Your favorite strategy games I might not have heard of.
- Thread starter Hylke Langhout
- Start date
Europa Universalis II (a.k.a. For the Glory)
Steam is offering this, as well as Paradox's similar historical grand strategy games at 75% off, but the offer ends in 10 hours. It's a freaking awesome 4X strategy title, you can play as any nation from 1419 to 1819, England, France, Teutonic Order, Saxony, Iroquais, Cherokee, Aztec, Prussia, Ottoman, China, etc etc etc. The best part is the diplomacy; to declare war on another country you must have a casus belli, Latin for "cause for war", otherwise you take a -2 hit to your nation's stability, meaning you raise less taxes and have more risk of a revolt in your home provinces. You take a -1 hit for declaring war on a country with the same religion as you. You can get a casus belli by various means, if someone attacks one of your allies or vassals or someone whose independence you have guaranteed. Relations between nations go from -200 (most hated enemies) to +200 (best of friends) and can be modified by paying tributes, entering royal marriages, alliances and so on. It's a real-time strategy, but you can issue orders while paused, so it feels turn-based.
Space Empires series (number 4 is the best IMO)
Another excellent 4X strategy. This one is turn-based. The tech tree is absolutely massive. You start off only being able to colonise planets of the same type as your home planet (types are rock, ice and gas), but can research the ability to colonise others. Your biggest colonies will be on planets with the same kind of atmosphere as your home, as these do not need atmospheric domes. There's lots to do diplomatically, and you design your own starships and space stations by selecting a chassis and which modules you want to have on it, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of different modules to choose from if you research the entire tree. The galaxy is randomly generated and pretty huge. Star systems are joined together with warp points (wormholes). The massive array of different techs means a pretty limitless choice as far as what combination of strategy you adopt.
Both games have fairly steep learning curves, you will probably fail miserably the first time you play, as I did. I could say the same of Civ III or Total War though, which I also loved.
Steam is offering this, as well as Paradox's similar historical grand strategy games at 75% off, but the offer ends in 10 hours. It's a freaking awesome 4X strategy title, you can play as any nation from 1419 to 1819, England, France, Teutonic Order, Saxony, Iroquais, Cherokee, Aztec, Prussia, Ottoman, China, etc etc etc. The best part is the diplomacy; to declare war on another country you must have a casus belli, Latin for "cause for war", otherwise you take a -2 hit to your nation's stability, meaning you raise less taxes and have more risk of a revolt in your home provinces. You take a -1 hit for declaring war on a country with the same religion as you. You can get a casus belli by various means, if someone attacks one of your allies or vassals or someone whose independence you have guaranteed. Relations between nations go from -200 (most hated enemies) to +200 (best of friends) and can be modified by paying tributes, entering royal marriages, alliances and so on. It's a real-time strategy, but you can issue orders while paused, so it feels turn-based.
Space Empires series (number 4 is the best IMO)
Another excellent 4X strategy. This one is turn-based. The tech tree is absolutely massive. You start off only being able to colonise planets of the same type as your home planet (types are rock, ice and gas), but can research the ability to colonise others. Your biggest colonies will be on planets with the same kind of atmosphere as your home, as these do not need atmospheric domes. There's lots to do diplomatically, and you design your own starships and space stations by selecting a chassis and which modules you want to have on it, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of different modules to choose from if you research the entire tree. The galaxy is randomly generated and pretty huge. Star systems are joined together with warp points (wormholes). The massive array of different techs means a pretty limitless choice as far as what combination of strategy you adopt.
Both games have fairly steep learning curves, you will probably fail miserably the first time you play, as I did. I could say the same of Civ III or Total War though, which I also loved.
Victoria 2 is a brilliant grand strategy game, although its not for the faint hearted. Its not so much being thrown in at the deep end, but more like being fitted with cement shoes and dropped into the Marianas Trench. From orbit.
Yeah I'm with these peopleVeteran said:
Also Warzone2100 has been open source for a long time and people have been working on it a lot. First time you hear a Hyper Velocity Cannon fire is a dream, or a nightmare. Actually all the sounds in Warzone2100 were spot on, hearing howitzer shells streaming overhead etc.Also Jagged Alliance 2, Galactic Civilizations 2, Space Empires 4 (not 5)
Not sure it quite counts as a strategy game but Anomaly Warzone Earth. It's a weird mix of reverse tower defence and tactical decisions with skills and such. Worth a look I suggest, I really loved it.
Frozen Synapse.....that is all.
If you want to go back in time a bit. Perfect General/Panzer General is a good series to take a peek at. Its a fairly standard Octigon Strat set, put in WW2. Its fairly similar to Paradox's Hearts of Iron but not quite so heavy into the spreadsheets.Hylke Langhout said:
Edit * You'll need to know how to use DOSbox.
Warwind and Warwind 2: Human Onslaught. They both feature whackadoo alien worlds and really awkward stories, but are pretty choice nonetheless. The character designs are awesome as well.
