Give me some strategy-game recommendations, chop chop!

[Nedrah]

Buy Starcraft Brood War.

Yeah. Play through the singleplayer, easily forgeting about the dated graphix because of the awesomness of it all. Then get online. Get your ass handed to you by people who have been playing the thing for 10 years.

 

[Jasede]

In fact I played through the SC campaign. Too easy (but really well-done for a strategy game, maybe the most enjoyable campaign(s) ever), but Broodwars is a challenge I might still try. Haven't spotted that add-on for cheap, yet. Also, I am kinda afraid of playing online because I am not a Korean with ten hands who sleeps with the SC-box.

 

[kingcomrade]

Me too. Unless I play Terran (me) vs Zerg I can only beat the computer 50/50. I never even think of fighting against Terrans. The computer is godly with tanks and ghosts. What's strange is that I usually hear that Terrans are supposed to be the weakest race, but they're the race I'm best with and the race I fear the most.

 

[LCJr.]

Another Paradox title worth trying, Victoria-An Empire under the Sun and the Revolutions expansion. You can get both for $30 off Gamers Gate.

Is that the one where you have to build up your industries, mediate between different class interests, push through social reforms etc? That one really interested me. I am not much into military invasion after military invasion, which I feel is the focus of too many strategy games.

That's the one. There is a military component but it's not the main focus of the game unless you want it to be. Main thing is getting industrilized and trying to keep your little computer people happy. The game reminds me a lot of SSI's Imperialism.

And just to clarify my first post it's $20 for Victoria and $10 for the Revolutions expansion. I could have worded that better.

 

[WittyName]

As far as RTS goes, Warcraft 3 is decent but online matches are much better than the single player campaign which is fairly easy and rpg-ish in nature (setting up the story of WoW).

Warcraft 2 is probably better but the controls and inability to select groups of units is a bit frustrating once you are familiar with the WC3 interface.

 

[AZ]

Dominions 3: The Awakening - try the demo, best fantasy strategy I have played.

 

[Jasede]

I haven"t tried the demo yet, but you surely lie.

NO strategy game can be better than Master of Magic. It's one of the cosmic rules of the universe.

 

[mondblut]

I haven"t tried the demo yet, but you surely lie.

NO strategy game can be better than Master of Magic. It's one of the cosmic rules of the universe.

Dominions are MoM on steroids, sans controlled tactical battles.

 

[JoKa]

try fantasy general, I'm playing that atm and it's darn good... maybe even better than MoM

 

[Jasede]

Learn to read, sweety. But thanks anyway. Hmm, that Dominions sounds interesting, though. I haven't spent more time on a single game than with MoM. Not even Shadow Magic took me that much time. (I think Age of Wonders is pretty close to MoM, but not in terms of sheer longevity. Also, another great game if you liked MoM is /Lords of Magic/. It also has an amazing Soundtrack.

 

[JoKa]

hey, my title is 'barely literate', you know?
but you're right, I read page1 yesterday and was too lazy to reread it (in my FG-crazed state...).
lazyness seems to be quite widespread among students...

i also have to second alpha centauri, even if the add-on may be hard to get (just in case you don't already have it...). it's superior in almost every aspect to civ3 (dunno about civ4...), even though it was made by the same people some years later...

 

[Ryuken]

In fact I played through the SC campaign. Too easy (but really well-done for a strategy game, maybe the most enjoyable campaign(s) ever), but Broodwars is a challenge I might still try. Haven't spotted that add-on for cheap, yet. Also, I am kinda afraid of playing online because I am not a Korean with ten hands who sleeps with the SC-box.

I haven't yet seen it being sold seperately after all those years. Here in Europe it's usually included with the budgetversion of SC (for €15 max) instead of being sold seperately like Diablo II and its expansion Lord of Destruction.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

I've been playing Galactic Civilizations 2 a lot more than any other game this year, heartily recommended. Think Civ in space. This one will keep you awake many long nights.

I was up almost all night playing GalCiv 2until I looked at my watch and said,"Woah! It's 4:00 A.M. already?".

 

[Cthulhugoat]

What? No Heroes of Might and Magic III, nor X-Com? Heretics.

 

[Top Hat]

What? No Heroes of Might and Magic III, nor X-Com? Heretics.

Heroes of Might and Magic II is better than III.

 

[Jasede]

Ha! I like you, Top Hat! Look at the TC boards!

And thanks for all the suggestions. I don't need any more for now. Thanks, guys. Who says the Codex is an unhelpful scumhole of filth? It ain't true! The Codex is, in fact, a very helpful scumhole of filth.

