Turn-Based Strategy Thread!
I'm stuck with a connection that gives me 40+ loss on NS on crowded hours, so I thought I could use a bit less lag sensitive multiplayer games right now. Sounds like it's time for some turn based games.
My own experience is based mostly on some lightweights (HOMM series, Wesnoth, Discples I & II, a bit of Dominions II) and a bit of heavier games (mostly WW2 Combat Missions). The lightweights are nice, but I never felt particular interest in their multiplayer (at least HoMM and Disciples seemed to be awfully luck based and inflexible for multiplayer). Combat Mission was nice, but I never really got enough games to start understanding the game logic enough to strategize properly. CM also seems to be almost unplayable on Vista and I happen to be stuck on a Vista laptop quite often, so I've almost forgotten the existence of the whole thing. I'm also enjoying Chess tremendously whenever I've got time and energy to put proper thought into it. So far I've only played very occassional games with my friends though, so I'm terrible at it.
Right now I'm more than willing to look into any decent TBS that has people to play with. Anything from Football Managers to Chess goes. Strategical depth is a huge bonus, but there's nothing wrong in the less mind twisting games either.
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Which games are worth learning and are there any new ones deserving hype?
Anyone up for exploring new TBS games?
Anyone up for playing some TBS more or less regularly?
My own experience is based mostly on some lightweights (HOMM series, Wesnoth, Discples I & II, a bit of Dominions II) and a bit of heavier games (mostly WW2 Combat Missions). The lightweights are nice, but I never felt particular interest in their multiplayer (at least HoMM and Disciples seemed to be awfully luck based and inflexible for multiplayer). Combat Mission was nice, but I never really got enough games to start understanding the game logic enough to strategize properly. CM also seems to be almost unplayable on Vista and I happen to be stuck on a Vista laptop quite often, so I've almost forgotten the existence of the whole thing. I'm also enjoying Chess tremendously whenever I've got time and energy to put proper thought into it. So far I've only played very occassional games with my friends though, so I'm terrible at it.
Right now I'm more than willing to look into any decent TBS that has people to play with. Anything from Football Managers to Chess goes. Strategical depth is a huge bonus, but there's nothing wrong in the less mind twisting games either.
---
Which games are worth learning and are there any new ones deserving hype?
Anyone up for exploring new TBS games?
Anyone up for playing some TBS more or less regularly?
Comments
I do however already know many.
ItsYourTurn - a site where you can play board games, and doesnt have to be in real time. My dad plays it every day, as its so casual he makes moves, check in a few hours later, and make other moves.
Kongregate - Great site to find flash games. This includes multiplayer games. Some are not turn based, but others are. Ofcource you can still happen to feel the lag, as there is very few games with decent speed. No idea why. I suggest you check in on "unnamed artillery multiplayer" or whatever it was named. There is several card games availible aswell, such as kongregates own game named kongai.
Gmod - Yes, its fps, using source engine. But that does not mean you cant code your own little turn-based game in wiremod and play ;).
Any chat - Yes, there is several games you can play and only need a chat to do so. Such as hangman.
Others.
--Scythe--
If you're looking for more of a board/strategy/trading game, looking into something like Settlers of Catan (there's a lot of online copies now) or Diplomacy (think RISK, except w/o dice rolls). Just do a quick Google search for online run versions, or get yourself a hardcopy from your game store and invite friends over!
There's also the lovely genre of browser strat games like Travian, Evony, Imperia Online, etc. Basically for corporate drones with too much browser access time and spread sheets.
<a href="http://www.wesnoth.org/" target="_blank">Battle of Wesnoth</a> anyone? Basically an open-source developed TBS of epic awesome. It's much like Advanced Wars, except with more diverse units, unit leveling/persistent units, and spells and such. Plus, there's several SP campaigns, MP scenarios, and you can play co-op.
No need for multiplayer if the game is interesting and challenging. Usually I find the AIs pretty predictable and abusable after a while though.
As for the Wesnoth, I felt it was really map/roll dependant. The elves run over everyone in the forest, dwarves will dominate the mountains and so on. At least for me it seemed that whoever has the right race for the map is already in a huge advantage.
I've also got Civ 4 Complete collecting dust somewhere. I gave it a try, but then ended up not having enough time to really look into it back then. I could probably give it a new chance soon. What kind of settings you've been using on your games? What are the most valuable mods? Anything else I should know about it?
Oh, and I didn't particularly intend this to be a "Recommend me games thread". Just share your thoughts on anything TBS related.
I actually might be interested since I'm going through a military history phase right now. Let me take a look at the demo first though.
