Fantasy strategy games? [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

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Jeivar

2013-10-31, 10:01 AM

StLordeth

2013-10-31, 10:48 AM

My favorite strategy game ever is Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It's turn-based, however. Probably not what you're wanting, but Heroes 3 is something any Strategy gamer should try.

warty goblin

2013-10-31, 10:52 AM

I've an itch to play a good strategy game in your basic fantasy setting.

I've played the Battle for Middle Earth games and gave that game based on Eberron a try, but I'm hungry for something more like the Total War games. I would just love to see something with that level of depth and complexity but more color and narrative freedom than something that aims for historical accuracy.

So, is there anything out there?

Ooh, I know this one!

In the Total War clone department, there's King Arthur, the Roleplaying Wargame. Also its sequel, although I don't think that's nearly as good. The original KA is awesome though, with a big map, lots of text adventure quests, and gorgeous tactical battles, all run through a Total War sort of framework. Well worth checking out, and dirt cheap at this point as well.

Drifting abroad, into the realm of fantasy strategy games that aren't like Total War, there's a lot more options. Here's some recommendations.

Purely turn based:
I like Fantasy Wars and its superior sequel Elven Legacy quite a bit. They're just a series of very hard hex based fights played out across a series of fixed maps, but they require some serious strategizing for all that.

In the same vein, and by the same developer, Warlock: Master of the Arcane basically turns the scenario based Elven Legacy into a 4X game, somewhat like Civ IV. A 4X game focused almost entirely on creating armies of trolls and using them to pound everybody else into the mud like so many fenceposts. With the assorted DLC it's bloody awesome. You can build a giant up-armored assault turtle. You should build a giant up-armored assault turtle.

Barking up the same 4X fantasy tree, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is a more complex take on the same idea. The addition of tactical combat and unit customization puts a more intimate spin on smashing foes with clubs, and city management is a bit more detailed. Also has fairly detailed although mostly linear RPG style quests. And you can do things with dragons that make the god of game balance cry. I got two of them once, and, well, let's just say that cremation parlors the world over went bankrupt.

Tragically the fantasy RTS seems to have gone extinct. Probably your best bet here is Spellforce 2, which is available in several incarnations for not a lot of your earth dollars at the download outlet of your choice. It still looks good, the scenarios are large, there's some roleplaying guff on top to make sure you remember it's a fantasy game, and it's a generally agreeable time. And don't hold the cheesecake cover art against it, nearly all the female characters wear armor that, if not practical, does not qualify as combat lingerie.

CarpeGuitarrem

2013-10-31, 11:01 AM

I need to reinstall King Arthur and actually play through that campaign. It was good fun, I just lost track of it and got busy with other things. It sounds very much like what you're asking for.

Also, there's a few mods to various Total War games, as I recall, for some popular settings, such as Westeros or Middle Earth. I don't know the TW mod scene very well, though.

Also, Crusader Kings 2, while a deep historical turn-based strategy game (more like an involved simulation/board game on the computer), apparently has mods for Game of Thrones and Elder Scrolls.

If you're a fan of the Civilization series, Civ IV has an excellent fantasy mod in the form of Fall From Heaven 2.

Cristo Meyers

2013-10-31, 11:02 AM

Also, there's a few mods to various Total War games, as I recall, for some popular settings, such as Westeros or Middle Earth. I don't know the TW mod scene very well, though.

I was about to suggest this. I know there's a Middle Earth mod and unless Nintendo has gotten to it there's a Legend of Zelda one as well.

endoperez

2013-10-31, 11:08 AM

There's also Dominions 4 (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/16/the-complex-god-dominions-4/). I'm a huge fan of the previous game in the series. The user interface is clunky and it's definitely old school, but if you like old school and dozens of nations, then this might just be your game.

And by dozens of nations, I mean it literally. 75 nations, to be exact... Few thousand unit/monster types, hundreds of spells and magic items, etc.

There's no campaign, no story, it's all based on the gameplay. Each game is both a challenge, and a chance at making new discoveries. What will happen when the lovecraftian horrors of R'lyeh conquer the necromantic Onyx Amazons early on, getting access to Death magic? What about when the ice giants of Niefelheim keep coming across Nature mages, druids and shamans in incredible numbers - how can you turn that resource into an advantage with this nation, this time?

That's the single player. Multiplayer is that with alliances, and for many people that's the REAL meat of the game.

However, it is definitely not a game for everyone. It's hard to get into it, there's a huge manual, it's too heavy for many people... Try out the demo of Dominions 3 first, or wait for a Dom4 demo to be released.

