The real time strategy / turn based strategy / grand strategy thread

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2007
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England
I haven't really seen any threads here about strategy games. Most seem to be FPS, sports, racing, RPG threads so I thought I'd start a thread for people who are into strategy games whether that be real time strategy games or turn based strategy games all is welcome.

I'll start it off by saying that I have recently got into playing Hearts of Iron 3 (with all expansion packs) and WOW what a game. I'm still learning how to play it as it is very complicated but I'm really enjoying it so far. The only problem I've got with it is a lack of a printed manual which would really help but alas I bought it on Steam so all I have is a PDF version.

I'd highly recommend the game to any hardcore strategy fans out there. You can play out all your different World War 2 fantasies in it since you can play as any country you want. I'm starting off with Germany since that is meant to be a reasonably easy nation to start with as a newbie.

So what strategy games have you been playing recently?
 
Haven't seen any decent Ww2 ones that really excited me since Close Combat3, which I loved. More recently, I was directed to XCOM, which frankly is bloody brilliant and should be on anyone's shopping list. Particularly so as there's "long war" as a free mod available to extend the interest.
 
I was a huge fan of EU3, but never really got into CK2 or EU4. HoI is definitely on my list to try, but I have absolutely no idea when I'm going to have the time.

I could spend an entire week on EU3 and then abandon the save because it all went pear-shaped.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Haven't seen any decent Ww2 ones that really excited me since Close Combat3, which I loved. More recently, I was directed to XCOM, which frankly is bloody brilliant and should be on anyone's shopping list. Particularly so as there's "long war" as a free mod available to extend the interest.
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For some strange reason I never got into the XCOM games. I think I played the originals when they came out and got put off for some reason (I can't really remember why I just have an unexplainable negative feeling whenever I hear about XCOM games).

Jim99 said:
I could spend an entire week on EU3 and then abandon the save because it all went pear-shaped.
Click to expand...

I got EU3 on a steam sale but haven't got around to playing it yet.

If you do find the time HoI3 is pretty fun. The planning for the game and what objectives you want to achieve for your chosen country is pretty fun in its own right and that's before you've even started playing :).

Having said that HoI4 is due out at some point reasonably soon so it might be worth holding out for that one instead.
 
I tried HOI3 and didn't have the patience to get into it, I love CK2 and EU4. As mentioned HOI4 is due quite soon so I'm going to wait for that and get into it properly.
 
EU4 is my go-to strategy game, it's fantastic. Add in th Veritas et Fortitudo mod and it's unbeatable, so much depth!
 
Ive recently reinstalled the Warcraft 3 Series including the Frozen Throne expansion and these games are just superb.

I wish Blizzard would make another as an off shoot or prelude to a WoW Expansion - they could do one and charge like £19.99 for it or something and follow a cool story line perhaps leading to an unlock in WoW once completed.
 
Xcom: Enemy Unknown is a good game but I did not complete it as it did become a bit repetitive. Still, for the £3 it cost we it was very good value.

My favorite strategy game is (vanilla) Civ 5 but after 200+ hours I fancy a change. Can anyone recommend a similar turn based strategy other than galactic civilisations, EU and CK?
 
Cromulent said:
For some strange reason I never got into the XCOM games. I think I played the originals when they came out and got put off for some reason (I can't really remember why I just have an unexplainable negative feeling whenever I hear about XCOM games).
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Probably because the originals were brutally hard. :D

The normal difficulty on the re-releases is much more casual.
 
I can't seem to get into Hoi3 ( hearts of iron 3) or EU4 ( europa universalis), they look very overwhelming as a beginner.

I recently play a bit of Supreme Commander: Forged alliance, and still play Civilization 4 and 5 occasionally. Sins of a Solar empire is also still great fun. And the classic Command&Conquer games and AgeOfEmpires2.

Played loads of rts ww2 games:
Desert rats vs afrika korps
Codename Panzers
Company of heroes series
Blitzkrieg series

CoH series is the best imho. Or well, I liked it most anyhow.
 
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Supreme Commander:FA is awesome with mods. The best mod I had was to convert the Commander into rpg style level-up with its modules. Using a lot of time and resource, you could build it into a supreme killing machine, or an elite builder which sped-up building times and resource collection per second.
The other was Total Veterancy, that allowed unlimited veterancy level-up for all units. Each level-up increased unit health, speed, power, etc. So if you looked after your level 1 bot, it could become a potential level 4 K-bot killer. Also allows longer play games due to protecting your favourite unit.
These mods were compatible with multiple unit mods such as 4th Dimension.
 
Supreme Commander: FA is awesome. Reminds me of when I played the original Total Annihilation back in the day.

I never tried any mods with it though. I'll have to look into that as I'm sure that would increase the playability of it a lot.
 
British mod has just released for COH2 but looks same as COH1 so I'll probably be skipping it,
The Banner Saga was a good turn based game quite tricky in places.
 
I find playing the Paradox grand strategy games makes you feel kind of proud of yourself when you finally suss them out, especially HOI3 and EU3. Playing them is like revising for an exam, and finally being successful is like passing that exam. Infact, I don't see why I shouldn't cant put A Level Hearts of Iron3 down on my CV. Actually, HOI is more like a degree level subject, maybe PhD. Dr Bubo, sounds alright.


HOI3 : Hearts of Iron 3, world war 2 sim
EU3/4: Europa Universalis 3/4, 1399-16 some odd
CK2: Crusader Kings 2, medieval times
V2: Victoria 2, empire/colonial type shenans
 
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A polite request for you guys. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about when you say EU4, HOI3 and similar. Could you please at least once give us the full title.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Haven't seen any decent Ww2 ones that really excited me since Close Combat3, which I loved. More recently, I was directed to XCOM, which frankly is bloody brilliant and should be on anyone's shopping list. Particularly so as there's "long war" as a free mod available to extend the interest.
Click to expand...

Close Combat 3 (and 2), brilliant games, it was never quite the same after Microsoft ditched it and nothing has quite matched it at what it does... and that's coming from someone who worked on some of the later iterations.

Saying that, sometimes the AI was truly terrible! (not the part I worked on ;))

Someone else mentioned Warcraft 3, which is still great fun to play through.


@Cromulent Could be because the original was incredibly unforgiving, I seem to remember people either getting hooked or throwing it out the window :D
 
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