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[Futurematic]

The only wargame I’ve really dug into across the last two decades is The Operational Art of War. Perfect blend to me of abstraction and hands-on.

Anything similar or should I stick with it?

I do love the idea of Grand Strategy games like Hearts of Iron, but I get bored with how over complex yet easy they are.

 

[Eternal21]

I've heard good things about Field of Glory:

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Waiting for this to go on sale so I can grab it for $4. A lot of these old games can be found abandonware, where you might have to goof around with Dosbox and settings to get it to work nice.

I'll just GOG it at some point. New to PC digital gaming and so far all the oldies are made nice to work on modern machines.

Fantasy General

Fantasy General includes the "Island Challenge" add-on. For over a century, the world of

www.gog.com

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'm going to give this a try over the Christmas holidays.

The free fan adaption of Axis and Allies. Used to play Europe way back with friends while we watched hockey but the games took too long. Sometimes it took so long we quit. I don't see these types of games suitable for human play as people can be there all night.

Seems better as a PC game (even against bots) where you can save the game and continue another day.

Europe TripleA Map

Original Europe Edition. Includes default version following original europe rules (similar to ww2v2 but not exact), and a version following ww2v3 type rules Has now added Europe - Beta: A few more of the original rules implemented Europe - Beta-Buildcaps: Limits unit productions Europe -...

triplea-game.org

 

[Ingwerorang]

The new Total War: Warhammer II DLC is pretty great. Anyone else playing Warhammer or another Total War game?

 

[DrJohnGalt]

The new Total War: Warhammer II DLC is pretty great. Anyone else playing Warhammer or another Total War game?

Yep, always have at least one game of total war something going. My current fav is 3 Kingdoms, the diplomacy/politics finally feels fleshed out enough to be worth a deep dive, and the RPG-lite of the characters is a nice addition. I know they implemented it somewhat in older games but this is the best execution of it yet. I enjoy the Romance mode with the characters from the stories and the one-on-one duels. Heroes and commanders is an idea that really took off with the Warhammer games but most of them seemed to play the same over there. Here each one feels unique. Also community building is more than just take city, throw money at it until it's maxed, and repeat. There's actually more of a grand strategy element that can't be solved with a pocket full of cash like the older games. I enjoyed this game so much I bought the 3 Kingdoms books and have been reading them to brush up on the lore.

I'm down to try a short coop campaign sometime if you're interested. Shoot me a message here or on steam (same name).

 

[Hudo]

The new Total War: Warhammer II DLC is pretty great. Anyone else playing Warhammer or another Total War game?

Yeah, Total War: Warhammer II is pretty great. I especially like the Tomb Kings faction as they remind me the most of Heroes of Might & Magic in terms of gameplay. I also regularly go back to Total War: Empire and Shogun 2.
I haven't tried Three Kingdoms yet, though.

 

[Guileless]

I just reinstalled the Napoleon Total War game on a lark. I can't believe it's 10 years old.

 

[Ingwerorang]

Yep, always have at least one game of total war something going. My current fav is 3 Kingdoms, the diplomacy/politics finally feels fleshed out enough to be worth a deep dive, and the RPG-lite of the characters is a nice addition. I know they implemented it somewhat in older games but this is the best execution of it yet. I enjoy the Romance mode with the characters from the stories and the one-on-one duels. Heroes and commanders is an idea that really took off with the Warhammer games but most of them seemed to play the same over there. Here each one feels unique. Also community building is more than just take city, throw money at it until it's maxed, and repeat. There's actually more of a grand strategy element that can't be solved with a pocket full of cash like the older games. I enjoyed this game so much I bought the 3 Kingdoms books and have been reading them to brush up on the lore.

I'm down to try a short coop campaign sometime if you're interested. Shoot me a message here or on steam (same name).

I need to play more Three Kingdoms, only finished a campaign with Cao Cao, but every time they released a new DLC this year there were to many bugs (same with Warden and Paunch in WH2). I'm happy that we finally got a Total War in China, but it's also baffling that Three Kingdoms is the first time since Rome:Total War that the series made some significant progress, Diplomacy is finally working in a TW game. Likewise, I also started reading the books this year.