Cikomyr

2013-10-31, 11:24 AM

Fall From Heave II is fantastic.

Starsign

2013-10-31, 12:41 PM

I second using Crusader Kings II for a Fantasy Strategy game. While the base game is very much historical rather than fantasy, the Elder Kings (based off The Elder Scrolls) and Game of Thrones mods completely overhaul the game to work in each of their respective universes and are considerably more fantastical as a result. If you can get into and understand the base CK2 game (which does take a bit to get used to) I think those mods will be worth your time.

Otherwise, if you don't mind that it's a bit old, Warcraft 3 and it's expansions are basically the swan song for Fantasy RTS games that's generally worth checking out.

I was about to suggest this. I know there's a Middle Earth mod and unless Nintendo has gotten to it there's a Legend of Zelda one as well.

I think there is/was a Legend of Zelda one, however I don't think that was for Total War. I do know that there is a Middle Earth mod for Total War: Rome that's pretty darn extensive by this point.

Cikomyr

2013-10-31, 02:53 PM

I wished there was a Total War mod for Warhammer :smallfrown:

Cristo Meyers

2013-10-31, 03:06 PM

I wished there was a Total War mod for Warhammer :smallfrown:

I could've sworn they were working on one at one point, but that was years ago.

Ailurus

2013-10-31, 03:24 PM

I could've sworn they were working on one at one point, but that was years ago.

Don't want to falsely raise hopes, but a bit back (last December, I think?) Creative Assembly and Games Workshop signed a multi-title licensing deal regarding Warhammer Fantasy games. Course, I've not been able to find any real news about it since then, but that's generally not the type of thing you buy and then forget about.

Cristo Meyers

2013-10-31, 03:29 PM

Don't want to falsely raise hopes, but a bit back (last December, I think?) Creative Assembly and Games Workshop signed a multi-title licensing deal regarding Warhammer Fantasy games. Course, I've not been able to find any real news about it since then, but that's generally not the type of thing you buy and then forget about.

Ah, I bet that was it. That was only last year, though, maybe a year and a half ago. Around the time THQ went down, I think.

Knowing Games Workshop, I bet that Creative Assembly has to build the game more or less from the ground up. So it'll probably be a while before anything materializes out of it.

Renegade Paladin

2013-10-31, 03:48 PM

Warcrafts 1 through 3? :smalltongue:

Knaight

2013-10-31, 05:07 PM

I'm going to second Dominions 4: It has complexity, and it revels in it. Thousands of spells, 75 nations, thousands of units, easily two dozen significantly different commander special abilities, meaningful seasonal effects, so on and so forth. Plus, in addition to picking a nation you make a 'pretender god', which is a semi-divine entity who has taken over the nation and plans to use it to conquer the world and ascend to godhood.

That said: I might actually go with Dominions 3 first. It doesn't have all of that, but what it does have is a mod, known as the Conceptual Balance Mod. It's free, it represents years of tweaking, additions, etc, and it is vastly superior to the base game.

Morithias

2013-10-31, 09:50 PM

King's bounty.

Cespenar

2013-11-01, 01:41 AM

Why does it take 15 posts for Master of Magic to be mentioned? Meh.

chiasaur11

2013-11-01, 02:11 AM

On one hand, Fire Emblem is way more strategy RPG than pure strategy. Light logistics (you buy breakable weapons and medical supplies instead of managing a global economy), armies consist exclusively of named characters you recruit instead of generics (and they can die for good), and there's a linear RPG campaign instead of freeform maps.

On the other, they're great fantasy strategy RPGs. So, you know, if that sounds up your street, Awakening is amazing.

MLai

2013-11-01, 06:09 AM

(1) Sega + Creative Assembly = Currently working on Warhammer Total War licensed by Games Workshop. Soon you won't need Total War mods to play Warhammer.

(2) My favorite Heroes Of Might And Magic is #5. I know ppl hate it, but I love it and thinks it's awesome. Recently bought and tried to play through #6... I dropped the game out of boredom near the end of the first campaign.

(3) Eador: Masters of the Broken World. In the same vein as HoMM and Fallen Enchantress. I love its oldschool European storybook art style.

Artanis

2013-11-01, 08:49 AM

Why has nobody mentioned Battle for Wesnoth yet?

Tylorious

2013-11-01, 09:03 AM

If you have any of the consoles that have the privledge (sp?) of housing an ogre battle game, then buy ogre battle for your console and play it. you will not regret it.

ObadiahtheSlim

2013-11-01, 09:35 AM

Lords of Magic is a fun game.

