103 replies to this topic

[Adridos]

Are there any more of strategy fans like me out here? I remember a nice reaction when I mentioned C&C and also the poll about Civilisations sparked my interest in this part of our community.

Most strategy fans are probably over at the Mechwarrior: Tactics forums, which is a TBS version of our beloved Mechwarrior based on Mech Commander (which I never played, sadly), but if there are any strategists here on these forums, I would like to talk with them.


To start with, what is your most favorite (does not have to be the best) strategy game/series of all time? Also, please add a valid reason when you respond.

For me it is Original War. A very good and original game that came out at the worst possible time. It was original and people still think there exists no game like it, but it was caused by the fact it released alongside Warcraft 3 and Red Alert 2. How could a small game like it survive a competition of this magnitude. I still remember as I recited the whole voiceover of the first mission over and over again as a kid and trying to exploit some mission as much as I possibly could by hijacking enemy vehicles (not available in the demo), stopping assults by barricades, stealing vehicles from my superior which was such a jerk I never felt guilty. Good times.

The uniqueness of the game had various aspects. First, there were soldiers, which were persistent. If he died in teh first mission, you never saw him again and you missed him later on. That brings another point, there were no recruitment buildings. Vehicles required drivers, or could be controlled by a compuer (late, expensive tech), or through people sitting in a building and remotely controlling them from afar. All of those were different, of course. Normal vehicles with drivers were the best, but if he did not make it back after vehicle got destroyed, you lost him and people are more valuable than diamonds in this game. Remote controlling has small penalties, but it is still pretty much holding its own against those people driven, but it requires a skilled mechanic, because when you assigned him even two vehicles, they got /2 penalty on everything. Last of all, AI controlled vehicles are the weakest of these, but you can produce as much as you want. You also changed the engine from diesel, solar, or an infinite one. Of course the infinite one uses raw resource that is hard to come by and the problems of the other two are the same as in real life.

There are many more, but this should give you the basic idea of how different this game was, when you consider it was released back in 2001.


So, what is your favorite strategy game (TBS, board games, RTS, tycoons, does not matter)?

[Hayashi]

I can't decide between Sid Meier's Civilisation III and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

I don't know why, but somehow the games in the series that succeed them... just don't do the same magic for me. Maybe they got too complicated.

Oh, and because Civilisation III has AWESOME FREAKING MUSIC!

[Volturnus]

Civ, C&C, Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, and let's not forget Total War. Just about anything really. I'm not entirely sure why I like them so much, I think I just like to see armies destroy each other...

[Adridos]

Hayashi, on 29 April 2012 - 05:39 AM, said:

I don't know why, but somehow the games in the series that succeed them... just don't do the same magic for me. Maybe they got too complicated.

I never played Civ3 personally, but I do not think that it was less complicated than the 5th one. There is a lot of things to help people new to the series get settled as opposed to Civ 4 which was really a complicated game.

[Baldwin Chang]

My personal favorite was Dune 2000; not only was it the very first RTS I ever picked up but it got me interested in Dune (Single greatest work of Science Fiction. Ever. Period.), and talk about suspenseful. Nothing was as nail-biting as moving your precious army across the desert and hoping beyond hope that a damned sandworm didn't get their scent.
Also House Ordo had a tank called a Deviator which could mind control enemy vehicles for short periods, nothing beat turning over half an enemy's army against it and watching him squirm.

Edited by Jeremiah Mint, 29 April 2012 - 05:48 AM.

[Serpentine]

Supreme Commander is a massive RTS. It's amazing and very detailed. Maps can be the size of giant landmasses. I love it an I think you should probably give it a try.

Great... now I have the main theme stuck in my head.

[Alan Grant]

Mechcommander was the first strategy-esque game I played. All other games came afterward. For some reason strategy was never as good in any other game as it was in Mechcommander. Probably because it wasn't much like any other game in the genre. It was a self proclaimed real time tactics game, and that appealled more to me than pure build your armies on site strategy.

Other than that, a pure strategy game would go either to Command and Conquer or maybe Age of Empires, I played both for hours and hours back in the day.

[Adridos]

Serpentine, on 29 April 2012 - 05:52 AM, said:

Supreme Commander is a massive RTS. It's amazing and very detailed. Maps can be the size of giant landmasses. I love it an I think you should probably give it a try.

Great... now I have the main theme stuck in my head.

I already did. Great game, but it got boring for me after I´ve beaten the campaign and played a bunch of skirmish matches.
Did not even try multiplayer, completely different game mostly.

Also a music from Jeremy Soul stuck in head is nevr a bad thing.

[Ranger207]

C&C all the way. Those older games (RA:2, C&C:TS) are still great (plus you can still get them in the First Decade compilation) and when you finaly get bored with them, you can go and download any of the many mods for the games. I've played SupCom, but it was too slow for my taste, and in Age of Empires, all I ever did was turtle.

[Adridos]

Ranger207, on 29 April 2012 - 06:02 AM, said:

...and in Age of Empires, all I ever did was turtle.

Even turtling has its spirit in that game. You are making forts/ castles, after all.

