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So I figured since strategy games don't seem too popular on here, and we don't already have a thread like this, I'd start one. The amount of strategy game neglect on this forum is a hell-no :P.

I'm a strategy game nut and I know I'm not alone. They're some of the first games I ever played on the pc and are partially responsible for why I love pc gaming so much.

So please, all you strategy fans, let's discuss new and old, your favorites and not-so-favorites, and keep this thread going for a long time to come. All formats are welcome: RTS, Turn-based, 4x, economy sims, city-builders, grand strategy, wargames, you name it, let's discuss!

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I'll start. I'm regularly playing Medieval: Total War 2, Third Age Mod, Star Wars: Empire at War, and just bought the Cossacks collection.

Medieval 2 is such a great game, a true classic, and I'm very happy sticking with it since from what I've seen it remains about the best the series has to offer overall. Third Age is epic but could use some work; still worth it for those tactical battles though.

I really enjoy SW: Empire at War, but I find myself really wanting more out of the game. I can deal with the funky ground combat, but the building and planet map seem just too basic for what a Star Wars strategy game should be.

I'm about to reinstall Alpha Centauri since that's been one of my favorite games for years now and I often get a wicked itch to replay it. The best of the Civ series, I think, but I haven't played the new ones proper so there's that. I have more games on the roster, but I'll stop there for now.

I like playing them, but damn am I bad at them.

I really dug Age Of Empires 2 (and its Star Wars equivalent).  I dug Empire At War, but suck at it something fierce, so only dig it until I get the shit kicked out of me by the Empire...

Could never get into Medievel - Total War.

The original StarCraft is the only RTS I truly loved.  None of the rest I could enjoy as much as the first one.  When I was in highschool I was taking a bunch of computer networking/cisco classes and PC repair classes at our tradeschool and we used to finish our assignments early, disconnect the computers from the internet connect the Ethernet cables to our computers instead and have LAN battles against each other in SC.  It was amaze.  Some of the battles were pretty epic though.  We played each other so much we knew each others moves and it would take some crazy stroke of luck to change the fortunes of our battles.  I remember having a ghost calling in a nuke on one of my buddies bases, his cloak ran out whilst a herd of hydraulisk were coming toward him.  He took damage from the nearest hydraulisk but the nuke wiped them all out and most of the dudes primary defenses as well (he was a protoss player but the his teammate let him use hydraulisk while he built defenses and siege weapons).  I started calling in another nuke when the actual protoss player sent a motherf**king probe out that killed my ghost with one hit.  Eventually they rebuilt their siege units and a mass of protoss and zerg killed me.  Crazy stuff like that.  You haven't lived until you've repelled or pulled off a zergling rush in the first minutes of play. 


Then the principle would find us and make us stop. 

I really liked age of mythology.  That's all I got.

I thought I'd like that even more AoE2.  Found it a bit meh, sadly.

A great first page!

Empire at War is fun, but yes, the Empire just hands you your ass, both in space and on land. :-\ Star Destroyers are truly awesome.

I played the hell out of Starcraft and play Starcraft 2 actively, but those games are so mechanically intensive that it's hard to play them without giving 100%. Not like a relaxing strategy game where you can sit back and plan and make your moves. Oh hell no, your APM (actions per minute) are being measured against your opponent, and the faster you do things, the higher your chance of winning.

That's why the Koreans are so bloody good at it, lol. Their reflexes and mechanical skills are just incredible. Of course it comes from lots of practice and very hard work, but I blame their wonderful diets too. Murica has too much sugar and Mountain Dew, hard to keep that flawless consistency at a rapid pace.

Age of Mythology I also played for years. Love that game very much; it's truly wonderful. :)

Etimos. Prostagma?

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fjtw8h.gif&hash=5e970dbe27bdaf274d5b200770edae269e069549)

The only way I know how to win in Empire at War is to create the Death Star and destroy all the planets.  :laugh:

Ah, so if I get stuck into the kim chi and bul gogi, I'll be better on Empire At War?

It is kim chi secret. Ancient oriental wisdom.

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.themetapicture.com%2Fmedia%2Ffunny-gif-chinese-man-Star-Trek.gif&hash=33ab88a8fabeddef89690f2434d57b1748c570e0)

Their actually was an old Playstation Game called Unholy War that was pretty simple back in the day for original Playstation.  It was half RTS and half third person shooter.  It was all about utilizing the map to get the best matchup with your opponent back in the day when you did meet in the third person battles.

It wasn't really intensive at all, but I did play it quite a bit way back when.

Ill play you c**ts at Empire at war...


Played Medieval total war 2

Loved Rome total war, haven't played the new one.

Fav is Sins of a Solar Empire.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0aMApQCfU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0aMApQCfU#ws)

Quote from: Rong on Apr 30, 2014, 01:35:38 PM
Ill play you c**ts at Empire at war...


Played Medieval total war 2

Loved Rome total war, haven't played the new one.

Fav is Sins of a Solar Empire.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0aMApQCfU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0aMApQCfU#ws)

Ah, Rong, that's sweet! I never imagined you the type lol, but Sins is supposed to be one of the best.

I have Galactic Civilizations 2, but I haven't been able to get into it yet. Love 4x space games, just trying to pick a great one to settle on since they usually have a bit of a learning curve.

Was trying to decide between Sins, GalCiv, or Masters of Orion 2. Different qualities to all of them.

plz dragon plz call me Lord Baeylish.

OG sins is an awesomely balanced game.

also love Civ played them all was obsessed with Civ 2 as a kid, civ 5 was pretty decent aswell looking forward to this one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWqE55s24 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWqE55s24#ws)

Quote from: Rong on Apr 30, 2014, 09:42:26 PM
plz dragon plz call me Lord Baeylish.

OG sins is an awesomely balanced game.

also love Civ played them all was obsessed with Civ 2 as a kid, civ 5 was pretty decent aswell looking forward to this one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWqE55s24 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWqE55s24#ws)

Littlefinger. ;)

Man that looks interesting, just around the corner too.

Did you ever play Alpha Centauri? Drop what you're doing and start playing it now if you never have. It's the best Civ game ever made. 8)

http://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri (http://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri)

yep played it, Beyond earth is apparently the spiritual successor to that game.

Another game i play when i get the opportunity is FTL .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc#ws)

Aw man, LOVE FTL! Just came out with their free expansion too, supposed to add a lot more ships and such.

A super fun sci-fi Roguelike. One-of-a-kind.

Quote from: RagingDragon on Apr 30, 2014, 10:15:11 PM
Aw man, LOVE FTL! Just came out with their free expansion too, supposed to add a lot more ships and such.

A super fun sci-fi Roguelike. One-of-a-kind.

DAMN STRAIGHT


Got it on my ipad so i take that f**ker everywhere much to my wife's distain, yeah the advanced version is bossssssss as fuaarrrrrkkk!!!

worst part is i can throw the ipad when i get owned the ai is motherf**ker, and the randomisation in that game too hard to predict. nearly unlocked all the ships on medium, haven't even tried hard!!

Hayell naw, only been able to get to Sector 8 on easy mode lol. Random is too random, but sometimes you get the hook-up!

Some ships you have to fight, you can't even get through their shields long enough to do damage.

What are your favorite weapon set ups? I like the burst lasers, and usually try and time the missiles to knock out shields and weapons with a missile before laser volleys.