CarpeGuitarrem

2013-11-01, 10:15 AM

Why has nobody mentioned Battle for Wesnoth yet?
It's a fantasy strategy game, but it really doesn't fit the OP's criteria.

Psyren

2013-11-01, 10:33 AM

HoMM3/Warcraft 3 for me.

I tried HoMMV and VI but I dunno... they just haven't quite captured the magic of the third one for me. They keep trying to add all this 3D rendered crap that really doesn't need to be there. I do like that the martial heroes can participate more in combat in the later installments though.

Artanis

2013-11-01, 11:32 AM

It's a fantasy strategy game, but it really doesn't fit the OP's criteria.
Maybe not the "more like Total War" part, but it certainly has the other four (good game, fantasy setting, depth+complexity, color+narrative > historical) down.

Also, it's free. You can't beat free :smallbiggrin:

Eulalios

2013-11-01, 11:38 AM

Maybe not the "more like Total War"*part, but it certainly has the other four (good game, fantasy setting, depth+complexity, color+narrative > historical) down.

Also, it's free. You can't beat free :smallbiggrin:

About eight years ago I was obsessed with that game. If can only have improved since then.... Especially the ai, which was good even then.

CarpeGuitarrem

2013-11-01, 12:55 PM

Maybe not the "more like Total War" part, but it certainly has the other four (good game, fantasy setting, depth+complexity, color+narrative > historical) down.

Also, it's free. You can't beat free :smallbiggrin:
"Like Total War" was also the primary requirement. :smallwink:

Shovah

2013-11-01, 01:21 PM

I'm going to third the suggestion for Dominions 3/4, my absolute favourite strategy series of all time. Endoperez and Knaight have covered the basics.

I wished there was a Total War mod for Warhammer :smallfrown:

Well, there's this (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1377-Call-of-Warhammer&)?

Artanis

2013-11-01, 02:58 PM

"Like Total War" was also the primary requirement. :smallwink:
He said "more like", which I took to mean compared to the other two games he mentioned :smallconfused:

Either way, he should try Wesnoth anyways :smallwink:

Emmerask

2013-11-01, 05:03 PM

I wished there was a Total War mod for Warhammer :smallfrown:

I could've sworn they were working on one at one point, but that was years ago.

uhm http://www.moddb.com/mods/warhammer-total-war

Anyway the Lord of the rings mod for total war is awesome too!
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-lord-of-the-rings-total-war

Which actually seems like exactly what you want :smallsmile:

Kish

2013-11-01, 05:34 PM

Fall From Heave II is fantastic.
:smalleek: That is one unfortunate typo.

GolemsVoice

2013-11-02, 04:32 AM

(2) My favorite Heroes Of Might And Magic is #5. I know ppl hate it, but I love it and thinks it's awesome. Recently bought and tried to play through #6... I dropped the game out of boredom near the end of the first campaign.

My support for HoMM V! Absolutely great game, especially if you play all the addons, which should be dirt cheap right now.

Battle for Wesnoth is also great, and more, it's free, so even if the OP ends up hating it, he hasn't lost anything but time.

Driderman

2013-11-02, 06:04 PM

So, I picked up Dominions 4 after people talked about it and was wondering, are people up for a multiplayer game? This game looks like it has a lot of potential for multiplayer gaming.

endoperez

2013-11-02, 07:09 PM

Back when I was active on Dominions 3, you could find lots of games if you were hanging in the same forum with the other fans. They also had an automated hosting service or something.
It looks like the currently active forum is in here, it should be the best way of finding new games:
http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/forum/board/arena-of-the-gods-mp-games

If it's the same as it was for Dom3, there will be basically two ways to play it in MP.
One is the long game - one turn per day, or 3-5 turns per week, with 100+ turns until the winner is decided. I believe winning is faster in Dom4, with the added map objectives. It can still last for months. There are various ways of speeding this up, the most common one was to play the first 5 to 10 turns during one or two days, before switching to the longer turns. The long games will be heavy in diplomacy, and you'll be e-mailing the other players for trades, attack plans, non-aggression pacts ("leave me alone and I will leave you alone; no attacking allowed without a warning several turns in advance") and so on.
Players often need substitutes for a few days, or sometimes need to have someone else take control for the rest of the game. You could ask around if there's an opening like that in one of the existing games.

The other way of playing is blitz games. These are the "fast" games you're probably thinking about. They can still take hours, but not days. You find a group of players, you start a game on a small map with enough players that you'll likely come in contact with at least one opponent on the first 5-10 turns. There's lots of early aggression, and at least in Dominions 3 people used to favor giant and/or undead pretenders with a magic item or two, who then rampage through the countryside conquering provinces on their own.
Blitz games used to be organized on an IRC channel, I dunno if it's still around, or if Dominions 4 has its own channel.

