Need strategy game recommendations

[mercurydawn]

I like ToB, but I'm also running on low fumes for any TW game right now, after this patch is released I'm gonna take a break, too many years playing variations on the same theme. Not CA's fault, just want a bit of change.

Also tired of Sins of a Solar Empire.

What other strategy games do you like, NOT a TW game. I like history. Can be from any era. Tactics and Strategy.

I have $40 steam cards. Not too interested in first person shooters, or anything that only gives a seasonal pass, or has to be multiplayer.... I play by myself offline.

I played Rome and Medieval 2 through Iraq, through the great depression. Used to own the other later titles except Shogun, but borrowed that, and own the last standalone for it. Not interested in a mod right now.

I don't like first person shooters cause I did that for a living, and seems retarded on screen. Just not right. I could handle Bioshock cause it wasn't much of a shooter, just lacked people with a wrench. I might buy 2 and 3 if nobody gives any recommendations, figured a few would know good games, given some must have similar tastes in games as me.

Just bought my laptop for this ToB, fairly new. Don't use a mouse, use my mousepad. Something off steam.

[Haddon]

Check out Oriental Empires. Pretty good strategy game. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI is awesome, especially if you can get the PUK, but it isn't on Steam (the regular version is though). Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence isn't bad. Hegemony series is pretty fun. Field of Glory II looks excellent, but I haven't played it yet. Veil of Crows is great, kinda like TW meets Mount and Blade meets a 4X.

If you are interested in RPGs at all, Tactics Ogre is the best TRPG I have ever played, and very difficult (unless you don't care about casualties). Pillars of Eternity on hard mode was one of the toughest games I have ever beaten, and never managed to beat the final optional boss (sadly, my team set-up was sub-optimal because Druids are terrible). Final Fantasy XI: International Zodiac Job System (I haven't played the re-re-release) on New Game- takes some serious strategizing.

[Moose_knuckle]

Victoria and Crusader kings 2, Ultimate general Gettysburg is fun but ive not had much time on it.

[Lord Castellan Majorian]

Total War Attila, ♥♥♥♥ what you stated, it's an amazing game.
In all seriousness, Ck2 and EU4 are pretty good. Heart's of Iron 4 as well

[Knoxx212]

If you played any TT Battletech the new Battletech game plays very much like it. I would suggest watching some lets play videos on YouTube to avoid buyers remorse. It's not history based but it is fun with loads of lore.

[mercurydawn]

Oriental Empires looks interesting. I've read too many Princes Mirrors and books on statecraft to be too impressed with a more expanded campaign-auto resolve only version of Total War, which many of the game selections advertise. More doesn't always mean I'm going to be happier, makes me feel like a micromanaging game of risk. As mentioned much as I like risk, I like actual battles too.

Total war gives me the option of playing two games in one.

Is Oriental Kingdoms a game that has both a campaign map and 3-D battles? I'm confused watching the videos on their steam page. I've seen games with 3-D animations and you go to play them, and it is nothing like that.

[Haddon]

Originally posted by mercurydawn:

Oriental Empires looks interesting. I've read too many Princes Mirrors and books on statecraft to be too impressed with a more expanded campaign-auto resolve only version of Total War, which many of the game selections advertise. More doesn't always mean I'm going to be happier, makes me feel like a micromanaging game of risk. As mentioned much as I like risk, I like actual battles too.

Total war gives me the option of playing two games in one.

Is Oriental Kingdoms a game that has both a campaign map and 3-D battles? I'm confused watching the videos on their steam page. I've seen games with 3-D animations and you go to play them, and it is nothing like that.

OE has 3D battles, but they occur automatically based on orders you give beforehand. Set up to 8 units in a stack (with something like 30-ish different units), and give each unit "orders", like defensive stand ground, all-out assault (without formation), attempt to flank, formation attack, skirmish, ambush, some others. You then tell them which hex you want them to move to, and once you are done with the turn you end, and all players act simultaneously (and all battles occur simultaneously too). Your units will attempt to move where you told them to, but the semi-realtime movement of other units/battles may completely disrupt your plans. You don't have control in battle, but have enough control (once you get used to using orders effectively, and get good at using multiple armies with multiple different orders, and get good at setting up their formations) for some tactics, but it is definitely much more strategy-based. The campaign part is rather large, with some significant economic and diplomatic strategy (for instance, you absolutely cannot conquer China without using vassals, and inefficient cities will be more of a hindrance than a bonus due to upkeep on buildings). Then there is a lot of dealing with things like plagues, famines, floods, rebels, former allies breaking off because you get too big, groups of smaller factions teaming up to come at you together, NPC factions not being able to handle RNG events which causes rebels and seperatists to pop up.

One of my favorite things I have dealt with in the game, I was playing as the Shu (ancient Shu, not 3K Shu, but in generally the same region) so my military was really weak. I sent a force out to try to take a village from some horse barbarians, and as it was their last city they asked for help from another faction; that faction agreed, went to war with me, and I spent the next ~30 turns desperately trying to fend them off (my economy was baller, so I could afford it). After I won these battles, they asked ANOTHER faction to join against me, and in came the Dong Yi from the north, Dog Rong (the first faction I was fighting) and I think the Chu with massive armies, and I lost all but 3 cities that were well-fortified and in defensive locations. I managed to hold some mountain passes to keep them away while I rebuilt my army, and basically pulled an Alfred the Great by remaking my army to have a core of professional units slowly pushing forward strategically. If I weren't a decent strategist and good tactician, I would've lost that game; and that was on Easy. Granted, I didn't know the mechanics of the game particularly well (some of them aren't very clearly stated, so if you pick the game up READ GUIDES), but dam was it awesome. One of my best strategy game experiences.

