Do you feel bad when losing units in strategy games?

[Psymon138]

It depends on the game and the situation. For example, in Red Alert I had no problem sending hordes of infantrymen to their deaths. If I could win with minimal casualties, so much the better, but sometimes a meat grinder is inevitable.

In more modern games, particularly those where units gain experience and grow as time goes on, I find myself getting attached to certain units. I might not care about the five units of town militia I just sent into the teeth of a siege force as they broke the gates. I only raised them to combat the siege anyway. But that unit of Jinetes that I've sent out the back gate to harass the enemy siege equipment are my original border patrol! I've been commanding them directly since the start of the game. They've gained enough experience to take out dismounted knights and still come back for more. Those sort of units I get genuinely attached to.

Even town militia aren't exempt. The tiny force that held off six sieges at Bologna before help arrived to swat the Holy Roman Empire. The one bastardised little unit that held through it all, cobbled together from the remains of others. The units that you've been through a story with. Those are the ones you get attached to.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Only if that particular unit did something incredibly heroic or awesome. Once I was playing Civilization and I had this one Warrior - not one whole unit, just one fucker - running around and he was wrecking barbarian shit. I kept him alive the whole game and then he evolved into a tank somehow and he finally tasted death at the hands of the Germans. I shed a single tear.

But in Pikmin, it's no holds barred. I'll march a thousand Pikmin to their deaths in order to achieve my goals of SCIENCE. Acceptable losses.

 

[James Crook]

When in multiplayer and one of my unit dies, I usually go into chat and type out
"OMG YOU KILLED HIM! YOU MONSTER! THAT GUY HAD A FAMILY AND KIDS! WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
Nothing serious, really, I usually have a replacement out and ready by the time I press "Enter" hehehe.

 

[minimacker]

While losing the unit isn't much of a deal for me, I remember when I was but a wee lad, playing C&C Red Alert (The first) I always hated having my scouts alone. I looked at them while they did their idle animation and I always wanted them to have a buddy.

I was always so bothered because in one "square", there could be 5 men. Which mean they all had a partner, except for one guy.

 

[Xealeon]

Playing Close Combat 3 I would have units that stayed with me for most of a campaign and I would feel terrible about every man lost from those units because I'd grown to know them over the course of the campaign. They all had names and personalities and everything. That game was the only strategy game to ever make me care about the troops under my command.

 

[Pseudoboss]

I usually don't care about losing units unless it's an important one, which is just because it cost a lot. Unless i'm feeling particularly sentimental, in which case it's usually if they're killed en masse.

 

[commiedic]

I feel bad. I used to be really good at the old strategy games. Like AoE 1 & 2 and Starcraft. When I stopped playing those and tried to get into new ones years later and found out I sucked at them now I lost interest.

 

[aei_haruko]

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.

I play age of mythology a ton, and units i like will die, but I feel nothing because make so many of them, they feel mass produced, and i win with them, so nope, no guilt

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

While I'm not attached to the units, I do try to avoid casualties for three reasons:

1) They're not free

2) I like to roleplay as a Sun Tzu/Sir Arthur Currie/Sir Isaac Brock figure in Real Time Strategy. It's not only skillful to keep casualties down, but it does wonders for morale (in real life, and therefore in the roleplay as well).

3) Even if I didn't roleplay, I'm not the kind of person who views casualties as a necessary stepping stone for victory.

However, when my plans go tits-up, I don't fret about losing units, as my chief concern is getting the ones I still have out of the situation alive.

 

[Pyro Paul]

it depends heavily on the game.

In a game like Company of Heroes or Dawn of War 2, every unit killed is a loss, and losing an entire squad could be the diffrence between winning in losing. from the strongest tank to the lowest builder/pioneer/scout... your units are important.

in a game like World in Conflict and SupCom where losses are about as common as trees in a forest... hell no. in those games i'd intentionally send units to die simply to probe the enemy lines. entire production ques into a conflict of attrition with the intention of not seeing one of them come back home.

 

[fulcran]

I've never played Pikmin, but I think you're getting a bit of the Fire Emblem effect, where each unit is unique, important, and irreplaceable. Games like that, yes, sometimes I do get a little depressed when I can't keep them alive. If its a mistake that causes their deaths, I get angry at myself. If its a necessary sacrifice, its just depressing and makes me feel like I must have messed up earlier in the game to make it needed.

In the majority of strategy games, especially mainstream RTS's such as Starcraft, I don't get any emotional response to the untimely deaths of my units except possible irritation or anger if everything just seems to be going downhill.

 

[Aprilgold]

I'm only pissed because they didn't FIGHT HARD ENOUGH!....
I would make a great general with my tactics of GO KILL THEM, YOU PUSSIES!

 

[Meatspinner]

Only in Jagged Alliance. Otherwise losing units can be an option if it helps my goal

 

[Bravo 21]

usually not, because I usually have a policy similar to that of the Zergling Rush where I pour expendable units into combat, until everything is dead. Or else I use a complete excess of force. I feel subtlety is great, but the POWER is just so much fun.

 

[RicoADF]

Pikmin's the special exception since it's usually hard to get them to start off with, and they have such tragic deaths, followed by moaning ghosts.

However, today my brother challenged me to name every vehicle I get in from now on in EDF. He said that after my mech got destroyed so without hesitaiton I shouted "FREDRIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!". I imagine if I started naming everything despensible in a game I may feel something.

I've noticed in Sins of a Solar Empire that when I rename the capital ships I get more attached to them and extra annoyed when they get knocked out. Its because naming something means your relating to it & making it yours. Its not just cannon fodder. Zergling rushes could lose thousands and you wont care, but one carrier in SoSE and its a disaster

 

[commodore96]

In Battle for Middle Earth 1, the units carried over, you could name them and stuff. I liked them ones.

Yes! My friend and I would even name our units once they recorded 100 kills then gave them ranks accordingly. It would suck to see Lord Steve's Rohirim die especially when we had them since day 1.

 

[warhammerfrog]

yeah specially when guardsmen in DOW11 go up against the nids.... it must be terrifying.

 

[Nexoram]

"Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Ohhhhh. Like Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Whooooa. Banelings, Banelings, Banelings Ohhhhh. Like a deadly green landmine, mine" I don't feel bad because banelings are my little suicide bombers and that's their job. Plus, I'm a zerg player in Starcraft 2 so EVERYTHING IS EXPENDABLE!

 

[crop52]

I don't feel bad for the units, I get mad at myself for not being able to save them. And not because I have an emotional attachment to them, but because now I have a smaller chance of winning.

 

[coolkirb]

I play turn based and real time, and whether the charectors have back storys are not I dont care, but in picman yes, yes I do.