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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

VIDEO Strategy Games

Discussion in 'Archive: Games' started by MrZAP, Dec 23, 2013.

  1. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Since I have a bit of spare time:
    [​IMG]

    Current standings of my Armenia game. I should note I use the Death and Taxes mod, which (among other things) expands the timeline to 1356. That's how Byzantium is so big, and why I, the Knights, and Trebizond have so much territory so early in the 'vanilla' game (which starts in 1399 for EU3 vanilla). I got to this point by eating smaller Muslim powers, and through a very lucky break where Egypt/Mamluks got their behinds handed to them by Persia and I swooped in to take advantage. Result? Greater Armenia.
     
  2. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Oooh, nice. Who are you allied to? And, perhaps more importantly, who are Trebizond and Qara Qoyunlu allied to? I know where I would expand next in such a game, if I had an option to, but it's all about those allies, isn't it? Too many Muslim blobs in the east and north...
     
  3. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    I'm actually allied to both Trebizond (since the start actually. I tend to roleplay when playing and they've been a very faithful ally) and Qara Qoyunlu. The latter is surprising since Christian+Muslim alliances where one isn't a vassal is rare. Their tech sucks though, so they more serve as a buffer against Persia at the moment.

    EDIT: I'm also allied to Byzantium, Georgia and Cyprus. In roleplaying terms, the Orthodox Alliance (with token Catholic (Cyprus) and Islamic (Qara Qoyunlu) members).
     
  4. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Ah. That makes expansion a bit harder, but I can see where you're coming from, especially with that buffer state. So are you going after Syria, then? If you're not attacking the Christians, and I'm assuming you're not focusing on the Ottomans right this moment, that doesn't leave much room for expansion for you.

    I don't tend to role-play, myself, and switch out allies as necessary. I will help them out in wars and be useful while I am actually allied to them, though, like in my Spain game. The allies ended up being switched a whole lot throughout, with most of the allies except for a token few later becoming enemies, out of necessity (though I want to make it clear to Austria that they left ME, and not the other way around). But Scandinavia, Muscovy, Hungary, and Brittany all got provinces from my wars in peace deals, and I answered almost all calls to arms. I even helped out Bohemia against Austria, though that ended up being a huge mistake because they were public enemy #1 when I became Emperor and I had to beat them up to release a lot of stuff, which still wasn't done by the end of the game.

    I tend to take on a rather Realist (capital R) perspective in strategy games, which is completely divorced from my views in real life (of course, in real life I'm a anti-militarist socialistic pacifist... couldn't be further removed from my game persona).
     
  5. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    I write AARs over on PDoxes forums ( Case in point ) which is why I developed my Roleplaying tendencies. One of those games did end up as this though:

    [​IMG]

    :p

    In the case of the current Armenia thing though, Trebizond has been faithful enough that I haven't seen real reason to fight them. Anyone else is fair game though. Of course, it might also be because I have a soft spot for the Greeks though. Syria or the Ottos are going to be my next target, or failing that the Knights will be (I have no issues with fighting them. Never once allies.)
     
  6. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    So, in that game... you were Hungary, right?:p

    As long as you follow the teachings of the God of Pretty Borders, I don't care who you fight.

    My Brandenburg/Gernany game has taken some... interesting turns, dynastically speaking. I've gotten two lucky PUs over France (in the 1560s!), and GB (just a few years ago, in the 1710s... it's about 1730 now). France was weak when I got them, due to the Burgundian Inheritance not firing and Burgundy, GB, and Spain taking a bunch of provinces from it. I was able to return most of it's Burgundian cores and give back most of the Spanish territory (though the Castilians culture converted and made them lose the cores...) so now they're much stronger. GB has all of the Isles, most of northern France, including Brittany, a Canadian colonial nation, and substantial holdings in Asia. Combined with my triple religion German/Russian/Turkish alliance, and my small army of German vassals (plus full-sized Sweden and Ukraine!) I hope to have my way with Austriablob and Iberia, who have been the main enemies throughout the game. I'm also the Emperor, with four reforms passed, though I'm waiting on Landfriede until Austria is knocked around a lot.

