So, I've come to the conclusion that I've reached a point where I have a lot more fun playing turn-based strategy games than playing RTS games. Sure, AoE's still fun occasionally, so is C&C - but it just doesn't compare. The thing that annoys me most when playing the Total War series is - that you actually have to do your own battles. Sure, at times it's fun but it gets really annoying when you have to do every single fucking battle (because if you have the game do 'em you lose way too many troops ). Anyway, who else likes 'em? I'm sure there's quite a few other posters here who enjoy playing this genre. Wikipedia has an entire category dedicated to them and I've been working my way through them (well, not playing but at least reading ). Really like the historic ones (like Civ IV) as well as the SciFi ones (Birth of the Federation) - not so sure about the fantasy ones yet but I'm pretty sure I'll like them (Battle for Wesnoth is fun to play - but unfortunately not as complex as I'd like). I've got Master of Orion 3 and Heroes of Might and Magic 5 to play at some point during the next two weeks (when I'll hopefully have some free time!). Any more advice? I'm more than willing to not have great graphics but better gamepley/more fun - if at all possible it should run on XP though and best be no older than about a decade. (actually, 200x sounds great for a year of release )
Do yourself a favor and throw the Master of Orion 3 disc into your nearest river. It doesn't do the series any justice, and is a complete waste of space, even if you were to just put the CD in one of those spindle things. Master of Orion 2, however, is pure bliss. It's one of those games you can start playing, and before you know it, it's time to go to sleep and you've missed breakfast, lunch and dinner. Another turn-based strategy game that is loads of fun is the Final Fantasy Tactics series. They can be played on the PS1 and the GBA/DS, with a port coming to the PSP sometime this fall. They aren't epic, as in armies going against each other, but they are fun nonetheless.
Ooo, there's a new Heroes huh? I loved playing the Heroes series. It gets old pretty fast though, but it's still a fun game. If you haven't played MOO3, get ready for spreadsheet hell. Everything in that "game" is managed in spreadsheets. Endless numbers of them. That's why that game is generally not held in the high regard that its predecessors are. But I still managed to have fun with it. The battle sequences absolutely stink and look like a 4 yr old was programming them. In the end, MOO2 is far superior to it, but I still recommend trying it at least, if for no other reason, than to appreciate MOO2 all the much more. I haven't played any turn based games (or any games rather) in quite some time, but it is, BY FAR, my favorite genre. I think I've played most of the greats: Civ, Moo, Alpha Centauri, ST: BOTF, Galactic Civ, VGA Planets, X-com, and umm, lots I'm forgetting...
BOTF is wonderful. I was sceptical about it when i first installed it all those years ago, but its become one the few games that i'll probably never delete
Yea, it is one of my favs, and I keep hoping a sequel will be made, but I heard that it is unlikely because of the costs of the ST license for the game...
^^One of the reasons TBBS is worth visiting occasionaly is because of the ongoing BOTF2 thread in trek gaming. Although i must admit i havnt seen it for a while....
You MUST play the Warlords series! Warlords II or Warlords III would do nicely. I can't even fathom how many hours I've wasted with friends playing games of Warlords. The best thing about the game is the customization. Makes every random game fun and unique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlords_(game_series)
X-Com gives me a woody. Especially going into an alien base with troops named Apone, Hicks, Hudson, Ripley...
Cool! I'll have to fire up BOTF soon then! I did play BOTF numerous times before with the mods that came out a year or so after its release, and the mods were alot of fun, but ultimately they weren't an "upgrade" to the game, just some cool skins. I remember one of the mods I played made the Ferengi superpowerful, so it was fun conquering the galaxy with Ferengi everywhere!
I've spent many, many hours playing the games in the Civilization series. I also played Railroad Tycoon a lot. I'm too peaceful -- I like to build and don't pay enough attention to the aggressive tendencies of my neighbors.
There is a turn-based strategy game called "TacOps" that lets a person practice Marine combined arms doctrine against Warsaw Pact units. The graphics are...functional, at best, but the game is fairly accurate. The biggest difference is that the programmers radically beefed up the Soviet night vision capabilities and the armor on the Soviet tanks. The program notes essentially said "We had to do this because otherwise the M1A1s would just be invincible going by real-world statistics. Anyway, that was eight years ago. A quick Google search shows that the game is now publicly available.
Anyone played Galactic Civ II? The first one was a lot of fun and I've read comments that say this sequel is a great successor to MOO2...
Yes, I played it. My review can be found here: http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?p=779845#post779845 In some ways, it is a good successor to MOOII, but the tech tree is a lot less advanced than MOOII. I haven't played it in awhile, but the mods may have expanded on it already.
Another vote for MOO2. The all time best. MOO3 was a fucking insult. It really depends on the genre and level of realism you like. There's some amazingly intricate games out there now, like Ehrie's fav Forge of Freedom, Hearts of Iron 2, and Europa Univeralis 3. CIV of course is the all time classic, though tell the truth I dug the sequel Alpha Centauri at least as much. The Total War series is really good as well. The campaign mode is turn based, the battle mode is real time, but you can pause it to give orders so it isn't the constant rush of click click click like the ROTS are.
I've played the demo of GalCivII. It was OK. If I'd have had any money at the time, I'd have probably bought the full version.
If you love the MOO series, you'll also like the Space Empires series. Space Empires IV is the last one I played, but V is out now. V might be a big buggy as of yet, but the company is great at fixing problems. It's usually $20 or under and IMO, IV was just as good, if not better, than any of the MOO series. http://pc.ign.com/articles/165/165204p1.html I love 4X Strategy games.. eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate.
How is it everytime Techman shows up as the last poster in a thread you just know he posted something really short, really pointless and really fucking stupid? Are you retarded or something? "I might buy the DVD" - wtf? You gonna do the same shit in here as well? If so, keep your posting to the Green Room, at least your joke threads usually are mildly funny.
What trolling? I just find it humorous that "turn based strategy games" don't seem to be played without a computer. Hell...my own mother plays cards...on a PC.
Chess is considered a turn based strategy game. And you can play it on a computer too. Yeah, if people want to talk about board games in here, they should be allowed, IMO, since most of them are also video games now.
I'm not going to kick them out...a good case could be made that they belong in the green room but really I don't think being that pedantic would benefit anyone. If the forum was being overrun with "let's play snakes and ladders!" maybe but I don't see that happening soon.
Track down a copy of Age of Wonders if you liked (and even if you didn't) Master of Magic. Technically, Age of Wonders Shadow Magic (basically AOW2). Calling them magical world versions of Civilization doesn't do them justice, but let's you know what you're in for. Basic 4 X formula, but well executed, with spells instead of things like wonders, and things like basilisks in addition to swordsmen. I loved MOO2 and didn't like 3. Enjoyed all the Warlords series, fast games, less complicated than Civ or HoMM or Age of Wonders. Disciples and its sequels each kept me entertained for a while. Went back to playing Civ4 instead of Heroes of Might & Magic 5 (even after I got the dwarf expansion to HOMM5) because I play against the AI and HOMM 5 AI is still pretty weak even after all their patches and fixes. Instead of making a more intelligent AI, it seems the difficulty slider just gives the AI players resource advantages. Plus it's really slow, and there aren't many maps. The random map generator doesn't create a game that kept my interest. If you play online you may find a more satisfying experience. I gave it about 3 months (10-15 hours a week) before completely losing interest.