I would be down for a coop campaign, Three Kingdoms or Warhammer?

Yeah, Total War: Warhammer II is pretty great. I especially like the Tomb Kings faction as they remind me the most of Heroes of Might & Magic in terms of gameplay. I also regularly go back to Total War: Empire and Shogun 2.
I haven't tried Three Kingdoms yet, though.

Nice, Tomb Kings are fun. I think that Shogun 2 is still CA's magnum opus. The Best UI, the best soundtrack, the least amount of bugs, dripping with atmosphere, got the best expansion of any TW game (Fall of the Samurai).

 

[mcz117chief]

Nice, Tomb Kings are fun. I think that Shogun 2 is still CA's magnum opus. The Best UI, the best soundtrack, the least amount of bugs, dripping with atmosphere, got the best expansion of any TW game (Fall of the Samurai).

And also the last one to have a DEMO They really were proud of that one. It is still by far the best.

 

[Ingwerorang]

And also the last one to have a DEMO They really were proud of that one. It is still by far the best.

I remember that one, but the demo that blew me away was the one for Empire. I never thought they could make gunpowder warfare work.

 

[mcz117chief]

I remember that one, but the demo that blew me away was the one for Empire. I never thought they could make gunpowder warfare work.

And then came Fall of the Samurai and gave us the greatest rifle lines in the history of gaming. I think that Fall of the Samurai is their greatest DLC for their greatest game. I am always blown away how incredible it is everytime I play it. I recently managed to win as an independent in Fall of the Samurai, trying to do what Saigo Takamori failed at.

 

[Hudo]

I need to play more Three Kingdoms, only finished a campaign with Cao Cao, but every time they released a new DLC this year there were to many bugs (same with Warden and Paunch in WH2). I'm happy that we finally got a Total War in China, but it's also baffling that Three Kingdoms is the first time since Rome:Total War that the series made some significant progress, Diplomacy is finally working in a TW game. Likewise, I also started reading the books this year.

I would be down for a coop campaign, Three Kingdoms or Warhammer?



Nice, Tomb Kings are fun. I think that Shogun 2 is still CA's magnum opus. The Best UI, the best soundtrack, the least amount of bugs, dripping with atmosphere, got the best expansion of any TW game (Fall of the Samurai).

You are right about Shogun 2 being their Magnum Opus. I also think it somehow turned out to be the best. Also, the soundtrack is fucking lit, man:

 

[mcz117chief]

You are right about Shogun 2 being their Magnum Opus. I also think it somehow turned out to be the best. Also, the soundtrack is fucking lit, man:

When people criticize Shogun 2 they almost always cite the lack of unit variety while praising games like Warhammer Total War for their incredible unit variety. I find this incredibly dumb since both games have pretty much the same unit variety. You got sword dudes, spear dudes, bow dudes, horse dudes, rifle dudes and arty dudes in BOTH games. Sure you got 20 different sword dudes in Warhammer but they are still just sword dudes with different stats, the unit variety is basically the same. You got some special units like tanks, big monsters and helicopters in Warhammer but how often do you encounter those? The only real difference is that Shogun 2 has naval combat, and Fall of the Samurai has the best naval combat in the entire series at that, and that Warhammer puts a huge emphasis on hero units. And when it comes to heroes in Warhammer I am not in favor of them really, they are just massive bullet sponges and aren't much fun to use.

 

[Hudo]

When people criticize Shogun 2 they almost always cite the lack of unit variety while praising games like Warhammer Total War for their incredible unit variety. I find this incredibly dumb since both games have pretty much the same unit variety. You got sword dudes, spear dudes, bow dudes, horse dudes, rifle dudes and arty dudes in BOTH games. Sure you got 20 different sword dudes in Warhammer but they are still just sword dudes with different stats, the unit variety is basically the same. You got some special units like tanks, big monsters and helicopters in Warhammer but how often do you encounter those? The only real difference is that Shogun 2 has naval combat, and Fall of the Samurai has the best naval combat in the entire series at that, and that Warhammer puts a huge emphasis on hero units. And when it comes to heroes in Warhammer I am not in favor of them really, they are just massive bullet sponges and aren't much fun to use.

