Games with similar campaign?

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

As in leading a small team of elites across several deployments, gradually leveling up, unlocking abilities, and equipping wargear; BUT without game being pmuch a glorified spreadsheet.
Or put shortly, real-time/turn based tactics with rpg elements. Can be mods or really old games, not an issue.

For example, here's some of the games on this vein I've played before: Fire Emblem (the ones before franchise switched focus to waifus), Valkyrie Chronicles 1 & 4, Advance Wars (all 4 of them), Battle for Wesnoth.

I've tried Tiny Metal, Wargroove, and Pathway, they don't quite scratch the itch.

[Firaeveus Carron]

I recommend Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate and Gears Tactics in the turn-based realm of play. Shining Force I & II are some oldies you might enjoy if Fire Emblem resonated well with you.

[Bob of Mage]

Well X-Com might be an option. Stats aren't that complex beyond more being better. The older ones don't really make your troops seem like elites due to the high death toll per mission. I mean I've had missions with where I lost 90+% of my men, and felt it was a good victory. The newer XCOM games are closer to this with a team of elites that you train over time.

Another similar game is Xenonauts. It doesn't have the insane death rate of early X-Coms, but is otherwise quite similar, and much more modern. You don't need to use a third-party program like OpenXcom to get it to run well on PCs from this century.

In terms of mods, the original X-Com has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thanks to stuff like OpenXcom. One of my favourites is X-Piratez which is a massive overhaul of the base game (warning there are NSFW elements in it that can be mostly, but not entirely disable). It is a fairly massive new game with enough added content to make you wonder what kind of black magic they used to create it (it helps that the mod is STILL being worked on after all these years). You can kill clansmen knockoffs with a chainsaw, raid space platforms filled with killer robots, fight rats in a tavern basement, capture hostages to ransom for money, save transport ships from a swarm of fish people, battle demons from hell, make deals with drug dealing little grey men, and more.

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

Chaos Gate and Gears Tactics are looking good. I should've mentioned fantasy setting does nothing for me, I liked Fire Emblem more because of the similar vibe to Advance Wars than anything. That said, I'll see if I can get Shining Force, games from the age before ez internet access were made with a degree of care and polish that's sadly a singularity nowadays.

I had forgotten about X-Com and the MANY games clearly inspired by it. Shame about the RNG with ability to absolutely wreck one's game though, personally I think that stuff should remain in Hell where it belongs. But there's gotta be at least one X-com-like game without RNG forcing a troll roll cactus up the player's behind, I just gotta find it.

Guess there isn't that many games that do something like DoW2's campaign, namely the RTS format combined with levels and wargear and such. I get it's a niche within a niche, but still, sad.

[Bob of Mage]

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

Chaos Gate and Gears Tactics are looking good. I should've mentioned fantasy setting does nothing for me, I liked Fire Emblem more because of the similar vibe to Advance Wars than anything. That said, I'll see if I can get Shining Force, games from the age before ez internet access were made with a degree of care and polish that's sadly a singularity nowadays.

I had forgotten about X-Com and the MANY games clearly inspired by it. Shame about the RNG with ability to absolutely wreck one's game though, personally I think that stuff should remain in Hell where it belongs. But there's gotta be at least one X-com-like game without RNG forcing a troll roll cactus up the player's behind, I just gotta find it.

Guess there isn't that many games that do something like DoW2's campaign, namely the RTS format combined with levels and wargear and such. I get it's a niche within a niche, but still, sad.

RNG isn't really a big issue in the classic X-Com since it is pretty easy to recover from losing your whole team (you tend to lose a lot because plasma weapons can easily one shot unarmoured rookies, and breaching UFOs requires risking reaction fire). I mean the life of rookies is dirt cheap (the loot from a single minor mission is normally more than the cost of a team of fresh meat). The bigger issues are that the aliens have much better gear early on. Once you research better tech, and have some of your troops start to gain better stats, things start to tilt more in your favour. By endgame you can easily line all the aliens up (mind control is OP if used right), and use them for target practice.

While I haven't gotten around to XCOM 2, in XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within, there is indeed issues with RNG screwing you over. Unlike in past game you can't expand the number of bases and team you can use, so there is no way to properly respond to an early mission type that hits 3 places at once. You are forced to take some hits to world panic.

Xenonauts is a bit of a good middle ground where if you play smart you shouldn't lose anyone during a normal mission (standard stuff like using cover, and leaving TUs so your troops can reaction fire). Heck if you are really good at shooting down UFOs you will stop the aliens from launching any tough missions (you can end up being lucky to face a single alien base or terror mission). You then just need to pick the ones you think will yield the best loot, and just have the other ones bombed by local forces.

[Hez]

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

As in leading a small team of elites across several deployments, gradually leveling up, unlocking abilities, and equipping wargear; BUT without game being pmuch a glorified spreadsheet.
Or put shortly, real-time/turn based tactics with rpg elements. Can be mods or really old games, not an issue.

For example, here's some of the games on this vein I've played before: Fire Emblem (the ones before franchise switched focus to waifus), Valkyrie Chronicles 1 & 4, Advance Wars (all 4 of them), Battle for Wesnoth.

I've tried Tiny Metal, Wargroove, and Pathway, they don't quite scratch the itch.

Silent Storm(turn based/3 games) one of the best turn based games.

[Kai]

Not really, you might want to check RTSs with campaigns rather then looking into turn based tactics, but all the good ones are fantasy .

[Firaeveus Carron]

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

Chaos Gate and Gears Tactics are looking good. I should've mentioned fantasy setting does nothing for me, I liked Fire Emblem more because of the similar vibe to Advance Wars than anything. That said, I'll see if I can get Shining Force, games from the age before ez internet access were made with a degree of care and polish that's sadly a singularity nowadays.

I had forgotten about X-Com and the MANY games clearly inspired by it. Shame about the RNG with ability to absolutely wreck one's game though, personally I think that stuff should remain in Hell where it belongs. But there's gotta be at least one X-com-like game without RNG forcing a troll roll cactus up the player's behind, I just gotta find it.

Guess there isn't that many games that do something like DoW2's campaign, namely the RTS format combined with levels and wargear and such. I get it's a niche within a niche, but still, sad.

A few Shining Force games are part of the Sega Genesis collection, which are available on Steam.

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

Originally posted by Kai:

Not really, you might want to check RTSs with campaigns rather then looking into turn based tactics, but all the good ones are fantasy .

Hence niche within a niche. There isn't that many RTS games and they rarely have any RPG-y elements like levels/skills and wargear.

Originally posted by Kai:

Not really, you might want to check RTSs with campaigns rather then looking into turn based tactics, but all the good ones are fantasy .

Silent Storm looks neato, will check it out

[Kai]

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

Originally posted by Kai:

Not really, you might want to check RTSs with campaigns rather then looking into turn based tactics, but all the good ones are fantasy .

Hence niche within a niche. There isn't that many RTS games and they rarely have any RPG-y elements like levels/skills and wargear.

Originally posted by Kai:

Not really, you might want to check RTSs with campaigns rather then looking into turn based tactics, but all the good ones are fantasy .

Silent Storm looks neato, will check it out

Played Spellforce 3 last year, it has a grand campaign like a cRPG with a big lore and sstory, heroes, skills, leveling, etc along with RTS battles. Its the most recent RTS with RPG elements and is well known for a 50/50 system.

[HELICOPTERS GO BRRRRRRRRRR]

Originally posted by Kai:

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

Hence niche within a niche. There isn't that many RTS games and they rarely have any RPG-y elements like levels/skills and wargear.

Silent Storm looks neato, will check it out

Played Spellforce 3 last year, it has a grand campaign like a cRPG with a big lore and sstory, heroes, skills, leveling, etc along with RTS battles. Its the most recent RTS with RPG elements and is well known for a 50/50 system.

lmao spellforce 3 is dogshitshitstain like a reskinned warcraft 3 but worse lmao

[Kai]

Originally posted by HELICOPTERS GO BRRRRRRRRRR:

Originally posted by Kai:

Played Spellforce 3 last year, it has a grand campaign like a cRPG with a big lore and sstory, heroes, skills, leveling, etc along with RTS battles. Its the most recent RTS with RPG elements and is well known for a 50/50 system.

lmao spellforce 3 is dogshitshitstain like a reskinned warcraft 3 but worse lmao

lmao Thanks for sharing your opinion lmao

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

Originally posted by Kai:

Originally posted by HELICOPTERS GO BRRRRRRRRRR:

lmao spellforce 3 is dogshitshitstain like a reskinned warcraft 3 but worse lmao

lmao Thanks for sharing your opinion lmao

it's the helicopters go brr git. triple dare you find as many as one remotely useful comment from him in this forum
Spellforce 3 has a buncha modding and such, with those on it'll be a better experience than pmuch any AAA game. Might even find a mod to make it less sparkly fantasy/appeal more to a sci-fi autist like myself.

[HELICOPTERS GO BRRRRRRRRRR]

Originally posted by Sectator Pragmaticam Lex:

Originally posted by Kai:

lmao Thanks for sharing your opinion lmao

it's the helicopters go brr git. triple dare you find as many as one remotely useful comment from him in this forum
Spellforce 3 has a buncha modding and such, with those on it'll be a better experience than pmuch any AAA game. Might even find a mod to make it less sparkly fantasy/appeal more to a sci-fi autist like myself.

lmamo spellforce 3 sux donkey ballz lmao same meta every time lmao borng as hekll low skill just like this game lmao

[Konstantin]

Is this game not based upon Company of Heroes 2?

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

Originally posted by Konstantin:

Is this game not based upon Company of Heroes 2?

Couldn't be, Retribution released a whole 2 years before CoH2. Also the CoH2 campaign is more conventional (regular RTS on custom maps with a bunch of scripted events), certainly not like DoW2's.