Just recently started getting into the drone modules as well. The boarding drone is fun as f**k lol. Nuke their life support then send the boarding drone terminator to wreak havoc. That's a good time. :laugh:

Quote from: RagingDragon on Apr 30, 2014, 11:58:39 PM
Hayell naw, only been able to get to Sector 8 on easy mode lol. Random is too random, but sometimes you get the hook-up!

Some ships you have to fight, you can't even get through their shields long enough to do damage.

What are your favorite weapon set ups? I like the burst lasers, and usually try and time the missiles to knock out shields and weapons with a missile before laser volleys.

Just recently started getting into the drone modules as well. The boarding drone is fun as f**k lol. Nuke their life support then send the boarding drone terminator to wreak havoc. That's a good time. :laugh:

Ion cannon, especially the chain ion cannon disable systems starting with shields ( works particularly well on ships with the shield drone) then take out weapons compartment, use them in unison with with attack drones (preferably full 2 attack version 2 drones and one version one ) takes out a sector 8 rebel ship in about 30 seconds f**kers don't know what hits them

The only strategy game I ever really played was Halo Wars, which I love, but it is obviously very simplified in comparison to most "real" RTSs.

I'd love to try some more complex strategy games when I finally get the time. It's something that has always interested me that I just never got around to doing.

Any recommendations? Starcraft is definitely on my list, but I'd love to give something with a bit of a historic and/or fantasy style a go as well.

I liked Battle For Middle Earth, but it was restrictive in terms of where you could build stuff and lacked a mode where you could begin as a particular faction and then take over every other country in Middle Earth.

Starcraft is a very fun mechanics-heavy Real Time Strategy. The universe is basically a clever rip-off/combo of many beloved sci-fi franchises, and the tech trees and gameplay aren't very hard to learn, just hard to master.

The competitive scene is also thriving, and the custom maps are incredible though they kind of struggle along compared to how dominant they were with Brood War. Some of the Arcade (custom) maps made by regular folks are my all-time favorites. It's a nice break if you get tired of the constant multiplayer ladder play.

Starcraft 2's campaign is also excellent, though the biggest gripe a lot of people have is that it has a lot of units and tech that isn't in the multiplayer. In spite of this, the multi has plenty of things to help you learn how to play at a solid, competitive level, and the league system is fairly solid.

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For historical, you can't go wrong with Medieval 2. In my and many others opinions, it's the absolute best of the Total War series. New enough for decent graphics and old enough not to suffer from the dumbing-down and stripping of some of the newer entries in the series (cough Rome 2 cough.)

Strategy games have a long and colorful history, so if you're willing to play older games, there's an entire library of excellent titles, real-time and turn-based. A lot of the better fantasy games are older, like Warcraft 2, Age of Wonders, Myth: The Fallen Lords, etc...

The Civilization games are, of course, legendary themselves, but they have a bigger scope and lack real-time tactical combat.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I'm a bit down on my luck with computers at the moment (laptop is basically unusable), but I plan on building a PC this summer. Doing it primarily for video stuff, but it wouldn't hurt to grab a few games :)

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 01, 2014, 03:13:40 AM

For historical, you can't go wrong with Medieval 2. In my and many others opinions, it's the absolute best of the Total War series. New enough for decent graphics and old enough not to suffer from the dumbing-down and stripping of some of the newer entries in the series (cough Rome 2 cough.)

This i played rome 2 on a mates super spec'd pc, i didn't like what they did to it, apparently shogun 2 was pretty good, and Empire is a buggy mess.

I like the 4x games due to them being like a turn based but having a real time element...

RTS especially ones like starcraft tend to turn into a button clicking contest, and the older i get the slower i get at button clicking. have to rely on strings and macros to mask my button clicking slowness, turn based is more about strategy in my eyes thats what makes the civ games so good.

I still have Rome Total War and it's expansion pack on my Steam account and I play it every once in a while.

Quote from: Cal427eb on May 01, 2014, 03:50:44 AM
I still have Rome Total War and it's expansion pack on my Steam account and I play it every once in a while.

Original Rome was money. Still one of the best.

I've read and watched so many horror stories about Rome 2, I can't believe people even play it. The campaign map is supposed to be pretty streamlined, and the graphics are decent, but the AI is f**king horrible, they lack a lot of the best systems like heirs, family members, seasons, and any real diplomacy, and a lot of the game simply didn't improve from older titles or removed features for whatever reason.

Tactical combat also doesn't have things like guard mode and the formations break down into blobs of units instead of formations. Killmoves are wacked out, sieges are still broken, etc etc... Does not sound good.

I heard the shit started rolling down the hill after Empire, which pissed off a lot of people.

I remember DUNE 2000 when I was a kid/early teen. I served House Atreides well by leading vast armies and defeating the Harkonnen and the Ordos for control of Arrakis.

I've played other game's like EndWar and RUSE.

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on May 01, 2014, 02:50:11 AM

Any recommendations?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77W4dhSYvoo#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77W4dhSYvoo#ws)

Empire at War went on sale today.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32470/ (http://store.steampowered.com/app/32470/)

Quote from: Crazy Rich on May 01, 2014, 10:38:04 AM
I remember DUNE 2000 when I was a kid/early teen. I served House Atreides well by leading vast armies and defeating the Harkonnen and the Ordos for control of Arrakis.

I've played other game's like EndWar and RUSE.

Dune 2000 is truly the oldest of the old school, Rich. Set up the format for many RTS's to come, including Command and Conquer. Long live the fighters of Paul Maud' Dib!

And Company of Heroes looks incredible. Another game I missed playing on the free weekend recently. FML.

You missed nothing mate. CoH 2 sucks donkey ass!

Quote from: WinterActual on May 01, 2014, 06:23:53 PM
You missed nothing mate. CoH 2 sucks donkey ass!

:laugh: Well that's a relief. I've watched some Youtube vids of it. Please give us your thoughts on it, I'm very curious.

And on top of everything it runs like shit no matter how powerful your PC is. Just stick to CoH 1 with either Blitzkrieg or Eastern Front.

Quote from: WinterActual on May 01, 2014, 06:32:09 PM
And on top of everything it runs like shit no matter how powerful your PC is. Just stick to CoH 1 with either Blitzkrieg or Eastern Front.

Well no wonder my copy never even left the loading screen, and only ever once saw one mission.

QWOP is a pretty nifty one.

Dat dune 2000 da memories on that one.

I remember networking up pc's a kid to play multi on the first c&c and playing against my younger brother to early morning hours lol good times, best c&c game was generals lol had a lot of fun with that one.

Played alot of Total Annihilation and C&C Tiberian sun back in 2002.Played a bit of Supreme Commander and the sequel.I'll Probs buy Planetary Annihilation down the road.

Last RTS I played was Starcraft HOTS.

Quote from: Aspie on May 01, 2014, 06:57:39 PM
QWOP is a pretty nifty one.

Urban Dictionary: QWOP(pronounced KWOP) is a south African olympian runner whos low IQ technically qualifies him as mentally retarded.

Aspie being Aspie :laugh:

C&C Generals was good fun. Dat unit spam lol, 80 attack helicopters occupying the same airspace ftw. I loved how Rangers could fast rope and fortify buildings. Lots of nifty little mechanics. But when it comes to C&C, I'm a Tiberian Sun whore. ;D

Quote from: Effectz on May 01, 2014, 07:11:30 PM
Played alot of Total Annihilation and C&C Tiberian sun back in 2002.Played a bit of Supreme Commander and the sequel.I'll Probs buy Planetary Annihilation down the road.