If you find other players here, you'll have to decide few meta rules like that - how long per turn, how long will you play, which kind of map is good for the amount of players and time you have, etc etc.

Triaxx

2013-11-02, 07:20 PM

How about Total Annihilation Kingdoms? Or Age of Mythology?

You might try Mount & Blade. It's not technically a strategy game, but it's got that same flavor of world map/battle map that the Total War games have.

Morithias

2013-11-03, 04:15 AM

Just saying. King's Bounty is on sale on steam for the next 32 hours. This is your chance to grab the games for 75% off.

endoperez

2013-11-03, 06:35 AM

Just saying. King's Bounty is on sale on steam for the next 32 hours. This is your chance to grab the games for 75% off.

It's HoMM with a single hero, gold as the only resource, and a huge world for that single hero to explore. You don't have a castle, but instead you recruit your units from the little huts and villages you find as you explore. It plays more like an RPG game than a grand strategy game - the fights are more about tactics than strategy.

It does its own thing very well, but it might not be what the OP wants.

Morithias

2013-11-03, 06:38 AM

It's HoMM with a single hero, gold as the only resource, and a huge world for that single hero to explore. You don't have a castle, but instead you recruit your units from the little huts and villages you find as you explore. It plays more like an RPG game than a grand strategy game - the fights are more about tactics than strategy.

It does its own thing very well, but it might not be what the OP wants.

I perfectly understand that. I'm just saying if the OP wants to take a chance. Here's their shot. It's only $9 for 3 games, and I blew 50 hours already into Armored Princess.

His choice, just making sure he had the chance to strike when the iron was hot.

endoperez

2013-11-03, 08:02 AM

I perfectly understand that. I'm just saying if the OP wants to take a chance. Here's their shot. It's only $9 for 3 games, and I blew 50 hours already into Armored Princess.

His choice, just making sure he had the chance to strike when the iron was hot.

Agreed, and it was nice of you to post about it here. I just wanted to point out that the game, while good, isn't a Total War: Fantasyland. Going into a game with the wrong expectations can leave a bad impression.

Eloel

2013-11-03, 08:40 AM

I find it funny how HoMM 3, 5 and 6 are mentioned, but 4 is not.
4 was a good game. Strictly NOT a HoMM game, but a good game on it's own.

toasty

2013-11-03, 08:52 PM

MLai

2013-11-03, 09:22 PM

I mean HoMM 4 was alright. It was certainly better than HoMM5 (god that game was bad). I really, really enjoyed the stories in HoMM4, especially the Death and Life campaigns. The pirate campaign seemed interesting, but I couldn't get past the 2nd or 3rd scenario (god those games took forever to win >_>). Barbarians were fun too.
HOMM5 was awesome. This coming from a guy who played HOMM6 but can't finish Act I due to boredom. The other HOMM that I played (and liked and finished) was HOMM 2.

The first thing is the aesthetics. I find many ppl prefer the amateurish and disorganized art style of HOMM 3-4, but for some reason hate HOMM 5's WoW art style. I quite like WoW's art style, and I feel it's a fitting evolution of the medieval illustrations art style tradition of HOMM (which HOMM 3-4 fail). As for the "can't see anything due to 3D terrain"... it never bothered me. AFAIC, the 3D terrain adds immersion.

2nd is the creature choice. Many ppl raised on HOMM 3-4 don't like HOMM 5's creature roster. I look at HOMM 3-4 hodge podge roster, and I thank Nival for basing their faction rosters on (I guess) WoW and Warhammer lines. I don't mind that the humanoid factions are mostly corresponding humanoids. It helps my RP immersion, and the quality of the roster aesthetics is in the details.

3rd thing is the "random chance" involved in hero leveling. I like it, while HOMM6's player-choice leveling bores me to tears. Also, it's not 100% random, since you can direct and narrow down the branches that you level into.

4th is the godawful cutscenes and storylines. I didn't feel it, because I was raised on cheesy HOMM 2. The cutscenes for me were "so bad it's good." What really mattered was that I was actually invested in what happens, which strangely is divorced from the quality of VA or cutscene animation quality. Can't say the same for HOMM 6... I'll get back to it someday.

And, thank god HOMM 5 didn't lump demons and undead into 1 faction.