Wow, that was a long post. I really like OE, and anxiously await them finishing up the ability to mod the game. The game is very good, but once modding is possible I think it will become absolutely amazeballs.

[mercurydawn]

Okay, I may try them. I've read up heavily on Shang and early Zhou, even found a lost Zhou text of the fall of the Shang (weirdly enough in Greek), but I have found very little on early Shu, other than the bird trees.

I am looking forward to this a bit. Still buying TW:TKs, but thinking of doing this. Ive read a bunch of Chinese strategy works over the years.

[Haddon]

Originally posted by mercurydawn:

Okay, I may try them. I've read up heavily on Shang and early Zhou, even found a lost Zhou text of the fall of the Shang (weirdly enough in Greek), but I have found very little on early Shu, other than the bird trees.

I am looking forward to this a bit. Still buying TW:TKs, but thinking of doing this. Ive read a bunch of Chinese strategy works over the years.

All that is really known about the Shu is they existed, were amazing craftsmen and traders, and some slight evidence that they were the ones who first invented bronze casting in China for use as ornamentation. The main dev is a HUGE Chinese history nerd, so the game tries to be very historically accurate. It also has a second Warring States campaign that starts immediately following the Partition of Jin, 408 I believe. Playing as the Wei was awesome.

The devs have also recently said they are making another campaign, probably a DLC, about Emperor Wu. Which Emperor Wu? They haven't said yet, so there are like 50185 options (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ those Chinese really like the name Wu).

[Smiling "Lucky" Lynx]

Crusader Kings 2 chewed up a good deal of my life, when I was stationed all by my lonesome. If you like Paradox games it does a nice job of making you feel like you're trying to keep some feudal dynasty alive. I still enjoy starting at the viking age as Ivar and just steering crazy history from there.

Lot of DLC though. You really don't need all of it. There's something oddly satisfying watching my inbred ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a son become King of France from a Count or some such. Also some nice mods.

[Berserk Breton]

Odd suggestion it might seem, but since you play sins and like TW, Sword of the Stars might work (1 not 2). It's a bit old but it is a turn based campaign with real-time battles. More 4xish than TW though.

I play a variety of other titles but a lot of them are too specialized, lack battles entirely, or are not as fun as Total War so I can't recommend them in good faith.

Presumably you have played the mount and blade series (not strategy but a lot of fun).

[mercurydawn]

No I haven't. I was not doing financially well the last ten years, so couldn't play all these games. Was forced to read primary texts and visit libraries and stuff for my historical war fix, it rotted my mind.

[Shaka]

I got to go with a few people said and a few others. Check out Orintal Empires (but they dont do any dlcs, Civ series (but this will eat in to Real Life), Cossacks, Heroes and Generals (if pc can take it) its Strategy and FPS, I do Warcraft because the game evolves but that might be your thing. Ulitmate General is good but gets repetitive, Euorpa Universalis and the whole Paradox series including hearts of iron 4, they are good but its not for everyone. Personally think TW titles are best and this is v good.

[hiGh]

Stellaris, great 4x space strategy. Deep choices in civilization research, culture, politics etc. It's a Paradox game, only this time it's in space. I also think it's vastly superior to Sins, so if you think of discarding it for the space era setting alone, don't. At least look at it :)

Steel Division Normandy '44, great WW2 RTS. It's what Sudden Strike would look like today if it didn't go mainstream.

If you like history and tactics, Vikings Expedition is a tactical, turn based RPG.. fun game, very interesting mechanics but a bit lacking in content. However, commanding your 6 guys in battle is very fun.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is the newest Commandos type game in which you command your samurai and ninjas in real time, using stealth, mischief or brutality to progress.


And a final game / thing. I know you said no FPS, but since you mentioned your job was "a FPS".. Squad is a really good game, it's a light mil sim with amazing combat but none of the 1-2 hours infrastructure waiting time of ARMA. If you don't like shooters because they are silly in terms of realism, you could give this game a look.


Do check the games yourself though, the best decision is that you make yourself.

[mercurydawn]

I like Stellaris till I saw it was using tactics straight out of the Battle of Lepanto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaLBUtvWXQM&app=desktop

Looks like blob on blobby mass. Whoever has the largest mass of blobby blob blob ships win.

[hiGh]

Yes, there is no commanding the space battle, this game only has strategy in it, no tactics. The strategy is in resource management, planet specializations, focusing on certain techs or culture aspects etc.

What makes you succesful in space battles is how you design your ships, how good the tech and combination of equipment on your ships is, how well each design in your fleet complements the rest of the fleet etc. That number above the fleet is not dictated by size alone, but also by how good each ship regarding it's weapons and all things you can equip on it.

You can literally turn your biological species into cyborgs / AI by end game, if you choose those tech and political paths.

You can develop genetics and change traits of your species etc.

If you wanted to command the battle themselves then yes, you won't like it.



PS: Homeworld 1 & 2 Remastered. Epic space RTS, in which you actually commamd the fights.

Then there is Homeworld Desserts of Kharak, another great RTS.