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Steam sale is here: What should one that's looking for customization and replayability get?

hackncrazy

Savant
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Jun 9, 2015
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415
I'm getting into tactical games lately (and played a lot of roguelikes, which fits the genre pretty well I guess), but I'm completely lost on getting new stuff from the sale. TOME is my go-to game when I think about customization + replayability, but it's time to move on and try some new games.

Is X-Com the best starting point or should I look anything else?

Also, the harder, the better. I like having my ass kicked by games and feeling like my decisions matter and should be well thought (don't care a single bit about muh stories though).

What do you guys suggest?

Edit: I've just put Blackguards on my cart, despite the mixed reviews. It really seems pretty unique, am I wasting money?
 
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mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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Combatfag: Gold box / Pathfinder
Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
When is Steam not on sale these days? I swear they have events for everything now, except almost every deal sucks. It's my wife's nephew's mother in law's dog's birthday sale! Everything 3% off! Buy now! Or in a week when the Pig Latin day of prayer sale begins featuring all the same deals you're seeing now.
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
Sorry for the shitpost, I actually thought this was a different thread.
Anyway, I thought the first Blackguards was alright and my buddy really enjoyed it. X-Com and X-Com TFTD were awesome and are on super cheap like you mentioned.
Battle Brothers gets a lot of love around here and features both customization and replayability. It's also half off right now.
 

Inspectah

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Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
468
Another vote for KotC and battle Brothers
BB in special is one of them games I never uninstall cause I Just might feel the itch.
Outside of that you might also enjoy fell seal for some FF tactics style or wargroove for advance wars shenanigans

Edit: forgot to mention kings bounty and battle for wesnoth.
KB follows the HoMM style mixed with some more rpg, while wesnoth is a straight tabletop fantasy wargame. Wesnoth's got a lot of campaigns, but you gotta cherrypick a bit since most are done by fans. It is free, so no harm in trying it tho
 
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Galdred

Studio Draconis
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
X-COM(1, TFTD and Apocalypse)
Jagged Alliance (obviously)
Silent Storm Gold (destroying walls never gets old)
Invisible Inc (Stealth X-COM, with an awesome UI)
Battle Brothers
Mordheim (Battles Brothers Warhammer, kind of)
KoTC
Warbanners (long but not replayable, as it is a linera sequence of battles. It features a random arena, but it gets old rather than endless).
7.62 (never could get into it. The system is really awesome, but the game bundled with it didn't click with me).
NuXCOM1&2 (many don't like it here. Definitely weaker than the older ones, but still very good if you don't mind some abstract board game-ey mechanics)
The storm Guard: Darkness is coming (I really liked it, but the fights are a bit too similar)
Natuk and Helherron (the latter is free! UI is atrocious, though). Not replayable, but RPG with 100% combat focus, a poor UI, but interesting. Natuk lets you play a party of orcs and trolls, and Helherron allows you to field golems. Neither is on Steam
Expeditions viking/Conquistator (I prefer COnquistador, but the second half of E:C gets boring. Not sure about Vikings, as I didn't finish it)
Templar Battleforce (totally not Space Hulk. Their former Templar Assault RPG for mobile is better IMO, and even closer to Space Hulk). This one may rely too much on knowing where enemies will be compared to the older one.
Xenonauts (X-COM faithful clone, but play X-COM firts)
Deathwatch 40K (atrocious UI, and "loot" but awesome level design IMO).
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark maybe? (FFT clone).
Valkyria Chronicles (it has Tanks! Not a big fan of the combat system where you have a limited number of actions, that can be used on the same character every turn).
Renowned explorers: Rather tight, and replayable, but each playthrough feels a bit shortish. ie, what if we streamlined XCOM even more

Also get Chaos Gate on Gog if you are into 40K. It has an awesome atmosphere. Not much customization when it comes to characters perks, but you can play HR and assign them to Assault, Tac, Devastator, and later Terminators, and choose their loadout. Not super replayable, though.
 
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Strange Fellow

Peculiar
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Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
4,013
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Jagged Alliance 2 is on sale.
Is there any difference from GoG version?
I'm not sure if this is current, but the Steam version that I have is the "Gold" version or something like that, which I've had all sorts of trouble with and doesn't play well with Stracciatella or 1.13. The GOG version has never given me any issues. I'd get it from GOG if you can.
 

hackncrazy

Savant
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
415
Thanks for all the recommendations, I'll take a look in all of them.

The ones that get me interested at first are: KOTC, Battle Brothers, JA2 and X-COM. Won't try buying everything at once because I wont play any of them in this case.

