Chou

Chou
By: Bonta

Flying with the gentle whisper of the cold night
Shimmering radiantly under the pale moonlight
Dancing steadily around the withered funeral flowers
Warily circling the flickering candlelight
Enticing once lively flowers blooming under the sky
Coldness... ah the coldness
Under the gaze of the moon and the gleaming darkness above
Gently. each flap brings coldness
A bliss of gentleness and a string of pain
\Goodbye to those flowers long gone
Celebrating the life once fully captivated
Goodbye to the rose that flowerd blood
Bringin sweet scents and everlasting pain
Oh sweet butterfly ... entice no longer
Such withered petals these flowers possess
Hear this song these flowers cry out to you

Ame No Uta

Ame no Uta
By: Sloth

Gently the rain sings for me
A song that chills my soul
Drops that sing scat
Cold death from the heavens

Under the gloom of the sky
Untainted by the warmpth of light
Grinning beneath the moonlight
A starless night

Tick, tick, tick, one by one it fell
Drops of black hue from the sky
Trickling on the withered leaves
Staining the peaceful ground

Sound arise from the chaos
A lovely melodrama of leaves
Conducted by dancing trees
Brings melancholy to my heart

Tick, tick, tick, it becomes heavier
Distrurbing, disturbing making ripples
Shatter the peace with your cold fingers
Cleanse us of grime

Hear this rain's song
A choir ochestrated by God
Tears cried by angels above
Let it clean our impure souls

Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War
Rainier Lesava

Situated a few hundred BC before the birth of Christ and focused on the riese of the Roman Empire. Rome:total war may be a little different from your mine-build-train-attack real time strategy (RTS) games. Generally the campaign focuses on the three famous factions within the Roman Republic, three warring families the Julii, Brutii, and Scipii. However you may also be able to play other factions in the campaign such as Gaul, Egypt, Carthage, Macedonia, and other countries although some needed to be unlocked by finishing the campaign of other factions. Handling your armies and leading them to the glory of Rome is a little more realistic than of other current RTS. One major comparison of Rome: Total War it it's two unique game modes which is only seen in the Total War series. First is the command map screen wherein you are given a birds eye view of your territories, cities, and, armies. You can move your armies like chess pieces accross the battlefield wherein you can assasinate, establish deplomacy, and ambush armies, familiy members, and siege towns. The secpmd game mode is the battle map, as the name implies it's for commanding battles where if you choose not to let the ai do the fighting in the command map when two or more armies meet in the command map. The battle map is in a fully modeled 3d 360-camera view environment. Armies are trained fom settlements at the command map and are trained by battalions and are affected by many factors: terrain can wear down a marching army and more efficiently when you ask them to run, experience, morale which is affected by other unit's performance or if the enemy was able to deal a deafening damage to your army. Field tactics is also applicable in Rome: Total War such as flanking and other techniques such as pincir is usable and fairly useful in Rome: Total War. Units react differently when attacked from other directions as an example; the only week spot of a Greek spearmen unit called the hoplites which can form the phalanx formation is thier sides and rears which are vulnerable to missile and cavalry charges. At the end it boils down to tactical finess, technique, and experience. The learning curve to generally learn the game is low but learning to be an efficient commander is a little bit higher. Rome: Total War is for those serious RTS junkies who gets bored with arcade RTS games which by the way also packs little snippets of history in the famous rise of the world's first superpower. Strength and honor for the glory of Rome.