I think that people have that opinion about that alleged higher unit variety in Warhammer II because of the many factions and their distinct visuals/themes. Shogun 2 has clans, yes but they are ultimately less visual distinct than the Warhammer factions. So Lizardmen sword dudes "feel" completely different from Empire sword dudes, which feel completely different from elven sword dudes, etc.
You are right that the unit variety is roughly the same. And why shouldn't it be? Creative Assembly have carefully balanced that stuff over multiple games, makes sense to use that again and again and only add to it (Naval combat, heroes, etc.).

What really annoys me about Total War these days is Creative Assembly's approach to DLC. They looked at the clusterfuck Paradox Interactive are doing with their DLC policies and thought "yeah, man!". For example, they released a Skaven DLC for Total War: Warhammer II which is kinda mandatory if you wanna play Skaven as a viable faction, etc. That shit is annoying as fuck.
I'd love a Total War: Khan game (as in, you play as Genghis Khan and his father and his sons) but as an expansion pack for Total War: Three Kingdoms. not as its own "Saga" game.

 

[Ornlu]

Yeah, Total War: Warhammer II is pretty great. I especially like the Tomb Kings faction as they remind me the most of Heroes of Might & Magic in terms of gameplay. I also regularly go back to Total War: Empire and Shogun 2.
I haven't tried Three Kingdoms yet, though.

I'm not sure why, as it has always had plenty of bugs and bad AI, but I have probably played and enjoyed Empire exponentially more than any other TW game.

 

[mcz117chief]

I think that people have that opinion about that alleged higher unit variety in Warhammer II because of the many factions and their distinct visuals/themes. Shogun 2 has clans, yes but they are ultimately less visual distinct than the Warhammer factions. So Lizardmen sword dudes "feel" completely different from Empire sword dudes, which feel completely different from elven sword dudes, etc.
You are right that the unit variety is roughly the same. And why shouldn't it be? Creative Assembly have carefully balanced that stuff over multiple games, makes sense to use that again and again and only add to it (Naval combat, heroes, etc.).

I have literally no issue with either games or unit variety, that is my point. I just don't like it when people view it as Shogun's flaw that you don't have 30 different units which are effectively the same.

What really annoys me about Total War these days is Creative Assembly's approach to DLC. They looked at the clusterfuck Paradox Interactive are doing with their DLC policies and thought "yeah, man!". For example, they released a Skaven DLC for Total War: Warhammer II which is kinda mandatory if you wanna play Skaven as a viable faction, etc. That shit is annoying as fuck.
I'd love a Total War: Khan game (as in, you play as Genghis Khan and his father and his sons) but as an expansion pack for Total War: Three Kingdoms. not as its own "Saga" game.

Yeah, the DLC is going off the charts but they CAN do it because people DO buy it. Warhammer fans are some of the wealthiest out there. Go into any GW store and ask some of the players how much they have spent and how much they have at home. It is insane. I myself have about 1000€ worth of models at home that need to be assembled and painted and I still bought recently another batch for almost 200€ and I definitely belong in the "noob" category. Some of the big boys have 10s of thousands of € worth of models at home.

 

[DrJohnGalt]

IMO Warhammer does have unit variety but the gameplay itself seems more repetitive than other TW games. The sieges are absolutely boring (it's always attacking a one-sided city) and the heroes are often so over-powered fights just aren't fun. And I'm not happy about the newest update (example, the happiness is supposed to "balance" itself out by moving toward zero). I do like the variety of factions, most of which play a bit differently from each other, but the fact that diplomacy isn't allowed between races is a letdown. I do like that they added a crafting element; I hope that gets included day-one on future games.

Shogun was a great game, but it didn't grab me like it seems to have so many others.

I liked Empire, but since it doesn't have a coop campaign I haven't really put the time into it that I have the other titles.

Here's an unpopular opinion: I really liked Britannia! The new rules made it more difficult to raise up doomstacks to steamroll the map, and it added a lot of other non-battlefield elements to the grand strategy part of the game. It was probably my favorite recent entry until I tried 3 Kingdoms (which was actually just this summer. I didn't buy it at launch).

