Strategy Games

[thegreekdog]

I would like first to acknowledge that, yes, I am a nerd. I also believe that 95% of the individuals on this site are nerds, or else they would not be on this site. With that out of the way....

What are your favorite videogames in the strategy genre (apart from some of the obvious)? An obvious example would be the Civilization Series (including Colonization) and/or the Age of Empires (still can't get any better than the first two).

I recommend Hearts of Iron II, my personal favorite.

[lozzini]

err are they games? i think i hav heard of age of empires :S

[Zeppflyer]

Caesar 2 and 3
Pharaoh/Cleopatra The two above and this are by far the best city-builders I've ever played.
1602 Loved it when I was younger, but the AI's just so dumb.
Lords of the Realm 2. Ditto

All older ones, I know. I guess I just don't play as many computer games as I used to.

Oh. Duh. The best AI in a battle simulator I've ever encountered: Civil War Generals 2

[MeDeFe]

When it comes to strategy games there are a few really epic ones, and the rest are really just spin-offs. AoE is not one of the epic ones imo. What did they introduce that was truly new or what did they improve greatly on? Nothing.


My top games are all from 96-98

Z was one of the epic ones, one of the best I ever played, no building bases, no resource management, you produce units and tell them where to go and what to attack, that's it. The more territories you have the quicker you produce units. Nothing superfluous at all, you can concentrate completely on unit management and strategy which made the game very fast-paced for a RTS. After a slew of C&C and Warcraft clones it was great to have a game with a completely different concept

Netstorm arrived about a year later, but is the exact opposite, your units ARE buildings, except for the ones gathering resources none of your units move, they just stand still and shoot at any enemy unit that is within their range. The whole game resembles chess more than anything else. Foresee your opponent's moves and interrupt them, make sure he can't expand, surround his starting position, try to break through his barriers, all the while defending yourself against an opponent doing the same.

Dungeon Keeper, the game where you beat and torture your underlings into obedience, slaughter noble heroes and lay waste to peaceful kingdoms, turning them into barren realms of death and decay. The RTS game with the most malevolent and most humorous twist of its decade, and I don't think any game of this decade comes close, either. Oh, and don't keep flies and spiders together, they really don't get along.

Starcraft deserves a mention as well. Although nothing completely new was introduced one thing was improved greatly: completely different units, buildings and tech trees for the different factions. Up to then, they had always been extremely similar. And there's a coherent plot.


edit: the coherent plot part should've been in the Starcraft paragraph.

[jesusfreak16]

Supreme Commander is pretty cool.

[muy_thaiguy]

The Total War Series. How many other games allows you to control thousands of troops in battle? Or observe and control an Empire that can expand from Spain to the Far East, control the economies, populations, navies, armies... I have not played Empires Total War yet, but I plan to before too long.

Starcraft deserves a mention as well. Although nothing completely new was introduced one thing was improved greatly: completely different units, buildings and tech trees for the different factions. Up to then, they had always been extremely similar.

StarCraft got me hooked on RTS games. Though the only thing that bugged me about it, was that you were limited on how many troops you could make.

[Stroop]

When it comes to strategy games there are a few really epic ones, and the rest are really just spin-offs. AoE is not one of the epic ones imo. What did they introduce that was truly new or what did they improve greatly on? Nothing.


My top games are all from 96-98

Z was one of the epic ones, one of the best I ever played, no building bases, no resource management, you produce units and tell them where to go and what to attack, that's it. The more territories you have the quicker you produce units. Nothing superfluous at all, you can concentrate completely on unit management and strategy which made the game very fast-paced for a RTS. After a slew of C&C and Warcraft clones it was great to have a game with a completely different concept

Netstorm arrived about a year later, but is the exact opposite, your units ARE buildings, except for the ones gathering resources none of your units move, they just stand still and shoot at any enemy unit that is within their range. The whole game resembles chess more than anything else. Foresee your opponent's moves and interrupt them, make sure he can't expand, surround his starting position, try to break through his barriers, all the while defending yourself against an opponent doing the same. And there's a coherent plot.

