from ModDB - I have used it for every Elder Scrolls game since Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age Origins and 2, Witcher 2, and others, I imagine Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, will be on there with lots of other games, it has a huge dedicated fanbase of Modders, and they have an automatic Mod install application to use, which automates downloading and installing the mods for all your games. It's all free, they get buy on ads within the site, and some users Donate, and others pay to get access to high bandwith servers to get faster uploads and downloads and so on.

ModDB is a decent place, and has literally hundreds of games, including ancient ones that people are still modding for - I was absolutely astonished to discover that not only is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas still being played, but people are still modding it, 10 or 11 years later! I use ModDB for Mount and Blade Warband Mods, as for some reason, the M&B Modders prefer it, a lot of updates to mods, especially the total conversions tend to appear on ModDB before Nexus.

When I am able to play Total War Games, ie have a PC able to run them, I don't use Nexus, or ModDB, I have always used the main Fan run Total War Forums as that is the best place for the mods, plus it is a massive wealth of help, especially guides for doing basic unit mods and so on for yourself, like I described early.


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## Caledfwlch (Feb 27, 2016)

Venusian Broon said:


> Erm...checked my stats.. 471 hours of Empire.
> 
> I don't have the stats on Rome I or Medieval I & II (and the various Kingdom expansions) but since I purchased these games, starting with MedI in ~2002, I'd say the real amount would dwarf that figure.
> 
> I do have Napoleon Total War and will get round to playing a game sometime, but currently I'm rampaging through the Roman Empire with Spanish barbarians on the odd occasion that I relax by killing thousands of digital men.



Dude 
I think I lost most of a week, night and day the week Rome 1 was released back in the day! I finished a temporary employment contract on a friday afternoon at 3pm, it was payday too, so I rushed up to Game, picked up a copy, rushed home, installed it, and well... you know how it is, it was one of those lovely March Afternoons, the sun was out, it was still a little chilly and crisp, I love those chilly but sunny Spring and Autumn afternoons, it was Friday about 4pm when installing finished, except suddenly it somehow was Saturday Afternoon I didn't even notice it get dark, and then light again, I got the shock of my life when I realised it was Saturday! I also realised my phone had several messages from Friday Night from Mates of the "Oi, thought you were coming out to Rocksoc tonight (local Uni's rock society held a rock night in a local club every friday night) variety, "where are you????" and a final very resigned "Oh god, you were buying Rome weren't you..... See you in a month dude"

I never got to hammer Medieval II as much as I would have liked as when that came out, as defying all expectations, I had somehow met, gotten engaged too and moved up to Yorkshire from Wales to move into a new flat with a beautiful young lady from Leeds I had met. And sadly, she felt that she was more worthy of my time than Medieval.  
I made a dreadful mistake though, Oblivion came out, I bought it, and whilst she thought Medieval looked boring, she was watching me play Oblivion and asked if she could have a go.
She probably clocked up more hours than me on the thing!!!!!!!
She liked Fantasy Films and TV, but it was utterly bizarre to suddenly being sat with a beautiful lady, who was several years younger, and to be having serious conversations with her, involving words like "Levelling up" Experience Points, Stamina, shouting directions to her from the bathroom when she was looking for some place or other, I would be shaving say and suddenly hear "Babes, how do I get to Bruma without using Fast Travel" and be shouting directions like, take the Road opposite that long stone entrance bridge into Imperial City, keep to it, going North, head towards the Jerall Mountains, and for gods sake, don't stray into the woods on either side of the road, your only Level 8, and there's sodding Minotaur Lords with massive hammers lurking in them"
It was like a weird drugs trip  - have you seen the Big Bang Theory episode when Penny gets addicted to that online Conan Game? It was like that.


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## svalbard (Feb 27, 2016)

God! I remember days like that around big releases.


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## Ray McCarthy (Feb 27, 2016)

The first Kings Quest was long ago. I couldn't do any of them. It may predate PC. I didn't check.


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## Caledfwlch (Feb 27, 2016)

Having the aspect of an Ogre, I tend to be single for ages at a time, before any ladies show interest, but quite often, when one does show interest they are usually what anyone sensible, including and especially me, not that I am particularly sensible  would call "out of my league" as the Hip and Groovy Kids would say these days. Quite often though they are also completely crazy, of course. You know how it is... a date goes so well well that when you get home your first thought is "Thank the Deities I didn't get stabbed or axe murdered tonight" 

I have had dates and even a couple of relationships with lasses who had interesting and novel concepts of sanity. In fairness, I don't mind a girl who is a little crazy, in a good way, the ones who would never hurt a fly just function on a slightly alternate reality to the rest of the world, which in fairness, I can to that too.

I have had dates and a couple of relationships with lasses who when they said "I'm a little mad" they weren't Joking, but were mostly harmless. I had a date that became a short relationship with a lass not long after I returned to Wales after splitting up with ex, and we got on like a house on fire, she lived about 2 hours on bus away, and our first date was in Cardigan a tiny town that was the halfway point between us,

Georgie was perfect both a Fantasy Geek and a hardcore Gamer, but no matter how naughty she could ever try to be, she simply will not ever fall into Hell's wicked Embrace when no longer with us, as she has totally had her Soul chained to World of Warcraft for life by whatever dark magic and artifacts Blizzard Mages are conjuring in their Mage's Towers. Never seen owt like it. I also nearly dropped dead from shock when we met.