 

[Elwro]

i also have to second alpha centauri, even if the add-on may be hard to get (just in case you don't already have it...).

BTW

And yeah, too bad EA has the rights to the Alpha Centauri series...

 

[ixg]

And yeah, too bad EA has the rights to the Alpha Centauri series...

:!: :!:

Fuck.
Anyways, I also recommend Alpha Centauri. My favorite Civ.

 

[AZ]

I haven"t tried the demo yet, but you surely lie.

NO strategy game can be better than Master of Magic. It's one of the cosmic rules of the universe.

The two has the same quality, but Dom3 has more options and very easy to mod. Universe is chaos, deal whit it. :wink:

 

[Atrokkus]

Terrans are supposed to be the weakest race, but they're the race I'm best with and the race I fear the most.

WEakest race? Where did you hear that? There's an even distribution between the tree races in the Korean premier leagues. There's no imbalance at all -- at least no one could formulate a coherent list of inequalities.

Haven't spotted that add-on for cheap, yet. Also, I am kinda afraid of playing online because I am not a Korean with ten hands who sleeps with the SC-box.

Have no fear, comrade, as Koreans don't play on official servers no more, they have their own, and blizzard doesn't mind at all (why would it -- they love koreans so much, and for a good reason).

As far as RTS goes, Warcraft 3 is decent but online matches are much better than the single player campaign which is fairly easy and rpg-ish in nature (setting up the story of WoW).

Warcraft 2 is probably better but the controls and inability to select groups of units is a bit frustrating once you are familiar with the WC3 interface.

Warcraft2 may be better due to somewhat more inspiring singleplayer plot, though again, for me both games had pretty decent campaigns. I really loved Orcish campaign in WC3 classic, but very disappointed with TFT's poor diablo clone that was supposed to be so cool and original. Loved Arthas's story too, the cinematics were stellar as always.

But yeah, the real treat is the Battle.net. Blizzard does a GREAT job supporting the title both patch-wise and on BNet. Online open tournaments are held several times a week, sponsoerd by both Intel and Blizzard. Plus some special professional tourneys (divided in American, Euro and Asian sub-tourneys).

Speaking of balance, well of course it ain't Starcraft yet, it'll take more patches to get it to that almost perfect level of balance. Yes, there are issues with NE and Undead somewhat overpowered in certain situations, but it's not really as pronounced, and basically shows only in certain match-ups. Moreover, the strategies evolve, the players get craftier, natural and surprising counter-strategies emerge, and suddenly the imbalance is shifted, usually on players For instance, all four races have their devoted "champions" that play those races exclusively and win quite big.
Of course, you can't play the game unpatched. I remember the days before TFT came out.. .now that was scary imba shit all over the place. EVERYBODY played humans, that was just sad and stupid, with so few units being actually useful (basically it was one-two unit type armies). But rigth after TFT came out and several patches on top of it, things were getting MUCH better. Now ALL units are useful, even the most suprising (like gyrocopters for insatnce), and you just can't play win by employing only one or two "mass" types of units -- armies are now very diverse.


Even though my serious gaming is over, recently i installed Warcraft 3 TFT again (mainly to test my ADSL), and got dragged in again. Of course aint playing it too much, only level 10 so far on the ladder, but i enjoy it nonetheless.
So if anyone wants a custom game played, add "Atrokkus" to friends. I play on Northerend (Europe) only though, because my ping is way too huge on USwest or USeast.

 

[JoKa]

i also have to second alpha centauri, even if the add-on may be hard to get (just in case you don't already have it...).

BTW

And yeah, too bad EA has the rights to the Alpha Centauri series...

thanks for pointing out the link...

i was a bit paranoid of scratching that alien crossfire-disc after all i had to do to acquire it (had to search ebay for 2 months because of insane prices at that moment...), so that comes in handy...

about EA: how so? doesn't firaxis exist anymore? or has Sid Meyer gone crazy and sold the rights for that gem of TB strategy???
oh well...it may have happened while i've spent a year on an island - no information at all

 

[Elwro]

about EA: how so?

I read it in an interview with SM, not long ago. Sorry, didn't bookmark the link.
Anyway, it seems (according to HotU) that Firaxis was the publisher of the original game, and EA published the expansion... weird.

 

[Quigs]

Just wait for SupCom, fuck the rest.

 

[Jason]

I read it in an interview with SM, not long ago. Sorry, didn't bookmark the link.

There's this interview. That's why AC isn't in Civ Chronicles.