[Sir Thursday]

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 03:02 PM, said:

if you haven't played the Galactic Civilizations games they're pretty fun

Multiple victory paths, research trees, diplomacy etc etc etc. Turn based strategy but still cool

In no. 2 you can use a ship builder to customize every ship in your fleet. Kinda neat that way.

Plus the AI is fucking great. If you waste even a couple turns on nothing you get fucked royally by all the computer players. I've actually only won like 2 or 3 times out of 50 with the AI turned on full blast. Its a game I always go back to for my 4x strategy fix.

Another fantastic series of strategy games in the 4x genre are the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I've only played 1,2 and 4 to death because I didn't have a computer when 3 came out. The AI in 4 is pretty freakin' solid (for an average strategy game player like me) and HOMM5 got decent reviews too.

Right behind you on both of those recommendations. Everyone else seems to think that HoMM 3 was the pinnacle of the series, but I actually prefer HOMM4, particularly having the Heroes on the battlefield. Made for some fun battles .


Sir Thursday

[Sir Thursday]

Sparkimus, on Jan 20 2009, 01:20 AM, said:

I play Civ IV usually on setting 3 or 4 depending on how serious of a game I'm looking for. I'll generally play as the Americans since I can expand quicker. I focus on technology early on so I get a good leap ahead of most of the AI. They USUALLY won't start attacking right away so I can get away with it...usually.

EDIT: Spies are great for haulting production on overzealous neighbors that want the technology win.

I've always found the best time to attack if you are able to get slightly ahead on the technology is when you get Cavalry - they far outstrip everyone except Grenadiers in terms of strength around that time period and by that point noone has units with bonuses against Mounted Units...

Unfortunately in my current game I fell behind a little on the techs so I couldn't go for the cavalry swarm - it's a Terra map and I colonised most of the New World, so I'm now desperately trying to keep all of my neighbours sweet until my new cities can grow to the size where they can significantly help me out in the science stakes.


Sir Thursday

EDIT: Double Post. My bad.

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 22 January 2009 - 03:19 PM

[cerveza_fiesta]

Sir Thursday, on Jan 22 2009, 11:13 AM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 03:02 PM, said:

if you haven't played the Galactic Civilizations games they're pretty fun

Multiple victory paths, research trees, diplomacy etc etc etc. Turn based strategy but still cool

In no. 2 you can use a ship builder to customize every ship in your fleet. Kinda neat that way.

Plus the AI is fucking great. If you waste even a couple turns on nothing you get fucked royally by all the computer players. I've actually only won like 2 or 3 times out of 50 with the AI turned on full blast. Its a game I always go back to for my 4x strategy fix.

Another fantastic series of strategy games in the 4x genre are the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I've only played 1,2 and 4 to death because I didn't have a computer when 3 came out. The AI in 4 is pretty freakin' solid (for an average strategy game player like me) and HOMM5 got decent reviews too.

Right behind you on both of those recommendations. Everyone else seems to think that HoMM 3 was the pinnacle of the series, but I actually prefer HOMM4, particularly having the Heroes on the battlefield. Made for some fun battles .


Sir Thursday

yeah. I only got into HOMM3 a small bit because 4 came out and I ditched it. What I found was that the whole play style and look of the game kinda changed after HOMM3...so HOMM3 was kinda the pinnacle of the earlier incarnation of the game.

HOMM4 is fun and I prefer it to the earlier ones as well. Mostly cause the AI is better.

[Sir Thursday]

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 03:35 PM, said:

Sir Thursday, on Jan 22 2009, 11:13 AM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 03:02 PM, said:

if you haven't played the Galactic Civilizations games they're pretty fun

Multiple victory paths, research trees, diplomacy etc etc etc. Turn based strategy but still cool

In no. 2 you can use a ship builder to customize every ship in your fleet. Kinda neat that way.

Plus the AI is fucking great. If you waste even a couple turns on nothing you get fucked royally by all the computer players. I've actually only won like 2 or 3 times out of 50 with the AI turned on full blast. Its a game I always go back to for my 4x strategy fix.

