turn-based strategy games?

[GoodRevrnd]

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is shaping up pretty well. Will be a good Master of Magic successor.

IDK about Alpha Centauri being the pinnacle. That game was absolutely badass, and it probably has one of my favorite tech trees out of any game, but I think they missed the mark with the custom units.

 

[JamesV]

I enjoyed them more than HOMM 3 because they removed the home city part and the time pressure to conquer everything before the cheating computer had armies so large that you can't possibly win. In KB the enemy armies do not increase exponentially over time.

They don't increase exponentially. You are probably talking about expansion maps, like when you have he guy that can change any archer into the badass version... on one of those large maps, if you don't rush high tier troops and leave the AI alone for 2 months, they will have huge armies; but if you count their towns and the weeks until you encounter them, their army size is normal (not cheating, they could get that many troops out of 6 towns in 2 months easily).

As for turn based strategy games :

Homm 3
Wizardry 1-8 (8 and Dark Savant are the best imo)
Clash of Heroes
Shogun 2 (but a RTS during battles)
Alpha Centauri, Civ series

 

[shortylickens]

In the Heroes 3 campaign, very few monster stacks increase in size and its very slow when they do.

In some custom skirmish maps many of them increase and quite fast.

 

[you2]

King bounty is at the heart turn base strategy; quite fun. Age of wonder shadow magic is also quite good though graphics are showing its age. The civ galax 2 which folks like as well as civiliation 4/civlization 5 and next week warlock (based off of civ 5 engine).

They don't increase exponentially. You are probably talking about expansion maps, like when you have he guy that can change any archer into the badass version... on one of those large maps, if you don't rush high tier troops and leave the AI alone for 2 months, they will have huge armies; but if you count their towns and the weeks until you encounter them, their army size is normal (not cheating, they could get that many troops out of 6 towns in 2 months easily).

As for turn based strategy games :

Homm 3
Wizardry 1-8 (8 and Dark Savant are the best imo)
Clash of Heroes
Shogun 2 (but a RTS during battles)
Alpha Centauri, Civ series

 

[greenhawk]

Master of magic and master of Orion I played for hours back in the day. Loves both games. Too bad there is nothing new like them any more.

Master of Orion fan myself and over the years have found games that are similar in depth are "Space Empires" (up to #5?) and the most recenit is "Sword Of The Stars". the second just came out with #2 but have not played it yet. The #1 has 3 expantions and steam has it on sale now and then.

Have purchased a few other space sims but have not had the time to really get into them to check them out.

ps - swords of the stars has a massive learning curve

 

[Karstein]

Don't forget Warlock - coming out next week.

 

[Via]

IDK about Alpha Centauri being the pinnacle. That game was absolutely badass, and it probably has one of my favorite tech trees out of any game, but I think they missed the mark with the custom units.

I'm not sure I follow exactly. Do you mean the lack of custom units for each faction?

 

[Borealis7]

regurgitating older recommendations:

- Age of Wonders 2
- Heroes of Might and Magic series (skip 4, do yourself a favor)
- King's Bounty + Armored Princess (and a new expansion comes out in a few months)
- Fantasy Wars - Hardcore warning! can get very difficult and frustrating to the point of rage-uninstall but bare with it, if you plan ahead it gets really good!
- Imperium Galactica II - for your 4X pleasures.

that's it from me.

 

[Baptismbyfire]

I'm not sure I follow exactly. Do you mean the lack of custom units for each faction?

Yeah, I don't follow exactly either. Even though there weren't any custom units for each race, the branching technology tree pretty much negated the need for them, since you can customize your units to suit your playing style. Do you give your units more firepower at the expense of speed and armor, do you choose psi-attack over conventional attack, do you choose to go air or stick to the ground units, and etc. For a race like the Gaians, the psi-worms were the obvious choice, since you get a growth bonus.

