Doing quite alright myself too, going to the NIN gig the 22nd actually...
As for the games: Guilds and Valid are the same ole grudgy gangbangs as they've been since the creation of man. Though it's not the world vs. ISA, but rather a constant repetition of Angelique vs. Barnabas.
Covenant (successor of Maxim) knows many interesting new things: forts have been replaced by trading posts which increase the income of one's allies and troops have different names and strengths/weaknesses than in the other games for example.
Massacre is new: fixed amount of turns to begin with and a certain amount of turns everytime you get yourself killed.
I'd suggest you come to Covenant: we need more RP over there!
