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Your TOP 10 strategy games ever

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
  1. Master of Magic
  2. Master of Orion 1/2
  3. Dominions 1-5
  4. Civilization
  5. Sid Meier : Alpha Centauri
  6. Kohan
  7. Dawn of War
  8. Gary Grigsby 'sWorld at War
  9. Advanced Tactics WW2 (for some reason, The Operational Art of War didn't click with me)
  10. Field of Glory: Empires
Great but flawed:
Birthright (wonky adventure mode)
Star Wars Rebellion (atrocious UI)
Armageddon Empires (atrocious UI, weak AI).
Deity Empires (worse than atrocious UI, but correct AI).

Hybrids :
Age of Wonders
X-COM: UFO Defense
NuXCOM
King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame
Total War: Warhammer
Shogun Total War

Tactical Games:
Silent Storm
Invisible Inc
Chaos Gate
Steel Panthers

I clearly need to make room for Shadow Empire, but I cannot kick FoG out of the list.
I guess it could replace AT: WW2 given that they are relatively close.

  1. Master of Magic
  2. Master of Orion 1/2
  3. Dominions 1-5
  4. Civilization
  5. Sid Meier : Alpha Centauri
  6. Kohan
  7. Dawn of War
  8. Gary Grigsby 'sWorld at War
  9. Shadow Empire
  10. Field of Glory: Empires
 

Van-d-all

Erudite
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
1,557
Location
Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
  1. Ufo: Enemy Unknown
  2. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
  3. Master Of Orion 2
  4. Civilization V
  5. Crusader Kings II
  6. Battle Isle 3
  7. Warhammer: Dark Omen
  8. Age Of Wonders: Shadow Magic
  9. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
  10. Vanguard Bandits
Honorable mention:
  • Front Mission 5
  • Master Of Magic
  • Company Of Heroes
  • Battle Brothers
  • Wargame: Red Dragon
  • Heroes Of Might And Magic V
  • Hearts Of Iron 3
  • Black Moon Chronicles
  • Shadow Empire
 
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spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
In no particular order.

Jagged Alliance 2 (laptop guy has no stats!)
Rome: Total War
Supreme Commander
Civilization (let's say, number 4, I think I spend the most hours on this part. There are no Civ games past Civ 4).
Ufo: Enemy Unknown
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Invisible Inc.
Panzer General
Master of Orion 2
Dawn of War

Honorable mentions:
Sid Meier's Colonization
Sid Meier's Gettysburg
Great Battles of ...
Silent Storm
Company of Heroes 2
Templar Battleforce
Warhammer Mechanicus
Endless Space

Are we willing to stretch the definition a wee bit to include Shadow Tactics?
I always considered the whole genre to be puzzle games, though one could argue
that while strategy gaming is largely about sending little dudes to kill other little dudes and take their resources,
it's also about puzzles. Though sometimes the puzzle has no good solutions.
 

Sinilevä

Arcane
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Jun 9, 2019
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899
Location
Eurofagistan
Strap Yourselves In
1. Cossacks: Back to War
2. Darkest Hour
3. Blitzkrieg
4. Heroes 3
5. Crusader Kings 2
6. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
7. Panzer General
8. Dawn of War
9. Europa Universalis 3
10. Caesar 3
 

deadmeme

Learned
Joined
Aug 12, 2019
Messages
152
CIV IV
HOMM3
Dawn of War
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Offworld Trading Company
Sacrifice
AOE 1 & 2
Rise of Nations
The Protectors
Battle for Wesnoth
Master of Orion 2
Soldiers: Heroes of WW2, Commandos: 2 Men of Courage
 
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mikaelis

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
1,436
Location
Land of Danes
Codex 2013 Codex 2014
Centurion
North and South
Defender of the Crown
Settlers 2
Age of Empires 1 and 2
Total War series (Shogun, Shogun 2 and Warhammer)
Myth 1 and 2
Homeworld
King Arthur 1 and 2
Spellforce 3 with addons (my latest RTS/RPG guilty pleasure)

Honorable mentions:
Celtic Legends
HoMM 3
Tzar
 
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
2,164
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Spellcross
Myth 1-3
Dawn of War 1-2
Ground Control 1
Homeworld 1-2
Syrian Warfare
Settlers 2
Order of Battle: World War 2
Sid meier's Colonization
Original War

Honorable mentions go to Warcraft 2, Star Wars: Force Commander (which got shat on by reviewers, but is actually really good), the C & C series up to Red Alert 2 and Pike & Shot/Sengoku Jidai.
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,337
Location
Crait
No one's brought up Sengoku Rance. Shame on all of you.

1. Sengoku Rance
2. Star Control 2


These two games epitomize the point of strategic gaming - time as the limiting resource. Most strategy games have you struggle at the start, but by mid to endgame there's no challenge left and managing the endgame is a chore. Strategy is brought to the forefront when you are on a clock and every turn and action critical.

3. Invisible Inc -> you are always on the clock

Some thoughts-
In general, a multiplayer strategy game can't be judged by the single player experience. I think there are several games that cross the threshold into strategy nirvana in high level multiplayer.

