Recommend a strategy game

[Tigranes]

Alright, a few months go it was action, and your recommendations led me to Dark Messiah, which was very enjoyable (and Crysis, still on hold).

 

I'm about to do a Deus Ex playthrough but I also have a hankering for a good old strategy game - the Total War sort, not the Age of Empires sort. But the trouble with me is, I grow to hate the ridiculous AI on these games. In every Total War, after a while every single faction just attacks you randomly and you are set on this neverending cycle of battles, but because of the poor AI you always end up facing them at good odds, instead of getting overrun. In fact, you only become overrun because you can't be arsed dealing with them anymore. I really enjoyed EU3 but Heir to the Throne has grown old for me, especially because enemies never seem to accept reasonable peace deals.

 

I'm keen to try E:TW again if there are any good mods that will spice up the experience? Or are there other, lesser known titles out there that offer similar gameplay?

[Oner]

King Arthur?

[Tigranes]

Can't remember why I didn't go for that one - I think I remember reading on the Codex that the battle balance/AI wasn't great after a while. Did you play it?

[Oner]

Sorry, nope. Others on the forum did however, I'm sure they'll pop up after a while.

[Thorton_AP]

I am downloading this right now.

 

Unfortunately that will not help you take advantage of the sale.

[Purkake]

Try Flotilla or Gratuitous Space Battles or Defcon

 

Other than that you might want to try Homeworld, Company of Heroes, Red Alert 2, Supreme Commander or Ground Control.

Edited June 29, 2010 by Purkake

[Gorth]

I don't know if you are into HoMM III style games, if so you might give Disciples II a try. It's dirt cheap at the moment (since Disciples III is now on pre-order).

 

How detailed do you want your management role to be? EU III style (my current favourite balance between strategic and operational management)? Hearts of Iron style (mid level detail)? Victoria - an Empire under the Sun (suicide by micromanagment) style?

 

Edit to add: Historical, Scifi, Fantasy preferences?

[Purkake]

There's also a bunch of non-standard strategy games that are pretty good like Commandos, Desperados, Freedom Force, Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius...

[Monte Carlo]

Tigranes, check out the mods for Total War games, they rectify many of the issues you discuss. The LotR mod for M:TW2 is especially good.

[Tigranes]

Historical is nice - EU3 and TW are actually my favourites, but I've just been burnt out and I know the AI too well. Not a fan of sci-fi or space, which is why I passed on Sins of Solar Empire. Fantasy is alright, I remember enjoying Age of Wonders 2.

 

Basically something where I build up a civilisation in a detailed setting with a lot of options and micro, have a sense of narrative, and tactical battles.

 

I gave away my MTW2, so I'm looking at the latest Darthmod for ETW and wondering whether its promises of better AI will prove right.

 

Disciples II feels more HOMM-y, but I loved King's Bounty, so maybe I'll pick that up off GOG.

[Gorth]

Historical is nice - EU3 and TW are actually my favourites, but I've just been burnt out and I know the AI too well.

With the Heir to the Throne expansion, EUIII is almost a different game

 

Have you tried EU - Rome? The focus is very much on politics/family (nepotism) besides economy and empire building. There was a Demo at some point in time.

 

Romance of the Three kingdoms? Not sure what version is the current.

 

Matrix games have the old War in Russia available for free (best run in DosBox). At 3mb it is not a large download. Has a bit of a learning curve, but then, manuals are for whimps.

 

War in the Pacific - Admirals Edition (some commitment, time and effort required)

 

I've never tried the Anno 1xxx series, but heard a lot of good stuff about them.

 

East India Company (plus expansions)... Ok, not really Empire/Civilisation building, but they are unfortunately becoming a rarity. You still get to build a merchant empire though.

 

I bought a game, Sword of the Stars a while ago, but I haven't had time to try it yet, so I don't really have an opinion on it

[Calax]

If you're willing to drop the money on it, Napoleon takes the E:TW and makes it actually pretty dang good by fixing a lot of the AI problems E:TW had and having more than just "Line infantry" and "Slightly better line infantry".

[HoonDing]

Age of Wonders.

[Bos_hybrid]

I really enjoyed King Arthur, but don't expect Total War in a King Arthur setting. Worth the $15 it's going for on Steam.

 

Have you tried Supreme Ruler 2020? If not, perhaps give that a try. At the very least you'll have fun trying to conquer the world as New Zealand.

[Tigranes]

Gorth:

EU3 HTTT - Yes, I really enjoyed this for a time, since the army instakills and such refreshed the familiar AI traps and cheeses in the game. I tried to go back into it today, though, and I don't know - even with countries like Korea or Mali, once you get to a certain stage you become a juggernaut and when you are fighting for your life, things like AI peace deals really frustrate.

