What's the best strategy game you've played?

[digimonfreak]

Age of Empires 2 and Advance Wars.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I've had my eye on both Endless Legend and Age of Wonders 3. As an avid Civ 5 fan, which would you recommend more? I've just read too many mixed things about Endless Legend to be totally sure about it.

Don't get Endless Legend, it's incredibly boringat first because it has a very steep learning curve and by the time you get the hang out of it, you discover the AI is pathethic and there's absolutely no strategy because there's no semblance of balance.

Simply beelining Tier 2 Weapons is enough of a strategy to beat the game on the highest difficulty level because the AI doesn't understand what upgrades are. Don't, bother, really.

I think EL has improved a fair amount in the AI department since launch. Of course it still isn't perfect.

But for a Civ fan, I would recommend checking out Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. The game has a bit of a tortured history but it's in really good shape these days and Stardock has spent a lot of time updating/patching it.

The Warlock series also has something to offer fans of Civ V as well if fantasy is the theme you are into

Warlock is a bit like (apparently) Endless Legend problem to me (at least the first one. Haven't tried the 2nd). The AI is just so stupid. It's like Civ 5 with really legit barbarians and no happiness, so there's no reason not to just land-grab like CRAZY because the AI certainly doesn't. The spells are a neat gimmick, and there has certainly been a LOT of times in Civ that I've wanted to lower a hex or raise a hex to make/destroy water routes, but ultimately the bad AI just kills the single player. Have to imagine it's very fun with friends though. I don't have any of those, so I wouldn't know ;p

Fallen Enchantress sounds fun though. Gonna have to check dat out.

[pierrot]

I started Tactics Ogre on the Saturn, and played through a bit of the intro. I've barely done anything, but this game is already fucking amazing! Holy shit! The dialog, and story are immediately nuanced, intricate, and intriguing. The voice acting (which seems to have been removed from the PS1 version) is superb. Sakimoto Hitoshi was on his fucking game for this soundtrack. I don't really have any worries about the battle system. I am excite!

Why does anyone ever even talk about Ogre Battle?

[Jmustang1968]

I started Tactics Ogre on the Saturn, and played through a bit of the intro. I've barely done anything, but this game is already fucking amazing! Holy shit! The dialog, and story are immediately nuanced, intricate, and intriguing. The voice acting (which seems to have been removed from the PS1 version) is superb. Sakimoto Hitoshi was on his fucking game for this soundtrack. I don't really have any worries about the battle system. I am excite!

Why does anyone ever even talk about Ogre Battle?

The soundtrack is awesome. The PSP version has great recordings of them. TO is great, but I also still love OB. The combat is unique and the unit management is fun for me.

[MrPopo]

I started Tactics Ogre on the Saturn, and played through a bit of the intro. I've barely done anything, but this game is already fucking amazing! Holy shit! The dialog, and story are immediately nuanced, intricate, and intriguing. The voice acting (which seems to have been removed from the PS1 version) is superb. Sakimoto Hitoshi was on his fucking game for this soundtrack. I don't really have any worries about the battle system. I am excite!

Why does anyone ever even talk about Ogre Battle?

Because Tactics Ogre is a boring tactics game while Ogre Battle is a unique strategy game that rewards army building rather than micromanagement of your facing.

[pierrot]

I suppose it's a matter of gameplay preference. Aside from that, Tactics Ogre feels like an instant classic, while Ogre Battle, for me, just wasn't. I still like Ogre Battle all right, but by comparison, It feels like Matsuno just started to really figure things out with Tactics Ogre.

[Xeogred]

I started Tactics Ogre on the Saturn, and played through a bit of the intro. I've barely done anything, but this game is already fucking amazing! Holy shit! The dialog, and story are immediately nuanced, intricate, and intriguing. The voice acting (which seems to have been removed from the PS1 version) is superb. Sakimoto Hitoshi was on his fucking game for this soundtrack. I don't really have any worries about the battle system. I am excite!

Why does anyone ever even talk about Ogre Battle?

The soundtrack is awesome. The PSP version has great recordings of them. TO is great, but I also still love OB. The combat is unique and the unit management is fun for me.

All three versions have different OST's accordingly.

Sakimoto SNES is just way too good though, I am so happy that's the version I played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR3jOBklsJ8

And yes I can confirm that's the SNES version. That track alone just killed FFT.

[pierrot]

[...] Ogre Battle is a unique strategy game that rewards army building[...].

Does it, though? If I had wanted to, I could have beaten the game without worrying about any more than one unit, and if I had wanted the best ending, I might have had to include the Opinion Leader in skirmishes. As far as I can see, managing an array of units only really helps to get more of the small story interactions, which are pretty hit or miss in terms of their impact on the plot, or character development. (More often, I feel they were misses, rather than hits.)

I prefer discreet tactics, anyway.

[PartridgeSenpai]

No one ever mentions this game, but I wanted bring up Lock's Quest for the DS. Sure, it is a tower defense game at heart (before these blew up in the mobile market) but it adds light RPG elements and take a good bit of real time strategy to beat the later levels. The 16 bit look is also appealing to me . Developed by 5th Cell who went on to make Scribblenauts.

Totally sold me on Lock's Quest. They had it at my local resale shop for 4 bucks, so I picked that bad boy right on up on my time out today

[Jmustang1968]

I started Tactics Ogre on the Saturn, and played through a bit of the intro. I've barely done anything, but this game is already fucking amazing! Holy shit! The dialog, and story are immediately nuanced, intricate, and intriguing. The voice acting (which seems to have been removed from the PS1 version) is superb. Sakimoto Hitoshi was on his fucking game for this soundtrack. I don't really have any worries about the battle system. I am excite!

Why does anyone ever even talk about Ogre Battle?

The soundtrack is awesome. The PSP version has great recordings of them. TO is great, but I also still love OB. The combat is unique and the unit management is fun for me.

All three versions have different OST's accordingly.

Sakimoto SNES is just way too good though, I am so happy that's the version I played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR3jOBklsJ8

And yes I can confirm that's the SNES version. That track alone just killed FFT.

Same songs basically, but recorded differently. I love the older OSTs, but the PSP version is definitive to me. They even used a few remastered Ogre Battle tracks.

I love this one from OB remixed for TO PSP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1RSbdFqarE

There is also an amazing OCRemix for this too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iH2qSKWIKw