Do you feel bad when losing units in strategy games?

[Hugga_Bear]

Depends, if the units carry over or are named/unique then it's very likely I'll get attached to them, ensuring I keep them alive at the expense of other units. In fairness it stems from the experience thing, in most games like that they can level up so while I don't baby them I want to ensure they survive for my own sake.

I used to play Legion a lot (considering how one dimensional that game is) and would get attached to armies in it. I had most of England and Wales under my control and was going toe to toe with a huge army from the north (I think it was Brigantes, they'd conquered everything else) so I sent in my real killer armies first, all long time vets made of the best and most experienced units I had.
2 huge armies just got annihilated ultimately it made little difference, I had too many resources and a few more high powered armies to plug the gap, the damage they did to the Brigantes front line was enough for the others to win it for me but still...sad times. I liked those little guys and imagined them all getting quaint little houses in the newly conquered countryside...

 

[]DustArma[]

Depends on the unit, when I play C&C I usually grow attached to the heroic units (as in fully leveled, not heroes) because of all the effort that went into them, this is especially bad in C&C Generals and Zero Hour as those have pilots ejecting from veteran units.

A fully leveled 4 unit squad of Raptors takes down the enemy super weapon before it has a chance to fire, everything goes well until a lucky rocket hits one of them, destroying it, the pilot with no other choice ejects, only to be mercilessly killed by units/base defenses.

A true war hero that one was. Now I'm sad

 

[monkey_man]

I only feel sorry for my poor wall nuts and tall-nuts in Plants versus zombies. They make sadfaces D:
I'd gladly send human troops to their death. Except very valuable ones. Like a squad that takes out a small base. I feel sad when they die.

 

[Moraki]

only the units from end war i won't forget you snow owl T.T

 

[teebeeohh]

depends: in the total war series i could get kinda set if a unit that has been with my general for several years and is highly experienced gets completely wiped out(or my general dies) i sometimes am truly sad. on the other hand in supreme commander nothing could make me sad, since at some point massing prototypes is a viable option.

 

[Kevin Lyons]

Civilization? No
Valkyria Chronicles 2? Sorta (Because they come back in 2 turns)
Advance Wars? No
Fire Emblem? YES. I always hated if somebody ever died because that was it. There whole character was gone. In my first play of Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, I actually restarted the chapter if anybody was killed, no matter how much I didn't like them.

 

[RandV80]

Depends on if it's a 'story' map or if it's a regular gather/build/destroy map. If I'm pumping space marines out of a Barracks then I'll happily throw them to the slaughter. But if it's say that near end campaign level in Starcraft 2 where you lead the hero's through the caves and rescue trapped units on the way, then yeah I go through great lengths to make sure everyone makes it out alive. I'm obviously an oddball here as Blizzard didn't think a zero casualties was worth one of their achievements.

 

[Kenko]

Only if games allow personalisation and customisation of the units. The real X-Com games for example. Ive had several characters with real life friends names who had been succesful that fall in battle and it is really emotional as you've got expectations of them as well as hope they will pull through. Even if you lose a veteran character no matter what his name, you've always grown used to seeing said character in fights and having had them for hours of gameplay along on dozens of missions fighting a dynamic war.

 

[BleedingPride]

in black and white 2 my cities were basically baby factories... i would have platoons of 800 - 1000 people so if one of them dies they would quickly be replaced. imagine the krogan from Mass Effect but human... yeah

 

[JaceArveduin]

Only when it's a hero in the BFME series.

 

[BanicRhys]

Valkyria Chronicles.

I almost cried when I lost Rosina.

 

[BlueMage]

Each scout lost is already a vast expenditure of Chapter resources. Damn right I feel guilty!

 

[blazinwings]

i feel bad when i lose my co unit in advance wars. when i play fire emblem, i restart if i lose a unit but i've been playing the franchise long enough that that rarely happens. other tactical games...unless they're story-related characters, no. they're just drones.

 

[orangeban]

Yeah, I actually agree with the OP about Pikmin. I was playing 2 and I led a 100 strong army into a cave and we were going through like normal when, *sniff* ohgod *sniff* these bomb things dropped from the ceiling and they, *sniff* they... they died, and I emerged from that cave, alone. THEY WERE SO YOUNG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!

 

[sudokucrazedman]

The first strategy game I ever played was Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. It greatly affected how I feel about losing units, especially since I like a number of the characters and their various back stories that get shown off through the dialogues, both mandatory and secret.

Then again, it all really gets shaped by whether or not they come back. I played Shining Force, which one of my friends believes is better than Fire Emblem but I'm not convinced, and when a character loses their HP, sure it's sad, but they also come back the second you run off to the church to revive them.

 

[nuba km]

So, say you're playing a strategy game and one of your units is lost in battle. Like, anything from Starcraft to Pikmin. Do you feel bad? Or guilty?

Normally I don't, but I take special care to preserve my units in Pikmin 2. Let's face it, they're these adorable little plant creatures that follow you around blindly and do whatever you want to. They'll help you out unconditionally, and as the song "Ai No Uta" says "won't ask you to love us". And when they die from the many hazards, you hear the sound of the number of pikmin dropping, and then that little outcry as their ghost floats away.

Their valuable and charming units that you get endeared to, and to lose them makes me feel kinda bad.

listen I don't feel sorry for any creature who drowns when they STEP in water (seriously that all some of the non-blue ones need to die), I am still trying to figure out how that works. I mean do they have their mouth on their feet, because We don't see their mouth on their face, and the make noises as they walk, is that their mouth going 'bleegh' as it spits out the dirt?

 

[Yopaz]

Fire Emblem.



And im not talking that New fancy pants DS version where your characters are thrown around like paper and no one talks to you, im talking about Eliwood, Lyn and Hector, the three of them developing a bond that nothing can shatter. and not to mention the many other characters, all of whom were given emotional baggage....God, if lost even a single unit, I shut off the game. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't leave a man behind.

It took my years to beat the game.

This I agree with. I also have the same feeling in Battle for Westnoth if the character has followed me for a long time.
In games like Red Alert I don't care about single units at all.

 

[C.O.C]

No mostly I'm cool with it my favourite rts is currently DoW 2 and i'm happy enough to send squads of guardsmen into the mouth of a obvious ambush spot if it buys time to sneak my tanks into position while the enemy is micro managing.
that's what guardsmen are for I use the execute ability alot if it can help me over run a position

On the opposite side when I play FPS games especially ones with a ww2 setting I get upset if nameless grunt to my left dies often I'll restart to see if I can save them