Strategy game recommendations

[JamesV]

I'm looking for some strategy game recommendations. Preferably turn based and deep. Games like :

Civ
Sins of a Solar Empire (no strictly RTS games though-not my thing)
Tactics games (FF, etc)
HoMM
Axis and Allies
Magic the Gathering

I've played nearly every well known strategy game on the PC and 360, so I'm looking for titles that may have fell under the radar, but still are great. I've played the newest Panzer General on Xbox Live which was pretty good, but never tried the old SSD games - are they any good (and do they work on Win7 64)?

 

[astrosfan315]

Jagged Alliance 2 is on sale on Steam and is awesome. Turn based, tactical, micro management, neat story.

 

[CPA]

Any of the total war games provide a combination of turn-based strategy and RTS.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

I recently got Europa Universalis Rome during the Paradox sale on Steam and am surprised how much i get into it and lose track of time, that rarely happens to me any more! Rome is supposedly the "easier" version but personally I really like it (probably helps if you're somewhat into Roman history..). Will definitely get EU3 soon as well which is larger in scope, and a later time period. If you like history at all these games are awesome, and should satisfy the 'deep' requirement I think.

I also really like GalCiv 2 from a few years ago and I play it every now and then. As the name implies; civ in space, check it out on Impulse.

These games are all a few years old, but who cares about that when it comes to good strategy!

 

[boozie]

Well I'll list the newer ones first that I highly suggest based on the games you like (I've played all of your list a lot but SoSE because I also don't like RTS as much):

King's Bounty - TL/AP/Crossworlds, all of them. They go on steam sales frequently. It's like HoMM but replace empire management with more hero (rpg-like) customization.

Blood Bowl - Football meets tactics with rpg elements. A bit random, but so is A & A and you don't have to sit around and roll for years.

Frozen Synapse - Indie tactical game, was just in the most recent humble bundle. This one I haven't played too much yet because I've been distracted by my Blood Bowl.

Older (like mid 90s) games that are right up your alley:

Master of Orion I & II (cheap at GoG) - Best 4x games ever imo
X-Com I & II - Tactical turn based fighting.

Also for a fast 10 min game like-Risk, check out kdice.com (free). warfish.net is also pretty sweet for standard pace risk-like games.

If I can think of anymore I'll come back and edit, but I can really get behind pretty much anything listed above.

 

[Red Storm]

Rise of Nations (a real time strategy game) has a Conquer the World mode, which is much like the board game Risk, except instead of rolling dice you play the battle using the game's Age of Empires type game play.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Besides the above:

You could pick up a PS3 and play Valkyria Chronicles.

I have Operation Darkness for the 360 in my unplayed stack, but reviews of it were mixed.

 

[BladeVenom]

The Total War series of games are a great combination of turn based and tactical play. Galactic Civilizations 2 was a good turn based strategy game. For a quicker turn based tactical game, I like Blood Bowl Legendary Edition.

 

[JamesV]

I have Shogun 2 Total War which is fun, but I'm pretty bad at the RTS portion, so I only play that every so often. I also have Galactic Civilizations (2?).

Jagged Alliance looks interesting, but how does the combat work out? I played a game similar to that a long time ago, and got highly frustrated by the character movement.

The Europa Universalis game looks just like what I'm looking for. Would you recommend getting Rome or the EU3 three-pack?

Kings Bounty and Blood Bowl look interesting also, but so far I'm looking at the above two games. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Craig234]

I wanted to post a link to Gamespot's April Fool's review of Chess as if it were a compiuter game, but can't find a link.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

I have Shogun 2 Total War which is fun, but I'm pretty bad at the RTS portion, so I only play that every so often. I also have Galactic Civilizations (2?).

Jagged Alliance looks interesting, but how does the combat work out? I played a game similar to that a long time ago, and got highly frustrated by the character movement.

The Europa Universalis game looks just like what I'm looking for. Would you recommend getting Rome or the EU3 three-pack?

Kings Bounty and Blood Bowl look interesting also, but so far I'm looking at the above two games. Thanks for the replies.

I just tried the demo of EU3 a while ago so I honestly can't really give an opinion on EU Rome vs EU3 since I've only played Rome for any length of time. Like I said Rome is smaller in scope and I have heard a bit simpler, but I'm not quite clear on the details. You're probably better of checking the paradox forums or something. A quick search:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?398608-Rome-vs-EU-3-which-is-better

Probably also comes down to which time period you find more interesting; ancient Rome or the 1300-1800s in EU3. I'm finding my way around Rome at the moment and enjoying it, but think I will "graduate" to EU3 at some point. But the systems are basically the same so don't think it matters much which you start with

 

[Via]

Games that competely engorssed me when I first started PC gaming:

Alpha Centauri
Railroad Tycoon 2
Lords of the Realm 2
The Settlers 3&4
Pharoah
Homeworld

edit - did you ever try Advance Wars for GBA? I loved that game.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I recommend EU3/expansions. I don't play rome, but whenever I've heard people bring it up comparisons on paradox forums they make it out to be the red headed stepchild of eu style games.

 

[Karstein]

[url=http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2155306&highlight=]Lots of recommendations in here.[/url]

 

[Northern Lawn]

Rise of Nations (first one), Age of Empires 3 and Age of Mythology, Rome Total War (not the others) these are my favourite RTS's. Company of Heroes is great as well and old school Dune 2000.

 

[Arglebargle]

Unless you are a history buff of the Classical period, EU3 will be your best bet. I've played both EU3 and Rome, and the EU3 series has more replayability. After doing a beginning campaign with something relatively easy, like Portugal (ie Keep Spain Happy), you can try all sorts of permutations, and they do play differently.



If you haven't played it, Alpha Centauri is the best Civ game in the whole series. One of the best games of all time, imo. There's a wide screen mod that helps for today's monitors.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Frozen Synapse - Indie tactical game, was just in the most recent humble bundle. This one I haven't played too much yet because I've been distracted by my Blood Bowl.

This game has an interesting take on turn-based combat. Highly recommended if you can get it on sale.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Unless you are a history buff of the Classical period, EU3 will be your best bet. I've played both EU3 and Rome, and the EU3 series has more replayability. After doing a beginning campaign with something relatively easy, like Portugal (ie Keep Spain Happy), you can try all sorts of permutations, and they do play differently.



If you haven't played it, Alpha Centauri is the best Civ game in the whole series. One of the best games of all time, imo. There's a wide screen mod that helps for today's monitors.

Have you tried Sengoku any? I need to read more about it, but looks to be a bit of the same EU+crusader kings mix that Rome was? I'm not that into the Japan setting, but I've heard good buzz about it.

Oh, there's a wot I think on RPS on it now so that will probably answer my questions.

edit: RPS review is 'meh'. I'll pass and wait for Crusader Kings 2 then.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I used to be a big fan of single player 4x games and loved Alpha Centauri. However, I thought those types of games tended to bog down later on in the game when you needed to do all sorts of boring micromanagement. (Farm this square. Build railroad track/mag tube here.)

One of the great things about Sins of a Solar Empire is that that sort of micromanagement is almost completely eliminated, which allows players to focus on the strategic and tactical aspects of the game. I hope that we can see a couple more 4x-RTS games like Sins, but it's the only one out there as far as I know. The other great thing about it is that by eliminating the boring micromanagement aspects, it allows for real online multiplayer PvP, which means you can play against opponents capable of real strategic though (as opposed to the AI algorithms).

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

++ to SMAC

You want deep? I mean really really deep?

War in the Pacific

Or how about War in the East?
War in the East