Decline Decent strategy games that aren't commercially available.

[Codexlurker]

Castle Strike was a RTS with lots of cool siege engines. I think it was the RTS with the best castle assaults (except maybe Stronghold, but for some reason, Stronghold neverr clicked with me: I didn't really like the way management and figthing were interwined). It would have been pretty awesome if the AI was not so retarded (especially the friendly AI, so you had to babysit everyone a lot).
It should qualify as decent, even though the AI and storyline prevented it from being great.

Added some games to the list from this thread by Don Peste.

Games added:
-Armies of Exigo
-Rival Realms
-Shadow Vault
-Hammer & Sickle (there was rumours about GOG release) and that reminded me about Night Watch and Day Watch.

e. Night Watch and Day Watch are more curiosities than decent games.

I played Rival Realms:
It was great (for me) at that time because it was the first RTS with RPG element, but they somewhat overdid it:
Each unit could level up, and would get items on level up, that would get dropped on death, so the battlefield ended up cluttered with tons of useless crap.
Also, having a super unit would let you solo most maps in the end of the campaign.

Castle Strike's siege weapon/horse and sieging animations were godlike. After playing Castle Strike and going to Stronghold 2 I couldn't stomach the siege animations.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some other ones:
Leviathan: The Tone Rebellion (the other Logic Factory game besides Ascendancy)
Rising Lands (probably not good, but for some reason I really liked the demo back then)
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds (Risk-like map + RTS, two different interfaces for humans and martians)

Honorable mention:
The L.E.D. Wars (Larian Studio's first game)

War of the Ring, published by Sierra only a year before EA's Battle for Middle Earth

Added to OP.

Also added Sid Meier's Antietam, Myth III: The Wolf Age and put correct entries for Close Combat and Myth series.

Edit.
Added Talvisota: Icy Hell

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Added Fields of Fire: War Along the Mohawk.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/war-along-the-mohawk

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

There are store pages for upcoming re-master of Battlezone 2.
https://af.gog.com/game/battlezone_combat_commander?as=1649904300



Edited the list.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some Close Combat games were released on GOG.
Titles include Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat 3: The Russian Front & Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge.
Gog team had technical difficulties with 1st one and Invasion Normandy, but those should be coming too.

Edited the list.

 

[Beowulf]

I'd wait for them to release Last Stand Arnhem.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I'd wait for them to release Last Stand Arnhem.

What about Cross of Iron?
Does it fix shortcomings of Close Combat 3?

Though I suppose that if one does want tactical game about eastern front then it's better to obtain some Graviteam Tactics games.

 

[Beowulf]

I'd wait for them to release Last Stand Arnhem.

What about Cross of Iron?
Does it fix shortcomings of Close Combat 3?

Though I suppose that if one does want tactical game about eastern front then it's better to obtain some Graviteam Tactics games.

I know nothing of Cross of Iron, but Last Stand Arnhem was basically CC2 with all the improvements from the later games (like battlegroup management and more maps, unless you consider CC2 a masterpiece, and later changes as decline).

And I always recommend Graviteam games, however they have a little bigger scope, than Close Combat games, so the battles take longer. If someone is looking just for a quick fix for his tactical WW2 action craving, he might be better of with CC (plus in CC you can play multiplayer, which is sadly missing from Graviteam games).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Re-master of Battlezone 2 is available now.
https://af.gog.com/game/battlezone_combat_commander?as=1649904300

 

[Citizen]

Re-master of Battlezone 2 is available now.
https://af.gog.com/game/battlezone_combat_commander?as=1649904300

Gog selling remasters without originals?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Re-master of Battlezone 2 is available now.
https://af.gog.com/game/battlezone_combat_commander?as=1649904300

Gog selling remasters without originals?

Steam too.


Remaster of 1st Battlezone also lacks original version.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Close Combat V released on GOG.

Edited the list.

edit.
Original Close Combat is also available as a bonus goodie.

 

[Cyberarmy]

This is a glorious day for me then. Hurray for slow days at work.