 

[Hudo]

Yeah, the DLC is going off the charts but they CAN do it because people DO buy it. Warhammer fans are some of the wealthiest out there. Go into any GW store and ask some of the players how much they have spent and how much they have at home. It is insane. I myself have about 1000€ worth of models at home that need to be assembled and painted and I still bought recently another batch for almost 200€ and I definitely belong in the "noob" category. Some of the big boys have 10s of thousands of € worth of models at home.

Damn, son.

But then again, I can understand this. One likes to invest in his/her hobbies. But yeah, I have always admired the guys at my Uni who were doing their Warhammer Fantasy/ Warhammer 40k battles during the late hours. A poor fucker like me could only look at these glorious armies with awe. Incidentally, the table just right next to it regularly featured hardcore Magic: The Gathering fans, who apparently had cards in their possession of at least equal value.

 

[mcz117chief]

Damn, son.

But then again, I can understand this. One likes to invest in his/her hobbies. But yeah, I have always admired the guys at my Uni who were doing their Warhammer Fantasy/ Warhammer 40k battles during the late hours. A poor fucker like me could only look at these glorious armies with awe. Incidentally, the table just right next to it regularly featured hardcore Magic: The Gathering fans, who apparently had cards in their possession of at least equal value.

I don't drink, smoke or buy almost any other luxuries besides minis. Also, I have been at it for about 15 years now.

 

[Hudo]

I don't drink, smoke or buy almost any other luxuries besides minis. Also, I have been at it for about 15 years now.

I think that's awesome. The only Games Workshop related figures I have are from HeroQuest, which I still play from time to time (although with additional drinking rules, haha)

 

[Guileless]

I don't drink, smoke or buy almost any other luxuries besides minis. Also, I have been at it for about 15 years now.

Cheers to that. You're a lot better off for it.

I recently drove by the Games Workshop US distribution center, which is close to where I live. I always fantasize about breaking into it.

 

[diffusionx]

Anyone have experience with the following:
Panzer Korps 2
Fantasy General 2
Steel Division 2

I was looking at them for the Steam sale.

 

[Guileless]

Steam sale wise, I was considering ICBM for $10.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I finally installed Steam! After doing GOG for the first time in Oct or Nov looking for cheap RPG and strategy games, I decided to check Steam and they have more kinds of games which typically fall into these criteria.

- RPG or Strategy
- Hopefully turn based
- Cheap ($10 or less)
- Works fine on a 3 year old laptop, which was never great to begin with

I got to say, the Steam UI is way more cumbersome, and there' so many games it's a chore to go through the pages or filter them. At least Steam gives lots of filtering options. I couldn't even find a Oldest Date to Newest Date filter. Unless I fucked it up, the Date filter is only most recent to oldest????

Some games that seemed to be pretty good, looks like will work on my laptop and cheap I just got were:

- KARDS (free to play.... I missed out on the free DLC that ended on Dec 28!)
- Isle of Skye
- Radiis
- Stockpile
- Twilight Struggle

The bottom 4 games cost me a whopping grand total of $16.46 cdn. And just like GOG, it looks like they don't even charge tax!

 

[pochepiller2]

I really like Kards.

ICBM was a letdown for me, i think i prefer the older Defcon game.

Panzer Korps2 is just a nicer and more polished panzer general 1. The graphic are really nice.

 

[midasmulligan]

Anyone playing shadow empire? Looks deep as hell but one heck of a learning curve

 

[Draef the Badger]

Anyone playing shadow empire? Looks deep as hell but one heck of a learning curve

Just picked it up, quite excited for it myself. Reminds me of Distant Worlds: Universe but not broken.

 

[midasmulligan]

Just picked it up, quite excited for it myself. Reminds me of Distant Worlds: Universe but not broken.

Yeah looks pretty damn cool, just got it myself and diggin through the manual. Could be a 10 year game...

 

[DrJohnGalt]

Shadow Empire looks interesting. midasmulligan or Draef the Badger do you guys stream? I'd love to watch a bit before I pull the trigger.

Also curious as to how the shared-screen co-op works.

From the reviews it sounds like the ui is pretty bad lol.