    The lands I actually directly control aren't brilliant, though, I am expanding steadily. It's been hard since I've had to deal with coalitions for about 250 years... Still I have most of northern Germany, plus half of the Low Countries, and all of the Poland/Lithuanian regions, and Finland, and some of Denmark proper (who's Scandinavia only in name, at this point). I used to have the Baltics too, but I had to give them up in the British succession war. I had more or less no manpower from previous wars, no Ottoman allies, and revolutionary sentiment in my lands, so I figured I give up a bit in return for a union with Britain. I think it was the right decision, if I wanted to keep it.

    When I finish the game I'll post some screenshots. The world is a bit interesting... especially the Blobville that is Asia, which I had nothing to do with. India is frightening.
     
  7. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    So I figured I would resurrect this thread since I've been playing a lot lately. Okay, I still play a lot of strategy in general, but I felt like talking about it here now.

    It's been two years since the last post and I still play a huge amount of EUIV. It is my most played game of all time (other than MAYBE M2TW and mods, which is retail and has no Steam counter), at nearly 1900 hours. It's become enough that after 2+ years of playing I finally went and bought the last two DLCs at full-price instead of waiting. That Brandenburg game above was my first ironman game, and I now play ironman about 75% of the time, unless I want to do a mod thing. I've played as Hosokawa forming Japan, Hungary, Sweden, Tuscany (twice), Malwa, the Ottomans, a couple of custom nations and some mod runs, and most recently the U.S. and Malacca forming Malaya (one of my favorite campaigns yet). Right now I'm playing a random new world game as Vinland, which has been a blast, though I'm losing a war at the moment (the new tech system is taking getting used to in the New World, and Spain is a pain). I'm probably going to have to give up a bunch of land, but I'll be able to bounce back from this... it's only the 1640s and I'm colonizing like crazy and recently became a Great Power. I just need to get some lands closer to Europe so I can get France or the Ottomans as an ally.

    After Vinland I intend to try a youtube game challenge as Ulm migrating out of Germany. There were two failed attempts before I got distracted with Vinland (threw on the RNW at random before trying again and was mesmerized by a really interesting map with Vinland, and I'd been thinking about doing a New World campaign for a little while anyway).

    I've actually been playing a lot of other things aside from EUIV lately as well, which is probably a good thing. I've finally started playing Endless Space, which I picked up like a year ago, and in the first several hours have been really enjoying it. I like the whole space 4X thing, generally, and exploring and colonizing. Haven't done a lot of fighting yet. The music is really nice, though I wish there was more of it.

    I also recently got back into XCOM. I still don't have 2, both because of the price tag and the system requirements. I'm hoping to replace this old PC soon anyway, so hopefully I can get into that. Anyway I'm having fun in an Enemy Within campaign. I'm at the mission with the tanker and all the chrysallids, so still like early-mid game.

    I was playing a bunch of Medieval II Third Age and Stainless Steel not too long ago, but my SS game as France started lagging like crazy (I mean, I'd already steamrolled over a huge amount of land, but I wasn't really done; I might try and go back to it), and my Third Age MOS game as High Elves (OP and easy, I know, but fun!) got corrupted somehow, which really annoyed me. I'm thinking about uninstalling Third Age and MOS and trying to re-install TA and put up MOS and Divide & Conquer mods separately (I can't set up D&C with my current file set-up and I don't know how to change it). But maybe I'll try another Isengard campaign first... favorite evil unit roster by far.

    One game I'm planning to pick up during the upcoming sale is Stellaris, which I've been wanting since it came out. I've heard there are some gripes about a lack of content at the moment, but I know Paradox and know they'll fill things in as time goes on. I suspect that's part of why I started playing Endless Space, in a bit of anticipation. What I really want from Stellaris, which I expect it to deliver on, is a really solid SW conversion mod. The workshop already has an Old Republic themed going on. I think someone (or some people) could probably use the game to make one of the most comprehensive SW strategy games ever, in a way that things like Empire at War and Conquest for M&B kind of failed at.I mean, Third Age: Total War is my favorite game of all time, so anything can happen, right?

