Some of the campaign missions are really good with a nice variety too. I’ve been re-playing some on the hardest difficulty and it’s a real time hog but good fun to spend 2 hours on a mission!
I’m getting into the Dominions series, recently picked up Dominions 6. You take control of a faction and try to spread your pretender gods influence enough to ascend to be the one true god. Combat is auto resolved but you can watch the combats and the mechanics are very detailed. I made a god that was a sentient glyph that bestowed fire resistance and flaming weapons on my faction of desert dwelling spider riders. Another time I was a sentient fountain of blood with innate abilities to raise an army of mindless skeletons so I could stack troops in masse.
Its a little clunky in the interface but once I learned what did what it because very engrossing
I can’t get over the UI, in sure it’s good like with Dwarf Fortress, but I would ask how long it took you to feel like you had a bearing on what was going on/fun?
I mean, it’s not beautiful, but for strategy games and other high-replayability games, I don’t find that eye candy buys that much. Like, I feel like a good strategy game is one that you should spend a lot of time playing as you master the mechanics, and no matter how pretty the graphics, when you’ve seen them a ton of times…shrugs I think that eye candy works better for genres where you only see something once, like adventure games, so that the novelty is fresh. But what you like is what you like.
If it’s too complicated – and the game does have a lot of mechanics going on, even by strategy game standards – Illwinter also has another series, Conquest of Elysium, which is considerably simpler, albeit more RNG-dependent. I personally prefer the latter, even though I know Dominions. Dominions turns into a micromanagement slogfest when you have a zillion armies moving around later in the game. Especially if you have one of the nations that can induce freespawn, like MA Ermor. Huge amounts of time handling troop movement.
It might be more tolerable if you play against other humans – I mean, if you’re playing one turn a day or something, I imagine that it’s more tolerable to look at what’s going on. But if you’re playing against the computer, which is what I do, it has more micromanagement than I’d like.
Trying to optimize your build is neat, though. There are a lot of mutually-exclusive or semi-compatible strategies to use, lots of levers to play with, which I think is a big part of making a strategy game interesting.
I think that Dwarf Fortress has a higher learning curve, but if you’re wanting a strategy game that has a gentle learning curve, I agree, Dominions probably isn’t the best choice. It also doesn’t have a tutorial/introduction system – it’s got an old-school, nice hefty manual.
Oh not as long as original Dwarf Fortress, that’s for sure!
I had a friend who has some experience explain how to navigate the interface, and generally what each resource does, and after an hour or two of fussing about I got used to it. Some times I will misclick, because right click is sometimes “go back” and sometimes “show more detail” but aside from that its easy enough.
The core mechanics are very easy. Conquer provinces to increase your domain, build stacks of units to fight battle and test different strategies for what works against what.
While it might not fit the vibe (and you might already know it), I feel like Songs of Conquest needs to be mentioned, being a Heroes spinoff. It’s an interesting twist on the formula, with lovely graphics, some things streamlined and some interesting new mechanics (like the essences for spellcasting).
Medieval 2 Total War. It’s the best Total War game and one of the oldest. It has a basic campaign map where you create and manage armies which you then use to go into a real time battle with thousands of units. There is nothing as satisfying as routing the enemy with a massive cavalry charge into the rear when they’re in hand to hand infantry combat.
The Homeworld series is great with fantastic campaigns (minus Homeworld 3 I’ve heard, not even played that).
I’ll also throw in a classic Imperium Galactica 2 because I still think for a 90s 4X RTS it has so many elements that I’ve just not seen replicated since. Though usually short and quick, it has fully simulated and controllable space and ground battles; espionage; diplomacy; you assign your unlocked tech to hard points on your ships… It’s Stellaris but better in most ways, imo.
Yeah, I recently replayed homeworld 1 and 2 and they hold up well. Still haven’t played Deserts of Kharak but that looks good too. I’ve not played 3 either but unfortunately I’ve heard it’s not great.
For old school RTS, Total Annihilation or if you fancy something a bit different then The Settlers II (Pioneers of Pagonia is a more modern remake). I grew tired of RTS and moved on to turn-based but Stellaris is one that recently drew me back in.
For tactics I’d say Advanced Wars, Fire Emblem and Disgagea are decent shouts. Into The Breach is probably my favourite indie of the genre, a lot of strategy packed into a small game.
If you like turn-based then Civ has always been top of my list.
I haven’t seen Halo Wars mentioned yet so I’ll nominate those games. Both 1 and 2 are insanely fun and they control surprisingly well on Xbox if you dont have access to a PC. I’ve put a couple hundred hours into both games on both Xbox and PC, but I do prefer M&KB controls even if it works very well with a controller.
Cutscenes are fucking awesome in both games as well!
Another game I’d like to bring up is Stellaris. If you’re a sci-fi fan and like 4X strategy games then I can’t recommend this game enough. I’ve put 630 hours into the game since I got it back in 2019, being able to role play a custom or sci-fi inspired empire is great. If the amount of DLC puts you off, then look up cream.api. Getting them for “free” is easy.
If you want to try an RTS that does something different, check out Against the Storm. It’s an RTS, but there isn’t an “enemy” so to speak. Instead, you are ‘fighting’ against the environment, trying to solve your economic and social problems before you are overwhelmed by external factors imposed by the level you are building on.
The game continues to evolve as your understanding of its various systems grows.
Even as a Protoss main, Wings of Liberty (the free Terran campaign in SC2) is by far the best in the game. I’ve replayed it at least once a year since it first released. Mass marine/marauder/medic backed by tanks is so much fun to play with.
I’m presently replaying Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and love it. The cast for the FMVs is all-star, the game itself is a super refined version of Red Alert 2 (itself an all-time classic) and the story has no bearing on the rest of the series so it can be played in isolation with no advance knowledge of C&C
This is what he sees while tripping on acid. In reality he was naked and is now wrapped in newspaper and has a rusty colander on his head. He is actually collecting mushrooms with a plastic knife, though.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne