I need a tactical game

RashG · Post by **RashG** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:07 pm

I'm itching for tactical gaming. Setting doesn't matter but I'd like the gameplay to be deep and recuire skill. Preferably turn-based but real-time works too if you can give orders while paused. It doesn't have to be a recent game either.

I have played Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm to death and Rome: Total War has too much focus on strategy. So I don't want to mess with economy or build but just beat the crap out of my opponent.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:19 pm

Maybe Shadow Watch if you can find it anywhere. Haven't played it myself but it has its admirers.

docvego · Post by **docvego** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:25 pm

I'm playing Codename: Panzers right now. It's a more tactical WWII RTS, you can give orders while paused too.
Instead of building a base and building waves of usits, your army carries over from mission to mission. To get new units you buy them before the start of each mission by spending presteige points which you gain based on how well you do on each mission. You are also limited to a unit cap of 25 Units so a lot of planning goes into setting up a mixed force. Units also gain XP as you progress.

Some of the English dubbing sucks, but nearly all the units speak their native tounge. (German Units speak German, etc.). Also, you might find some of the earlier missions kind of easy, but they can get pretty hard in some of the later missions.

There are a few single and multi-player demos out on the official website so I suggest you check those out before you drop any $$$.

Kratz · Post by **Kratz** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:35 pm

Fallout Tactics? That game was pretty damn fun. Same sort of gameplay as Silent Storm.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:41 pm

I second Shadow Watch.

Also, if you enjoy ship-to-ship tactical games, the Starfleet Command series is worth playing.

RashG · Post by **RashG** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:50 pm

I have been looking for Shadow Watch but haven't been able to found it anywhere.
Fallout Tactics is a good idea. Thanks!

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:56 pm

RashG wrote:I have been looking for Shadow Watch but haven't been able to found it anywhere.
Fallout Tactics is a good idea. Thanks!

RashG, I should still have my copy of Shadow Watch (unplayed even). PM or email me if you're interested.

Zekester · Post by **Zekester** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:02 pm

Point of Attack 2

It should keep you occupied for a looonnggg time

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:44 pm

Age of Wonders had some pretty sweet tactical battles.

The Myth games were excellent for tactics too. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure you could pause them.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:52 pm

NEW: Heroes of World War 2

Real time, but you can slow time down. VERY difficult, but fun to try new strategies and see what happens.

OLD SCHOOL: Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far

Also real time. One of the hardest games I have EVER played.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:11 pm

Titans of Steel.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:35 pm

X-Com?
X-Com Apocolypse
Fallout Tactics is great!

setaside · Post by **setaside** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:54 pm

Massive Assault. A great, addictive turn-based tactical strategy game. You can't go wrong with it.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:58 pm

There's also the freebies of Steel Panthers WW2 and MBT.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/SPCamo/index.htm

RashG · Post by **RashG** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:27 pm

What kind of game is Age of Wonders? Even after a little browsing I couldn't figure out anything other than it is turn-based and fantasy. I have always mixed it with Age of Empires and other similarly named titles.

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:57 pm

Nothing like AoE, which is an RTS in the warcraft/command&conquer mold.

Age of Wonders is a sort of fantasy 4X game with a large strategic wrapper and tactical battles. There are also echoes of the Heroes of Might & Magic games and maybe others I haven't played.

The tactical battles are great, but given the strategic wrapper it might not be your cup of tea. I do highly recommend it though (at least the incarnation I have played, which is Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic).

RashG · Post by **RashG** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:20 pm

Just tried the AoW 2 demo and it's great! Should I get AoW 2 or AoW: Shadow Magic, what is the difference?

This and Fallout Tactics should get me through the Christmas holidays. Thanks a lot for suggestions!

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:23 pm

I didn't play AoW2. I think Shadow Magic is generally better regarded than AoW2 (especially the SP campaign), but don't hold me to that. Shadow Magic is great though.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:38 pm

Get Shadow Magic. It made some serious improvements balance-wise. The campaign was much better, the editor was better (so there is better user content). It was the final polish of a great game.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:55 pm

AOW: SM is a great game. But, it's not a tactical game.

Itsatrap · Post by **Itsatrap** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:58 pm

I agree, Shadow Magic is even better than the already excellent AoW2.

Also, if you do manage to conjure up a copy of Shadow Watch, keep in mind that you'll need to hunt down an old version of Java to get it to run properly (JRE 1.1 works fine).

- Alan

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 10:05 pm

Kratz wrote:Fallout Tactics? That game was pretty damn fun. Same sort of gameplay as Silent Storm.

Yeah, I'd recommend that if you've already played JA2 and Silent Storm. Good game, lots of fun.

Grifman

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 10:06 pm

setaside wrote:Massive Assault. A great, addictive turn-based tactical strategy game. You can't go wrong with it.

