Good Turn Based Games

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402blownstroker

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012
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I am looking for a good turn based strategy game. Let me hear your experiences :)
 
The Civilization series, Panzer General II.... all that comes to mind right now.
 
Sins of a Solar Empire isn't really turn based, but it might be something worth checking out. It takes the 4x genre (like Civ) but explodes it into real-time pauseable gameplay. It's an incredible strategy game, and I think definitely worth checking out if you're interested in a 4X type game and open to something a little different.

Check out the metacritic links to reviews if you're interested: [link]
 
Sins of a Solar Empire is absolutely incredible. Couldn't really get into Sword of the Stars.
 
Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic

Heroes of Might and Magic series

These games are some of the best turn based games ever made that are more recent. For older games, Master of Magic, Fallen Haven, Alpha Centauri are all excellent games.
 
Armageddon Empires, it's a card based mechanic.
Galactic Civilization 2 (and get the expansion packs, they added a lot of stuff and the complete edition is probably pretty cheap these days)
Age of Wonders, it's an older game but it was a fantasy / magic take on the old hex based games.
 
Battle for Wesnoth is a great open-source Hex-based TBS game http://www.wesnoth.org/

Another one to look into is Elemental: war of magic. Its currently in alpha/beta and is being dev'd by Stardock. They are in beta Phase 1 (of 5) and should be starting the multiplayer beta (Phase 2) in the next month. You can get into the beta at the beginning of any phase if you pre-order the game though Impulse.
Stardock runs their betas like alphas - the player community has a huge influence on how the final game will turn out.
Dev journals for the game: http://www.elementalgame.com/journals.asp
Beta phase list: http://forums.elementalgame.com/363845
Interview with Brad Wardell aka Frogboy aka CEO of Stardock on the game: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1201#

The release is set for augustish 2010 - the orginal Feb 2010 release got pushed back in favor of a longer Beta - they decided to make modding and mod support more integral in the game and lengthened the beta.


Edit: Sots (Sword of the Stars) rocks!
 
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Space Empires V is pretty fun, though it's also pretty huge(as huge as Civilization? Even huger? Perhaps, it's pretty hugetageous). Learning curve is a bit steep, especially with the tech tree IMO. If you get it, download the balance mod as well.

Definitely keep an eye out for Elemental: War of Magic.
 
Commander FAT said:
X-Com UFO Defense. Good work getting it to run on modern systems though. It's old school DOS.
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You can buy the X-Com games on Impulse or Steam - They come pre-wrapped in Dosbox, set up perfectly. My Roomates made fun of me when the first thing I ran on my i7 Win7 x64 box was X-Com...
 
silent-circuit said:
Sword of the Stars.
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Seconded. Excellent game. There's a demo out there, and be sure to get the version with all the expansions if you decide to buy it. For more information on the game, check out this good post on another forum. For your first campaign, I'd probably suggest playing the Tarka race in a 2d galaxy.
 
JaYp146 said:
Sins of a Solar Empire is absolutely incredible. Couldn't really get into Sword of the Stars.
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Isn't turn based but yes it is incredible. However the game is incredibly slow paced so it is about as close to a turn based game as an rts can get. The ai also is rather dumb.
 
Well, my favorite RPG/Strategy game of all time is still Fallout and Fallout 2. The graphics are of course dated, but the gameplay, story, direction, and writing is all top notch.

Sincerely, I don't think anything else will top Brian Fargo's master work unless the "Wasteland" property he bought can be resurrected.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Well, my favorite RPG/Strategy game of all time is still Fallout and Fallout 2. The graphics are of course dated, but the gameplay, story, direction, and writing is all top notch.

Sincerely, I don't think anything else will top Brian Fargo's master work unless the "Wasteland" property he bought can be resurrected.
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I hate strategy games.. I miss the days RPGs were turnbased.. Diablo and Baldur's Gate completely eradicated that facet of the genre, though.
 
UrielDagda said:
I hate strategy games.. I miss the days RPGs were turnbased.. Diablo and Baldur's Gate completely eradicated that facet of the genre, though.
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Well strategy was only in the form of combat. Can I also assume then that you disliked Final Fantasy Tactics, Neverwinter Nights, and Baulders Gate (etc?)
 
Fantasy General. Best one I ever played. Good luck finding it now as it was a shareware game for Dos :)
 
Best ones that are easily available and that do not create eye cancer from old graphics is probably Elven Legacy and it's predecessor Fantasy Wars as well as King's Bounty: The Legend and it's successor King's Bounty: Armored Princess.
 
ApaThy_NeXT2 said:
Total War Games
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Right?!
The whole time I'm reading this thinking no one has mentioned Rome: Total War, or Empires TW, or Shogun, or Medieval 1 or 2
Some of the best turn based strategy IMO
Granted, I was more into Rome then empires. Men of the line standing there just shooting at each other is just stupid. I know that's how it really was, but i also think that the military minds of the day were pretty stupid as far as that goes.
 
Most of the ones mentioned in this thread can be bought through steam.
 
CanesVenetici said:
Right?!
The whole time I'm reading this thinking no one has mentioned Rome: Total War, or Empires TW, or Shogun, or Medieval 1 or 2
Some of the best turn based strategy IMO
Granted, I was more into Rome then empires. Men of the line standing there just shooting at each other is just stupid. I know that's how it really was, but i also think that the military minds of the day were pretty stupid as far as that goes.
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It's only turn-based if you automate the battles (which is a terrible idea, success-wise). Good games, though.
 
any news/rumors on the new Disciples that is supposely coming out sometime soon?
 
In Sins of a Solar Empire, you can speed up the game anytime.

I vote for X-com and Heroes of Might and Magic.
 
JaYp146 said:
Sins of a Solar Empire is absolutely incredible. Couldn't really get into Sword of the Stars.
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SoSE is RTS though and not TB. I have it and like SofS too. Galactic Civ2 Complete and Civ4 are my picks for best TB to buy. If the OP is inclined towards wargames then there are lots of TB games to choose from. For a really good introduction to TB wargames and loads of gameplay hours I recommend going to matrixgames.com and getting either the John Tiller Civil War series or the Napoleonic one, or both. The Napoleonic one also comes with the first Age of Sail game, which is real time wooden ship battles.

http://matrixgames.com/products/319/details/John.Tiller's.Battleground.Civil.War

http://matrixgames.com/products/321/details/John.Tiller's.Battleground.Napoleonic.Wars
 
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