First things first. Setting your difficulty for your first game to perhaps around Warlord or lower is a good idea. Beyond that, the auto-generated maps are good and on your first playthrough stuff is typically presented to you as you go. So memorizing the encyclopedia or unit, buildings, and techs is not required (but's it's always there for reference if you're curious). Plus the game gives you recommendations on what to build, which is nice. However, advanced players know when to ignore the advisors and mass stuffs (like spam Axemen to go out and pillage your enemies!). I typically run Pangea or Continent games, temperate or tropical. The other finicky details I typically ignore. And I random my civ leader (but then read what traits/unique units my leader has, they are important). Build order should probably be Worker->Warrior->Stuffs for your capital. Let your first Warrior (or Scout) explore the map, locate your next settling area, meet random tribes who typically give you loot/maps/gold (but sometimes turn hostile. typically low % on easier difficultly).
Perhaps the most important thing is to use the awesome interface they give you. Hovering pretty much everything gives you a breakdown of their stats. Double click on your cities to micro manage them further. Oh, and securing at least 5-6 stable cities is a good idea via settlers before going to war (if you're a warmonger and enjoy crushing people with catapults).
Also, there's several ways to win the game. Conquer territory, have largest population, control the UN and get elected uber leader, Culture taking over the world (pretty much domination), and making a Space Ship to colonize the stars (requires research mostly).
My personal favorite mod is Fall from Heaven. It adds sooo much. Each leader is crazy unique and brings a diverse flavor to the game. To give an example, one race is a race of vampires. So, they have unique Vampire units which can "feed" on a city (-1 pop) to gain experience and to stay alive. Plus there's dragons, magic, and oodles of other amazing things. However, many note that the complexity can be overwhelming and it does a poor job of easing you in. Perhaps the toughest thing is most Civ players try to research everything as they go along. In Fall From Heaven, you MUST specialize your later game techs (or be playing a difficultly level easier than you should be playing). Plus, the barbarians (i.e. lizerdmen) are way tougher than regular civ, so most people spam extra fighting units, making life a little more difficult than vanilla Civ. Oh, and if you play the right race, you can try to bring about the end of the world. =]
That's enough nerd gushing for a bit. But seriously, it's extraordinarily deep strategy, especially once you start to realize all the nuances available. Feel free to bug me if you have any questions, discuss stuff, get advice, etc.
If you really hate the RTS elements you can just autoresolve, although tbh the RTS parts are slow enough to be TBS anyway.
Aw, but winning at 3:1 kill:death ratio when the autoresolver said you had 50:50 odds is soooo awesome. Rush mah cannon line! However, fort attacks get tremendously annoyingly long and stupid in Empire... Haven't tried Napoleon.
Honestly, if you get Empire Total War, make sure to get the Darth Mod. Otherwise, Rome is pretty epically awesome, as is Medieval 2. I can't vouch for the other earlier ones that I haven't played.
@DiscoZombie, just make sure you have at least 2 of the best defensive units in each city and if you see an enemy stack coming (i.e. over your border) make moar dudes to have close to 1:1 unit ratio. There's a reason defensive units tend to be cheaper/hammer. I'm not nearly aggressive enough and typically go crazy sometime around Rifles and Muskets supported with Calvary and Trebs. Instead of with Axes and Chariots spam (oh, and catapults of course). Which according to my housemate who plays Immortal level now is apparently the way to go.
On a related note, you can buy it on GoG.com for $6. It comes with DOSbox and an optimized config so it runs smoothly.
On another related note: Someone is making a spiritual sucesser, <a href="http://www.elementalgame.com/" target="_blank">Elemental: War of Magic</a>. Hopefully it'll be good :S Hmm.. I just noticed, you can preorder and get into the beta. I might do that later this summer (when the next phase of the beta will have begun, I wager)
A lot of different ways to play multiplayer or singleplayer.
Tons of mods.
And even a lot of great modmods for mods, for example Wildmana for Fall from Heaven 2.
Last but not least a great community:
<a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/" target="_blank">http://www.civfanatics.com/</a>
And not just anyone, awesome game developers of Stardock!!! Those dudes who have enough cash they can take their time to make the game but aren't constrained to the whims of public shareholders. Oh, and frogboy does awesome blog posts.
My housemate is in the beta, and the next release is gonna be the <a href="http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/382216/Elemental_Good_News_Everyone" target="_blank">internal build</a>. I hear it's gonna be sexy. Map building, graphics, heroes, epic RTS battles (sorta like Total War in a way).
Back at Civ4, there's also <a href="http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/" target="_blank">Realms Beyond</a> which does a lot of tournaments and creates fun alternative scenarios (called Adventures) that you can then play and post your results. The most current one is you start out the game with 2 Wonders of your choice. But, you have to play on Immortal.