June 15, 2001
When we start the next game, Charlie builds a barracks and starts cranking out infantry. He's of the opinion that having a lot of units on the screen means you're doing well. After building about forty guys, he drag selects them and marches them over to where Trevor's base should be. "You probably want to put your snipers off to one side," I whisper to Charlie, who's not going to want to play the Dune RTS any more if he gets beat by Trevor again, "Use your regular infantry as your main force with snipers supporting their flanks." Of course, the Dune RTS doesn't seem to support this kind of finesse. Charlie's troops are spreading out like a mass of marathon runners just out of the gate. "How do I tell my snipers from my regular infantry?" Charlie asks. I defer to Trevor. "The snipers have the long rifles," Trevor says as he's building a mass of laser tanks to rush Charlie's base. Charlie peers at the cluster of tiny men on the screen. "You probably have to zoom in," Trevor adds. "How about if I just select someone? Where does it tell me who I've selected?" "Well, it doesn't really. Actually, you can just hold the mouse over one of the little dudes and it'll pop up his name." "I'm trying to hold the mouse over him, but he's moving." "Drag select him, then hit the 's' key to stop him." "Okay." "Now hold the mouse over him." "Okay." "Do you see anything?" "No." "It might take a second for the name to pop up." "There it is." "Is it the one you wanted?" "No." "Then try another one." "They all walked off." "Well, that's how you tell the little guys apart." "Why didn't they just make them look different?" "I don't know. That would make it too complicated." "I think my guys are all dead." "You think?" "They walked into a tornado. I can see their little bodes swirling around." "I guess you didn't build a Weather Channel satellite," Trevor laughs. Charlie looks at me as if to ask, 'really?' I shake my head. There is no Weather Channel satellite in Dune. As far as I know. Trevor's laser tanks pour into Charlie's defenseless base. "Long live the fighters," he says, but no one knows what he's talking about since we're not really Dune fans and he's not even using the Fremen. In the meantime, Jude has built an Atreides palace and his Hawk Strike is ready to go. "Watch this," he says to me as he fires the Hawk Strike at Trevor's Construction Yard. A translucent blue hawk sweeps down and doesn't do anything. "What part of the movie is that from?" Jude asks, waiting for the blue bird to do something dramatic. "Smooth move, dumb ass," Trevor sneers, "The Hawk Strike doesn't do anything to buildings. Just troops." His laser tanks sweep into Jude's base. Jude spent all his money rushing to build a palace, so he doesn't have any defenses. "Long live the fighters," Trevor says again. "Why can't we just play Red Alert 2?" Charlie asks. "You know I can't stand that game," Trevor says, "It's so unrealistic."
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