Another fantastic series of strategy games in the 4x genre are the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I've only played 1,2 and 4 to death because I didn't have a computer when 3 came out. The AI in 4 is pretty freakin' solid (for an average strategy game player like me) and HOMM5 got decent reviews too.

Right behind you on both of those recommendations. Everyone else seems to think that HoMM 3 was the pinnacle of the series, but I actually prefer HOMM4, particularly having the Heroes on the battlefield. Made for some fun battles .


Sir Thursday

yeah. I only got into HOMM3 a small bit because 4 came out and I ditched it. What I found was that the whole play style and look of the game kinda changed after HOMM3...so HOMM3 was kinda the pinnacle of the earlier incarnation of the game.

HOMM4 is fun and I prefer it to the earlier ones as well. Mostly cause the AI is better.

But from what I hear they moved the Heroes back to the sidelines for HoMM5 . I'll have to check it out at some point, but that's a major malus on it right there.


Sir Thursday

[beru]

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 04:02 PM, said:

Plus the AI is fucking great. If you waste even a couple turns on nothing you get fucked royally by all the computer players. I've actually only won like 2 or 3 times out of 50 with the AI turned on full blast. Its a game I always go back to for my 4x strategy fix.

have you seen Supreme comander FA hardest AI... it cheats... seriusly cheats (its stated that it does so too)

[Sir Thursday]

beru, on Jan 22 2009, 04:04 PM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on Jan 22 2009, 04:02 PM, said:

Plus the AI is fucking great. If you waste even a couple turns on nothing you get fucked royally by all the computer players. I've actually only won like 2 or 3 times out of 50 with the AI turned on full blast. Its a game I always go back to for my 4x strategy fix.

have you seen Supreme comander FA hardest AI... it cheats... seriusly cheats (its stated that it does so too)

The problem with the Supreme Commander AI is that its performance is very dependent on how much processing power you have available. If your machine is only just good enough to run the game, you'll be able to beat the AIX pretty easily. On the other hand, if you have a monster PC that runs it smoothly, you don't stand a snowflake's chance in hell. Of course, you could cheat and run other stuff in the background to slow it down, I suppose .

On that note, SupCom is a pretty good RTS - I love the experimentals and stuff. Play as the Aeon and reenact Independence Day! Unfortunately, my computer isn't quite up to scratch for it - I can only really play it on my friend's behemoth of a machine.


Sir Thursday

[cerveza_fiesta]

haha...I know what you mean about the processing power when you crank the AI

on galciv 2 the turns can take upwards of a minute if you have more than 1 or 2 opponents with all the AI algorithms turned on. Mainly cause my machine is about 5 years old with a measly 2GHz AMD processor and 1G of ram. I'm sure newer compys would eat that game for dinner...but it was kinda cool to turn on 8 opponents for the first time and witness by about mid-game that the turns were taking a solid 2 minutes with the processor absolutely pegged. Kind of a physical manifestation of the care they put into their AI, cause it was absolutely whooping my ass.

I'd love to play that game on a beefier computer. 8 very intelligent opponents is awesome in the extreme, but a 2 minute turn cycle gets old quick. I've been planning my compy upgrade though...maybe next year when I have more cash.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 22 January 2009 - 04:46 PM

[frookenhauer]

Galciv2 was a great game until I figured it out and then I figured out how to fill my planets with all the good bonuses and after that I got bored. My new rule for PC games is never look under the hood and change things...spoils things in the long run.

[Coco with marshmallows]

the entire total war series.

seriously, words cannot fully express my joy at this game.

I got a new pc to run Shogun. I updated to run Rome.

Updated again for Medieval 2.

and am planning to buy a new computer on/about the 3rd of March......

along with Empire

then, expect my posting level to drop for a month or two, as i have a habit of attempting to play it through with every faction in the game.

[beru]

then you want to see a Malazan total war dont you?

[Karnadas]

Who doesn't?

Total Annihilation was my first great addiction, especially when the unit cap was tripled. Used to go all hedgehog, then build up a swarm of hornets (the PeeWee gunships) and obliterate anything on the map in my own time.

