I need a strategy game which doesn't suck.

[kittenOFchaos]

HOI3 with Semper Fi and For the Motherland is an incredible game. Easily as good as II and probably quite a lot better.

Paradox need to be stopped. They've made basically one game and have kept re-releasing it.

TBH, Creative Assembly are also guilty of this.

[Dinner]

I bought HOI3 and was completely disappointed after the mother****ing excellence which was HOI2. I even gave it another chance and bought Semper Fi but it was just too different a game for my tastes so I haven't bothered with FtM. Your mileage may vary.

[N35t0r]

Yeah, I couldn't 'get into' HoI3.

[kentonio]

Paradox need to be stopped. They've made basically one game and have kept re-releasing it.

TBH, Creative Assembly are also guilty of this.

Thats ridiculous. Those two are the only ones making big strategy games that kick ass. HOI3 is a massive advance on HOI1 so why shouldn't they keep improving and refining? Many of us keep buying their games because they make incredible fun games.

I bought HOI3 and was completely disappointed after the mother****ing excellence which was HOI2. I even gave it another chance and bought Semper Fi but it was just too different a game for my tastes so I haven't bothered with FtM. Your mileage may vary.

Too different from what? On one hand we have Kitten saying they just keep making the same game, and now you say it was very different? I is confused..

FtM incidentally is just the final necessary adjustment that finishes off HOI3. I think we can all agree it shouldn't require 2 expansions to get a game working optimally, but screw it, they're a very small company.

[Al B. Sure!]

Not for Oerdin but both Empire and Napoleon Total War plus all DLC is being offered on steam for $7.50. Or you can get all the Total War games except the Shoguns and the first Medieval for 12 bucks as a bundle.

[kittenOFchaos]

Thats ridiculous. Those two are the only ones making big strategy games that kick ass. HOI3 is a massive advance on HOI1 so why shouldn't they keep improving and refining? Many of us keep buying their games because they make incredible fun games.

Every series they make is basically the same...HOI, Victoria, Pride of Nations and Europa Universalis. The differences are hardly seismic. You don't even need to play, just look at a few screenies and it is clear they've repackaged the same game. I was lucky I got their whole collection of games off steam for something like £25 during one of their deals - mainly to get Arthur. What a nasty piece of trash that turned out to be.

As for the Creative Assembly...still giving us tiny battles since FOREVER. Horribly addictive all the same, but apart from the graphics, it sometimes is embarrassing how lame their games still really are. It is solely that there is a lack of competiton that they get away with it. The Civ series is similar...no-one else is challenging whosoever in that genre.

[kentonio]

Every series they make is basically the same...HOI, Victoria, Pride of Nations and Europa Universalis. The differences are hardly seismic. You don't even need to play, just look at a few screenies and it is clear they've repackaged the same game. I was lucky I got their whole collection of games off steam for something like £25 during one of their deals - mainly to get Arthur. What a nasty piece of trash that turned out to be.

HOI/EU/CK etc are very different games. Try playing Crusader Kings and Victoria and then saying they're the same game, it's just not true. It seems like you're judging them based on similar interface whereas its the deeper mechanics that vary widely. Personally I find that a much more interesting evolution than something like most sports games which tend to just play around with the visuals while leaving the game mechanics the same.

As for the Creative Assembly...still giving us tiny battles since FOREVER. Horribly addictive all the same, but apart from the graphics, it sometimes is embarrassing how lame their games still really are. It is solely that there is a lack of competiton that they get away with it. The Civ series is similar...no-one else is challenging whosoever in that genre.

Tiny battles? One of the problems with designing games with larger and larger troops numbers is that you reach a point where people simply can't keep in control of the numbers (unless you mean just increasing the number of troops per unit, in which case it's only a visual thing anyway). Try playing something like Cossacks an old RTS with a unit limit of something like 32,000 IIRC. It was a great game, but the number of units becomes very hard to keep track of after a while.

[johnthebom]

strategy game ? mytholia !

I'm playing Mytholia, it's an ancient based mmo strategy game, strategy really matters here, you have technologies to research (make choice between economy, militairy, buildings, ...) and you have different godpowers, you can even hire mercenaries and there are barbarians with artificial intelligence, different clanwars in the game to get action, etc etc, really love it , it's more complex then other similar games, have fun, John.

[Tuberski]

Try Age of Wonders 2 - Shadow Magic.

ACK!

[Dinner]

I had previously bought EU3 with the first two expansion packs but I saw a sale at Gamer's Gate (P.I.'s online retailer) for the whole thing (minus extra sprite packs) for $10.18. That's the base game plus all four expansion packs for $10.18. I have to say the final two expansion packs and the sprite packs really improve the game and I'm enjoying the series all over again.

[Al B. Sure!]

You'll enjoy it more if you get the MEIOU mod.

[Dinner]

MEIOU? What does that stand for?

[Al B. Sure!]

MEIOU? What does that stand for?

Mihi Est Imperare Orbi Universo. New map, 750 land provinces added, new countries and cultures, new religions including a religious minority dynamic, timeline extended back to 1356, etc.

The interface alone makes it better, to be honest:



And yes, you can change that ugly font from the launcher.

[Nikolai]

I had previously bought EU3 with the first two expansion packs but I saw a sale at Gamer's Gate (P.I.'s online retailer) for the whole thing (minus extra sprite packs) for $10.18. That's the base game plus all four expansion packs for $10.18. I have to say the final two expansion packs and the sprite packs really improve the game and I'm enjoying the series all over again.

A quick tip: GG is no longer owned by PI(haven't been for a few years now), and as ca 90% of all buyers of PI games buys it through Steam, all new PI games starting with CK2 will have Steam as the main/default outlet. That means Steam handles beta patches and all games must be validated upon buy(not play, only once when you buy it) by Steam. BUT: There will be a GG non-Steam version too, but you then won't get the benefit of beta patches, and instead don't have to use Steam, if you are one of those who don't like them. So go GG if you hate Steam and Steam if you want the full package with beta patches.

[Al B. Sure!]

Oh yeah needless to say, you NEED to get the beta patches for Divine Wind. That expansion was bugged on release (it's Paradox). Originally, every war led to cascading alliances that turned a spat between let's say Serbia and Ragusa into a world war.