Turn based Strategy

[macmert]

But you know coastal cities are invaluable if you run a SE there, with right wonders, coastal cities can become great person farms or just money bags :) That is why first civilizations are formed near water... so getting coastal cities from AI is a major blow, I remember I had a coastal town, which was popping out GP every 10 turns... get some great engineers and rush some GP point generating wonders and there you go, a GP farm :) or pick a financial leader and put in banks on coastal cities, get some cottages around the coastal cities, there you go, you have a money bag :)

 

My complaint is, later in the game you cant really do cultural flips, so taking over a city peacefully is harder... In order to grab more land you need to resort to violence, which I know Sid Meier is not fond of... :)

 

Oh btw did you see the "I am a civ addict" movies? I just love the old lady there :D

[nosisab]

Seems to be a pattern here. You play one and it whets your appetite for more.

 

Has anyone ever played Battle for Wesnoth?

 

This is a turn based strategy where players can create campaigns or scenarios to add to it. There's hundreds of them made. If you are interested, don't get involved in their forums as it's been taken over by trolls for years now.

 

It's a fantasy based strategy btw.

Don't even knew, you got me curious about this game. Searching now.

 

Edit: Better yet, cross platform GPL ... very worth a try, seems a absolute must have on Linux and at least a must have on the others OSes. Thanks for the hint.

[Shadowcran]

http://www.wesnoth.org/ This is the download page. As you'll see, there's a stable version and a development version.

 

Extra campaigns are available simply using the Wesnoth game. THere's an option on it's main menu to DL from the site. For an earlier version there used to be a site where you could DL from that, but since it changes so often with new developments it's kind of silly to put one up. The campaigns range from great to ok, to "did a 5 year old make this" so be aware of that. The DL of the game itself has all the ones from the games creator, David White, plus favorites from the past few years among player created, but there's hundreds of others to choose from.

 

Even though you may be experienced with TBS, I do recommend trying one of their trial type campaigns. TWo brothers would be too easy probably but The South Guard can get you acquainted with a wider variety of different unit types. In effect, there are 6 factions(plus some player created ones that are considered "non lore") and each faction has tons of unit types. My favorite among the "core campaigns" is Northern Rebirth, a player created mod. This one requires you to have some knowledge or you'll get your rear handed to you on scenario one. You start as a peasant and can only recruit other peasants(level 0 characters) on the first scenario, with more options becoming available each scenario.

 

The units can go up to Level 4(only a handful are this level, most stop at 3 or 2). This is done so that the game doesn't gravitate towards the RPG rather than strategy. The game itself is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Be warned that the players on the multiplayer servers are pretty experienced for the most part so it's best to learn a lot before trying them.

 

The game runs on the KISS principle, short for Keep it simple, stupid. They do their best to keep the learning curve easy and the 6 main factions are well balanced and considered dogma. They won't change this no matter what evidence you provide.

 

Terrain also plays a major part in the game. Keep that in mind. Different factions call for different strategies, with Drakes(loosely based on Dragonlance draconians) being the hardest to master so save it for last. They require almost completely different tactics from all the others and can be difficult. They have no terrain advantages, but can fly. They hit hard but are in turn also hit very hard as their defense is low. You have to adopt a wierd hit and run and hope for water type strategy with them as all units but mermen and like creatures move crappily on water so it's a haven for Drakes.

[nosisab]

http://www.wesnoth.org/ This is the download page. As you'll see, there's a stable version and a development version.

 

Extra campaigns are available simply using the Wesnoth game. THere's an option on it's main menu to DL from the site. For an earlier version there used to be a site where you could DL from that, but since it changes so often with new developments it's kind of silly to put one up. The campaigns range from great to ok, to "did a 5 year old make this" so be aware of that. The DL of the game itself has all the ones from the games creator, David White, plus favorites from the past few years among player created, but there's hundreds of others to choose from.

 

Even though you may be experienced with TBS, I do recommend trying one of their trial type campaigns. TWo brothers would be too easy probably but The South Guard can get you acquainted with a wider variety of different unit types. In effect, there are 6 factions(plus some player created ones that are considered "non lore") and each faction has tons of unit types.

 

The units can go up to Level 4(only a handful are this level, most stop at 3 or 2). This is done so that the game doesn't gravitate towards the RPG rather than strategy. The game itself is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Be warned that the players on the multiplayer servers are pretty experienced for the most part so it's best to learn a lot before trying them.

 

The game runs on the KISS principle, short for Keep it simple, stupid. They do their best to keep the learning curve easy and the 6 main factions are well balanced.

We all known by now the strength of the community work :)

 

PS: Being open source, the user's content is limited just by imagination.

[Shadowcran]

I added more to previous post including strategy tips. I just went ahead and posted it because I knew you had to still be "around" and wanted to get you the link.

 

Some of the scenarios can be very long and require long term strategy. Lucky, you can speed up the AI's turns if you so desire, but don't take away the whole thing or you'll be going "huh"? an awful lot. The end of Northern Rebirth, for example, involves you operating 4 separate large armies assaulting the main Northern factions(mostly orcs, trolls,etc.) castle where almost every square in the large structure is filled with troops. This battle alone can take days.

 

As you come through scenarios, often you can obtain other units(most times you buy and upgrade your own) that are hidden. Using Northern Rebirth again as a good example, there's a scenario that nets you 2 white mages and a shaman elf. These are the only "healer" type units you'll get in that entire campaign and are thus, good as gold.

