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

[ejamer]

Lots of good games listed. I probably like X-COM (probably Terror From the Deep) best, but it could be a toss-up depending on the day.

[prfsnl_gmr]

But I liked the Saturday Morning Cartoon plot of the original AW, I thought it worked well. I think it is the best entry of the entire Nintendo Wars line.

I almost chose the original as well. I loved it, but Dual Strike edges it out IMO. (I can understand choosing the first one though.)

[alienjesus]

About Advance Wars:

I played the original Advance Wars, but its saturday morning cartoon plot did nothing to suck me in. You guys saying Advance Wars... was this any good?:

The darker looking plot might hook me better than the first three.

It's fine. I preferred the cartoony ones - not only were they better aesthetically in my opinion, but they also had more content and were more challenging.

I love Advance Wars, but my heart belongs to another Intelligent Systems strategy game. And it's not Code Name STEAM. No prizes for guessing what it is.

[MrPopo]

Days of Ruin trades in the Saturday Morning Cartoon villain plot for a more Fallout-inspired "after the end" plot. There's a lot of selfishness in the face of cataclysm and that sort of thing. It isn't anywhere near as strong as Fallout's story; I just used it as an example of that whole "no matter what happens humans still suck" feeling both games convey.

And so far Sarge is the only one with a semi-correct answer. The correct answer is Shining Force II but he chose Arc the Lad II in the face off between the two.

[Erik_Twice]

To be frank, Imust admit the best strategy games are all boardgames. Steam, Netrunner, 18XX, Age of Renaissance...I don't think there are many video games that can match that, second tier boardgames like Troyes or Smallworld are probably better than most strategy video games.

With that said...there are some strategy videogames I really like and that can really stand on their own.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Xenonauts/UFO: Enemy Unknown/XCOM
Railroad Tycoon 3
Probably Starcraft

To a lesser degree:
Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence
Civilization V (Used to love it, but the "fill the buckets" gameplay has its shortcomings)
Total Annihilation (Wish I knew it better, because it's really great)
Seven Kingdoms (A hair short of being a timeless design! Wish this one got a remake)

But yeah, it's a cool genre. I should check out Shining Force one of these days.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I should check out Shining Force one of these days.

I played Shining Force II for my summer games challenge last year. It's OK, but not mind-blowing. (Sorry, Popo and Sarge!)

[MrPopo]

I should check out Shining Force one of these days.

I played Shining Force II for my summer games challenge last year. It's OK, but not mind-blowing. (Sorry, Popo and Sarge!)

From a purely technical standpoint, yes, it's not as deep as many other strategy games. But it has the most heart.

[Xeogred]

My own answer is Fallout Tactics.

Well... since you mention this one, can I get an Exhum summary on it? Especially in comparison to 1-2 because... brace yourself... I think the gameplay is garbage in the originals. But I know Tactics supposedly plays more like Jagged Alliance or something.

I'm rarely in the mood for SRPG's, but the ones I really enjoyed would be:

Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together. Way better than FFT. Knight of Lodis on the GBA is cool too. The class system and being able to have 10 units per battle makes it so much more fun.

Arc the Lad 1-2, specifically 2. Has that really awesome weird 90's vibe to it, like Western meets fantasy meets sci-fi, super weird but awesome vibes. What was super cool about 2 is that it's a rare case of being able to actually walk around towns and dungeons, whereas most other Japanese SRPG's are just menu's. So I really dug that about Arc 2. The entire cast of characters from Arc 1 joins your party in 2 and it's basically one huge game, with 1 being a prelude. 1 you can probably beat in 10 hours, or 20 if you do everything, but Arc 2 is a bigger 50+ hour game, or nearly endless if you get obsessed with the Monster Arena expansion thing.

I've played Shining Force 1 and 2, as well as the GBA Fire Emblem's. These are pretty fun and simplistic in a nice way.

I also played a lot of Disgaea 2 and it's fun, but I hate how these games are literally endless. Anyone who has played them knows what I mean. The whole going into an item being a 100 some floor dungeon thing... that is like a dozen of hours worth of gameplay just to level up an item. I have the strategy guide and it had some full page equation on what the maximum amount of HP you could get, ended up being like 65 billion. Basically you can level up your characters up to 9,999 then reboot them in a weird way which reverts them back to 1 I think, but their base stats get higher. I have no idea, but trust me. These games are endless. I recall putting about 50 hours into 2 and felt I was done with the series. Not bad, but yeah.

[Sarge]

And so far Sarge is the only one with a semi-correct answer. The correct answer is Shining Force II but he chose Arc the Lad II in the face off between the two.

Haha, well, I thought when I played it that AtLII was the perfect combination of Shining Force and Chrono Trigger. It had even more of an exploratory aspect to it. And Working Designs did a superb job localizing it.

That last boss, though. Ugh.

[Jmustang1968]

Wow this is so tough for me... I'd have to list a few.

Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle - repeatedly expressed my love for these.

Warcraft II and Starcraft are up there as well.

I love the Civ games, and put most time into IV and V

Really enjoying Crusader Kings II, an easy time sink.

Xcom deserves mention

Shining Force II got me into SRPGs and thus started it all.

I also played my fair share of Red Alert 1 and 2

I know I am missing some, so many good strategy games.