 

Love Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I own and love 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, but sadly it's once again the same deal of the AI - they break alliances and attack you every 6 months for no reason whatsoever, forcing you to expand faster than is historical, and then after a while you're just too big and the game is no challenge.

 

Stuff like Anno series and East India Company really interest me, but not sold on it enough to fork out the cash - has anyone tried them? How are they on longevity and AI/balance?

 

If you're willing to drop the money on it, Napoleon takes the E:TW and makes it actually pretty dang good by fixing a lot of the AI problems E:TW had and having more than just "Line infantry" and "Slightly better line infantry".

 

Hrm. I passed at the time because I didn't want to give CA more money after screwing the fans over, and the marketing made it sound like more cinematic bullcrap... but is the campaign AI significantly improved?

 

Picky customer, I know, it just seems like all the games out there have fun stuff to offer, but none really emerge with superior AI and longevity tha I crave now. I'm downloading Darthmod 6 for ETW, maybe if that doesn't satisfy I'll go for King Arthur or one of the others.

[Calax]

I haven't yutzed with the Napoleon too much but it certainly feels a bit less... sloggy for the battles. I've had cases where I survived only because I had one cannon breaking everything that came near it with canister while my last two units kept them from being overrun.

 

That said, Napoleon adds things like attrittion due to being in a hostile environment, the ability to fill out your ranks while in the field, a LOT more cannon, and a pile more battle maps for you to play with.

[213374U]

How detailed do you want your management role to be? EU III style (my current favourite balance between strategic and operational management)? Hearts of Iron style (mid level detail)? Victoria - an Empire under the Sun (suicide by micromanagment) style?

Victoria is awesome. Market dynamics, internal politics, international relations, migrations and, of course, war in the advent of the industrial revolution. No tactical battles, though.

 

"Suicide by micromanagement" for some (), Paradox's finest for others. And Vicky2 is coming out soon!

[Aponez]

How detailed do you want your management role to be? EU III style (my current favourite balance between strategic and operational management)? Hearts of Iron style (mid level detail)? Victoria - an Empire under the Sun (suicide by micromanagment) style?

Victoria is awesome. Market dynamics, internal politics, international relations, migrations and, of course, war in the advent of the industrial revolution. No tactical battles, though.

 

"Suicide by micromanagement" for some (), Paradox's finest for others. And Vicky2 is coming out soon!

 

Victoria is good but, the work and the nerves........

 

If we are talking about old games, Syndicate and the Generals Series (Panzer General, Allied General, Panzer General II, Pacific General, People's General and Fantasy General) or the Emperor: Battle for Dune

[Thorton_AP]

The original Dune was an interesting one. It had a pretty neat narrative to go along with it, and a lot of the early stuff is more adventure game than strategy game.

 

A ton of fun.

[Aponez]

The original Dune was an interesting one. It had a pretty neat narrative to go along with it, and a lot of the early stuff is more adventure game than strategy game.

 

A ton of fun.

 

Didnt count it for that, the strategy one would be the Dune II: Building of a Dinasty or the Dune 2000 who is the same game but with better graphics, the old Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was good too or the Warlords Battlecry series

[Tigranes]

Well, I forgot that ETW forces Steam on you. After 3 hours of installing, patching, and downloading over 1gb of mods (none of which are, of course, due to Steam), now I'm stuck at the "Preparing to launch game" screen for 15 minutes, as usual. Yes, literally 15, I've just read the entire forum while waiting.

 

Now I remember why I uninstalled... hrrrrrrrr

 

edit: Oh, I see, this game is not currently available. THANKS FOR UBISOFTING ME

 

edit 2: Why does it suddenly need another update? It already did a 600mb update. Why another one? Why didn't I need it before? Why am I even using Steam again? This is like getting STD from a legalised prostitution ring and coming back for more

[Purkake]

From what I've heard ETW needs all those patches and then some.

 

No idea about the mods, though.

[Gorth]

"Suicide by micromanagement" for some (), Paradox's finest for others. And Vicky2 is coming out soon!

I know, best $10 I ever paid for a game (bargain bin at EB Games).

 

I've been trying to follow Vicky 2's development, but failed miserably. Only so much online time to go around

[I want teh kotor 3]

[rul=http://www.galciv2.com/Index.aspx]GalCiv2[/url]. Not sure if its exactly what you're looking for, but I like it.

[Thorton_AP]

The original Dune was an interesting one. It had a pretty neat narrative to go along with it, and a lot of the early stuff is more adventure game than strategy game.

 

A ton of fun.

 

Didnt count it for that, the strategy one would be the Dune II: Building of a Dinasty or the Dune 2000 who is the same game but with better graphics, the old Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was good too or the Warlords Battlecry series

 

I'd probably recommend the original Dune over either of the other Dune games to be honest.

 

If you're looking for a RTS game, there are better games to try than the Dune games IMO.