Best Strategy Game?

[ThunderTitan]

Balancing factions is hard enough, you really think they could balance every skill tree to compete with higher numbers while your hero actually has fewer skill points in the 1st place?

[Midas]

Sorry for the Post Bump, but Civilization is the best Strategy-wise, with Age of Mythology being my absolute favorite in terms of graphics, display, story and epicness. the music is unbeatable.

[mr.hackcrag]

I recently tested Magic The Gathering: Tactics... LOTS of money.

Have you tried Poxnora instead? Requires a lot less (or no) money and trading system isn't bad.

[Mirez]

Sorry for the Post Bump, but Civilization is the best Strategy-wise, with Age of Mythology being my absolute favorite in terms of graphics, display, story and epicness. the music is unbeatable.

I'm with you
I'm currently in the beta for age of empires online, pretty awesome as well

[ThunderTitan]

Too bad it still has one giant problem... GfWL.

[ThunderTitan]

I'm currently in the beta for age of empires online, pretty awesome as well

Damn GfWL is annoying...

But the game itself seems fine (i'm only at the tutorial though)... BTW, fileplanet is giving out beta keys, get them while they last: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/robot-entertai ... 343p1.html

[Mlai]

Anybody have any opinons about the Elven Legacy series? I looked at it on Steam and read some reviews. Seems like a good fantasy TBS which does some things better than HOMM.

Only problem cited is the turns limit per mission is extremely annoying and significantly detracts from the fun of the game. But I think the limit can be modded away.

[Spin]

Heroes 3 Shadow of Death for Turn-Based Strategy. SoD is easily the best installment of heroes for me, actually has amazing campaigns which are also challenging.

For RTS you can't skip Company of Heroes, especially with what it is now after all the expansions. I'm not a major fan of the "old style" RTSs like Starcraft, Command and Conquer etc, except that the single player campaigns in those are amazing, the multiplayer's not as much fun.

[hatsforclowns]

Hmm...UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM) and Age Of Empires 2.

[GreatEmerald]

Talking about RTS, I'd say Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. Not played many TBS games except for HoMM titles, though.

[BoardGuest808888]

HoMM3 is a very good game. I still play it from time to time after 12 years. But IMHO it lacks a few things that would make it an even better Fantasy TBS game:

- Research
- Upkeep (both in army and town buildings)
- Storage room (so you can't just acumulate infinite resources. You need to have place to store them)
- some way to limit army size (like leadership)
- Creature experience
- Enchantments
- Heroes in battle
- Town conversion

Could be interesting but not sure:
- Diplomacy
- Alternative way to win (not always kill everyone)
- Ability to found cities (if not anywhere, at some places).

In my opinion, the best Fantasy TBS right now is Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. Unfortunatelly it doesn't look like there will ever ve an AoW3

I think the best TBS to implement these, and much more, is not AoW series, but rather an archaic game, Master of Magic and Master of Orion.

[Torur]

Civ 1-5 except 3, never liked 3. Resource placement in it was horrible.

AoW2 is also a great game, a must if you havent played it.

Elven legacy is also recommended.

Diciples is also a fun game to play if you like TBS.

And if you want to go really old schoold the Warlords series 1-3. Great games for their time.

[mr.hackcrag]

I think the best TBS to implement these, and much more, is not AoW series, but rather an archaic game, Master of Magic and Master of Orion.

AoW already had all those things and AoW is supposed to be the "spiritual successor" of MoM.

I saw some youtube clips of Elven Legacy, but I didn't really understand the game mechanics. Is it like any other games or is it unique?

[BoardGuest808888]

Naah. AoW did have all those elements, but so poorly implemented sometimes I even forget it have them to begin with.

It's like comparing Master of Orion 2 and Master of Orion 3. The 3rd have everything offered by the 2nd, but it lose whatever makes the 2nd a great game and excel at everything that was poor in the 2nd instead.

[ChimTheGrim]

Well no one mentioned the handheld games, so I will:
1) Fire Emblem / Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA)
2) Advance Wars DS

These games were just amazing. Fire Emblem Sacred Stones is hands down my 2nd favorite TBS game next to HoMM 3. I didn't like it at first. Once you get past a few missions, you'll get it.

Honorable mentions:
1) Tactics Ogre (GBA)
2) Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA) / Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)

When it comes to RTS games:
1) Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
2) Starcraft: Brood War

The single player and multiplayer are just too good. I still play them both.

Honorable Mention:
1) Total Annihilation
2) Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition

These games are hard... it's kinda ridiculous.