What is your favorite Combat strategy game of all time?

[Major_Blackhart]

For me, it's Total Annihilation.

 

[EEVIAC]

I played MechForce (Fight, War, whatever it was called) more than any other game (it was shareware too.) Apart from having a great contruction program, the vast amount options for mech builds it generated meant that the strategy was always deep.

UMS was great for the same reason. Although it had wireframe battlefields and units that were marked as flags, you could edit pretty much all the data for units and create whatever sort of combat you wanted.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I'd have to go with Total Annihilation. There were an infinite number of strategies to playing it.

 

[Greenskin13]

DrattedTin greets me as sire.

Stronghold. It's the only game I've played that suits my turtle-ish style.

 

[Surlent]

This might sound mainstream to you all, but I really like Warcraft3 and especially its expansion The Frozen Throne. It sure as hell isn't the most strategic game, but the gameplay is nice with those minidiablo characters as heroes with rts base/army behind them. Teamplay is okay (when you don't get laggers or tk'ers). Its upside is also its downside, those damn heroes, some of the hero abilities are devastating on high levels, which makes having army less important (Some crazy gosus go only with heroes).

Games like Dawn of War, Ages of Wonders: Shadow Magic, Heroes of Might & Magic 3 and Starcraft are all okay, but I have some nostalgic good memories when playing W3 first time. Blizzard did worldwide release, I was shocked I could find the game same day on backwater town's storeshelves on the release day and it was the final comp game that worked with my last pc (ToEE and NWN didn't though seems I didn't lose much). The first two single player chapters in Reign of Chaos had especially good atmosphere as well.

 

[Saran]

I would have to go with the original C&C, it was the first RTS i played, infact i think it was the first PC game , well, until about 2 hours later when my friend showed me MOO2, another game i loved, infact it was due to those two games that i decided to get a PC, up until then i had owned a commodore 64, a nes and a snes, so if it wasnt for those games i probably never would have went on to develop an interest in pc gaming, and more importantly, CRPG games.

And Surlent, who gives a shit if its mainstream, WC3 and the frozen throne had one of the best storylines in an RTS, and as far as game mechanics were concerned it was very easy to play, but difficult to master.

 

[roguefrog]

Total Annihilation

I would be happy if modern RTS games had at least a fraction of TAs features. (like infinite queuing, phyiscs, scaled 3D terrain, branching build path hierarchy, long range artillery [offensive structures], nuke stockpiling, etc...)

Also a thing of note. There isn't any instant hit, infinite velocity weapons to be found in TA. (like the marines gun in SC) Each weapon and each unit exist as an object which occupies space. This means certain unexpected things can happen. For instance it's entirely possible for a Big Bertha (long range stationary artillery cannon) to hit a Peeper (fast scout plane) flying around.

Also I believe (I haven't tried this in a while) a plane can intercept a nuke if it flys into the nukes vertical blastoff path right after launch but before it reaches maximum altitude (at which point it flys over everything) and turns horizontal towards its target. The easiest way to reproduce this is to probably have a solid air-tight ring of aircraft orbiting the nuclear silo so a section of the ring blocks the nukes flight path upward.

 

[voodoo1man]

Another vote for Total Annihilation.

Runner up would probably be War, Inc. - a game with very neat ideas and nice gameplay unfortunately ruined by lots of bugs. Favorite plain-vanilla-C&C clone would have to be KKnD 2 (I like it more than C&C or any derivatives).

 

[Country_Gravy]

Wizard's Crown

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

I never got into TA for some reason. Dunno why.

So by 'combat strategy' do you mean 'RTS?'

My vote goes to Myth 2.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I dunno, I figured RTS would be too broad, and someone might name a game that has no combat or something. I guess.

 

[fnordcircle]

Warhammer: Dark Omen if a general RTS counts or Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate if you are talking turn-based tactical strategy.

 

[crufty]

Then:
Warlords II. III was good, but I personally never got into it like I did II.

Now:
Dungeon Crawl

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I played MechForce (Fight, War, whatever it was called) more than any other game (it was shareware too.) Apart from having a great contruction program, the vast amount options for mech builds it generated meant that the strategy was always deep.

MechForce is the correct name. That's one thing I like about Gearhead, it's combat is similar to MechForce. I just wish there was an option in Gearhead to get rid of the anime mecha swords and shit.

 

[bgillisp]

I would pick Starcraft. Though, I will say Red Alert 2 is a close 2nd.

 

[gromit]

Alpha Centauri here. There's just something so sexy about a cold war.

 

[Seven]

Alpha Centauri here. There's just something so sexy about a cold war.

I dunno I recall the wars getting pretty and hot and heavy in Alpha Centuari. God damned Belivers and those warlike Spartans.

 

[EEVIAC]

MechForce is the correct name. That's one thing I like about Gearhead, it's combat is similar to MechForce. I just wish there was an option in Gearhead to get rid of the anime mecha swords and shit.

I grew up watching Transformers, Robotech and Voltron so I don't have as much of a problem with anime shit. The Front Mission games for SNES and PSX had good turn-based combat, but the spiky-blue-haired anime content will give you a nervous tick.

 

[Jinxed]

Centurion, HoMM series, MoO2, Dune 2 and C&C.

The first combat strategy game I played was North & South on the Amiga. Anyone remember that? It was fucking great.

 

[chaedwards]

Warlords III Darklords Rising. Everyone should at least try this once - the sheer variety of units is exceptional.

 

[Astromarine]

The fact none of the Total War games have been mentioned in this thread makes me hope for a cleansing apocalypse. The cockroaches will do better

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Dune 2, Red Alert, Total Annihilation and Front Mission (snes). At least the only ones I can think of right now.

I'll go for Red Alert. Dune 2 was great, but Red Alert did it better. Yeah, I'm weird.

 

[Fez]

It turns out there was a version of Dune 2 for the C64 that was going to be released. It could have made it even more wide spread than it was.

 

[Kthan75]

Starcraft:Brood War.
HOMM3.
Rome:Total War.

Having said that, I will also mention that I consider Brood War to be the best RTS ever, HoMM is the best TBS ever and Rome is the best mix of the genres (sort of...) :D
Rome is the best strategy game I have played in a long time.

 

[Kthan75]

The fact none of the Total War games have been mentioned in this thread makes me hope for a cleansing apocalypse. The cockroaches will do better

Is it better now...? :D