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Kurogachii

All time favorite strategy games post

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My all time favorite strategy game is Rome: Total War along with Medieval II: Total War, after that we can talk about the Dawn of War series, Men of War, Company of Heroes and a little bit of world in conflict.

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I'm not huge on strategy games but the Star Wars ones such as Galactic Battlegrounds and Empire at War have always been favorites of mine.

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I pretty much spent the past year playing Total War Warhammer II. According to Steam I played over 2000 hours. (Didn't get much mapping done.) So I guess that's my favorite, though I did play an awful lot of Medieval II back in the day, and Dawn of War was a pretty fun RTS adaptation of 40K's squad mechanics.

 

I think Warhammer is probably the happest marriage of Total War and content. In the historical titles, CA was always stretching things or straight up making stuff up to create unit diversity. Whereas in Games Workshop's fantasy universe that diversity inherently exists, along with the individual Hero units, Monsters and magical abilities. I can't help but feel that Warhammer II is the Total War CA always wanted to make.

 

And Skaven are awesome.

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My favorite RTS game is the one from where my current avatar came from.

 

Spoiler

For anyone who doesn't know, it's C&C Red Alert 2.

 

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C&C: Kane's Wrath is my favourite. I also really like Halo Wars1, BFME II, AOE 1 +2 + 3, Star Wars Empire at war. 

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I'm absolutely useless with strategy games, but I still play Age of Empires 2 every now and again. I can barely manage on normal difficulty, and even after watching tutorials I lose patience for even trying to the way the game wants; it's just too methodical and tedious. But I've spent countless hours in the map editor and playing on easy with everyone as an ally to trade with, just building and listening to the soundtrack.

 

Stronghold is more my pace and I love that game as well, but I've spent way more time messing around with AoE2, just ignoring the strategy parts.

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It's hard to pick one since this genre is one of my favourites. I'll list a few that I consider top-shelf entries.

 

Total War: Of these I think Medieval II, Warhammer, Shogun II and Rome (1 not 2) are among the finest examples of the series. I have been chipping away at TW games since the original Shogun. I'm not even going to try and estimate how many hours I have sunk into them combined. Thousands easily. I spent about two thousand on Medieval II alone back in the day.

 

X-com: I loved the original games, especially the first one. But I also really got into the 2nd one of the modern Xcoms. I sunk a lot of hours into it. Still, the original trilogy will always hold a special place in my memories. Maybe it was the pixels or maybe it was the depth and freedom you had. I don't know, but I really loved them.

 

C&C series: Another series I enjoyed. Until C&C 4 that is, what were they thinking? Red Alert 1 & 2 were also really good. I enjoyed the fact it didn't take itself too seriously. The FMV cutscenes were just hilarious.

 

Dawn of War: Loved the first one, even Soulstorm which caught some flack back in the day. But the idea was sound, expand on Dark Crusades risk-like campaign map. DoW 2 was fairly good too but I preferred the first one. The less said about DoW 3 the better.

 

In any case, there is a ton of others that branch into the 4x sphere but the above are my favourite strategy series. There's plenty of others I enjoyed such as Starcraft and Warcraft II, along with Heroes of Might & Magic III and Supreme Commander. But if I went into every single one I'd be here all day.

 

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I used to be (and to some extent still am) a massive strategy game nut. I've played and enjoyed games from every sub-genre, from RTS to 4x to Grand Strategy. Here's a selection of my all-time favourites:

 

4x

Distant Worlds: Universe

Endless Space

Galactic Civilizations II

Sins of a Solar Empire

Space Empires V

Stars in Shadow

 

Grand Strategy

Crusader Kings II

Stellaris

Victoria II

 

Real-Time Strategy

Age of Empires III

C&C 3

Empire Earth

Red Alert 3

Star Wars: Empire at War

Supreme Commander

Total Annihilation

World In Conflict

 

Real-Time Tactics

Empire: Total War

Medieval II: Total War

Rome: Total War

Wargame

 

Turn-Based Tactics

Panzer Corps

 

3 hours ago, Avoozl said:

I'm not huge on strategy games but the Star Wars ones such as Galactic Battlegrounds and Empire at War have always been favorites of mine.

56 minutes ago, PeterMoro said:

Star Wars Empire at war. 

I've probably put at least 2,000 hours into that game over the last twelve-odd years. The base game is pretty addictive, but it is the modding scene that truly gave the title its surprising longevity. Did either of you ever get into EAW mods?

 

1 hour ago, Dark Pulse said:

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

 

Nerve staple them. Nerve staple them ALL.

Don't go, the Drones look up to you, they need you - Alpha Centauri, trying to convince me to stay for just one more turn. While I never got properly into that game, its world-building and aesthetics are still some of the best in the sub-genre, second in my opinion only to Endless Legend.

 

6 hours ago, Kurogachii said:

My all time favorite strategy game is Rome: Total War along with Medieval II: Total War, after that we can talk about the Dawn of War series, Men of War, Company of Heroes and a little bit of world in conflict.

I've bolded the games that I've sunk at least 500 hours into. RTW is probably one of my most played games of all time. Do you play it vanilla, or do you like to spice things up a bit with mods?

 

1 hour ago, ReaperAA said:

My favorite RTS game is the one from where my current avatar came from.

Red Alert 3? :p

 

Unfortunately, while RA2 was on my wishlist for years, it was only recently made widely available for modern OSes, and by that time my C&C craze was years cold. Did you ever try RA3?

 

Quote

But if I went into every single one I'd be here all day.

@Final Verdict So true.

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5 minutes ago, Omniarch said:

 

4x

Distant Worlds: Universe

Endless Space

Galactic Civilizations II

Sins of a Solar Empire

Space Empires V

Stars in Shadow

 

 

Your 4x list is a sight to behold.

 

I was going to list almost every single one of those, especially Distant Worlds. I didn't want to create a textbook though so I left 4x out. Take note people, this man knows his 4x games. That list is almost flawless in my opinion, but enough praise from me before this becomes awkward.

 

The only other one I'd add to it is Sword of the Stars. The first one I mean since the 2nd was never really finished.

 

I'm not familiar with Stars in Shadows, that looks interesting. Thanks for mentioning it, no idea how it slipped under my radar.

 

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8 minutes ago, Final Verdict said:

 

Your 4x list is a sight to behold.

 

I was going to list almost every single one of those, especially Distant Worlds. I didn't want to create a textbook though so I left 4x out. Take note people, this man knows his 4x games. That list is almost flawless in my opinion, but enough praise from me before this becomes awkward.

Believe it or not, this is the minimalist version...

 

Distant Worlds is amazing, though, probably the only 4x game I've played that tries to create a truly dynamic universe. I just wish the A.I wasn't so bloody stupid...

 

8 minutes ago, Final Verdict said:

I'm not familiar with Stars in Shadows, that looks interesting. Thanks for mentioning it, no idea how it slipped under my radar.

The best way to describe SiS in my mind is "Master of Orion 2 but with comic book aesthetics". I mean, the dude who did the art (his handle is Arioch, I think) is the author of a cheesy space opera webcomic, complete with matriarchal blue space elves, somewhat reminiscent of Crest of the Stars.

 

If you want to chat at extreme and unhealthy length about every 4x game under the moon and stars, just send me a DM :)

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23 minutes ago, Omniarch said:

Red Alert 3? :p

 

Unfortunately, while RA2 was on my wishlist for years, it was only recently made widely available for modern OSes, and by that time my C&C craze was years cold. Did you ever try RA3?

 

Yes I have played RA3. It was a good game, but it couldn't replace RA2 in my heart.

 

One of the things I didn't like about RA3 is that it was too "goofy". RA2 had some goofy elements too, but it was less goofy than 3.

 

Though on the other hand, RA3 was arguably the most balanced C&C game in terms of faction vs faction and I also liked that we could build bases on water.

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Just now, Omniarch said:

Believe it or not, this is the minimalist version...

 

Distant Worlds is amazing, though, probably the only 4x game I've played that tries to create a truly dynamic universe. I just wish the A.I wasn't so bloody stupid...

 

 

I haven't played it in some time, but I had a lot of fun with it. Appreciated that it was trying to simulate a dynamic universe but like anything it was far from perfect. It suffered from Cpu bottlenecking later on as I think it was single-thread, but then most 4x games do. Still, I sunk quite a few hours into it.

 

3 minutes ago, Omniarch said:

 

The best way to describe SiS in my mind is "Master of Orion 2 but with comic book aesthetics". I mean, the dude who did the art (his handle is Arioch, I think) is the author of a cheesy space opera webcomic, complete with matriarchal blue space elves, somewhat reminiscent of Crest of the Stars.

 

Master of Orion eh? That's big praise. I have already added it to my backlog on steam but I'll try to move it up that monolithic category or I'll never get to play it.

 

Either way, thanks for the recommendation. I had no idea it even existed.

 

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4 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

Yes I have played RA3. It was a good game, but it couldn't replace RA2 in my heart.

 

One of the things I didn't like about RA3 is that it was too "goofy". RA2 had some goofy elements too, but it was less goofy than 3.

 

Though on the other hand, RA3 was arguably the most balanced C&C game in terms of faction vs faction and I also liked that we could build bases on water.

 

No you're right. Red Alert 2 was by far the best one in my opinion.

 

Same as you I enjoyed Red Alert 3 but I never went back to it much, it went too far with the goofy stuff. Red Alert 2 was cheesy but it was the good kind of cheesy. Not that I think RA3 was bad, it wasn't by any stretch and at least it stayed true to its roots while trying new things. It was a good entry at least, unlike C&C 4.