Cespenar

2013-11-04, 01:32 AM

Grif

2013-11-04, 04:20 AM

I'll be supporting HoMM4 as well. I like the way that they didn't just remake 3, and had the guts (or the audacity, the developers of nowadays would say) to try something new. The result was pretty much not Heroes, but something pretty enjoyable nevertheless.

Best part: Campaigns. Story-wise, they did a top notch job, compensating what they didn't do by the earlier games.

Worst part: Graphic design and animation. Humanoid units were simply painful to look at.

I'd say Heroes 4 is actually a logical evolution of the series, except that they did a couple of gameplay missteps along the way. The heroes themselves appearing as a unit is a main beef for me. It kinda meant your melee hero is pretty much going to get insta-killed in the late game by a stack of <insert top tier units> unless he's pretty beefy him/herself.

The fact that they consolidated some of the factions didn't make sense to me as well. Why are Undead/Hellish units in a faction together again?

Cespenar

2013-11-04, 04:46 AM

I'd say Heroes 4 is actually a logical evolution of the series, except that they did a couple of gameplay missteps along the way. The heroes themselves appearing as a unit is a main beef for me. It kinda meant your melee hero is pretty much going to get insta-killed in the late game by a stack of <insert top tier units> unless he's pretty beefy him/herself.

I don't know, it was a selling point for me. Besides, it was easy to beef up your hero with the combat skill, even if his/her focus lay somewhere else. It wasn't that hard to break the system as well: in late game, your barbarian could kick twice, killing 4 black dragons with each.

The fact that they consolidated some of the factions didn't make sense to me as well. Why are Undead/Hellish units in a faction together again?

Yeah, I think that was dumb as well, but it's low on my priority list, I guess.

GolemsVoice

2013-11-04, 09:38 AM

4th is the godawful cutscenes and storylines. I didn't feel it, because I was raised on cheesy HOMM 2. The cutscenes for me were "so bad it's good." What really mattered was that I was actually invested in what happens, which strangely is divorced from the quality of VA or cutscene animation quality. Can't say the same for HOMM 6... I'll get back to it someday.

The cutscenes also got better in the addons (really, a lot of things did) once thy stopped using animations like other people use punctuation, or used animations that really fit.

Before that, it got pretty cheesy sometimes, yes.

SmartAlec

2013-11-04, 10:51 AM

Some decent Medieval 2: Total War mods include Call of Warhammer (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?320935-UPDATED-20-10-2012-DOWLOAD-LINK-version-1-5-1!-FIX-for-1-5-1!) and the incredible Third Age: Total War (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?500418-Third-Age-Total-War-3-2-Released).

CarpeGuitarrem

2013-11-04, 10:52 AM

That reminds me to get Third Age Total War on my computer after I install Medieval 2...

Knaight

2013-11-04, 01:19 PM

So, I picked up Dominions 4 after people talked about it and was wondering, are people up for a multiplayer game? This game looks like it has a lot of potential for multiplayer gaming.

Sadly, I only have Dominions 3 currently. However, there are various Dominons forums which have people on them, including for 4, so you might want to hit those up.

Driderman

2013-11-04, 05:42 PM

Sadly, I only have Dominions 3 currently. However, there are various Dominons forums which have people on them, including for 4, so you might want to hit those up.

Well I'd much rather play with "good people" from an RPG-forum I know rather than random guys from random forums. Guess I'll post to see if there's interest in getting a game going one of these days.

Martok

2013-11-05, 08:53 AM

If it wasn't for the OP's desire for TW-like battles, I'd recommend Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes in a heartbeat.

I've been playing the game off & on since it was released, but have only truly gotten into it just recently. It has claimed an absolutely unholy amount of my free-time the last couple weeks.

Shovah

2013-11-05, 09:36 AM

Well I'd much rather play with "good people" from an RPG-forum I know rather than random guys from random forums. Guess I'll post to see if there's interest in getting a game going one of these days.

I'd be more than happy to show you the ropes if you're interested.

Driderman

2013-11-05, 01:31 PM

I'd be more than happy to show you the ropes if you're interested.

I'm sure that could be awesome. Do you know anything about setting up multiplayer games? I haven't really looked into it myself yet, but it seems like it's a bit of a hassle from what I've read so far.

Shovah

2013-11-06, 06:40 AM

I'm sure that could be awesome. Do you know anything about setting up multiplayer games? I haven't really looked into it myself yet, but it seems like it's a bit of a hassle from what I've read so far.

Yeah, I can host no problem. Then I just send you the IP and port and you can join straight in. PM me some time and we can work out the details of when and such.

edit: Same offer goes to anyone else who happens to pick up the game.