Yeah, that's another good one, but I'm thinking he's talking individual soldiers, not units as in MA. But this is a very good game, alot like chess in some ways, and the AI is very good. I'd highly recommend this to any fan of TB games.

Grifman

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:29 am

Jagged Alliance 2

Probably the second best turn based tactical game ever released. With personalities as distinct as Steriod, Shadow and Gasket you need to play it. Only beaten by the invicible X-COM.

Edmond · Post by **Edmond** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:56 am

I saw several copies of Shadow Watch in my local Big Lots. $9.99 each.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 9:49 am

CSL wrote:Jagged Alliance 2

Uh, he said he has already played it

Grifman

RookieCAF · Post by **RookieCAF** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:42 pm

Combat Mission.

Elenkis · Post by **Elenkis** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:12 pm

Definitely Combat Mission.

none · Post by **none** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:00 pm

and once again, Combat Mission. any of them will do although i'm particularly fond of Barbarossa to Berlin.

Scanner · Post by **Scanner** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:37 am

While the AoW series is pretty good, it has at least as much economy-building strategy as Rome Total War, so if that was a turn off then I wouldn't recommend AoW.

Ground Control I/II are a good real-time games for simply beating up enemies without worrying about the economy. Starfleet Command and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident are also real-time games with no economy, but have a lot more space-sim aspects (especially SFC).

There are fewer real-time historical games that are economy-free; Close Combat, or Sid Meier's Gettysburg/Antietam/Waterloo/Austerlitz might be your best bets. Both of them include unit leadership and morale, kind of like the tactical component of the Total War series. Highway to the Reich is another excellent real-time, set in WW2 Europe. HTTR really combines the best features of RTS and wargames.

Harpoon and Jane's Fleet Command are decent larger scale real-time wargames, both involving modern naval warfare. Harpoon is much deeper then JFC.

There are a lot more options for turn-based games with no economic management, including Combat Mission, Korsun Pocket, Steel Panthers or pretty much any other wargame.

Titans of Steel is a good turn-based sci-fi tactical game based directly on BattleTech tabletop rules. It plays pretty close to JA2 and XCom. There is minimal strategic component: you have to win battles in order to get cash in order to upgrade your gear, not unlike JA2. Your characters also slowly specialize and gain skill over time, also like JA2. There is no overall story arc like in JA2, though - it's just fight to live, live to fight.

GuidoTKP · Post by **GuidoTKP** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:54 pm

Good golly I *loved* JA2. How does Silent Storm compare to that game? Is it a must have for those who loved JA2?

Scanner · Post by **Scanner** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:05 pm

GuidoTKP wrote:Good golly I *loved* JA2. How does Silent Storm compare to that game? Is it a must have for those who loved JA2?

If you loved JA2, you'll like Silent Storm.

Operationally, they're very similar: you agonize over how many action points to devote to a shot, calculate how many it will take to reach the safety of cover, and yell in frustration when you forget to allow enough to reload your weapon. The destructive environments of SS offer a little bit more variety, since you can shoot through walls, blow up objects, etc. When you're done, you scoop all the weapons off the ground and swap things around.

Still, overall I liked JA2 better. JA2 oozes atmosphere, SS can be a little sterile IMO. Nobody in SS will scream "My muscles are bleeding!" The economic component is gone (in the original) so you sort of take missions as they come.

Also the RPG system in SS is bit more like Diablo - when you level up, you push a skill button in a long tree. Unlike Diablo, the skills don't get progressively cooler; it always seems like a choice between a 5% buff or a +5 buff - eventually I didn't even care when I leveled. Although it is open to abuse, I prefer the JA2/Morrowind style use-it-or-lose it system.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:11 pm

I admit I haven't read the whole thread, but a quick text search for it turned up nothing, so...

I recommend MechCommander 2. You can pick it up for $10 now at Wal*Mart and similar stores that sell jewel-case edition games. It's a straight-forward tactical strategy game. There's no bases to build or anything like that. You just command your mechs through various missions. It can be a lot of fun, and very tactical. Well, if you play set the difficulty up high. Otherwise it's just too easy. And if you figure out how to exploit the enemy AI (there's a couple ways), there's a fan-made patch to address that. Oh, and you have the ability to give orders while paused.

Edit: I forgot to mention the fact that you can customize your mechs in any way you like. Sometimes I had more fun coming up with new mech configurations than playing the actual missions.

em2nought · Post by **em2nought** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 9:58 pm

Battleship Chess http://www.apezone.com

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 10:25 pm

I also suggest Fallout Tactics

Gizah · Post by **Gizah** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:56 pm

Chaos Gate.

edit - Might as well add Incubation and Odium to the list as well.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:06 pm

em2nought wrote:Battleship Chess http://www.apezone.com

This game looks like it has a lot of potential, but the hour demo limit is killing me. I need time to learn it.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:14 am

Second for Mechcommander 2.

Octopus Overlords

I need a tactical game

I need a tactical game

naval combat

Re: naval combat