Ground Control and Homeworld were pretty good, but the Civilizations and Master of Orion II beat anything hands-down - in my opinion. Sadly, I've been unable to get my mits on Civ4 due to having a ten-year-old computer... Luckily, my new laptop is on it's way, so here's hoping!

[Sir Thursday]

Karnadas, on Jan 30 2009, 01:21 PM, said:

Who doesn't?

Total Annihilation was my first great addiction, especially when the unit cap was tripled. Used to go all hedgehog, then build up a swarm of hornets (the PeeWee gunships) and obliterate anything on the map in my own time.

Ground Control and Homeworld were pretty good, but the Civilizations and Master of Orion II beat anything hands-down - in my opinion. Sadly, I've been unable to get my mits on Civ4 due to having a ten-year-old computer... Luckily, my new laptop is on it's way, so here's hoping!

If you're a TA fan, and your new laptop is rather good, you may just be able to run Supreme Commander. I've been told it's very similar in feel, though I've never played TA to compare. Really liked that game as far as RTSs go, although I'm still more of a turn based man.


Sir Thursday

[Karnadas]

It was made by some of the same guys wasn't it? I'll be picking it up as soon as finances allow. I agree though, turn-based is much better in my mind too - it feels more like a complicated version of chess (with the computer doing the boring stuff for you), and there's nothing to stop you getting up during the computer's turn to make a cup of tea (though it can lead to some "where the hell did they come from?" moments...).

[beru]

supreme commander is realy good. it got a almost limetless unitcap (2500) and epic battles, try the exspasion if you dare

[Impirion]

Hi all,

I have to say that the Total war series is the best, especially Medieval 2 where you can finally train fully stacked armies in one turn. The one criticism I have of it, although it is the thing I like best is quite how overpowered the cavalry are because unlike in Rome, and Alexander, not many of the races have pikes or long spears. The sight of a whole unit of infantry disappearing as my 4 units of elite cavalry trample them to pieces are a sight to behold..

Age of Empires is also a fave for me, with my hordes of longbowmen crushing all and sundry

What's wrong with RA3? It's a really cool game, while as long as you aren't empire of rising sun playing an ally..... damn their air power. Shogun Battleships are like the coolest unit ever!

Impirion

[Karnadas]

I have to agree with you on medieval 2. Just got back from a week vacation, during which I almost solely played that (it was in the bargain bucket at the supermarket). I found there were enough spearmen in the game to still give you pause. All it takes is one of them in the battle line to force you to re-evaluate how you'll go about tackling the formation. Rotting cow trebuchets are my favourite, the sound they make is great!

[Traveller]

The cavalry might be overpowered, but that's what the archers/stakes are for - the stakes make total mincemeat of any cavalry that can be drawn onto them, and you can make a whole enclosure of them for the infantry to retreat behind.

Can't wait for Empire... cannons, rifleman, and SHIPS!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 10 February 2009 - 01:12 PM

[Karnadas]

Cavalry were the undisputed rulers of the battlefield though, only blunted when muskets came into use, then made completely obsolete by the machine gun, so it seems fitting to me.

I think it's more a case of the AI not being able to deal with cavalry.

[Tapper]

Karnadas, on Feb 10 2009, 02:34 PM, said:

Cavalry were the undisputed rulers of the battlefield though, only blunted when muskets came into use, then made completely obsolete by the machine gun, so it seems fitting to me.

I think it's more a case of the AI not being able to deal with cavalry.

Nope, multiplayer with high funds or without house rules against it sees armies filled with only shock cavalry 9 times out of 10 in Medieval II, or so is my own (limited cause I only play LAN) experience. Easy to use, pack a punch, hard to defeat.

Repeated cavalry charges beat spearmen (but with losses), ranged infantry is victimized because of the game's rock-paper-scissors mechanics (although stajes are undeniably nasty) and there's enough good anti-cavalry cavalry available to take on enemy heavy horse.

Lastly, mounted ranged units (my personal favorites) are fast but heavy armour will corner them in the end, then deliver slaughter, unless all units are extremely micromanaged.

Sad but true, it's the unit type that's broken

[Karnadas]

Really? Well that's boring... The usual power-gamers abound then...