AKICOL - strategy computer games

[brixtonbrood]

My father wants only one thing for Christmas - a new PC strategy war game to match his favourite: Cossacks. He has loads of others from a few years ago, but since they've gone out of fashion he hasn't found any recent good ones. Any brilliant ideas?

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Comments

[mr-snips.livejournal.com]

Total War: Shogun 2 ?

(While it has some negative reviews, they're generally either people whose computers weren't fast enough or who couldn't cope with Steam)

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I think that's one of the ones which he's tried and found wanting for some reason [sigh]

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Of the Total War games, Empire or Napoleon would fit the period depicted in Cossacks. Again, you do need a reasonably powerful PC though. My all time favourite of that series though was the Alexander the Great expansion for Rome: Total War.

Something slightly different but which might be up his street would be Europa Universalis III. This is most definitely not a war game (although it certainly depicts wars) but it is a strategy game letting you rule a country from the 15th to the early 19th century. If you want an earlier setting, Crusader Kings II (which I've just bought for myself as it happens) uses the same game engine and covers the period from 1066 to the 15th century. In CK2, you control a noble family rather than a nation state so as well as invading the neighbours you're also trying to secure an advantageous marriage for your wicked but stupid third son. (Rather less powerful PC required for both these games.)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Universalis-III-Chronicles-PC/dp/B004O6MO3M/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1353628388&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crusader-Kings-II-PC-CD/dp/B006NU6M5S/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_h__img_z

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Total-War-PC-DVD/dp/B005IOJ6US/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1353628478&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Napoleon-Total-War-PC-DVD/dp/B002M78NM6/ref=sr_1_8?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1353628524&sr=1-8

PC Gamer magazine always give their wargame reviews to Tim Stone, so this page is worth reading through for more ideas:
http://www.pcgamer.com/author/tstone/

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's really helpful, I think he's got Empire Total War, but Europa in particular sounds well worth a try at that price.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

The same company produces a few similar games with different settings, notably Victoria and the Hearts of Iron games.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games

[k425.livejournal.com]

Is this any use:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/20/real-time-strategy-games

I've long played Civilisation, but hadn't realised there was a proper name for these games!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Useful article, although Civ would be a 'turn-based' strategy game rather than a 'real-time' strategy game (i.e. you do your move, then the computer does its move, then you do your move etc). In RTS games, the computer is doing stuff as you do it.

Crusader Kings etc are somewhere in between - the computer can be doing things while you do them, but a) it's not exactly real time when the game time can be moving at a day / week / month etc per second and b) you can pause the game at any time to think and issue orders.

Have a look at this youtube video about professional RTS gamers in Korea to see an extreme example of RTS gaming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q&list=LPxV78ko53BbA&index=1&feature=plcp

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Thanks, will read. There's a big distinction between Civ etc and the ones that play in exactly the same way but with rigorous military historical detail - but I'm not sure what the terminology is to make the split clear.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

It used to be simply "wargames", but you'll see that term used now to refer to any game with a war theme including stuff like Call of Duty, which isn't very helpful.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I think of the latter kind as 'distressingly anal', but I don't suppose that's the sort of term you're looking for :-)

More usefully, I second the rec of Europas Universalis above: it's not exactly the same sort of thing as Cossacks etc, but I think it's an interesting development of them.