What was most amazing about the game were those short vids you get after researching each secret project.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Master of Orion fan myself and over the years have found games that are similar in depth are "Space Empires" (up to #5?) and the most recenit is "Sword Of The Stars". the second just came out with #2 but have not played it yet.

ps - swords of the stars has a massive learning curve

I thought SotS was pretty easy to pick up. It's missing a little something to me that keeps me from calling it great, but still somewhere between average and good. I heard SotS 2 was crap, but I haven't played it.

I bought Endless Space recently seems good strategy-wise. The tactical part of it is pretty lacking though.

 

[JamesV]

I forgot about Age of Wonders... great game. It's sort of like HoMM, but you can cast world spells like turning a lake into ice so you can cross it, town battles allow you to attack any side (full battleground with all 4 walls), and many more things that give it a style all it's own.

I only own Shadow Magic, but wanted to pick up other versions... thanks for reminding me.

 

[darkewaffle]

Get yourself an emulator, SRPGs abound on handhelds and consoles. Ogre Battle 64, Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea are all good places to start.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Those are my favorites, but I dont think they are available anywhere. Are they on GOG?

Oh yeah, they are.

WIN!
:awe:

Got both from GoG, MoO2 only works for me in windowed mode. So that is sort of a bust. HoMM3 works flawlessly though.

 

[shortylickens]

I still have my Moo2 disc. The Win95 version works great in Win7, fullscreen even.
Heroes 3 platinum too. I love it. Still the best of the franchise in terms of game play.

 

[Possessed Freak]

I still have my Moo2 disc. The Win95 version works great in Win7, fullscreen even.

But the latest patch only works in the dos install. At least that is the last patch I ran with my MoO2 disc. That patch does a pretty good job of balancing the attributes in custom mode.

My Mouse buttons are not captured in full screen mode in the dos GoG setup. It worked fine with the disc, God I wish it didn't shatter (probably the saddest moment in my gaming history, along with the destruction of my Mech2 Mercs disc).

 

[Pens1566]

Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic

 

[Stuka87]

I have always been a huge fan of Combat Mission. Its a turned based WW2 strategy game. The engine is starting to look a bit dated these days, but is still a lot of fun.

http://www.battlefront.com/

They have several different ones now, including more modern Afghanistan and such. But I prefer the WW2 ones.

 

[shortylickens]

But the latest patch only works in the dos install. At least that is the last patch I ran with my MoO2 disc. That patch does a pretty good job of balancing the attributes in custom mode.

My Mouse buttons are not captured in full screen mode in the dos GoG setup. It worked fine with the disc, God I wish it didn't shatter (probably the saddest moment in my gaming history, along with the destruction of my Mech2 Mercs disc).

I'm on the original version. The Stat point distribution is better (Creative isnt so expensive) and everything works just fine.

 

[darkxshade]

I wished there were more turn based RPG games for PC like FF Tactics. I don't have much of an attention span to stay focused on more complex games such as the Civ series.

 

[fixbsod]

Another vote for Jagged Alliance 2, they also have a tighter, smaller quest made later -- Jagged Alliance 2 Unfinished Business.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I'm not sure I follow exactly. Do you mean the lack of custom units for each faction?

No, just the ability to custom design your units was uninspired. 95% of the time there was no reason to actually design something yourself because A > B > C. The other 5% of the time was usually just maxing out attack, armor and speed if you had a city that could handle the amount of production required.

 

[Skott]

Don't forget Warlock - coming out next week.

Watched a beta video of this game. Looks like I would enjoy it. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Ascendancy is another 4x space civ game that was out around the same time as MOO2. They just released an updated version for iOS, that I've heard is pretty good on an ipad.

 

[acheron]

mmmm... Alpha Centauri.

I would much rather have an Alpha Centauri 2 than a Civ 6.

 

[Keeper]

Curse all of you. I am SO behind in "New" (Newer?) games, this thread is making me want to go to my file cabinet.... And pull out some of these gems.

I saw someone say skip HOMM 4. Is that a concensus? And any thoughts?
I think I saw 5 packed as one of those $9.95 value games.

REALLY Curse you all LOL