 

[midasmulligan]

Shadow Empire looks interesting. midasmulligan or Draef the Badger do you guys stream? I'd love to watch a bit before I pull the trigger.

Also curious as to how the shared-screen co-op works.

From the reviews it sounds like the ui is pretty bad lol.

No streaming on my end, frankly it’d be quiet embarrassing at this stage lol

 

[Draef the Badger]

Shadow Empire looks interesting. midasmulligan or Draef the Badger do you guys stream? I'd love to watch a bit before I pull the trigger.

Also curious as to how the shared-screen co-op works.

From the reviews it sounds like the ui is pretty bad lol.

Badgers are anti-social so sadly no friend.

Its a Slitherine ltd strategy game, aka the old skool grognard games. Their games are really in depth, but the UI is nearly always pretty eeeeh.

 

[Hudo]

Did anyone play Unity of Command 2 and/or Panzer Corps 2? Been eyeing both games and can't really decide.

That being said, I really, really miss the Heroes of Might & Magic series. HoMM3 is one of the best games ever made and Ubi managed to drive the series off a cliff and never bothered with it again...

 

[mcz117chief]

Anyone have experience with the following:
Panzer Korps 2
Fantasy General 2
Steel Division 2

I was looking at them for the Steam sale.

Yo, sorry for late reply. If you are interested in WW2 hex games definitely go for Order of Battle World War 2, you can download it for free, play the tutorial campaign and one mission from each of the campaigns (there is a ton of the now).

Fantasy General I heard good things about but it looks quite odd to me so I never gave it chance.

Steel Division Normandy 44 is quite a good game, basically a WW2 version of Wargames: European Escalation, but Steel Division 2 I didn't enjoy, it just feels off to me and I refunded it. I still go back to Steel Division 1 but I don't feel an urge to play 2 again.

That being said, I really, really miss the Heroes of Might & Magic series. HoMM3 is one of the best games ever made and Ubi managed to drive the series off a cliff and never bothered with it again...

Just keep playing HoMM3 or 5, you won't find a better alternative and those games have a ton of content, especially 3. Have you finished all the campaigns yet? They are really good. 5 is also excellent, yo, don't sleep on that one. The only other alternative is King's Bounty which I didn't enjoy at all and Etherlords which was cool for the time but I am not sure how good it is today.

Shadow Empire looks interesting.

Sure does, I have been eyeing it for a while now. I like deep games with learning curves.

 

[Hudo]

Just keep playing HoMM3 or 5, you won't find a better alternative and those games have a ton of content, especially 3. Have you finished all the campaigns yet? They are really good. 5 is also excellent, yo, don't sleep on that one. The only other alternative is King's Bounty which I didn't enjoy at all and Etherlords which was cool for the time but I am not sure how good it is today.

Yeah, I regularly play HoMM3. Maybe I should take a look at HoMM5. The last time I tried it was years ago and it didn't really caught me like HoMM3 or HoMM4.

I've been eyeing Songs of Conquests which is some indie game in development and apparently aims to deliver a similar experience but I'm not sure whether it will be out this year or whether it will actually be a viable alternative.
I was also trying Battle Brothers and I realize it's a good game but I just couldn't deal with the art style.... I know that's a shitty reason to not like this game but it is how it is, I guess.

 

[mcz117chief]

Yeah, I regularly play HoMM3. Maybe I should take a look at HoMM5. The last time I tried it was years ago and it didn't really caught me like HoMM3 or HoMM4.

Don't expect it to be as good as 3 because it isn't even close but it is the closest imo. The main menu though is the greatest of all time.

 

[Guileless]

Finally had time over the weekend to dig into Endless Space 2 and I am enjoying it. Granted I haven't played a 4x space game in a long time so I'm not an expert in the genre, but it's pretty intuitive and slick.

Galactic Civilizations 3 is currently free on the Epic Games store.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Got around to playing Kards. FTP WWI card game. A total grind too unless you pay money to buy card packs. Got to say, it's boring as hell.

Going to try Radiis and Twilight Struggle next.

 

[DrJohnGalt]

Actually like the original Rome better than Rome 2. A remaster is on the way with some pretty nifty upgrades and best of all it's only $15 USD for people that already own the original Rome 1. Let's do it!