Yes, there's already a lot of threads about video games in general. But in most of them people talk about RPGs, Adventure games and etc, but I haven't seen that many people talk about strategy games.
So, here's a thread for people who like to play strategy games, real-time, turn-based, 4X, Grand Strategy and etc...
I play and love a lot of strategy games of all genres. Some of the ones I own and love are:
Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis III & IV, Hearts of Iron II (and Darkest Hour). I really love Grand Strategy games made by Paradox, and I'll get Victoria II soon enough. Was also looking forward to East vs. West but sadly it was cancelled.
Civilization III, IV and V, pretty popular series of Turn-Based 4X games. I always play as a totalitarian warmongering state and love to turn the map into a wasteland as soon as I get nukes because I'm crazy like that.
Wargame Airland Battle & Red Dragon. I think the Wargame series (which started with European Escalation but I don't own it) is currently the best real-time tactic/strategy game set in a modern era, the cold war to be exact. It is a bit complicated compared to other strategy games, and while I'm very bad at it, it's still very enjoyable. Another thing that I find very nice about this is that instead of the classical US vs Soviet/China setting, you have 11 nations on the side of BLUFOR (NATO in EE and AB) which includes: the United States, United Kingdom, FRG/West Germany, France, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden (Sweden joins NATO in AB's scenarios), Australia, South Korea and Japan. On the side of REDFOR (Warsaw Pact in EE and AB) you have: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, GDR/East Germany, North Korea and China. With so many factions in the game, there are more than 1400 units in Red Dragon.
The Total War series, with Medieval II, Rome (original), Empire, Napoleon and Shogun II. It's a nice blend of Turn-based strategy and real time tactics, with the game being more strategic on the campaign map which is turn-based, and more tactical in battles where the only troops you have are the ones you brought with you.
I also play games like Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War I, II & Retribution, Galactic Civilization II, XCOM: Enemy Unknown & Within, Company of Heroes (Can't play without Blitzkrieg mod anymore. ;n;) and Age of Mythology.
Ooookay, that was a long post. Now, discuss about the strategy games you play and enjoy!
Yes, there's already a lot of threads about video games in general. But in most of them people talk about RPGs, Adventure games and etc, but I haven't seen that many people talk about strategy games.
So, here's a thread for people who like to play strategy games, real-time, turn-based, 4X, Grand Strategy and etc...
I play and love a lot of strategy games of all genres. Some of the ones I own and love are:
Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis III & IV, Hearts of Iron II (and Darkest Hour). I really love Grand Strategy games made by Paradox, and I'll get Victoria II soon enough. Was also looking forward to East vs. West but sadly it was cancelled.
Civilization III, IV and V, pretty popular series of Turn-Based 4X games. I always play as a totalitarian warmongering state and love to turn the map into a wasteland as soon as I get nukes because I'm crazy like that.
Wargame Airland Battle & Red Dragon. I think the Wargame series (which started with European Escalation but I don't own it) is currently the best real-time tactic/strategy game set in a modern era, the cold war to be exact. It is a bit complicated compared to other strategy games, and while I'm very bad at it, it's still very enjoyable. Another thing that I find very nice about this is that instead of the classical US vs Soviet/China setting, you have 11 nations on the side of BLUFOR (NATO in EE and AB) which includes: the United States, United Kingdom, FRG/West Germany, France, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden (Sweden joins NATO in AB's scenarios), Australia, South Korea and Japan. On the side of REDFOR (Warsaw Pact in EE and AB) you have: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, GDR/East Germany, North Korea and China. With so many factions in the game, there are more than 1400 units in Red Dragon.
The Total War series, with Medieval II, Rome (original), Empire, Napoleon and Shogun II. It's a nice blend of Turn-based strategy and real time tactics, with the game being more strategic on the campaign map which is turn-based, and more tactical in battles where the only troops you have are the ones you brought with you.
I also play games like Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War I, II & Retribution, Galactic Civilization II, XCOM: Enemy Unknown & Within, Company of Heroes (Can't play without Blitzkrieg mod anymore. ;n;) and Age of Mythology.
Ooookay, that was a long post. Now, discuss about the strategy games you play and enjoy!
I need Twenty Good Men(tm)
I admit, I could never really get into the Total War series. I like my civ building too much, and not so much the actual conflict.
I also admit I've never beaten XCOM once, but really enjoyed the game. I like strategy, I just feel I'm quite bad at it. XD
I tend to stick with simpler games, or games more heavy in the non-war elements.
Civilization IV, especially with the Fall From Heaven 2 mod. It makes it into a fantasy thing, because I admit I loose a huge amount of interest in any game the more modern it becomes. I like the slow game, and usually lurk until I'm in a position of power before I start dominating the map.
I have 5, but I never liked it. I hear the expansions helped significantly, but I fail to see the point of paying to upgrade a game for features that were core components in the series up until that point. I'll stick with IV.
Age of Empires II is great too, it's a shame III was so crap it killed the series. I still own the original, no the HD update, which honestly doesn't add much IMO.
I liked Age of Mythology too, but despite the interesting take on the genre wasn't as good of a game as AOE II.
One of my long time favorites was Age of Wonders (no relation to the other Age of ______ games. Different developers, different feel.) Admittedly it had some serious issues, like every race having one ultimate unit, and once you had that unit, no point in building anything else unless you could recruit dragons. Cities were a pain to take because how many stacks a player could put on them, and in some single player mods the AI was just dumb as heck or entirely broken.