 

[LESS T_T]

Apparently someone (Joshua Walker aka halkun, who is known for reverse engineering of retro games) licensed Rules of Engagement (1991) by Mindcraft, and making a modern port: https://codecontinuum.blogspot.com

From last November: https://codecontinuum.blogspot.com/2017/11/introduction.html

I was thinking to myself, “If they still had the source code, couldn’t it be pretty cool to port this game to a device with touch screen, or at least get it into a state where it was playable again?” You see the game itself has not fared well with time. It’s a 16-bit DOS game that will simply not execute under 64-bit windows. Graphics chips nowadays are beginning to drop lots of the old legacy video modes like the 2-bit CGA and 4-bit EGA. Heck, I’m beginning to see 8-bit VGA modes being depreciated too. Another issue is that it runs very poorly in both virtual and emulated environments. If I was a betting person, it’s most likely due to the frame rate limiter. Hedging all my bets there is probably an interrupt that’s firing that’s a bit time-sensitive and causing the system to hang on the opening credits.

This next bit of the store is going to be a bit vague as it deals with company email correspondence that I’m not sure I’m allowed to divulge. The upshot was I able to contact one of the original developers of ROE. Though what I can only guess as my winning charm, I was able to procure the original C source code and project files for the game. I pitched that the idea of porting this game to modern architectures and giving it a bit of a face lift is a good idea, and they agreed.

This blog is going to be my adventure as I port a professionally developed and sold video game from 1991 to something platform independent. Trust me, having looked behind the curtain a little, it’s time capsule of glorious treasure. Old programming philosophies came flooding back at me as I did my assessment of the code. This is going to be a fun ride I think..

Recent in-development screens:

I wonder if Magic Candle games are also available.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Metal Fatigue and Fallen Haven released on GOG.
https://af.gog.com/game/metal_fatigue?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/game/fallen_haven?as=1649904300

Edited the list.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Ah Fallen Haven, loved that ones result screenies.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Original Star Controls are currently unavailable because Stardock vs Toys for Bob legal spat.

List will only mention the first because it is only sort of decent strategy game on series.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

After thinking about it way too long I decided to add Space Hulk (1993 EA version) and Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels to the list.
Even though those are action game hybrids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Hulk:_Vengeance_of_the_Blood_Angels
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Hulk_(1993_video_game)

 

[wwsd]

WarGames (1998), named after the movie and with a DEFCON system, but otherwise not much in common with it. Very much at the low end of "decent" as far as I can remember (last played it 20 years ago), but interesting as a (pseudo-)franchise game and not very widely available officially.

 

[Beowulf]

[...] Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels to the list.

One of the most immersive games I've played.
Especially at the beginning when you still were playing as a single Terminator.
They nailed the vox chatter. No other game managed to convey the idea of living world so well as this for me.
Perhaps because the chat was so simple, but "unscripted".

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord is gone from GOG (I'm not sure if it was ever on Steam).
Also Battlefront.com which previously sold original trilogy has seen some changes.

New site update
Posted On: July 10, 2018

At long last we have made the move to a totally new website and store. Yes, we know it's about time... but that's what happens when making games is the priority! There's a lot of change here and much of it is more than superficial. Here's some things to think about as you check out the new site:

Perhaps it is time to add first three Combat Missions to the list?

edit.
Also Combat Mission : Shock Force 1.

What happened to Shock Force?
Shock Force 1 is no longer available for sale and therefore you will find no trace of it on this website.

 

[McPlusle]

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord is gone from GOG

Damn. Good that I got it when I did, but the rest of the trilogy would have been nice. Also, Battlefront's handling of their own games seems to be completely foolish. Not only do they delist their old games, but even by the standards of niche wargames their pricing model is outrageous.

 

[visions]

Don't they also have obnoxious DRM with limited installs?

 

[sser]

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord is gone from GOG

Damn. Good that I got it when I did, but the rest of the trilogy would have been nice. Also, Battlefront's handling of their own games seems to be completely foolish. Not only do they delist their old games, but even by the standards of niche wargames their pricing model is outrageous.

Battlefront caught wind of the hosting and presumably requested it taken down.

And yes their DRM and general pricing is almost aggressively anti-consumer.

Their loss. I still have boxed copies of the first three CM's but totally ditched that company after they dared to charge for a patch. Their policies have only gotten more ridiculous with time.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Combat Missions 1-3 are now sold on GOG.

Added Combat Mission: Shock Force to the list.