    Has anyone else been playing lately? I imagine some people here have Civ VI, at least (still waiting for the price to go down, myself).
     
  8. Ambervikings91

    Ambervikings91 Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 1, 2012
    I play a lot of supreme commander
     
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  9. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Yeah? I finally got Supreme Commander Gold a little while ago, but it doesn't seem to work for some reason.:(
     
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  10. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I have had Supreme Commander Gold for several years, but I haven't played it as much as I would like for a couple of reasons. I don't have the hardware to properly run it and THQ apparently ended up forcing the Steam edition on everyone, even if they bought it elsewhere. I bought Supreme Commander Gold on Impulse some time before Stardock sold it to GameStop, but only ended up installing the base game, which still works, before the forced switch over to Steam occurred. The forced switch over to Steam is the only reason I even have a Steam account. I have enjoyed what little I have played in the past, but I fundamentally oppose DRM in general on principle.
     
  11. Ambervikings91

    Ambervikings91 Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 1, 2012
    The steam update has Forged Alliance right? That was a GREAT improvement to the game
     
  12. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Civ 2 has always been my favorite. While I enjoyed Civ 4, it had a weird glitch where it kept erasing my saves or saying the saves were corrupt. Plus I loved Civ 2's scenarios ('ill never forget starting a WWII scenario as the Dutch, just so I could sit back and watch. Instead, the Allies and Axis signed a peace treaty on Turn 1 and declared war on me on Turn 2.).

    I liked Galactic Civ 2 as well, mostly for creating ships though.
     
  13. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    The point is, I already had Supreme Commander Gold, which included both the base game and Forged Alliance, I just didn't get around to installing Forged Alliance due to the first problem of lack of adequate hardware, so the Steam update served no purpose other than forcing Steam on everyone.
     
  14. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    I have Civ IV and Civ V, but frankly I've only played about 20 hours in IV and not much at all in V. I know, I know, it's really kind of a disgrace. I intend to play them more; I just have so many games, and I also keep going back to a few that I really like (EUIV and XCOM and Total War games especially).
     
  15. Kynirin

    Kynirin Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2015
    I too play plenty of strategy games, though it tends to depend a little on the mood. Sometimes it feels a bit too slow and brainy, so Michael Bay style games tend to work better for those periods. I'm just fresh off a game of Stellaris. A victory in the sense that I was hoping to achieve a Federation Victory, and we did. It can still be continued until everyone is dead, but I'm taking a breather after that. It was pretty interesting to see our humble little alliance of planets to grow into the galaxy's powerhouse. I love the little events that shake up things there. Still don't know what the heck was going on with the voice that was luring my people in by calling them by their names. [face_plain]

    XCOM is another series I play a lot of. As great as Enemy Unknown/Within was, I thought the second game blew it out of the water. There's also a game of Total War: Warhammer going on as Wood Elves, but I've been more in a sci-fi mood lately, so it's been a bit on the backburner. Everything else lies quiet at the moment, though I'm hoping to pick up Endless Space 2 once it's out of Early Access. I rather like the entire series.
     
  16. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012

    My little brother got me Civ V and XCom for Christmas one year. I played them a little, but then my computer crashed. Since I use my computer for writing, I focused more on console games. I did enjoy both, but Civ II is still my favorite.
     
  17. MarcusP2

    MarcusP2 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    Civ 5 is a superior game to Civ 2, IMO, but definite nostalgia advantage to Civ 2.

    XCom is really good, might try to get 2 in the next sale (got way too many unplayed games at the minute haha!)
     
  18. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002

    I only played a little of vanilla SupCom and eventually got FA installed on my current computer, which is capable of running it at low settings and starts getting laggy when I start bumping up against the 1,000-unit limit on skirmishes (it seems particularly slow when I play as the UEF on naval maps, where a large chunk of my surface fleet is shieldships guarding my capital ships and cruisers).

    My love for battleship slugfests aside, I found a large carrier fleet to be a far more useful weapon - especially if it consisted of UEF Atlantis subs or Aeon Czars. Typically I'd have 350-400 aircraft of all types, which meant I could make a real mess out of anything the skirmish AI could throw at me. The AIs were pretty decent at least in the early and mid game; I remember playing one skirmish as Seraphim vs. Aeon where the AI pinned me down with relentless waves of air attacks and then when those didn't do the trick started volleying a torrent of nukes before my missile defenses were fully ready. The only thing that saved me was running my carrier fleet (which wasn't finished building aircraft) to the other side of the 81x81 km map and launching a do-or-die airstrike that annihilated the AI's aircraft, nuke silos, and the commander.
     
  19. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    How have you been liking Stellaris? Like I said I intend to pick it up in the next few days through the sales. I expect it will be one of the biggest game time sinks for me, along with some of the others that I've already mentioned. Right now I'm still playing Endless Space, which is good. I kind of wish the combat was a bit more in-depth, but otherwise I really like the look and feel of the game.

    I still can't get XCOM 2 or TW: Warhammer just because of my old computer, otherwise I would snap them up. I've seen LPs for XCOM 2 and it looks like a blast.
     
  20. Kynirin

    Kynirin Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2015
    I'm really loving Stellaris, definitely a time sink for me. The atmosphere is probably what gets me the most excited, the stories you see just by playing the game and the events you run into. I find that it really puts on a good sci-fi feeling with space being full of wonder and peril. And unwise neighbours who call my orbital bombardment an act of terror. [face_plain]

    The relationships between various empires are pretty interesting. Our federation had four members at its peak, but there was another one that wanted in, that three of our federation wanted to join, that had a major, apparently irreparable problem with our fourth member. The rest of us got along with both of these empires extremely well, but because of the schism between the two, a potential ally would not join. I love that kind of stuff, it gives character to these factions. I didn't find out what the problem was, but it's possible that at some point one had broken off of the other and become independent. One empire had that happen to them. Some political party grew too powerful and broke off. The rest of the empire was decimated, and eventually asked for protection in order to survive. By that point, they had one planet left, in a planetary system belonging to someone else, just completely under siege. They used to be quite big before the split, and to be reduced to this was a massive fall.

    The one thing that really bothers me is that you cannot change your government type to something else entirely, like going from a democracy to autocracy, theocracy or something like that. It's tied to your Ethos. I believe they mean to change that system in the next big patch, so hopefully that's somewhere in the cards. Right now you can only go from your government type to a more efficient form of that same type. There's probably a mod or something to it, but I haven't checked, and am not currently using any.

    The battles also tend to be a bit too much about having the biggest and most advanced fleet. (Though I suppose it does make some sense.) In equal fights it gets more interesting with what kind of weapons and shielding you have and what they are throwing at you. And then you have the different ship sizes to consider.
     
  21. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Yeah, I would be surprised if they don't flesh out government types and allow switching, like in EUIV and HOI4. Paradox games always become deeper and more complex over time.

    I've heard that the mid game is kind of sparse. Is that an issue for you?
     
  22. Kynirin

    Kynirin Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2015
    There were some pretty long time periods without anything else happening than research results coming in. The galaxy had been charted by then, so there were no anomalies or systems for the science vessels to look for, no need, ability or interest in going to war either, and expansion was largely halted by neighbouring borders, so there wasn't too much going on on the outside.

    It wasn't that bothersome for me, since I spent the time creating new ship designs (which to be honest I had been neglecting) and updating the existing ones as the research was completed. The long peace was also good for building my fleet size up. Without those and some long-term plan for my side of the galaxy, I imagine it would've been a lot worse.

    And then the first Fallen Empire awakened. A lot more started happening after that.
     
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