The best strategy games

[Steve Dawson]

I love strategy games, and although I love elements of Command & conquer, and starcraft, my favourite style of strategy game will always be turn-based, with no time-limit on how long I can mull over my decisions. Civilisation will always be one of the greatest series ever for me, with the amazing Civ 2 taking over my life for about a decade. Europa Universalis is also excellent. What turn-based strategy game do you love and what is it that makes it so special for you ?

 

[SLTE]

Europa Universalis is number one for me. I absolutely love the sheer amount of strategic ground it covers, and how many options you have for dealing with situations. It's also a profoundly unbalanced game in many respects, which makes choosing a tiny nation and trying to work towards prominence all the more interesting. You're going to have a different experience most every time you play, whereas similar games like Civ often run on rails past a certain point.

I know it's not for PC, but I'll throw the Fire Emblem series out here as well. The fear of permadeath really forces you to think about every move.

 

[guruproto]

I'd have to agree that Civilization takes the cake for me. I bought Civilization IV after a friend's recommendation and was addicted to the series immediately. The variety of the civilizations, victory options, technology development, and diplomacy was a bit overwhelming, but still excited me to the core. I lost many games from getting nuked, raided by barbarians, and city unhappiness, but won just as many with global war or going to Alpha Centauri (I was a warmonger for most of my games; peaceful eras are boring times).

I had many great tales born from my time playing Civilization, and I hope the series continues to grow in the future.

 

[Galdon]

One strategy game I found to be fairly enjoyable is Warlock: Master of the Arcane. It not only has a main world that you fight over, but it also can have a fair number of pocket dimensions to conquer for the advantage of gaining rare units and resources.

Another thing I like about this game is that, unlike the Civilization games, your character is more than just an avatar to represent your nation. You play as one of several powerful wizards, and can use your magic to directly influence the tide of battle or help your nation grow more quickly. Being successful in that game is largely a balancing act between increasing your wizard's power, your nation's stability, and your army's strength.

 

[BluBird]

Race for the Galaxy is great (I think best) with two players. It's widely available and pretty cost effective as well, and has lots of expansions if you find you really get into it. The symbology of the game might seem like a barrier at first, but it comes with great player aids that help out a lot.

 

[HisDudeness]

I've played my share of strategy games, mostly Age of Empires III and later on Civ 5. Civ 5 is my favourite, although, like SLTE mentioned, it runs on rails after certain amount of turns so I've dropped it because of that and I'm looking to pick up a turn based strategy game like Crusader Kings. I played Crusader Kings but I didn't like that I had to be cruel to my family and friends to conquer and maintain my land. I'll definitely check out Europa Universalis though.

 

[Andreea]

Civilization games are probably the greatest strategy games of all time. That being said, my favorite would probably be some of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, especially Heroes of Might and Magic III, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

 

[pwarbi]

While I'm not really much of a fan of games like this I have to admit, I did enjoy civilization for a while, although having said that I quickly got bored with it.

I think that genre of game only appeals to the niche market, and while that doesn't mean they're not enjoyable to some, I'm not really one of them.