The Strategy Game Thread (All Platforms)

[judge death]

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

[Rong]

Forgot about advance wars das a good one.

[Vertigo]

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.

[Nightlord]

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.

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.

[Vertigo]

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.

[RagingDragon]

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

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.

[Vertigo]

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.

[RagingDragon]

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.

[Vertigo]

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.

[RagingDragon]

^  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. 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.

[Nightlord]

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. 

[Blacklabel]

Fired up Terror from the Deep...

time to do a campaign on veteran mode O.O

[Vertigo]

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...

^  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. 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.

[RagingDragon]

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.

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*

[Blacklabel]

lol aint got the time for long ass war journals. 

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

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

f**k these guys btw...