 

A basic scenario plays out as your main character for the campaign is inside a structure where he can use his "starting gold" to purchase or recall units. Recall is using units from past scenarios that have presumably leveled up. The strict money situation forces you to be careful in what units you add. You gain more gold by occupying "villages" in the game. Each village nets you +1 gold per turn and also serves as a place where units can "stay" to "heal up" as they get a set 8 or 10 hp back per turn staying there. (white mages can heal this much to every unit surrounding him as your next turn begins so it's best to keep them safe, often surrounded by units needing healing). Usually the first 4 rounds of every scenario involves occupying villages or jockeying for position.

 

At the end of every scenario, the gold you have left is carried over to the next, but only 80% of it. The remaining 20% is called "upkeep" for maintaining your armies basic needs.

 

One thing that many feel needs to be changed is the ranged attacks. Your units have to be right next to the enemy to execute a ranged attack instead of 2 or more hexes away. IF the unit you're attacking doesn't have a ranged attack itself, then you simply shoot them while they stand there. If they DO have one, then they'll fire back. This requires ranged type units to take more advantage of terrain and proximity to melee type units.

 

Units also "control" the hexes around them so enemy units can't whiz by them. There is a handful that have the ability to ignore this, but only a handful. This is the "Skirmish" ability. 0 level units can't control the hexes around them due them being ..well...low level. These 0 level units don't pop up in most scenarios so it's not hard to learn this.

 

There are a lot of other abilities that units have similar to skirmish. Leader type units have the leadership ability that has units around them fight better is another example.

[nosisab]

I added more to previous post including strategy tips. I just went ahead and posted it because I knew you had to still be "around" and wanted to get you the link.

 

Some of the scenarios can be very long and require long term strategy. Lucky, you can speed up the AI's turns if you so desire, but don't take away the whole thing or you'll be going "huh"? an awful lot. The end of Northern Rebirth, for example, involves you operating 4 separate large armies assaulting the main Northern factions(mostly orcs, trolls,etc.) castle where almost every square in the large structure is filled with troops. This battle alone can take days.

Got the Windows version, installed like a charm... uhh, maybe I'll reinstall because it did it in my native idiom and, maybe, will be better having it in English. I'll give it a run as soon I have a free time.

 

PS: Interesting it having an online list of user made content one can download directly from the main menu.

[Shadowcran]

One last thing. LEvelling up your units.

 

Some units have different "trees" depending on which way you go. An example is the Level 1 spearman. Once it reaches level 2 you can choose either 1- swordsman 2-Javelineer(this one doesn't go past level 2 so it's technically a dead end but still useful) or 3-halberdier. 1 and 3 can move on to a level 3 extension but won't reach level 4. If I recall there are about 3 or 4 units total that can achieve level 4. The fire drake can eventually become a level 4 Armageddon drake(some campaigns don't allow this one) a red mage can become a Level 4 Archmage, a sergeant can eventually beome a Level 4 Marshall(this unit type is very rare in campaigns) and some undead campaigns allow a level 4 lich.

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

Woo I'm glad that some people mentioned MoM. Amazing little game, I still tend to play it from time to time.

 

Bored from the constant paladin rush? Here's a nice tactic for ya:

 

Miran, warlord, dark elf. Restart a few times until you land your first city right next to an adamantium vein. Rush alchemist, and start spamming spearmen :). If you manage to catch a few cities early, then rush a war academy as well. Ultra-elite spearmen with 6 points of ranged damage are serriously whoop-ass. One food upkeep, 8 spearmen per unit * 6 dmg per spearmen = ouch. Spam 'em like you mean it and mirror's soon yours. Employed the tactic sucesfully on impossible :), even adamantium doom drakes bleak in comparison to an endless stream of superelite spearmen. Hope someone doesn't pay you a visit with pallies tho.

 

Alchemy, warlord, halflings. This tactic's only good for starters, nice for expanding quick and getting that human city to start crushing your oposition with paladinds. Just build a sawmill and spam slingers, theese little guys can pretty much massacre anything the pc can throw at ya early in the game.

 

Or grab 2x chaos, 2x nature, 4x sorcery, alchemy, sorcery mastery and node mastery. Pick sprites, put all of your power into mana create as many sprites and slingers as possible. Grab the nearest phantom warriors infested sorcery node and you're off to a kick start. A casting skill of over 200 is easy to achieve within turn 50 with this tactic and some luck with nodes.

 

Another memorable tactic is full sorcery, humans, invisibility, flight, reset until you're next to an ocean, rush warships and save up on mana as much as possible. Enchant your endless ammo warships with flight and invis and start raking in those nodes. A full unit of theese ships on elite can slaughter up to 4great wyrms. This is about luck though, it's also not very usefull against mages as they'll just dissenchant it everytime; spell lock 500 + counter magic or not -_-.

 

Other than that my favorite picks for a casual game on normal or hard are alchemy artificer and full death.

 

Oh and I've played all other games you mentioned as well! Lol, UFO/X-com. Good times, good times, apocalipse was win. However the serries that caught my heart the most is... Yeah, what else - HoMaM. 4 and 5 were fun - sort off. But 3. IS the game of games. Even more fun with the latest WoG.

 

One day I'd like to create a TBS - a cross between MoM, Homam 3 and 5 and some elements of CIV. Wouldn't that be grand?

[Stampede]

I am playing Disciples 2 inbetween quotes at the office. I am loving it, highly recommended.

 

Ihateregisteringeverywhere, your username makes me smile everytime I see it. :)

[Shadowcran]

Reading the most recent Game Informer, I notice that TBS are still being made by the ton for the handhelds. This stinks for me, as I just can't see well enough for those. About the only thing I can do for those is wait for a ROM to be made so I can play them in "full screen" on the computer.