But I've placed all on my wishlist.
 

hackncrazy

Savant
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
415
X-COM(1, TFTD and Apocalypse)
Jagged Alliance (obviously)
Silent Storm Gold (destroying walls never gets old)
Invisible Inc (Stealth X-COM, with an awesome UI)
Battle Brothers
Mordheim (Battles Brothers Warhammer, kind of)
KoTC
Warbanners (long but not replayable, as it is a linera sequence of battles. It features a random arena, but it gets old rather than endless).
7.62 (never could get into it. The system is really awesome, but the game bundled with it didn't click with me).
NuXCOM1&2 (many don't like it here. Definitely weaker than the older ones, but still very good if you don't mind some abstract board game-ey mechanics)
The storm Guard: Darkness is coming (I really liked it, but the fights are a bit too similar)
Natuk and Helherron (the latter is free! UI is atrocious, though). Not replayable, but RPG with 100% combat focus, a poor UI, but interesting. Natuk lets you play a party of orcs and trolls, and Helherron allows you to field golems. Neither is on Steam
Expeditions viking/Conquistator (I prefer COnquistador, but the second half of E:C gets boring. Not sure about Vikings, as I didn't finish it)
Templar Battleforce (totally not Space Hulk. Their former Templar Battleforce for mobile is also great, and even closer to Space Hulk).
Xenonauts (X-COM faithful clone, but play X-COM firts)
Deathwatch 40K (atrocious UI, and "loot" but awesome level design IMO).
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark maybe? (FFT clone).
Valkyria Chronicles (it has Tanks! Not a big fan of the combat system where you have a limited number of actions, that can be used on the same character every turn).
Renowned explorers: Rather tight, and replayable, but each playthrough feels a bit shortish. ie, what if we streamlined XCOM even more

Also get Chaos Gate on Gog if you are into 40K. It has an awesome atmosphere. Not much customization when it comes to characters perks, but you can play HR and assign them to Assault, Tac, Devastator, and later Terminators, and choose their loadout. Not super replayable, though.

I'm pretty sure I have Templar Battleforce and Xenonauts on my Library already, I'll install them right now.
 
Unwanted

Horvatii

Unwanted
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Dec 15, 2019
Messages
563
^ Whats the hardest game from that list on their respective hardest difficulty?
Id say its a toss between Warbanners and Battle Brothers. Curiously, in BB, the overworld will kill you instead of any one individual battle.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
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Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
^ Whats the hardest game from that list on their respective hardest difficulty?
Id say its a toss between Warbanners and Battle Brothers. Curiously, in BB, the overworld will kill you instead of any one individual battle.
Mordheim is pretty harsh too, and you can even PvP to get your team butchered faster.
That said, it means BB and Mordheim highly favor selecting your battles.
In Warbanners, not so much, because you can't really select your mission, but you can grind the arena between battles, which can get tedious (and the game may be very hard without it).
Warbanners has catapults that you can man, and castles to attack, which is pretty cool. Some missions are really hard indeed.
Just don't use swordsmen for damage (they are here to prevent opponents from butchering your archers and casters). Halberds and archers are much better at this job.

I think playing Jagged Alliance 2 iron man would be harder, though, because you have a real risk of getting through all of your supply of mercenaries.
 

Matalarata

Arcane
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The threshold line
Mordheim is pretty harsh too, and you can even PvP to get your team butchered faster.

I love Mordheim I've played hundreds of hours and only managed to bring three companies, out of the dozens I founded, to a point where I deem them "too big to fail" . That said what works vs AI doesn't work vs Humans and levelling up a team for competition (Gentlemen of Mordheim group is still kickin AFAIK) means having to endure a number of battle with a sub-par team.

For example, probably my most succesful Warband is an highly mobile Sister band using an Augur for exploration, gathering and as an Impressive stopper (Serenity + Melee Res build), the same team would be slaughtered vs an human opponent simply by correctly ganging up ranged damage.


Battle brothers gets very harsh if you enable Permanent Distruction, point is I hate the effects that the setting has on a campaign as you play it, I cannot stand the world losing complexity as the game goes on!
 
Joined
May 19, 2018
Messages
415
Thanks for all the recommendations, I'll take a look in all of them.

The ones that get me interested at first are: KOTC, Battle Brothers, JA2 and X-COM. Won't try buying everything at once because I wont play any of them in this case.

But I've placed all on my wishlist.

Shit, dude, you’ve set yourself up for most of the year right there.
 

pakoito

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
Fell Seal is...better than you expect.