Dungeon Keeper, the game where you beat and torture your underlings into obedience, slaughter noble heroes and lay waste to peaceful kingdoms, turning them into barren realms of death and decay. The RTS game with the most malevolent and most humorous twist of its decade, and I don't think any game of this decade comes close, either. Oh, and don't keep flies and spiders together, they really don't get along.

Starcraft deserves a mention as well. Although nothing completely new was introduced one thing was improved greatly: completely different units, buildings and tech trees for the different factions. Up to then, they had always been extremely similar.

Only Netstorm I've never even heard of. I played the other 3 games for ages and ages. I wonder why I ever stopped playing them

Going to see if I can get my hands on Netstorm now

[Zeppflyer]

Oooo.... The Europa Universailles series. Hundreds of territories. Interesting interface.

Boardgames for the PC; Ultimate Risk. Decent AI, doesn't complicate the gameplay except with a few optional rules that make it more fun. Has several CCish maps (read, much larger) that make the basic game more interesting.

There is one version of Axis and Allies out there that does what a computerized board game is supposed to do; automate all of the boring parts and math so that you can concentrate on gameplay. There are a few other versions out there that muck up the game with poorly executed battle simulators and extra rules. These just don't work. A game must either be built from scratch as a computer game or, if it is an adaption of a board game, not try to change the basic structure.

[thegreekdog]

Oooo.... The Europa Universailles series. Hundreds of territories. Interesting interface.

Boardgames for the PC; Ultimate Risk. Decent AI, doesn't complicate the gameplay except with a few optional rules that make it more fun. Has several CCish maps (read, much larger) that make the basic game more interesting.

There is one version of Axis and Allies out there that does what a computerized board game is supposed to do; automate all of the boring parts and math so that you can concentrate on gameplay. There are a few other versions out there that muck up the game with poorly executed battle simulators and extra rules. These just don't work. A game must either be built from scratch as a computer game or, if it is an adaption of a board game, not try to change the basic structure.

Love the Universalis games!

[neanderpaul14]

America was pretty cool, very similar to the Age of Empires series but set in the wild west days. Also 1602 was decent, set in Early America you need to cultivate crop and process them while fighting off pirates and competitors. Also let's not forget the Caeser series. Sid Meyers did some kick ass war games, Antietam and Gettysburg were awesome.

[Balsiefen]

The Total War Series. How many other games allows you to control thousands of troops in battle? Or observe and control an Empire that can expand from Spain to the Far East, control the economies, populations, navies, armies... I have not played Empires Total War yet, but I plan to before too long.

QFT, I have found nothing, nothing at all which can come close to rivalling Total War. Entirely unparalleled in gameplay. And I play a lot of strategy.

However my one complaint is that I'm going to have to spend a bunch refitting my computer to play empire total war: I've already done it twice for spore and medieval total war and I'm starting to get tired of spending fifty-sixty quid before I even buy the game.

[Simon Viavant]

Age of Empires and Civilization I remember being cool although I haven't played them in years.
Same goes for Heroes of Might and Magic. (I like the fourth one).

[GabonX]

Command and Conquer

The old ones. The ones with Nod and GDI prior to Tiberian Sun, and the Red Alert games.

[maasman]

Though not PC games, I personally love the Advance Wars series for Game Boy, especially Advance Wars 2

[sam_levi_11]

Victoria : Empire Under The Sun

Made by the people from hearts of iron I and II and europa universalis or sumin. Anyway, politics, war, economy, relations and reputation all have to be managed. Pretty awesome.

Also Romance Of The Three Kingdoms XI. Definatley more action based, set in three kingdoms china you have to conquer it. Basically all about fighting and relations.

[Frigidus]

Netstorm arrived about a year later, but is the exact opposite, your units ARE buildings, except for the ones gathering resources none of your units move, they just stand still and shoot at any enemy unit that is within their range. The whole game resembles chess more than anything else. Foresee your opponent's moves and interrupt them, make sure he can't expand, surround his starting position, try to break through his barriers, all the while defending yourself against an opponent doing the same.

That game was so cool. Getting your bridges built was almost like a game within itself, and even though it could get pretty fast paced it did have a lot of similarities to chess.