 

What I'm trying to say is that I went back to RA2 repeatedly over the years. It was that addictive.

 

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I should also point out how surprisingly good the SNES version of Civilization was. Yes, it had an SNES version. Yes, it's actually really fucking good - so good it's one of the few games I can remember passing out while playing it from exhaustion.

 

Here's someone getting the ship to Alpha Centauri off in just over an hour.

 

 

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Stars in Shadow is a nice take on the old Master of Orion formula.

 

The original Dune game (the one by Cryo) was an interesting mix between adventure and strategy. Not a formula that has been replicated since AFAIK, so it's worth a playthrough if you get the chance.

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19 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

Yes I have played RA3. It was a good game, but it couldn't replace RA2 in my heart.

 

One of the things I didn't like about RA3 is that it was too "goofy". RA2 had some goofy elements too, but it was less goofy than 3.

 

Though on the other hand, RA3 was arguably the most balanced C&C game in terms of faction vs faction and I also liked that we could build bases on water.

Honestly, RA is so silly to begin with that I never found the goofiness of RA3 to be an issue. Granted, it was my first exposure to the franchise, so maybe this is a case of differing baselines. Anyhow, I really appreciate the ludicrous cartoony aesthetic, especially in how it influenced the unit design. There's something almost uniquely appealing about units like the Scythe or the Jetengu or the Pacifier.

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10 minutes ago, Gez said:

Stars in Shadow is a nice take on the old Master of Orion formula.

 

The original Dune game (the one by Cryo) was an interesting mix between adventure and strategy. Not a formula that has been replicated since AFAIK, so it's worth a playthrough if you get the chance.

 

I think the original Dune and Dune II were among the first strategy games I ever played. Dune II especially, played that a lot as a kid on the Megadrive (Genesis) back in the day. Reminds me of the first strategy game I ever played, Power Monger.

 

Both Bullfrog and Westwood studios were at the top of their game back in the 90's. It's a sad fate that befell both of those studios. They made some great games.

 

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Don't play very many, they are not my genre and I suck at them. However, there are at least three that I have briefly gotten into: The Battle for Wesnoth, MegaGlest, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

 

Wesnoth, I got from the Debian GNU/Linux software repository. It's a pretty solid turn based strategy game, the world is compelling, although I think the difficulty ratcheted up too fast.

 

MegaGlest I found in the same place. It's a real-time strategy game not unlike Age of Empires. I was terrible at it so I always played against low-level CPUs. Playing out a long term campaign gives me feelings of power.

 

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance I bought as a collection item, and I had a lot of fun playing it and going through the story. Can't recall why I stopped; probably just hit a wall in progression.

 

I also own Advance Wars and I might have one of the Fire Emblem games. But eh, never got into them.

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I should also point out how surprisingly good the SNES version of Civilization was. Yes, it had an SNES version. Yes, it's actually really fucking good - so good it's one of the few games I can remember passing out while playing it from exhaustion.

Interesting. Does it have any way to save the progress / sort of? Critical for such sort of games, as I can say.

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21 minutes ago, UnknDoomer said:

Interesting. Does it have any way to save the progress / sort of? Critical for such sort of games, as I can say.

It saves your game to a battery-backed RAM. You can choose to save whenever it's one of your units' turn.

 

EDIT: The game also supports the SNES Mouse according to the manual!

Edited by Dark Pulse

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Not very good at these, and the last time I played an RTS was C&C Generals way back when.

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Red Alert 2 & its expansion are amazing. Recently I've been watching people speedrun it & got the urge to replay both of them but lack of time is the issue.
Love the balance between humor & seriousness of the situation. Also, that dope soundtrack.

 

Populous The Beginning is rather a unique one on pretty much every aspect, though it lacks any variety in objectives. It's basically a 'conquest' game by destroying enemy tribes on each planet. Regardless, the spells you unleash on the enemy are satisfying.

 

Need to play more strategy games some time in the future.

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I find strategy games too complicated and slow-paced for my liking. The first two Advance Wars games, however? Damn good stuff. I never got on the DS games, I should sometime. And even earlier is a strategy game for the Turbografx-16 known as Military Madness which I really dug as well. Beyond that, not my scene.

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love x-com, quarantine and laser squad and all that, turn based squad games with maintenance and research between battles. loved Necromunda on tabletop, too, that's my sort of preferred format for games where you order units around. never especially got into starcraft? and I realised I was mostly playing Dune and C&C/Red Alert stuff for the soundtracks. I liked Stars! and Master of Orion though.

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I haven't played a lot of strategy games.

 

  • Battlezone 1995
  • Battlezone II
  • Age of Empires
  • Enemy Nations
  • Warcraft III {bought the Battlechest with all the expansions and guides way back when}

 

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