I LOVE these games, and grew up with Total Annihilation. It still has one of the greatest soundtracks of any game ever made. I've only watched youtube vids of SupCom. The game intimidates my little PC, even today lol. Truly awesome.

Planetary Annihilation looks like fun, even though the cartoonish graphics kind of put me off. Still, the scope of the game and playing something similar to TA have me sold. Once the price drops, I think I'll pick it up myself.

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Okay, is anybody currently playing Empire at War? I remember one of the reasons I continually stop playing it are the horrendously imbalanced units like the TIE Mauler (tank) and Tartan patrol cruiser.

f**king TIE Maulers haul ass, and they'll appear out of nowhere, run over every infantry squad you have before you can react, then self-destruct and blow up everything else. It's f**king cheap beyond belief and frustrates me to hair-pulling level.

The Tartan cruises are in space battles, but they tear apart wave after wave of fighters with ease. It's so obnoxious that you end up spending half the battle searching for Tartans and running your fighters away from them just to keep them alive.

A bit more balance would really help with some of these issues. I'll have to see if they have any mods that fix this stuff.

Anyone else dealing with this madness lol?

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 01, 2014, 07:19:23 PM

Quote from: Aspie on May 01, 2014, 06:57:39 PM
QWOP is a pretty nifty one.

Urban Dictionary: QWOP(pronounced KWOP) is a south African olympian runner whos low IQ technically qualifies him as mentally retarded.

... I was referring to the strategy game lol:

Gimli is in Dune 2000, making House Atreides the greatest choice I could ever make when I didn't even know this yet until... today.  :laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVZkV2LA3yA# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVZkV2LA3yA#)

Besides that I choose Atreides not just for the air superiority but because it is the "noble" house.

John Rhys-Davies! That's sweet, but who the hell is Nari Maneo? Supposed to be Thufir Hawat, and he would be a bomb Thufir lol. Same thing I guess.

RONG. Y U no tell me Sins of a Solar Empire has some excellent Star Wars mods??????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tcwYwM3Rg#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tcwYwM3Rg#ws)

I might just give up Empire at War altogether after seeing this. It looks like everything I wanted from that game and more.

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 01, 2014, 07:19:23 PM

---

Okay, is anybody currently playing Empire at War? I remember one of the reasons I continually stop playing it are the horrendously imbalanced units like the TIE Mauler (tank) and Tartan patrol cruiser.

f**king TIE Maulers haul ass, and they'll appear out of nowhere, run over every infantry squad you have before you can react, then self-destruct and blow up everything else. It's f**king cheap beyond belief and frustrates me to hair-pulling level.

The Tartan cruises are in space battles, but they tear apart wave after wave of fighters with ease. It's so obnoxious that you end up spending half the battle searching for Tartans and running your fighters away from them just to keep them alive.

A bit more balance would really help with some of these issues. I'll have to see if they have any mods that fix this stuff.

Anyone else dealing with this madness lol?

Play Empire.
Failing that abuse the rebels OP units, those rocket artillery trucks are broken beyond belief for ground battles and for space battles I've always found Y-wing spam to destroy pretty much everything.

Quote from: Nightlord on May 01, 2014, 08:13:28 PMPlay Empire.
Failing that abuse the rebels OP units, those rocket artillery trucks are broken beyond belief for ground battles and for space battles I've always found Y-wing spam to destroy pretty much everything.

This is sound advice, though I've been avoiding the Empire just because of movie-fueled Rebellion/underdog love.

Those artillery trucks, yeah I forgot. Nuke anything from halfway across the map!

Btw its rumored that the next month is the release of the full version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE8QgqCiV8Q#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE8QgqCiV8Q#ws)

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 01, 2014, 08:12:05 PM
John Rhys-Davies! That's sweet, but who the hell is Nari Maneo? Supposed to be Thufir Hawat, and he would be a bomb Thufir lol. Same thing I guess.

RONG. Y U no tell me Sins of a Solar Empire has some excellent Star Wars mods??????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tcwYwM3Rg#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tcwYwM3Rg#ws)

I might just give up Empire at War altogether after seeing this. It looks like everything I wanted from that game and more.

I haven't played sins in a few years, i knew they were making this mod, but it does look pretty good, sins itself is an amazing game regardless you should play it brah.

need to put a windows install back on my mac, thinking of building up a sweet hacintosh mac pro clone soon so when i get it going ill play a game against you.

XCOM master race.

(still play the original game from time to time.)

Quote from: Crazy Rich on May 01, 2014, 10:38:04 AM
I remember DUNE 2000 when I was a kid/early teen. I served House Atreides well by leading vast armies and defeating the Harkonnen and the Ordos for control of Arrakis.

I've played other game's like EndWar and RUSE.

I royally sucked at Dune too.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 01, 2014, 11:31:09 PM
XCOM master race.

(still play the original game from time to time.)

I never tried the new one, do have fond memories of the old one dat turnbasedgod.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 01, 2014, 11:31:09 PM
XCOM master race.

(still play the original game from time to time.)

Original XCOM was so fun, a masterpiece.

I haven't been able to get into the new one, but maybe I'll give it another try. The old retro 50's alien paranoia felt strong in the classic game, and the graphics had a certain charm.

Probably just old balls nostalgia cranky bastard talking. :laugh:

Not nostalgia... It still IS a lot of fun and plays really well.

I love that the graphics have a Rob Liefeld 90's comic book vibe to them. All those shoulderpads and silly Street Fighter hair.

X)

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 02, 2014, 12:21:13 AM
Not nostalgia... It still IS a lot of fun and plays really well.

I love that the graphics have a Rob Liefeld 90's comic book vibe to them. All those shoulderpads and silly Street Fighter hair.

X)

Ha hell yeah, I really miss that old look to a lot of 90's games. The 3D gives me the man tears lol.

Do you play the new X-Com regularly? Can you talk about it if so? I redownloaded the demo and want to give it a whirl here soon.

In other news, am playing original Stronghold again because I wanted that castle-sim goodness. The damn thing is wonky and kind of hard, but I'm enjoying it still. Going to get into Crusader after this, as I hear the rest suck ass though I bought the whole collection.

Havent tried the new XCOM but i hear it got very good reviews though.. and a thumbs up from the original xcom's creator.

The next XCOM game i'm gonna run will be Terror from the Deep.. dat lovecraft vibe. :P (Yeah you fight Deep One's in this.)

Played that one years back, didn't like it as much as the og one.

any yall ever play this one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU#)

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 02, 2014, 01:10:06 AM
Havent tried the new XCOM but i hear it got very good reviews though.. and a thumbs up from the original xcom's creator.

The next XCOM game i'm gonna run will be Terror from the Deep.. dat lovecraft vibe. :P (Yeah you fight Deep One's in this.)

My god, not only did you just introduce me to this game that I now desperately need to play...

They have it as well as original X-Com on Steam for $5 smackers. Oh god my game backlog is swelling like my face. :laugh:

Bless you, sir. Please, come in here and post your horrific battle reports!

Quote from: Rong on May 02, 2014, 01:35:49 AM
Played that one years back, didn't like it as much as the og one.

any yall ever play this one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU#)

No, but it looks fun and crazy. Reminds me of Empire Earth with the timeframes it spans.

