Ascension to the Throne
A mix of turn based strategy and RPG in which you take control of a king who lost his land, followers, and finds himself in a unknown land. The game has a average story, bad graphics even for time it was released and quests are mostly fed ex or "go there kill that" type, but the combat is very good and i found the game more fun then many high budget games.
Zanzarah Hidden Portal is a game that i accidentally discovered a year ago and it provided me with many hours of fun. The game is a mix of a third person fantasy adventure with pokemons and first person combat. As you explore a certain fantasy world in a need of saving from ancient evil you will gather demons, fairies, undead and other creatures that you will lead in duels against other trainers. The combat is resolved in magical mazes where you take control of one of your creatures and fight in first person. Every creature belongs to one of many elements and has strengths and weaknesses against other elements. Its a fun and simple game, with charming world and creature art and great soundtrack (i uploaded few themes on the topic Best Game Music).
Civil War Generals II is one of my favorite turn based strategy games. In the game each unit had several attributes that affect its combat effectiveness like organization, health, morale, experience and quality, each unit could can upgrade its weapons between campaign battles also terrain and direction of attack were important for combat effectiveness. Every unit had limited number of soldiers which could not be replaced during the battle. The best part of the game was the campaigns in which you could change the course of the war like attacking the Washington with Confederation, and loosing a battle didnt mean end of the game but next "what if" scenario where the result of last battle with affect your starting forces, position and reinforcement.
Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance, a grand strategy from 1996. Gameplay is split on three phases.
Global strategy where the player chooses one of many countries in the land and a lord. In this part of the game the player build and move armies, builds roads, fortification, guilds, temples, uses diplomacy, trade and cast global spells. This is very detailed and the best part of the game.
Battles are on chess board battlefield but in real time, you can lead your troops on every square and if its occupied by enemy units it will start combat. The battles are quite limiting with no ability to flank or rear attack and battles are dominated by fast units and archers. You can auto resolve any battle but it will always play put in huge favor of computer, do its better to play manually although it can become repetitive.
Adventures are RPG part of the game where you lead your lord and few of his lieutenants to raid ruins, dungeons or enemy castles for gold, spells and items that will help you both on the global map and future adventures. RPG mechanics does the job and altought the location are somewhat confusing its still fun.
I would also recommend Empire of the Fading Sun a great mix 4X strategy games, Panzer General and Dune like universe.
Warwind 1,2 a really good RTS that did unique races thing before Starcraft but with four instead three factions.
Cavewars excellent TBS game with interesting races that play diffrently, nice atmosphere and lost of details.
Academagia a new game similiar to King of the Dragon Pass inspired by Harry Potter world. Huge amount of skills will let you build dozens of different characters.