[Cruiser]

Love RTS's. Company of heroes, Homeworld 2, Starcraft 2, Supreme commander and C&C: Red Alert stands as some of the shining stars of this genre to me.

Sadly I feel that the RTS genre has been let down over the last years in favor of the FPS craze and dumbed down games in favor of console users. Lets hope that RTS get a revitalisation with the consolers falling further and further behind, as well as browser based gaming becoming more and more popular.

Edited by Cruiser, 29 April 2012 - 08:15 AM.

[Adridos]

Cruiser, on 29 April 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

Sadly I feel that the RTS genre has been let down over the last years in favor of the FPS craze and dumbed down games in favor of console users. Lets hope that RTS get a revitalisation with the consolers falling further and further behind, as well as browser based gaming becoming more and more popular.

Well, Total Wars are still doing good. Dawn of War 2 is a good game. Anno only has more user-friendly interface, but that´s it.
Not that we are mostly falling in quality (well, games like AoE:O, SupCom 2 are indeed failures), we just lack games.

[Hayashi]

Cruiser, on 29 April 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

Sadly I feel that the RTS genre has been let down over the last years in favor of the FPS craze

I don't want to agree, but I can't not do it. Too many FPS and too little of anything else.

[Adridos]

Hayashi, on 29 April 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

I don't want to agree, but I can't not do it. Too many FPS and too little of anything else.

And the next trend are goin to be RPGs, once again a bunch of years with nothing to play (strategy wise).

Edited by Adridos, 29 April 2012 - 08:37 AM.

[Catharsis]

I played a lot of Age of Empires when I was younger, so I have always been a fan of the massive base-building games. Especially when you can just screw around and steamroll your way up the tech tree (Empire Earth, anyone? )

But as my interest in games matured, I found myself preferring the more "tactical" RTS games that required more unit management and did not even allow for steamrolling. Ground Control has to be one of my favorites. It required much more "on the fly" thinking than other games did at the time.

Next to that, I would have to say Homeworld. That game is perfect in almost every way. Presentation, gameplay, immersion, and it is unique in the way it handles 3D space combat. I love Homeworld 2 and I am hoping we get to see a Homeworld 3 someday.

Edit:
Contractions
and
Do not remind me of the embarrassment that was Empire Earth 3. *shudder*

Edited by Catharsis, 29 April 2012 - 08:45 AM.

[Adridos]

Catharsis, on 29 April 2012 - 08:43 AM, said:

Next to that, I would have to say Homeworld. That game is perfect in almost every way. Presentation, gameplay, immersion, and it is unique in the way it handles 3D space combat. I love Homeworld 2 and I am hoping we get to see a Homeworld 3 someday.

A lot of people would love to see a sequel, but Relic has the rights to make 40k products and they already announced the Dawn of War 3.

It is good news, but sad news for everyone hoping for a new Homeworld.




Oh, and anyone excited about the new F2P strategy games? They won´t top the normal ones, probably, but they are all pretty interesting. Mainly the AirMech, which recreates the first RTS out there (not Dune 2) and End of Nations, which has potential, but they are balncing on the edge.

Edited by Adridos, 29 April 2012 - 08:58 AM.

[Catharsis]

Adridos, on 29 April 2012 - 08:52 AM, said:

A lot of people would love to see a sequel, but Relic has the rights to make 40k products and they already announced the Dawn of War 3.

I would be happy with that too

[Jakebob]

Paradox makes the best strategy games... HOI3, Victoria 2, and Crusader Kings II are my current favorites, but HOI2 was a classic.

Civ V isn't bad, and the Total War series have certain aspects I like, but I don't like the economic models in those games... Paradox does much better with the economic and logistic aspects. (much more realistic)

[Adridos]

Jakebob, on 29 April 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:

Paradox makes the best strategy games... HOI3, Victoria 2, and Crusader Kings II are my current favorites, but HOI2 was a classic.

They are making good games, but very specific in the audience. I could never get into that kind of games.

[Cruiser]

Seeing a homeworld 3 would be so sweet. Hasn't quite been games like it, if we discount "Nexus: The jupiter incident" although that was more about tactical management.

I think I heard from Relic that they are working on a company of heroes 2 which is epic win for me. Have sunk a lot of hours into CoH, but sadly the game slowly sunk under really bad support from the developers in terms of balancing the game.

Trying to satisfy my need for RTS, I have also spent a lot of time on Anno 2070, which is more like a glorified Settlers to me. Entire game revolves around setting up a supply chain to fuel a war machine that pretty much runs itself. Total war: Shogun 2 has also seen quite a bit of action with me, but dividing the game up into a macro and micro part like that, doesnt really talk to the RTS lover in me.

At the moment, it seems that the only real "serious" RTS out there is Starcraft 2, which is okay since it looks good, plays really well, have a huge community and lots of e-sport around it, so I can make due with that for the time being.

With Company of heroes 2 announced, as well as EA announcing C&C: Generals 2 (I loved Generals!) there might be some good stuff on the horizon. Lets just hope EA and THQ doesnt mess it up like they've gotten a habbit of doing with high profile games lately.