Quote from: Rong on May 02, 2014, 01:35:49 AM
Played that one years back, didn't like it as much as the og one.

It's a LOT harder... terror missions have two stages... nearly endless :P I recommend the scanners to help find those last few hidden enemies.. :P

Oh and Raging Dragon... the research tree is buggy... you need to do things in a certain order to finish the game.

It's still classic xcom though... just underwater. glub glub.

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 02, 2014, 01:36:42 AM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDwesb_AIU#)

No, but it looks fun and crazy. Reminds me of Empire Earth with the timeframes it spans.
[/quote]
It's very similar to empire earth same dudes i think, i used to play it with mates constantly.


also any you nikka's play age of empires?

Page 1, dude.

shiet k, wasnt sure if i read it cheers

So, and I'm not joking, Stronghold just told me that it was late, and asked me if I was tired. This wasn't even in the game, but in a menu screen after a mission.

Earlier, while playing, the guy said "you've been playing a long time, sire" just right in the middle of a game. It was so weird, but kind of cool.

I miss those little touches in games. The original Dungeon Keeper would read the day of the month on your calendar, and if you played the game on a calendar day that had a full moon, a secret level would appear on the map.

There were also a few levels where if your pc was hooked up to a fax machine, the opposingl keeper would send you a fax.

That game was something else, though. Special shit. Haitian shit. Made from plant shit.

I prefer turn based strategy games mostly, but these are my fave games:
Advance wars
Age of empires 1-2
Heroes of might and magic
Ruse
Empire earth

Forgot about advance wars das a good one.

Anyone play either of the Dawn of Wars? There's something very satisfying about hiding in your little corner, building up a colossal ultra-army and steamrolling over the map with it. There's something even more satisfying about it when they are an army of Space Marines.

Shame they never really adhered to a proper overarching narrative. There are some decent storylines throughout the series, but each is left on a cliffhanger, and rarely picked up in subsequent games.

Loved the mod tools, allowing me to remove build caps in the DoW1 games, and maximise character stats in DoW2, for some campaign steamrollering. Sexy times.
Also played a *shit ton* of Last Stand in DoW2; Retribution is actually my second-most-played game on Steam after Civ 5.

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 02, 2014, 06:28:10 AM
So, and I'm not joking, Stronghold just told me that it was late, and asked me if I was tired. This wasn't even in the game, but in a menu screen after a mission.

Earlier, while playing, the guy said "you've been playing a long time, sire" just right in the middle of a game. It was so weird, but kind of cool.

I miss those little touches in games. The original Dungeon Keeper would read the day of the month on your calendar, and if you played the game on a calendar day that had a full moon, a secret level would appear on the map.

There were also a few levels where if your pc was hooked up to a fax machine, the opposingl keeper would send you a fax.

That game was something else, though. Special shit. Haitian shit. Made from plant shit.

I love that sort of stuff. Dungeon Keeper 2 did it as well, if you played at midnight spells would cost less mana and stuff like that.

Quote from: Vertigo on May 02, 2014, 12:30:50 PM
Anyone play either of the Dawn of Wars? There's something very satisfying about hiding in your little corner, building up a colossal ultra-army and steamrolling over the map with it. There's something even more satisfying about it when they are an army of Space Marines.

Shame they never really adhered to a proper overarching narrative. There are some decent storylines throughout the series, but each is left on a cliffhanger, and rarely picked up in subsequent games.

Loved the mod tools, allowing me to remove build caps in the DoW1 games, and maximise character stats in DoW2, for some campaign steamrollering. Sexy times.
Also played a *shit ton* of Last Stand in DoW2; Retribution is actually my second-most-played game on Steam after Civ 5.

Winter Assault did a fine job with its campaign, no cliffhangers and that surprise enemy at the end is fairly unique for a strategy game to do.

Yeah, "each" was the incorrect word to use there. I loved how variety-filled and action-focused Winter Assault's campaign was, and yes, last mission was pretty damn memorable.

Man I forgot about Advance Wars too. Played the hell out of that game while deployed. Dat Game Boy Advance. ;D

Quote from: Vertigo on May 02, 2014, 12:30:50 PM
Anyone play either of the Dawn of Wars? There's something very satisfying about hiding in your little corner, building up a colossal ultra-army and steamrolling over the map with it. There's something even more satisfying about it when they are an army of Space Marines.

Shame they never really adhered to a proper overarching narrative. There are some decent storylines throughout the series, but each is left on a cliffhanger, and rarely picked up in subsequent games.

Loved the mod tools, allowing me to remove build caps in the DoW1 games, and maximise character stats in DoW2, for some campaign steamrollering. Sexy times.
Also played a *shit ton* of Last Stand in DoW2; Retribution is actually my second-most-played game on Steam after Civ 5.

I've always wanted to play the Dawn of War games. Been a huge fan of Warhammer/40k for years now, starting from my love of tabletop games and mini's, and those games have great reviews and reception.

Good to see them mentioned. I'll have to look them up and see if I can catch them on sale or something.

Dude, you love strategy games, and you love Warhammer 40k, and you've never played any Dawn of War?

They are pretty damn good, but there's a huge difference between the first and second. Obviously the graphics are of different generations, and the first games are looking pretty archaic right now (basically like a top-down, wide-scale version of Unreal Engine 1).
But the ethos is completely different too. DoW1 is more your typical Commander & Conquer RTS, in which base-building, research and steamrollering are the main priorities (though resources are mainly accrued through map control). DoW2 is much smaller-scale and all about the combat - you can't field more than a handful of squads, and the only non-combat building is your near-invincible HQ; campaign is different again and is sort of RPG-ish with equipment loadouts and XP-based level-ups.

In all of them, the campaign is story-based, and in most cases pretty damn good. DoW1's Dark Crusade and Soulstorm get a bit muddied, as their campaigns are non-linear. You can 'paint' your armies using a ton of colour and pattern options, and the unit and army selections are pretty damn broad if you pick up all the expansions. DoW1, particularly, has every major army except Tyranids (which I think there's a mod for) and most squad types for each.

Awesome. Which one do you prefer? Or are they both good in their own ways?

I really like the squad elements I've seen on the vids I've watched. Looks like they nailed the combat pretty well. I'm a fan of more traditional RTS and the tactical RTS with less or no building involved, so I would probably enjoy either one.

I used to play tabletop 40k, had a Space Wolves army and my buddy was Black Templars, but that shit gets expensive and it's hard to find other players in a small town.

That is a difficult question. I haven't played Dawn of War 1 in a long time, but that's largely because I can't figure out how to get my old mod to work, and because I'm an eye candy junkie. Back in the day I probably played it more than I've played any of the 2s, and I'd say I enjoyed it more too (particularly 1 and Winter Assault, plus Dark Crusade's skirmishes). It just feels more Warhammery, with the larger scale and more races/units, and personally I enjoy base defence-type games (which is by no means what DoW was ever intended to be, but the bones are there in 1, which I fleshed out with modding tools).

But, I'm also hugely fond of 2's Last Stand gametype, which is only playable online. You control a single 'hero', along with two other players, and together face down progressively tougher waves of AI enemies in a small-ish map. The trick, aside from map and enemy knowledge, is to pick an equipment loadout that'll get the job done, and work best with your teammates. It's entirely co-op, and you can win the map in the 20th wave (about half an hour's play I think) if you're very good.
They actually made Last Stand purchasable as a stand-alone mini-game, as it's so different to the main platform, but if you buy it you're just getting DoW2 with most of the functionality unavailable.