Wooooooooooh! I spent years not knowing what the title of that game was, left with naught but fun memories. A really awesome game, the way it handled combat blew my mind at the time.Fieldy409 said:
OT: Not a single mention of Stronghold? Escapist, I am disappoint. It's one of my all time favourite RTS's.
What made it so special to me was that you could see everyone doing everything. You could see the smiths smithing, the fletchers fletching, the bakers baking, etc.
And the warfare. Holy crap, the WARFARE. It was actual proper battles, with moats and drawbridges and pitch and fire and destructible walls and choke-points and everything. Epic battles, they truly were.
SOCOM II
one of the best games i have ever, EVAR played! it was not a game you could pick up and be instantly good at, you had use skill and tactics to out smart the enemy who were pretty inteligent!! of course that has all changed and socom is now the call of duty rip off that zipper always wanted it to be!! fo shame socom 4, fo shame
one of the best games i have ever, EVAR played! it was not a game you could pick up and be instantly good at, you had use skill and tactics to out smart the enemy who were pretty inteligent!! of course that has all changed and socom is now the call of duty rip off that zipper always wanted it to be!! fo shame socom 4, fo shame
Yep, shame on you for not mentioning Stronghold. Truly an amazing game it is. And I Agree with the warfare, pretty awesome.Mr Thin said:
Armies of Exigo was pretty standard RTS, and sometimes pretty interesting, sometimes a Warcraft 3 rip off
From Open source, try Glest- good modding comunity
also, Warrior Kings.
Homeworld/homeworld 2. Both excellent 3d real-time space-based games with fleets of massively powerful battleships and swarms of agile fighters. Simply the BEST games out there for mass space combat. I actually had a campaign with some friends using Homeworld 2 matches to represent our space fleets battling one another, and Starcraft 2 matches representing our struggles to control a planet and its resources. Awesome (and ridiculously nerdy) stuff!
The original Homeworld was a '99 release and lacks graphical sophistication (but was quite excellent at the time), but will run smoothly on practically anything. Homeworld 2 is a 2003 release, and has much better graphics and a streamlined system while still being easy for any modern PC to handle at max settings. Check them out! They're cheap as hell these days. I got a new copy of 2 for 15 bucks like a year ago.
The original Homeworld was a '99 release and lacks graphical sophistication (but was quite excellent at the time), but will run smoothly on practically anything. Homeworld 2 is a 2003 release, and has much better graphics and a streamlined system while still being easy for any modern PC to handle at max settings. Check them out! They're cheap as hell these days. I got a new copy of 2 for 15 bucks like a year ago.
Gemcraft Labyrinth.
Yes, its a flash game.
Yes, its a *GASP tower defense game.
But it is a damn damn good one,
good enough to make me buy the "premium" version,
good enough to make me not sleep.
Erm.. as for my best strategy game, the title would probably goes to Command and Conquer Generals. The last good Command and Conquer in my opinion.
It is somewhat balanced. It is not as serious and realistic as Company of Heroes and as a result (according to my faulty logic) it is fun.
Yes, its a flash game.
Yes, its a *GASP tower defense game.
But it is a damn damn good one,
good enough to make me buy the "premium" version,
good enough to make me not sleep.
Erm.. as for my best strategy game, the title would probably goes to Command and Conquer Generals. The last good Command and Conquer in my opinion.
It is somewhat balanced. It is not as serious and realistic as Company of Heroes and as a result (according to my faulty logic) it is fun.
The best strategy games on my list are:
Homeworld 2
Total War: Shogun 2
Civ 5
To a lesser extent:
Halo Wars
Great game in general with casual RTS elements:
Brutal Legend (don't try to micromanage and you'll have fun)
[Off topic: how do I get rid of the Justin Bieber faces? they replaced every avatar image on The escapist and have been there for 2 days. I've all but stopped reading and posting on the forums because it's that annoying. Please PM. This sucks. Don't push the red button.]
Homeworld 2
Total War: Shogun 2
Civ 5
To a lesser extent:
Halo Wars
Great game in general with casual RTS elements:
Brutal Legend (don't try to micromanage and you'll have fun)
[Off topic: how do I get rid of the Justin Bieber faces? they replaced every avatar image on The escapist and have been there for 2 days. I've all but stopped reading and posting on the forums because it's that annoying. Please PM. This sucks. Don't push the red button.]
Warzone 2100 - It still has a bunch of features that still have never been taken up by RTS games in the many years since it's release. Its also completely free to download as the publishers made it freeware. Absolutely worth a look, with still probably the best RTS single-player campaign ever made.
To name a few of my favourite games;
- "Z" probably my favourite.
- "Total Annihilation" A great game that i still play although if you get it download the UTASP mod for it (Made by the creater of Supreme commander which is pretty much a TA2 )
- "Homeworld"
- "Dominion" pretty hard to find nowadays but enjoyable at the time. could still be worth a look at as it was a very good game.
- "Z" probably my favourite.
- "Total Annihilation" A great game that i still play although if you get it download the UTASP mod for it (Made by the creater of Supreme commander which is pretty much a TA2
)- "Homeworld"
- "Dominion" pretty hard to find nowadays but enjoyable at the time. could still be worth a look at as it was a very good game.