I am someone who genuinely puts who someone is before their looks or body, within certain restraints of course, I don't think I could ever fancy Anne Widdecombe for example  but I definitely have a much wider range or definition of what I personally find attractive than most blokes, and size is not really an issue, for me who someone is, is always the sexiest part of them. I find it easier using online ways of meeting girls first because despite being a 6ft Ogre I am fairly shy, and the thought of going up to a stranger in a pub or whatever and "chatting them up" fills me with dread, plus imo Pubs aren't the best places to meet people in hopes of a relationship, its where you meet someone for no strings fun, and I'm not into that. 

Also I am utterly useless at seeing or interpreting all them subtle hints those fiendish ladies use to show if attracted or not. It's easier to tell someone online than in person that your useless at subtle stuff, so just be open, not subtle lol like maybe write it out on a huge sign, I might pick that up  Though my mates say my subtlety malfunction means I actually have missed out on potential relationships with girls in pubs who weren't just after a quick bit of fun. Most girls seem to have this weird radar thing, they can detect that they are safe with me, whether just as someone to have a chat with, or if its someone I have met for a date, dunno how they pick it up but it is totally spot on and so random girls do often start up a conversation with me. Also I think in pubs those girls also pick up on the fact that I am not eyeing them up like a piece of meat, or imagining them naked, plus the whole making no attempt to chat them up and "pull" as the kids say which I imagine makes a nice change,since most blokes they start chatting too would try and chat them up. There is nowt wrong with treating girls with respect rather than as a potential conquest. 


Georgie's Photo's were of a blonde lass, I am useless at sizes and things but she were probably 4 or 5 stone overweight enough to be considered a "BBW" which is what she had put on her profile under size info.
She had these big Green sparkling eyes like the lass in the photo I spoilered below and a smile that was clearly capable of melting me at 100 paces, I am a total sucker for green eyes or a smile  she hadn't put up any photo's with makeup, they were proper warts and all ones, not like a huge number of girls profiles, where they are either wearing such heavy makeup, or the photo has been run through filters in an app like Photoshop to give them that sort of "glamour" blur and skin smoothing effect, which make it pretty clear they are trying to hide something. And that always annoys me, I dislike the dishonest element of it, and the stupid thing is, they aren't really hiding much, not to the level that they are going to look totally different in the flesh, no more than any lass first thing in the morning, compared to having makeup on for a night out partying. I think doing those edited or heavily made up photo's is also a little insulting because she is basically branding every single man that looks at her profile as a superficial prat only after her for her looks. And it also makes me feel sad, that many men really are shallow prats which is why some lasses feel the need to hide their normal appearance, maybe a lot of the superficial guys are daft enough to not realise the lass is hiding, or what she is supposedly hiding, but I can generally see behind the effects, and their is nothing wrong with them, they will be just as pretty in real life as they are in the edited pics.

But it was nice and refreshing that Georgie was putting photo's of her real self, she looked quite tired, worn down by life and a little defeated in them too, I still thought she were a fine looking lass, and as we got chatting over a few weeks, and talked on the phone a bit she said she had bouts of depression sometimes, which is why she is so tired etc in her photo's. and when she took them she had probably been up all night on Warcraft.

After a month, she asked me out on a date, I had mentioned the whole problem with subtle stuff, at which she laughed and said "I don't do subtle anyway, if I want something or someone, I go for it"
And thus I found myself at Cardigan bus station, awaiting her.

She had been deceitful, those photo's were well out of date.

I hear a voice behind me say in the weird english accent people in Pembrokeshire have say "well, give me a hug then Babes, I know im short, but I still make footstepts didn't you hear me? Weirdly I had never noticed or asked what her height was, she turned out to be 5 ft tall

I turned round, and standing there was a petite slim and utterly stunning girl with dyed dark red hair, makeup that looked like she had been to a styalist dressed to the absolute nines, and my fave item, knee boots, she knew my opinion on them so decided to wear them the minx lol when she had said to me "don't make an effort, I will prob just be in jeans and a hoodie if its chilly. Jeans and hoodie? more like miniskirt and a nice top and stylish leather coat and I just didn't know what to say, she looked absolutely nothing like the photo's but in this case, it was an upgrade not a downgrade 

It turns out those photo's were about 4 or 5 years old, taken when she was going through a very bad time, and medication she was on had caused her weight to increase, but she had managed to get back down to her proper size, and was much happier than she was back then, even if she did still get bouts of depression. And when I asked why use them, and not as she is, she said A because every ahole on the site will be messaging me telling me whatever they think I want to hear, and I'm not looking for them "normal" boring idiots. I want a Geek, who's into gaming so I can actually talk about and share the stuff I am into, not listen to endless boring crap about football or whatever car they have. And she said as well as the above, when she joined the site and used her current photo's she was having the problems above, but equally, when she was messaging geek guys, they were either not replying, or not really engaging much, and she didn't know why, but when she tried her out of date photo's it was a different story.

At least I was able to tell her why - if she had messaged me with her accurate photo's I would have assumed it was a joke, or a dare, I would have replied, but I wouldn't have taken it seriously, and thus probablly wouldn't have made much effort into my replies, and we would have missed having the click, simply because girls looking like her don't normally message dudes like me from experience.

There are a lot of vile people on dating sites who make a sport out of misleading, and leading people on for fun and giggles. 

She was totally crazy though in all fairness. I would be asleep, and a phone alarm would go off, waking me up, and it would be 3am, or 4am or some other random time, and she would just say "My Guild have got a dungeon raid planned, I need to go log in" Warcraft absolutely dominated her life.

It makes me realise that my bouts of heavy Gaming are hugely tame in comparison!
Oh, and there was the time we were snuggled up in middle of the night and she randomly says "hey babes, did I tell you about the time I stabbed my Ex?"

It makes me wonder if there are any geeky gamer girls who are sane 



Spoiler: photo spoilered for size


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