Tabletop Warhammer in general has gotten insanely expensive in recent years, so yeah, probably better off playing games based on it. It'll save you going blind painting the tiny little dudes, too.

^  :laugh: Lol I'm a wicked miniature painter. Love making the little scenery and things as well. But you're right. It's way too expensive when you can't even find players, and they also have Vassal, which is a free online tabletop GUI with network and spectator system.

As long as you have the books, you can assemble any point armies you like and play against other people over the net. It's got everything, dice rollers, fire cones and templates, etc... You can even spectate. It's a blast and saves you $11,340,630,129.

I'll probably start with DOW 1 and if I like it, pick up 2 down the road. We've been talking about ancient X-COM, Stronghold, and other games with prehistoric graphics so no biggie there. :laugh: Honestly, I usually prefer 2D sprites anyway. They're some of my favorite graphics and I insist they look better than a lot of 3D shit now lol.

That last stand mode sounds great. Almost like a DOTA, though I don't play any MOBA games. :P

Quote from: Vertigo on May 02, 2014, 11:53:18 PM
That is a difficult question. I haven't played Dawn of War 1 in a long time, but that's largely because I can't figure out how to get my old mod to work, and because I'm an eye candy junkie. Back in the day I probably played it more than I've played any of the 2s, and I'd say I enjoyed it more too (particularly 1 and Winter Assault, plus Dark Crusade's skirmishes). It just feels more Warhammery, with the larger scale and more races/units, and personally I enjoy base defence-type games (which is by no means what DoW was ever intended to be, but the bones are there in 1, which I fleshed out with modding tools).

Ever play the survival mod for DoW1?
You could play it solo or co-op and you had a base that you had to defend from increasingly bigger waves of AI. It was amazing as IG vs tyranids. 

Fired up Terror from the Deep...

time to do a campaign on veteran mode O.O

Quote from: Nightlord on May 03, 2014, 12:20:40 AM
Ever play the survival mod for DoW1?
You could play it solo or co-op and you had a base that you had to defend from increasingly bigger waves of AI. It was amazing as IG vs tyranids.

I did indeed, I think it was all I was playing before DoW2 came out. I also remember the misery of endless game-breaking SCAR errors as I tried to make my mod work with it...

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 03, 2014, 12:10:35 AM
^  :laugh: Lol I'm a wicked miniature painter. Love making the little scenery and things as well. But you're right. It's way too expensive when you can't even find players, and they also have Vassal, which is a free online tabletop GUI with network and spectator system.
...
I'll probably start with DOW 1 and if I like it, pick up 2 down the road. We've been talking about ancient X-COM, Stronghold, and other games with prehistoric graphics so no biggie there. :laugh: Honestly, I usually prefer 2D sprites anyway. They're some of my favorite graphics and I insist they look better than a lot of 3D shit now lol.

Yeah, I used to love the painting and modelling too, but I'm pretty sure it was murdering my eyes. Still have a handful of Space Marines, Tyranids and Lizardmen lurking around somewhere gathering dust.
I've always really loved the fiction behind both Warhammer fantasy and 40k, but it's kept feeling like they've been continually dumbing it down and making unnecessary and uncohesive additions since around the early 2000s. Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett is a magnificent piece of work if you're into 40k though; does more to flesh out the universe than anything since Rogue Trader.

I love sprite graphics too, being a big fan of the first two Age of Empires in particular, but DoW1's fully 3D. It was pretty advanced and great-looking for its day.

Yeah Dawn of War's 3D actually looked really good to me. They managed to keep the gritty nature of it intact and not have things look too goofy.

I'm a big Starcraft fan, and I struggled with SC2's graphics for a long time. I still think they look like McDonald's cartoon ass, most days, but the terrain and the physics and animations are pretty awesome, so I've begrudgingly gotten used to them I guess.

I just started reading Horus Heresy by Dan Abnett. I like media tie-in novels and EU, but sometimes the writing is just too plain for me. I'm a writer (well trying to be) so I'm extra cycnical lol. My favorite 40k EU I've read yet are the Space Wolf novels by William King. His prose is excellent and effortless and I really enjoyed those novels. Abnett isn't bad so far, but the verdict is still out for me.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 03, 2014, 12:25:45 AM
Fired up Terror from the Deep...

time to do a campaign on veteran mode O.O

OH MAN! Take some screenshots of your most intense moments and monologue it with war journals! Man I'm about to impulse buy it today lol. Can't stop spending money on cheap old-school strategy games.. *scratches neck*

lol aint got the time for long ass war journals.  ;D

I'm about 3 hours into it, spread out across the weekend... and i'm already on April 1st 2040. :P
Playing on genius mode. Pretty tough! Tons of dead soldiers... :P

Couple of bases: one near israel, one near japan. So far so good...

f**k these guys btw...  :laugh:
(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fufopedia.csignal.org%2Fusopedia%2F080.png&hash=2008e6eb026a6e8f8b681fa7c5cd1cd801ccb158)

Forgot about Empire Earth.  I dug it until the Second World War, when I recall getting a right arsekicking.  Constantly.

yeah i didnt like when empire earth started getting too futuristic, thats why dawn of the modern age is good only goes to ww2.

I remember putting in hours into EE multi with mates, i miss the all nighters doing that on a LAN.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 05, 2014, 03:32:52 AM
lol aint got the time for long ass war journals.  ;D

I'm about 3 hours into it, spread out across the weekend... and i'm already on April 1st 2040. :P
Playing on genius mode. Pretty tough! Tons of dead soldiers... :P

Couple of bases: one near israel, one near japan. So far so good...

f**k these guys btw...  :laugh:
(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fufopedia.csignal.org%2Fusopedia%2F080.png&hash=2008e6eb026a6e8f8b681fa7c5cd1cd801ccb158)

I love the circumstantial badasses that you wind up having in the X-Com games. Spiffy alien, too; damn I'm excited to play that. Do you make surface bases or are the bases underwater? I've really been enjoying some classic strategies lately. Crushed my way through the original Stronghold on very hard until the dreaded mission 15, and spent more than a few hours on Dungeon Keeper. Takes me back. Evil is good.

Modern strategy games could really use some of the creativity and attention to detail found in abundance in some of these older games.

Stronghold is awesome game. Last year I tried to beat it again for the good old times but I couldn't finish one mission where they give me partially built wooden fort and I have to finish it while being attacked and then to repel the attack. I tried for weeks and I never made it so I gave up lol. I gotta try again in the near future for sure.

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 05, 2014, 07:35:46 AM
Do you make surface bases or are the bases underwater?

Bases are strictly underwater. Some weapons work only underwater, so you gotta be careful when selecting equipment for each mission. Terror site missions take place on the surface and can be on cities like on the original XCOM, but also on island resorts and cruise ships! :P Yeah, you get to save babes in bikinis from the evil Gillmen!

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fufopedia.csignal.org%2Fusopedia%2F074.png&hash=0f1775e3931641994e9488dba3881defcb29817b)

This is a good bible. ;)
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TFTD (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TFTD)

Back in High School I loved the original XCOM, Warcraft 1\2 and StarCraft. In 2006 I got addicted to Galactic Civilisations 2 which was similar to Masters of Orion. Loved building my own ships and naming them stuff like 'Defiant Class'. Plus naming all the planets after ones in Star Wars or Star Trek or cities in Australia.

