Strategy game for someone who's never played strategy games

[Snupas]

Hey there,

I've barely played strategy games in my life, but was always curious to try something. Usually I just cba to learn all the rules of the game and was more interested in actually playing the game instead of reading through instructions menus.

I'm looking for something low entry level, something that's easy to pick up but hard to master kind of thing.

Any suggestions?

 

[Pseudonym]

Frozen synapse is fairly simple and straightforward. It is one of the simples strategy games I can think of atm. It also didn't take me very long to learn xcom: enemy unknown. Same goes for advance wars if you own a nintendo handheld. You could check out age of mythology. I've also been told that Rome: total war is fairly easy to get into.

 

[Orange12345]

Civ 5 would be a good place to start, it does a good job of making things fairly intuitive and at the start of every turn it gives you a list things that need attention so its very new player friendly, on the down side it can become a slow burn sometimes

 

[small]

i would recommend something like a simple rts game to begin with like one of the command and conquer games for instance or world in conflict, heck even have a go at chess.

i wouldnt be fussed about rules as its not as complicated as people think they are and as for difficulty well you have the whole gamut from something like chess through to something like "pride of nations" where you control one of the great powers in the later half of the 19th century to around 1920 in all intricate detail where the grand campaign no exaggeration will take you 3 months of round the clock play

 

[Snupas]

Funny you should say that, I'm actually a big fan of chess.

And I have played XCOM, and enjoyed quite a lot. I guess I didn't consider it a full blown out strategy game with detailed resource management and the like.

 

[TrevHead]

I'm not big into RTS but Relic's line up plus the Total War games have always hit that casual RTS sweet spot for me.

Since the OP like's chess I highly recommend he/she plays Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS original is sprite based, other ports are HD) it's an unique mix of connect 3 puzzler, chess & RPG.

On the SRPG side I'll suggest is the Advanced Wars series & Langrisser Series (Warsong MD, Langrisser 2 MD & Der Langrisser SNES use emulation + english patches), these games have rank and file units so are worth a mention

 

[ninja666]

I suck RTS games, but managed to complete Stronghold and Warcraft III, so I think those are a good place to start.

 

[renegade7]

I think Warcraft 3 or Starcraft classic are pretty good places to start with real-time strategy games. Good story, too. I could also recommend Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (the first one, the second is more RPG than traditional RTS), Supreme Commander, and Homeworld.

If you want something turn-based, I would recommend Final Fantasy Tactics (especially if you also like RPGs), Advanced Wars, or Fire Emblem.

My recommendations both for the real-time and turn-based examples come from the fact that those games are VERY light and simple compared to some of the big names in strategy gaming right now. Especially with turn-based strategy, it's a very steep gradient in terms of learning curve between simple strategy games like Fire Emblem and some of the massive 4X games currently out there, there's unfortunately not much in-between.

But if you don't mind a learning curve (well, cliff) and you're looking for something much deeper, then I can't recommend Dwarf Fortress enough. It basically combines RTS with civilization-building.

 

[SaikyoKid]

If turn based is more your speed, I'd absolutely recommend Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It's definitely more than a few years old, but I'm pretty sure most people (myself included) find that to be the top one of the series. There's enough in the way of resource management so that you aren't totally swamped with things to take care of, but you definitely need to keep an eye on things as you start a game. I still get a good kick just booting up the old thing and playing a random map or two every now and again.

For something a little faster, I'll parrot the others here and agree on Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. Once again, the price on these are going to be quite affordable as they've been out for ages now, but you'll still managed to find people playing them. Can't really comment too much as RTS's aren't quite my cup of tea though. (Though WC3 has TONS of custom maps people have made if you get bored of the regular game eventually.)

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

Rome : Total war !!! I Cannot recommend this game enough !
Its the Emperor of Strategy games . I have played tons of strategy games and this one wins all the time when every i compare it to the others . It has 2 great expansions , not dlc , which are as big as the core game itself

Here is a random review and most of the problems faced in this review are fixed by official patches .


Btw its much better than medieval 2 total war .

-Age of empire 3 is a good game and as standard and simple as a Rts can get.

-Age of mythology + its expansion are finely made , lot of fun , great for newcomers , standard rts and much better than age of empires.

-Medieval 2 total war is a good game but not as good as Rome . It has a much slower pace and has much less variety and diversity than Rome and gets boring after the midpoint.

-Sins of a solar empire is also a very good and well made game .Its balanced and presents itself properly with a good user interface and challenging ai . Its a 4x Rts in space , with huge battles ,which look epic but keep in mind that there isnt much strategy in this game as its based around more decision making .

-Company of heroes is a damn fine game but does not have the re-playability as the games mentioned above

-Men of war is much better made than company of heroes but its hard even on easy and definitely not for newcomers but you should pick it up afterwards .

-Civilization 5 is good but needs you to invest a lot of time in it if you want to go through all the ages.

 

[Zontar]

Supreme Commander is an amazing large scale strategy game, with the standalone expansion forged alliance being even better. Though avoid Supreme Commander 2 like the plague.

For Grand Strategy, Heart of Iron 3, especially with expansion packs, is an amazing WW2 meta-level game. It's a very unique feeling the first time you take over all of the Soviet Union's European territory as Germany.

 

[ninja666]

I don't think games like Total War, Warhammer 40k, or Supreme Commander are appropriate for a person who states he's never played a strategy game before. Those games are pretty much as hardcore as the genre gets.

