The TOTAL WAR series may be worth a look. Give EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR a wide berth, as it is heavily bugged and unreliable. Its more recent sequel, NAPOLEON: TOTAL WAR is more stable. However, it's also more 'realistic' which you may find tedious.
ROME: TOTAL WAR is probably the most well-balanced of the recent TOTAL WAR games, plus it allows you to study your towns in 3D mode as they develop (for some reason the others don't) and you build them up, although you don't decide where to build things in a town, merely just order them to be built and they slot in. I always recommend MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR because of the fantastic free mods you can get for it, starting with THIRD AGE (the Lord of the Rings mod).
STARCRAFT is a must, if you've never played it before. It has what is probably the best single storyline of any RTS ever made (although there is strong competition). It's very old-fashioned looking, but worth a look now because STARCRAFT II is due out in the summer. Most copies of STARCRAFT nowdays come with the expansion, BROOD WAR, included.
The HOMEWORLD TRILOGY (HOMEWORLD, HOMEWORLD: CATACLYSM and HOMEWORLD 2) is also awesome. It's fully 3D, set in space, with combat in all three planes. It has some of the best graphics and music ever used in a series of games, but there is relatively little in the way of base-building or management (although both CATACLYSM and HW2 allow you to improve and upgrade your mothership throughout the game).
COMPANY OF HEROES is excellent, but the storyline is a bit cheesier and the WW2 setting puts some people off. Probably more worth a look if you are thinking of going online with it.
The two GROUND CONTROL games are superb, and feature a twist in that they strip away the base-building elements altogether. You deploy an army to the battlefield and that's it, you have to fight with what you are given (although GC2 does allow in-mission reinforcing later on). The storyline is brilliant and both games, despite being the better part of ten years old, still look great. GC1 is one of the hardest games ever made though and is especially notorious for not allowing in-mission saving. The same company made a much more recent game called WORLD IN CONFLICT (about a Soviet/US war in an alternate 1980s) which is great fun, but slightly less accomplished than the earlier games.
ROME: TOTAL WAR is probably the most well-balanced of the recent TOTAL WAR games, plus it allows you to study your towns in 3D mode as they develop (for some reason the others don't) and you build them up, although you don't decide where to build things in a town, merely just order them to be built and they slot in. I always recommend MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR because of the fantastic free mods you can get for it, starting with THIRD AGE (the Lord of the Rings mod).
STARCRAFT is a must, if you've never played it before. It has what is probably the best single storyline of any RTS ever made (although there is strong competition). It's very old-fashioned looking, but worth a look now because STARCRAFT II is due out in the summer. Most copies of STARCRAFT nowdays come with the expansion, BROOD WAR, included.
The HOMEWORLD TRILOGY (HOMEWORLD, HOMEWORLD: CATACLYSM and HOMEWORLD 2) is also awesome. It's fully 3D, set in space, with combat in all three planes. It has some of the best graphics and music ever used in a series of games, but there is relatively little in the way of base-building or management (although both CATACLYSM and HW2 allow you to improve and upgrade your mothership throughout the game).
COMPANY OF HEROES is excellent, but the storyline is a bit cheesier and the WW2 setting puts some people off. Probably more worth a look if you are thinking of going online with it.
The two GROUND CONTROL games are superb, and feature a twist in that they strip away the base-building elements altogether. You deploy an army to the battlefield and that's it, you have to fight with what you are given (although GC2 does allow in-mission reinforcing later on). The storyline is brilliant and both games, despite being the better part of ten years old, still look great. GC1 is one of the hardest games ever made though and is especially notorious for not allowing in-mission saving. The same company made a much more recent game called WORLD IN CONFLICT (about a Soviet/US war in an alternate 1980s) which is great fun, but slightly less accomplished than the earlier games.
This message last edited by Werthead on 29/04/2010 at 02:09:35 AM
Looking for a Strategy Game recommendation
- 28/04/2010 07:56:29 PM
808 Views
Napoleon Total War *NM*
- 28/04/2010 10:19:13 PM
411 Views
why? *NM*
- 28/04/2010 10:27:12 PM
281 Views
Absolutely not.Total War games are turn based and heavily logistic. *NM*
- 29/04/2010 10:54:42 PM
268 Views
Re: Looking for a Strategy Game recommendation
- 28/04/2010 11:38:02 PM
629 Views
If you're looking at Age of Empires-type games, I recommend Age of Mythology.
- 29/04/2010 01:34:58 AM
605 Views
Ah, yes. That's another great game, from the same studios that made AoE.
- 29/04/2010 04:16:41 AM
524 Views
AoM is great fun, but somehow it doesn't have the replayability of AoEII Conquerors, for me...
- 01/05/2010 01:35:53 PM
549 Views
Re: Looking for a Strategy Game recommendation
- 29/04/2010 02:08:26 AM
670 Views
I'd warn her off Total War, but Starcraft is definitely a go. *NM*
- 29/04/2010 10:55:23 PM
258 Views
If you liked the Caesar 3 demo so much, the obvious suggestion would be Caesar 3. 
- 01/05/2010 01:59:16 PM
737 Views
- 01/05/2010 01:59:16 PM
737 Views
for a while, we had the sim version of rollercoaster tycoon
- 02/05/2010 05:49:41 PM
707 Views
Yeah, I went and played it again just now because you'd reminded me of it...
- 02/05/2010 09:26:25 PM
567 Views
Jing laughs at all of your puny unimaginative suggestions! Laughs!
- 02/05/2010 10:47:24 PM
622 Views
Majesty 2? Really? You must have forgotten a lot about the original. 
- 03/05/2010 09:24:05 PM
564 Views
- 03/05/2010 09:24:05 PM
564 Views