Hearts of Iron 2 looks really good too and I want to buy that. See if I can take the Soviet Union as the Germans or play as the British Empire and make sure they stay a major power by the end of WW2 instead of becoming a third rate power like they did. Only problem is that I haven't had time to play my PS3 games and Xbox games let alone time to play the PC games I want to play, gonna have to set aside some time.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 05, 2014, 11:56:29 AM

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 05, 2014, 07:35:46 AM
Do you make surface bases or are the bases underwater?

Bases are strictly underwater. Some weapons work only underwater, so you gotta be careful when selecting equipment for each mission. Terror site missions take place on the surface and can be on cities like on the original XCOM, but also on island resorts and cruise ships! :P Yeah, you get to save babes in bikinis from the evil Gillmen!

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fufopedia.csignal.org%2Fusopedia%2F074.png&hash=0f1775e3931641994e9488dba3881defcb29817b)

This is a good bible. ;)
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TFTD (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TFTD)

Delicious. Do you have the Steam versions? Most of their games are good to go on purchase, but I'm just curious as sometimes older games can be a little buggy from them. Some don't seeem quite as stable as Good Old Games (www.gog.com (http://www.gog.com)), a site that I couldn't recommend more.

I hear you @ HappyAlien, finding time can be a bitch, especially with grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron. They take some time to learn, but the depth they offer is second to none. I've really been wanting to finally pick up Crusader Kings 2 and get into that, but the time issue is the same for me.

Been getting distracted by too many games already lol, and lately I've been working on finishing older games I started and never got around to completing.

Edit - Dungeon Keeper just wished Peter Molyneux a happy birthday. :laugh: If you own it, fire it up to see the message. Crazy.

Double post but Iduncare :P

God, X-Com: UFO Defense, I forgot how bloody hard you really are. Even on beginner :-\ my first mission to a crash site went great, no one killed. The second mission, lost 3 soldiers when an alien popped out of the UFO and blasted my heavy gunner before he or the other guy covering had a chance to react.

Then a few days later I get my first terror mission in Montreal. Holy sheep shit. I engage a few of the big two-legged alien monsters from the ramp of my ship, then on turn 4, some sort of fire rocket comes flying out of a neighborhood house and 5 of my soldiers are immediately down, knocked unconscious (including the squad leader.)

Needless to say, that mission didn't end well.

Being an X-Com noob, I take it reaction time and time units remaining play a big factor in whether or not you get a shot off on the Aliens turn?

There's a few buttons near the soldiers Rank that activate the type of "reaction shot" you want your soldiers to do on the aliens turn. :P Snap shot, etc..

And learn to use cover and spread your troops to avoid losing too many soldiers when they throw grenades or rockets at you. :P Me, i stick to the tried and true good old "send a couple of tanks in first, with the soldiers to protect the rear" BLITZKRIEG strategy.

Had to abandon my first Base attack on Terror from the Deep... soldiers kept getting mind controlled... :P only managed to lose one of mine while killing 7 of theirs... still a positive ranking despite an aborted mission. :P I have to research their mind control units and get access to that power soon.. hummm..

Oh Raging Dragon... XCOM in general is based on this tv show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM#)  :laugh:

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 07, 2014, 02:11:23 AM
Oh Raging Dragon... XCOM in general is based on this tv show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM#)  :laugh:

:D Ho boy that was groovy.

Looks like a live-action cartoon.

Godspeed with your defense of the deep! I did well on a recent terror mission, but haven't built any alien containment facilities yet, so no prisoners to study. :( It's crazy awesome how tense the turn-based combat manages to get.

hehe did you spot all the XCOM elements in that opening?

Secret Organization fighting against alien invaders... they send interceptors after the UFO's.... then when the UFO's crash or land they send in tanks and soldiers to kill the aliens... There's even alien autopsy's etc... :)

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 07, 2014, 03:13:12 AM
hehe did you spot all the XCOM elements in that opening?

Secret Organization fighting against alien invaders... they send interceptors after the UFO's.... then when the UFO's crash or land they send in tanks and soldiers to kill the aliens... There's even alien autopsy's etc... :)

It was uncanny.

All we need is SID in the games, and that moonbase with purple hair guuuuuuuurl!

Finally destroyed an alien colony. Hurrah! :P One down, one to go... but i have to "conquer" the next one... i'll need the tons of resources they have to sell, etc. :P

How's that war going, RD?  :laugh:

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 08, 2014, 03:19:41 AM
Finally destroyed an alien colony. Hurrah! :P One down, one to go... but i have to "conquer" the next one... i'll need the tons of resources they have to sell, etc. :P

How's that war going, RD?  :laugh:

Dude. I'm playing on beginner and I've been replacing around 4 soldiers each mission. The terror sites are bloody hard!

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to strategy and command, so losing soldiers bugs me, but after the first few re-loads, I realized that it's just gonna happen lol. I'm getting used to it now, but I still try and keep them alive of course. Working on getting my second base up and running. Built my first in Alaska (don't know why lol,) and my second one is in central Africa, for the best coverage so far.

Such a fun game. Do you use any mods to change the initial base layout or anything? Was checking this out earlier:
http://openxcom.org/ (http://openxcom.org/)

Supposed to be a great open-source version of the game with many bug fixes and improved AI. Don't know how it works with the steam version, though.

Havent tried playing with mods... :P

Try playing on genius level :P Then come back here and WEEP! Soldiers die like flies... best not to get too attached. :P

    I loved the Command & Conquer series .... especially Red Alert !  ;D Einstein messing with a time machine and rocket infantry vs. dogs ... I had a lot of fun with that game ... Also I got recently Warcraft III and got the  hang of it .

Quote from: Randomizer on May 10, 2014, 11:43:59 AM
    I loved the Command & Conquer series .... especially Red Alert !  ;D Einstein messing with a time machine and rocket infantry vs. dogs ... I had a lot of fun with that game ... Also I got recently Warcraft III and got the  hang of it .

I enjoyed some C&C as well.

Warcraft 3 was the beginning of the end for Blizzard, as far as graphics were concerned. At first I thought their 3D art style was kind of charming in a way, and then, it just dominated everything they made and became some requirement for being a Blizzard game. Now it makes me vomit on myself. :laugh:

But, Warcraft 3 still has great gameplay and production. I loved playing as the Undead with their body carts and plagues. Didn't like the humans stupid steam tanks and rifles and crap, but oh well. Blizzard always nails it where gameplay and presentation are concerned, whether or not you like their "style" lol.

I grew up on Warcraft and Warcraft 2, though, so I missed a lot of the more traditional fantasy and rts elements in WC3. I wanted bigger and better along with the heroes, but the scale got smaller due to their inclusion and the rpg-lite system.

C&C 3 Tiberium Wars was the last good C&C that was made,was starting to get interesting with the Scrin arriving.