4. Chaos Overlords <-- the AI plays fast and dirty and is horny to gangrape your ass all night long, so this one is one of the few exceptions of single player satisfaction
5. Spaceward Ho! <-- the game that taught me to play strategy games
6. Rance X --> A little too linear strategically but has the right mix of challenge and consequence to be genuinely fun
7. Lords of Waterdeep --> It might be unfair to include a boardgame, but what I enjoy most about this one is learning how to play as each different Lord. Unfortunately not endlessly replayable, but satisfying while it lasts.
8. Balance of Power for being suis generis and for *inspiring* Twilight Struggle
9. Decker for being sort of a perfect little mix of strategy and rpg
10. Star Wars Rebellion <--- double shame for none of you mentioning this

Other mentions-
Europa Universalis 3 -> The AI keeps it from being all-time great
Pirates! and Uncharted Waters are great sandbox games but the satisfaction doesn't come from strategic challenge
SMAC/X -> Does everything outside of strategy so well, but unfortunately one overall strategy completely rapes all others
Sid Meier's Imperialism -> an engaging hybrid strategy experience
Master of Orion -> The irony is that, without the right twist (see Spaceward Ho!), 4x is pretty shallow strategically
Civ 4 -> The tech tree is too linear for this to be considered a great strategy game
Master of Monsters/ Fantasy General/ HoMM3 -> these principles make for a fun gaming experience, but the strategic elements are linear and shallow
Castles 2 for being a fun little wargame where the ultimate satisfaction is making the pope your personal bottom bitch
 
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minakami

Educated
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
56
Vantage Master Japan
SMAC
Netstrom
AI War
Shadow Empire
Dominions 5
Prismata
Frozen Synapse
Solium Infernum
Jagged Alliance 2
 

snoek

Cipher
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
1,125
Location
Belgium, bro
Jagged Alliance 2
Cossacks
American Conquest
Wargame: Red Dragon
Wargame: Ariland Battle
Men of war: assault squad 2
Soldiers: Heroes of World war 2
Sudden Strike
Red Alert 2
Total Annihilation

Worth mentioning but not great or balanced:
The entente
 

Rieser

Scholar
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
285
Limiting myself to one entry per franchise.

Dominions 5
Medieval 2: Total War
Sacrifice
Jagged Alliance 2
Company of Heroes
Civilization 4
Victoria 2
Master of Orion 2
Alpha Centauri
OpenXcom

Not in order, though I'd feel disingenuous putting anything else than Dominions on the top considering the amount of hours I've poured into it.
 
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
6,710
Location
Mouse Utopia
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In
Dominions 5 - for multiplayer tryharding, but the taste of the game's art and lore is prestigious too
Age of Wonders 1/2 - I play multiplayer on these but the real appeal is mapmaking, absolutely beautiful stuff, and both have recent modding efforts. However they do have a lot of good mechanics too on the strategic map and a good vision/scouting game vs opponents
Civ 4 - loads of good mods, ranging from Dune Wars Revival to FFH2 (magister and other modmods), to Sword of Islam
MTW2 - stainless steel mod, just a shame about the crashes. I know some crashes can be fixed but I think I gave up on others, not sure.
Sacrifice - I just don't like the controls of what is effectively a 3d game with a camera, but otherwise this game is exceptional and has a small multiplayer scene.
Alpha Centauri - shit like terraforming that can raise land right out of the sea. I don't even know this game well but it must be great.
HoMM3 - ultimately not as good as Age of Wonders for gameplay reasons, but very aesthetic and some fun campaigns.
 

minakami

Educated
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
56
Could you elaborate on this one? I was always interested in it, but I could never get into it. Partially because I don't speak nippon.
It's basically an upgraded version of Vantage Master Online which is free and has been tranlated into English.
What makes it good
No RNG, good AI, and nice artstyle. It makes me feel like playing chess.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Developer
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
16,947
Location
Pannonia
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
In no particular order:

Age of Empires 2
Rise of Nations
Heroes 3
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War
Starcraft
Red alert 2
Warcraft 3
Master of Orion 2 (although I barely played it, I'm still fascinated how interesting the gameplay is)
Jagged Allience 2
Settlers 4
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,578
Location
Germany
  1. Age of Empires 2
  2. Command & Conquer: Generals
  3. Starcraft
  4. Warcraft 3
  5. Warcraft 2
  6. Worms World Party
  7. Worms 4 Mayhem
  8. Warhammer 40K Dawn of War
  9. Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders
  10. Command & Conquer Red Alert
 

KK1001

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
621
In no particular order:

Alpha Centauri. Hard to fuck with the atmosphere of this.
Starcraft. The balance is a marvel of providence, fast gameplay, entertaining to watch, gorgeous to look at.
Total Warhammer 2. I still prefer the map in original Shogun and MTW, but the variety and love that has gone into the game is great. Can't wait for the third.
Company of Heroes. Nice evolution of the RTS genre.
Warcraft 3. Great no frills campaign, robust online, custom maps.
Myth 2: Soulblighter
War in the East/War in the Pacific. Hex and counter stuff is still better IRL but these are great adaptations that make good use of computing power.
XCOM: UFO defense.
C&C until Generals, mostly on presentation and music.
Dominions 4 or 5
 

Eisen

Learned
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
591
Everytime i see this thread, i remember that the only strategy game that i really like is some brazillian forgotten obscure RTS
:negative:

And somewhat MoO2, but i get bored too fast
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
Defender of the Crown
Pirates! (if it counts)
Civilization
Panzer General
Close Combat 2
Panzer General 2
Master of Orion
Shogun Total War
Jagged Alliance 2 (if it counts)
Ageods American Civil War
Ultimate General Civil War
Microsoft Excel
 

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