I'm still in love with Sangokushi Taisen if you know moonrunes, and Summoner Wars if you play on Android or Tabletop Simulator.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
The storm Guard: Darkness is coming (I really liked it, but the fights are a bit too similar)

:bro: :bro: :bro:

Good find, a million brofists for you!
I don't know if it was you who mentioned Stormguard recently; i'm not very good with that search function; but thanks anyway, i'm just starting but so far, it's great.

Tactical combat is really good, a shame it's only 3 vs 3 over and over again.

And i really like the narrator comments too, it's really atmospheric.

In Warbanners, not so much, because you can't really select your mission, but you can grind the arena between battles, which can get tedious (and the game may be very hard without it).

Some missions can be hard and you might have to reload sometimes but i played through the main campaign twice (and once the official DLC) and never had to use the arena, sure, i used it once the second try to satisfy my curiosity (it's nothing special) but it's not necessary.

Only two missions were troublesome, the shadows ambush and the cave when the healer heroine ask to study a book, then your party is split, without your main healer (if you choose to let her) against a lot of vampire throwing freezing potions.
This one is probably far easier now the throwing potion thing has been toned-down.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,604
X-COM(1, TFTD and Apocalypse)
Jagged Alliance (obviously)
Silent Storm Gold (destroying walls never gets old)
Invisible Inc (Stealth X-COM, with an awesome UI)
Battle Brothers
Mordheim (Battles Brothers Warhammer, kind of)
KoTC
Warbanners (long but not replayable, as it is a linera sequence of battles. It features a random arena, but it gets old rather than endless).
7.62 (never could get into it. The system is really awesome, but the game bundled with it didn't click with me).
NuXCOM1&2 (many don't like it here. Definitely weaker than the older ones, but still very good if you don't mind some abstract board game-ey mechanics)
The storm Guard: Darkness is coming (I really liked it, but the fights are a bit too similar)
Natuk and Helherron (the latter is free! UI is atrocious, though). Not replayable, but RPG with 100% combat focus, a poor UI, but interesting. Natuk lets you play a party of orcs and trolls, and Helherron allows you to field golems. Neither is on Steam
Expeditions viking/Conquistator (I prefer COnquistador, but the second half of E:C gets boring. Not sure about Vikings, as I didn't finish it)
Templar Battleforce (totally not Space Hulk. Their former Templar Battleforce for mobile is also great, and even closer to Space Hulk).
Xenonauts (X-COM faithful clone, but play X-COM firts)
Deathwatch 40K (atrocious UI, and "loot" but awesome level design IMO).
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark maybe? (FFT clone).
Valkyria Chronicles (it has Tanks! Not a big fan of the combat system where you have a limited number of actions, that can be used on the same character every turn).
Renowned explorers: Rather tight, and replayable, but each playthrough feels a bit shortish. ie, what if we streamlined XCOM even more

Also get Chaos Gate on Gog if you are into 40K. It has an awesome atmosphere. Not much customization when it comes to characters perks, but you can play HR and assign them to Assault, Tac, Devastator, and later Terminators, and choose their loadout. Not super replayable, though.
Nice list. I added a few games to my "to test" list.

Would add :

- Epic 40 000 : Final Liberation (on GOG.com) : It is a bit above in scale (one unit is one tank or 2 moto/horsey or 5 footmen) but it follows tactical convention nonetheless (overwatch, flanking, melee combat ...). Customization is what your battle groups are made off. The first battles are either extremely hard (if you try to attack) or extremely cheesy (if you just hold position and kill everything from range). It gets awesome by mid-game.
- Mutant Year Zero : I had fun. Resist the temptation to play it 100% sneaky sneaky and you will have a blast. Play it 100% sneaky and it will be super easy and boring.
- Drums of War : Same author as Warbanners, same gameplay, but on the Slitherine store only,. It does not have the grindy arena, so I prefered it to Warbanners,
- Field of Glory II (historical battle, not squad but it is cocaïne to me nonetheless)
- Age of Fear - I actually did NOT like it much, but it does ranging with melee weapons very well (the range advantage of the spear is real... except if back to a wall). Age of Fear II is pure garbage IMO. YMMV

In the list above, among those I know :
- Jagged Alliance 2 and Renowned Explorers are 10/10
- Xenonaut, XCOM I/TFTD and Jagged Alliance I are 8/10
- I really would not recommend the Expeditions game. I felt combats were long and artificial.
- I really did not like Templar Battleforce either.
 
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