Welp.. THIS happened in my Terror from the Deep playthrough. (genius difficulty). :P

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1293.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb584%2Fmetalgeartx55%2Ffunds_zpsda7a5274.jpg&hash=cb690f04db61502763b9aa2752072cf66ae95981)

USA made a pact with the "aliunz" and rescinded their XCOM funds... lost a cool "mili" per month.
BUT THE WAR RAGES ON.  ;D

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 12, 2014, 03:37:41 AM
Welp.. THIS happened in my Terror from the Deep playthrough. (genius difficulty). :P

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1293.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb584%2Fmetalgeartx55%2Ffunds_zpsda7a5274.jpg&hash=cb690f04db61502763b9aa2752072cf66ae95981)

USA made a pact with the "aliunz" and rescinded their XCOM funds... lost a cool "mili" per month.
BUT THE WAR RAGES ON.  ;D

Aww boned! Those f**king American pricks! :laugh:

Does launching patrols with your interceptors over their countries actually do anything? I don't know if I care either way because I roleplay a bit like a true nerd, lol, but I've been doing that when countries get pissy just to see.

Don't know if it does anything positive, and might just be spending jet fuel and making my expenses rise. :laugh:

i'm actually fine with losing USA support... I get most of my funds from selling alien submarine parts and weapons from downed USO's and raiding alien colonies... I play like a pirate. :laugh:

Launching patrols with interceptor's can do a few things actually: a) Patrols out of the range of your radars can pick up nearby UFO's that wouldnt normally show up on screen. (landed or on air.) b) Sometimes, if you send a patrol to an area loaded with UFO activity they can find an alien base. :P

It can be useful! You just gotta know where to look. :P If you suspect there's a base in a certain area.. send a couple of interceptors to snoop around.

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 12, 2014, 04:05:38 AM
i'm actually fine with losing USA support... I get most of my funds from selling spaceship parts and weapons from downed UFO's and raiding alien colonies... I play like a pirate. :laugh:

Launching patrols with interceptor's can do a few things actually: a) Patrols out of the range of your radars can pick up nearby UFO's that wouldnt normally show up on screen. b) Sometimes, if you send a patrol to an area loaded with UFO activity they can find an alien base. :P

Aw man, so cool! These games have so much in them for their time; truly classics. I knew you can find bases, but I've yet to have one of my bases be attacked, or finish a terror mission without losing at least 2-4 soldiers lol.

Can't even imagine the death that would occur if I found and tried to raid an alien base. There would be some new recruits, for sure.

Invest in TANKS. Send them ahead to do your bidding. Let your soldiers be snipers from a safe position. And take it easy.  ;D Copious amounts of grenades are also handy.

Have you met the "mind control" Ethereal aliens, yet?

GET READY.  :D

Oh and i recommend investigating laser weapons for when the Sectopods show up... it's their achilles heel. :P

I've researched Laser Weapons, but once you have the tech, then you have to pick each individual weapon and their magazines to research lol. I really like it, but there are so many choices and when you're new, you have no clue what to pick. I got seduced by the plasma rifles and started researching those.

I'm just getting the hang of grenades, smoke and regular, and using the heavy cannon and rocket launcher. Grenades are super cheap and very effective, but just one quesion: do you have to prime them?

I had one moment where I was figuring out how to equip and throw them when my sergeant threw his rifle at the f**king Alien instead of throwing the grenade. :laugh:

Im a big Might & Magic fan. Got all the HoMM games and the M&M Rpgs. Just a rich world.

I love me some rts thougj. Dawn Of War, AOE, Warcraft, SW:Empire at war,  Conquest frontier wars..etc

Quote from: RagingDragon on May 12, 2014, 05:20:54 AM
but just one quesion: do you have to prime them?

Yup. :laugh: And when you do prime them, there a few numbers to pick from.. that's the number of "alien turns" you'll have to wait before they explode. :P choosing 0, makes them explode during the next alien's turn. (Nothing happens if you keep a primed grenade in hand though, so relax. BUT! If your soldier dies with a primed grenade, it'll go off on the next alien turns (depending on how many you chose when you primed the 'nade.)

I had no idea i knew so much about XCOM. X)  :laugh:

Heavy plasma rifle is the best thing to research (and use). So powerful and cool looking...
i mean.. LOOK AT THAT SHIT.

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fufopaedia.org%2Fimages%2Fa%2Fa2%2FBIGOBS30.GIF&hash=198e7ca0616e37022cecd0b8d140c70aea2d55d2)

That's gotta be a Rob Liefeld inspired weapon design.  :laugh:

Quote from: Blacklabel on May 12, 2014, 01:45:50 PM
Yup. :laugh: And when you do prime them, there a few numbers to pick from.. that's the number of "alien turns" you'll have to wait before they explode. :P choosing 0, makes them explode during the next alien's turn. (Nothing happens if you keep a primed grenade in hand though, so relax. BUT! If your soldier dies with a primed grenade, it'll go off on the next alien turns (depending on how many you chose when you primed the 'nade.)

I had no idea i knew so much about XCOM. X)  :laugh:

Heavy plasma rifle is the best thing to research (and use). So powerful and cool looking...
i mean.. LOOK AT THAT SHIT.

http://ufopaedia.org/images/a/a2/BIGOBS30.GIF

That's gotta be a Rob Liefeld inspired weapon design.  :laugh:

LOL, props for that old-school space marine weapon love. Now a lot of the shit just looks like Halo :( I miss those Liefeld/Spawn giant torso-sized space rifles.

You are a great XCOM resource mang! Figuring out all the tactics and tricks is a big part in the difficulty. Finally got one of my dudes to successfully use the rocket launcher, but on the same mission I realized I'd forgotten to equip my team with more magazines and have them actually reload. Half of them ran out of ammo halfway through the mission, and no way to rearm at the ship despite it having tons of supplies xD FML.

@ Vepariga I enjoy turn-based strategy as well. I recently got Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and I've been playing through that. It's a lot of fun, and I like the mage system where you have magical areas of influence and different spells for the strategy maps and tactical battles.

Double post because I wanted to do a little topic of the day. Hopefully we'll get some good convo about this. :)

Are you a Star Wars fan? Do you also enjoy strategy games and find the broad, galaxy-spanning theme of Star Wars to fit nicely with the game genre?

What is your dream Star Wars strategy game? In the past, we've gotten a few offerings, from the now-ancient Rebellion, to Force Commander, to the Age of Empires-like Galactic Battlegrounds, and the latest iteration: Empire at War with its expansion Forces of Corruption.

I've been enjoying Empire at War, but it's a bit too shallow and simple overall to really scratch my Star Wars itch. It makes up for this with amazing space battles and a decent galactic map with lots of different campaigns, but I miss a lot of the older things from games like Rebellion.

For example, the politics are basically non-existent in Empire at War. You simply mass units, move them around to control front lines and hyperspace lanes, and conquer everything. When I first played the campaign, I got kind of lost and then had my butt thoroughly kicked because I was trying to play like the real Rebels did in the films.

I thought hit-and-run tactics, spies, hiding, and politics would really be important. Sadly, outside of the campaign levels that take you through a sort of story, the game is very much 'conquer everything, build as much as possible, destroy, repeat.' There's no real subterfuge, little to do outside of basic army and fleet management, and your heroes are kind of limited compared to what they could do in an older game like Rebellion. In that game, you could send them off all over the galaxy to represent the Rebellion and win systems to your cause, through diplomatic or economic means. Each character had different strengths and weaknesses, and it was great.

Do you agree? Disagree? Would you rather be making a grilled cheese sandwich right now? Let's hear your thoughts, hopefully about Star Wars strategy games! ;D

Agreed completely about Empire at War, though the expansion added some subterfuge if you played as the consortium. I enjoyed Empire at war a lot in spite of it being such a shallow game, but that's mainly just because it's got Star Wars in the name.