But you played as a wizard, so who cares. XD
A new Age of Wonders game just came out, and I've heard great things about it. I want to pick it up soon, but need to get some money together.
More focused on building your own city, but still heavy in strategy, are the Zeus and Poseidon games. A bit like ancient, mythic, Greece meets Sim City. More economy and city focused than war-based, and the war game is fairly lacking, but enjoyable none the less.
I wouldn't quite lump them in with pure city builders (like Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria, and Banished) since there is more to it that the survival of your civilization, and much less micro than those three games.
Finally, Stronghold and Crusader (the originals.)
Focused on building up your castle, fortifying it, establishing a supply chain, and defending it. In Crusader, it added Castle VS Castles, meaning you share your map with one or more enemies (AI or player) and try to defend / destroy.
I admit, I could never really get into the Total War series. I like my civ building too much, and not so much the actual conflict.
I also admit I've never beaten XCOM once, but really enjoyed the game. I like strategy, I just feel I'm quite bad at it. XD
I tend to stick with simpler games, or games more heavy in the non-war elements.
Civilization IV, especially with the Fall From Heaven 2 mod. It makes it into a fantasy thing, because I admit I loose a huge amount of interest in any game the more modern it becomes. I like the slow game, and usually lurk until I'm in a position of power before I start dominating the map.
I have 5, but I never liked it. I hear the expansions helped significantly, but I fail to see the point of paying to upgrade a game for features that were core components in the series up until that point. I'll stick with IV.
Age of Empires II is great too, it's a shame III was so crap it killed the series. I still own the original, no the HD update, which honestly doesn't add much IMO.
I liked Age of Mythology too, but despite the interesting take on the genre wasn't as good of a game as AOE II.
One of my long time favorites was Age of Wonders (no relation to the other Age of ______ games. Different developers, different feel.) Admittedly it had some serious issues, like every race having one ultimate unit, and once you had that unit, no point in building anything else unless you could recruit dragons. Cities were a pain to take because how many stacks a player could put on them, and in some single player mods the AI was just dumb as heck or entirely broken.
But you played as a wizard, so who cares. XD
A new Age of Wonders game just came out, and I've heard great things about it. I want to pick it up soon, but need to get some money together.
More focused on building your own city, but still heavy in strategy, are the Zeus and Poseidon games. A bit like ancient, mythic, Greece meets Sim City. More economy and city focused than war-based, and the war game is fairly lacking, but enjoyable none the less.
I wouldn't quite lump them in with pure city builders (like Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria, and Banished) since there is more to it that the survival of your civilization, and much less micro than those three games.
Finally, Stronghold and Crusader (the originals.)
Focused on building up your castle, fortifying it, establishing a supply chain, and defending it. In Crusader, it added Castle VS Castles, meaning you share your map with one or more enemies (AI or player) and try to defend / destroy.
I have made it a mission in life to, wherever Civ fans are found, preach the gospel of Alpha Centauri. It was made by Sid Meier and the guy who designed Civ II, Brian Reynolds. It plays essentially like Civ but it's set on an alien planet - you play as one of seven human factions, split up by ideology. Unlike Civ it's got a story of its own, great writing, and it's very fantastically deep and interesting. The new Civilization: Beyond Earth game is said to be a spiritual sequel to this.
Apart from that, I'm also a big fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic series (before they were acquired by Ubisoft, of course) and herein lies a very unpopular opinion - I liked Heroes IV the best of the lot. Visually it wasn't as appealing as III (the usual darling of the series' fans) but I thought the fantastic writing more than made up for the immersion lost by the occasionally goofy graphics. And the gameplay I thought was much more complex, especially when it comes to combat, so it's a win for me.
I've also spent quite a bit of time playing Disciples II, and though it's a lot more simple than Heroes, I'm generally a sucker for art, and the...rather unfortunate human characters in Disciples II notwithstanding, the creature designs and general style were awesome.
I have made it a mission in life to, wherever Civ fans are found, preach the gospel of Alpha Centauri. It was made by Sid Meier and the guy who designed Civ II, Brian Reynolds. It plays essentially like Civ but it's set on an alien planet - you play as one of seven human factions, split up by ideology. Unlike Civ it's got a story of its own, great writing, and it's very fantastically deep and interesting. The new Civilization: Beyond Earth game is said to be a spiritual sequel to this.
Apart from that, I'm also a big fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic series (before they were acquired by Ubisoft, of course) and herein lies a very unpopular opinion - I liked Heroes IV the best of the lot. Visually it wasn't as appealing as III (the usual darling of the series' fans) but I thought the fantastic writing more than made up for the immersion lost by the occasionally goofy graphics. And the gameplay I thought was much more complex, especially when it comes to combat, so it's a win for me.
I've also spent quite a bit of time playing Disciples II, and though it's a lot more simple than Heroes, I'm generally a sucker for art, and the...rather unfortunate human characters in Disciples II notwithstanding, the creature designs and general style were awesome.
THE ILLNESS WILL BRING YOU PEACE.
SERENITY IS BORN FROM CERTAINTY AND YOUR SUFFERING IS CERTAIN.