I like the Total War series, even though it's mostly single player, because it separates macro and micromanagement entirely. Managing my troops and cities is turn based, so I don't have to settle for sloppy work. The battles are probably the most tactical of any RTS I've ever played, and because your troops are, for the most part, pre-deployed you can focus on the fighting rather than worry about resources.

[Frigidus]

Command and Conquer

The old ones. The ones with Nod and GDI prior to Tiberian Sun, and the Red Alert games.

True that, those were so amazing, especially when they first came out.

[Frigidus]

Going to see if I can get my hands on Netstorm now

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/216/N ... t+War.html

You need to get DosBox to run it, but it works great.

[Frigidus]

And now...QUADRUPLE POST!!! Epic.

[sam_levi_11]

And now...QUADRUPLE POST!!! Epic.

And sad.

[jonesthecurl]

I tend not to buy games for the PC.
They fall into two categories: ones where I think: why did I waste my money on that? and ones that are good and eat up hours and hours when I should be doing something else. I certainly can't imagine getting into a big game ( I liked various Civilisation versions, and I spent a lot of time on one of the Ceasars a few years ago) and still managing to get to CC as well as everything else.

[Japs]

The Total War Series. How many other games allows you to control thousands of troops in battle? Or observe and control an Empire that can expand from Spain to the Far East, control the economies, populations, navies, armies... I have not played Empires Total War yet, but I plan to before too long.

QFT, I have found nothing, nothing at all which can come close to rivalling Total War. Entirely unparalleled in gameplay. And I play a lot of strategy.

However my one complaint is that I'm going to have to spend a bunch refitting my computer to play empire total war: I've already done it twice for spore and medieval total war and I'm starting to get tired of spending fifty-sixty quid before I even buy the game.

These games are great. Nothing beats them in my book. Im even buying a whole new computer to be able to play Empires Total War and Medieval II

[pimpdave]

Videogames are great and all, but I'm still always going to like board games more.

And in that regard, the best strategy game I've played is Memoir 44.

http://www.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/




See, with a board game, you're forced to find someone else to play with, which necessarily limits the amount of time you can spend playing it, and keeping it a social activity. Memoir's great too, cause they've expanded play into campaigns, so you play a string of say, 13 battles in a row, the same side the whole time. But the results of the previous battle effect what happens in the next, along with events, reserves getting called up, etc.

[Frigidus]

See, with a board game, you're forced to find someone else to play with, which necessarily limits the amount of time you can spend playing it, and keeping it a social activity. Memoir's great too, cause they've expanded play into campaigns, so you play a string of say, 13 battles in a row, the same side the whole time. But the results of the previous battle effect what happens in the next, along with events, reserves getting called up, etc.

Board games and tabletop games are great (I adore Settlers of Catan), but for me the bolded part is the one drawback. Maybe it's just the crowd I'm friends with, but they're much more hesitant to play board games than computer games. Hell, I only know two people even willing to try playing D&D with me.

[Woodruff]

I would like first to acknowledge that, yes, I am a nerd. I also believe that 95% of the individuals on this site are nerds, or else they would not be on this site. With that out of the way....

What are your favorite videogames in the strategy genre (apart from some of the obvious)? An obvious example would be the Civilization Series (including Colonization) and/or the Age of Empires (still can't get any better than the first two).

I recommend Hearts of Iron II, my personal favorite.

I do greatly enjoy Hearts of Iron II as well. I don't care for the Age of Empires, as I just don't like the "gather and build" method. I love Civilization.

One of the greatest strategy games, in my opinion, is Panzer General II. I am still playing it weekly, and it's AGES old.

I've always enjoyed Imperialism II, as well.

Probably my all-time favorite strategy game though is M.A.X....a truly tremendous game that while it IS a "gather and build" method is so good, it's STILL my favorite. It's as close to the perfect game as I have found.

Oh, I almost forgot Command HQ. A GREAT game with GREAT options and live playability.

And an old, old, OLD....OOOOOLD game that I enjoyed greatly was Guns Or Butter. Very interesting gameplay concept.