My dream Star Wars RTS would be to have the ground battles be like CoH or Men of War, the space battles remain like they were in Empire at war although I'd add boarding too.

For the galactic side of things I think Empire at war did the galaxy management well enough, though an option to make it turn based would be good. Add in all kinds of agents and diplomacy options from something like Total War, and add in smaller factions where possible so it's not just a big Empire and Rebel slugfest. Also I'd have every planet have different regions on it, so every planet would be a mini Total War campaign in itself.

Probably takes months just to finish a campaign if a game like this ever got made, but damn I can dream about it. :laugh:

Quote from: Nightlord on May 14, 2014, 06:09:08 PM
Agreed completely about Empire at War, though the expansion added some subterfuge if you played as the consortium. I enjoyed Empire at war a lot in spite of it being such a shallow game, but that's mainly just because it's got Star Wars in the name.

My dream Star Wars RTS would be to have the ground battles be like CoH or Men of War, the space battles remain like they were in Empire at war although I'd add boarding too.

For the galactic side of things I think Empire at war did the galaxy management well enough, though an option to make it turn based would be good. Add in all kinds of agents and diplomacy options from something like Total War, and add in smaller factions where possible so it's not just a big Empire and Rebel slugfest. Also I'd have every planet have different regions on it, so every planet would be a mini Total War campaign in itself.

Probably takes months just to finish a campaign if a game like this ever got made, but damn I can dream about it. :laugh:

Hell yes, excellent. This would be a dream game indeed! Using agents similar to Total War would be a perfect solution, with Bothan spies and things like that. They had smugglers and bounty hunters in EaW, but these played kind of minor roles. No real spies other than sending R2 and C-3PO everywhere.

I think a proper Star Wars game needs these other avenues of swaying planets to your side. The rebellion was moral and decent and offered their own incentives while the Empire operated through fear and power and ultimate control. Plenty of room for lots of interesting characters that you could use in a video game setting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqybvSKz550#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqybvSKz550#ws)

Updating this because Sins of a Solar Empire just had an HD remaster and engine update for FREE on steam.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/482374

10 years after this game releases they have a support team working on it. I want to cry.

Quote from: Gate on May 29, 2017, 04:41:40 PM
Updating this because Sins of a Solar Empire just had an HD remaster and engine update for FREE on steam.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/482374

10 years after this game releases they have a support team working on it. I want to cry.

I really need to actually play this. I've had it since i first got my own pc, 10 years ago XD. Picked up rebellion for the star wars TC, still havnt played it. I just can't click with some strategy unless they have campaigns. Like Starcraft 2 is my jam, wrecking shit as protoss.

Although im a bit pissed they seem to be releasing TW: Warhammer 2 as a new game rather than a standalone exp, like Legacy of the Void, and Heart of the Swarm

https://twitter.com/eurogamer/status/1050529981888106497

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1059566237611634689

https://twitter.com/GameRant/status/1207435472525496320

Quote from: KotakuBack in 2018, we first got word that a group of Lord of the Rings fans were remaking the cult classic Battle for Middle Earth in Unreal Engine 4. If you were expecting that to be the last you heard of the project, sorry, two years later there's now a very comprehensive gameplay update, and it looks so good.

This game deserves a remastered remake! And no, I don't want Empire At War 2, I want this mashup of STAR WARS & Age of Empires ll called SW: Galactic Battlegrounds. Below, a top tier fan-made mod.  8)

https://twitter.com/gematsu/status/1584798513569107970

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https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1626592579038085120

https://twitter.com/Polygon/status/1627996446870978560

https://twitter.com/verge/status/1643946837181714433

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2wDeO3ns4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdYUCbyhNxU

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https://twitter.com/HellraisingG/status/1649197137895227395

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKetfcY0wco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLqTzAa5bCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmHFlh_criM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FxmsnskePM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5YYuzbuFc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNl0hY_h0ws

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXGnAHa7uE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMdof5zUmXY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZxNKZUsOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6HKh0tEUFc

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaY0jV070eU

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzXySqBgcoQ

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X76EWq5nU14

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjw_0296mAk

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ASspMLO30c

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VJ7PzpRFp0

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq5JSolzuhk

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6WlSjUSWng

[close]

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lfZ0-bheMc

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jnmSbqzx_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjVm7r0Si0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5U21z_gjdA

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkouWDigvvY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUn4agE_Zo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sxcREKok4Y
https://twitter.com/GamesRadar/status/1726927713733161394

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGvIApqENvQ

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl4myN8q_KM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkEG55gFqrA

I've had fun playing the Expanding Fronts Mod for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds - Clone Campaign. You can even play as Black Sun! lol 8)🤘
(screnshots from my laptop😅👎)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVz.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVh.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEV4.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVU.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVo.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVG.jpg)

(https://s5.gifyu.com/images/SiEVX.jpg)

https://youtu.be/CE2s1Gq91TU

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When I play Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: The Expanding Fronts after having tasted the devil's lettuce, I don't notice the difference 8) 

(https://i.ibb.co/9HfM2xK/FB-IMG-1702218696917.jpg)

(https://i.ibb.co/bbW1kmp/tumblr-pfzfne-Zsp-N1xz4q4mo1-540.gif)

(https://i.ibb.co/yqPjQQq/FB-IMG-1702218702894.jpg)

(https://i.ibb.co/Gxw3z9d/FB-IMG-1702218692464.jpg)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyACGJbUiRk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422cxF128y0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIIKUpryl2Q

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjWi7LiDy7E

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEdHK8MCNFo

Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds seems like the best RTS I never played.

The Expanding Fronts mode is even better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRd444XFY68

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RQGedrvURw

Starcraft 2 needs some new content, it's been years since anything meaningful came out (Nova Ops might have been the last thing).

Quote from: Wweyland on Feb 09, 2024, 02:00:33 PMStarcraft 2 needs some new content, it's been years since anything meaningful came out (Nova Ops might have been the last thing).

Starceaft² is started to die even as an E-sport. South Koreans began to be more like...

(https://i.ibb.co/yg0dsDW/Picsart-24-02-09-16-58-51-409.jpg)

And they still play Starcraft: Brood War, which definitely won't get any new content.
So maybe, time for a new Starcraft game.

Yeah maybe?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8CklxD4I88

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Not rts...but still cool 8)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyamRHYQXig

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Quote from: Wweyland on Feb 09, 2024, 08:40:30 PMAnd they still play Starcraft: Brood War,

.https://youtu.be/4yUCXYgaZVU

I forgot it was remastered...AOE2 style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOgBVR21pWg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K35YytWNExA

I always enjoyed the "Wooloolooo" quote by the priest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4AtnH93Rrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V24EqTwKpOs

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJSwV3MdiOA

https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic/status/1772801076565012595

@Local Trouble, are you proud of your boy, Randy ?

Anyone try Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance?
It completely went under my radar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PNry7vIs6w
Whoah...I didn't know the Terminator one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Rh1CVxdis

The Terminator one looks good, but I would have preferred they focused on the "old future lore" from the first 2 (or 3) movies. But maybe they merge it all together.

Unsure if people are aware but EA recently added the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection to Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39394/Command__Conquer_The_Ultimate_Collection/

We can finally play all the old classics, including my faves Generals and Zero Hour.

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1781574103561802193

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIPo9KqUTV4

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtrGjcyI4YA