 

[Signa]

I'd go old if I were trying to get into RTS games for the first time. Other than just bad UI, they had simpler mechanics and badly exploitable AI. I'm thinking Warcraft 2.

You could step it up a few years if you don't want to go back that far, and try Total Annihilation. The resource system is less than straightforward, but once you figure it out, it helps the rest of the game to be really easy to play. The UI doesn't completely suck, and the AI will leave you alone enough that you can suck at base building, and you probably won't lose.

My personal favorite RTS games are Supreme Commander (a spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation) and Sins of a Solar Empire. Supcom is amazing, but the AI won't leave you alone, even in easy mode. Sins will let you alone, but there is a really expansive tech tree to explore and learn, and I wouldn't ask someone to mess with that with their first game.

A bunch of my friends love Company of Heroes, but I could never get into it. Too much micro management, and my brain and the game are constantly fighting each other. I tell my units one thing, and then they will do something else. I see other people play and that doesn't happen, so the fault is with me. I still recognize the game as pretty damn good though.


Turn based games, I can't recommend Advanced Wars enough. Days of Ruin on the DS is absolutely incredible.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

I'd suggest Total Annihilation or Age of Empires II
Both are fairly straightforward and were some of my first RTS games
They're a bit old though

In terms of general recommendations, I'd advise playing SupCom, World in Conflict and Company of Heroes once you get comfy

 

[LongAndShort]

I don't think games like Total War, Warhammer 40k, or Supreme Commander are appropriate for a person who states he's never played a strategy game before. Those games are pretty much as hardcore as the genre gets.

While I agree that Warhammer 40K and Supreme Commander aren't great beginner games, I disagree on the Total War series, which in my experience are surprisingly accessible. The campaign map is relatively intuitive and allows you to set whatever pace you're comfortable with (unlike a lot of other strategy games that can get real intense real quick), and the RTS battles are relatively simple command wise. I've recommended Rome and Medieval II to a couple of people who aren't strategy gamers and it seemed to work out alright for them.

I'd also recommend Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology.

 

[OneCatch]

Civ 5 would be a good place to start, it does a good job of making things fairly intuitive and at the start of every turn it gives you a list things that need attention so its very new player friendly, on the down side it can become a slow burn sometimes

See, I wouldn't actually recommend Civ V at all - I found it really had to get into and I play a lot of strategy.
Can't quite place what I found irritating to start with... I think it felt like just the wrong mix of very basic tactical combat and quite complicated strategic mechanics. Needing to choose an overall development strategy early on, the rather heavy emphasis on synergies for production, and the requirement to optimise your teching order, all make it fairly daunting.

I thoroughly enjoy it now, but the first 10 hours or so I played were basically frustrated grinding. And I'm not new to strategy concepts or 4X staples - I think it could be fairly intimidating to someone completely new to strategy.

Any suggestions?

I might suggest Total War. It's rather more military focused than Civ and other 4X, though the newer ones do have some resource management and feature basic tech trees.
The crucial thing is that it's a fairly straightforward tripartite - military forces, citybuilding, revenue management. Get the hang of juggling those three, then add in more epic scale resource management later.

And Total War features real time and turn based elements, so gives a broader introduction. If you find yourself loving the battles then you can try stuff like Company of Heroes or Red Alert, and if you enjoy the campaign map more you can move towards Civ or GalCiv.

Rome 1 or Medieval II would be my recommendations for starting with Total War. A lot of people would also suggest Shogun II, but I personally hate it.

On another note, how do you feel about citybuilding and management games like Sim City or Pharaoh?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Does turn based stuff count? Like i'm not sure if it's a true strategy game here but i'll recommend Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS if you have one. Yeah... I think I can call it a strategy game. If you make some bad moves you get fucking rekt.

The combat system is really well done with different combat classes and characters and stuff. You pair units together and they get massive stat gains, the game balances it by throws ludicrous amounts of enemies at you. Throw Lon'qu into battle with an S rank support, I fuckin' dare you. He will 1v10. On the enemy turn even.

It's strategic enough to have lasting appeal for people who want to learn to speedrun the levels with no casualties or you can set it to easy and no permadeath. Something I have been tempted to do since I really try for no casualty battles so unless someone dies in like a really, really cool way i'll just restart the level. RIP Cordelia. Killed by Tharja the turn before I recruited her... the *****.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Civ 5 would be a good place to start, it does a good job of making things fairly intuitive and at the start of every turn it gives you a list things that need attention so its very new player friendly, on the down side it can become a slow burn sometimes

I concur. Civ V was my first foray into 4X, and it's easy enough to learn with enough depth(with expansions) to keep your interest for a while.

For general stuff, I don't know. I like RTSes, it's just that I don't play many of them. Company of Heroes is good, if really difficult for newcomers...and Shogun 2 Total War is a pretty good starting point for Grand Strategies if you don't mind sticking with it for a few hours whilst diligently paying attention in order to understand it.

 

[Fox12]

The best large scale RTS game to start with is Rome: Total War. Thousands of battles, in depth strategy, great graphics, the whole thing. It's easy to get into, but it forces you to think strategically. If you just charge, you will lose. You learn quickly, though, and it's one of the best games out there.

Great turned base titles are Valkyria Chronicles and Fire Emblem: Awakening. Great game play, great story, and relatively simple to get into. If you like JRPG's then this may be an easy way to get into the series.

I liked Star Wars: Empire At War. It's a surprisingly in depth title.

 

[Artaneius]

Total War Shogun 2 or Total War Medieval 2. Best strategy franchise ever.