Favorite turn based tactical games?

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2006-10-03 02:14pm

There was one that I liked called Cyberstorm.

It was fun to play on multiplayer but the single player game slowly got old.

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-10-03 02:37pm

Fire emblem is great. I know the original Front mission was a lot of fun too.

lance · Post by **lance** » 2006-10-03 07:04pm

Sharpshooter wrote:Console-wise, Super Robot Wars has always been a crapload of fun for me - relatively simple compared to some other big-name titles, but the fan service simply can't be beat. As far as the PC, though, X-COM's always going to remain my favorite, though Fallout I and II rank fairly close as well.

Darth Servo wrote:In otherwords, SimEarth meets Ascendancy.
Er? Isn't Ascendancy the anti-automation game?

Has SRW been translated into english? Last I heard it was only released in japan.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-10-03 07:13pm

THey've never been released outside japan to my knowledge but more than one person on this forum has imported them. I've got Alpha 2, Alpha 3, MX, and most of the GBA SRW games for example.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » 2006-10-03 07:16pm

lance wrote:
Sharpshooter wrote:Console-wise, Super Robot Wars has always been a crapload of fun for me - relatively simple compared to some other big-name titles, but the fan service simply can't be beat. As far as the PC, though, X-COM's always going to remain my favorite, though Fallout I and II rank fairly close as well.

Darth Servo wrote:In otherwords, SimEarth meets Ascendancy.
Er? Isn't Ascendancy the anti-automation game?
Has SRW been translated into english? Last I heard it was only released in japan.

the upcoming SRW Original Generations are going to be published outside Japan.

but of course it has the downplay to be a Original Generations so no Big O, no EVA, no Ideon and no Shin Getter

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-10-03 07:51pm

You could determine what gun your mercs were holding in JA2, after a fashion. It's just that it didn't distinguish besides pistol/single hand SMG,SMG/rifle,MG,rocket launcher,and mortar (for the latter two of which there was only one type of each anyway).
Both the original X-Com trilogy and JA2 have their strengths (and I love all of them). JA2 has the pseudorealistic weapons, RPG elements (especially character interaction) and story gimmicks, plus better graphics. X-Com has the weapons graphics, research & tech tree, intercept/recover missions, multi-elevation levels (JA2 had 'ground' and 'on the roof'), environment versatility, and overall strategic aspect.
Where the tactical fight engine is concerned, X-Com wins. Overall, I'd call it a draw.
And I'm moderately surprised that someone besides me actually liked FO:T.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-10-03 07:54pm

I dont see what people have against FOT. It was fun, and had a pretty engine for a voxel game. Sure, it wasn't 'real' Fallout, but so what? It wasn't really BAD or anything. Not like 'FO:Enforcer' *BLEH* that came out on the XBox after.

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 2006-10-03 07:57pm

FO:Enforcer?

What the hell is that, I've heard of Fallout:Brotherhood of Steel.

Fallout Tactics isn't a bad game at all, and Silent Storm is pretty good.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-10-03 08:16pm

Attention: Potential threadjack in progress.
I think a large part of the problem is people HOPED it would be Fallout 3, or at least Fallout 2.5 or something.
That being said FO:T does have its failing even if we consider it just a tactical squad combat game. For starters there's the equipment availability, which is for practical purposes completely random. Nothing inherently wrong with that except available weapons and ammunition can have a rather severe effect on mission difficulty.
Random encounters. Average in my experience is about 3 per map square. 'Annoying' doesn't quite cover it. Especially as I can't use the keyboard to say 'fuck you, no'.
The 'special encounter' merchants NEVER restock. While a few of them ALWAYS have worthwhile merchandise, once you've got it, they're effectively useless.
The vast majority of special encounters is COMPLETELY POINTLESS.
The improved Ranger perks actually REDUCE your chance to run into a special encounter because while they will reveal the map to a larger distance you STILL need to run into the map square to trigger the special encounter.
The game's tendency to give you a weapon towards the end of the last mission where it would actually be useful.
You get the P90 in the last Beastlord mission, you get the Vindicator in the last pre-Robot mission.
And would somebody kindly tell me what's the point of 9mm/.44 AP bullets?
By the time you need AP, both of those are going to do jack shit.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-10-03 08:26pm

Jade Falcon wrote:FO:Enforcer?

What the hell is that, I've heard of Fallout:Brotherhood of Steel.

Fallout Tactics isn't a bad game at all, and Silent Storm is pretty good.

FO:Enforcer is a derogatory name for FO: BOS/POS. It stems from another brilliant decision to turn an isometric turn based game (X-COM) into a supercrappy 3rd person shooter (X-COM: Enforcer).

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-10-03 10:23pm

Fallout Tactics was a great game that has a crappy reputation because a bunch of idiots on forums went completely ballistic when it didn't conform to their expectations of what Fallout should be. Then their complains turned other people negative about the game, and when it came out people noticed the flaws more because of the cacophony of complaints. This caused reviewers to give it a worse score because they didn't want to seem foolish by contradicting everyone.

It was because of that fiasco that I lost most of my respect for fan communities. The failure of Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich (which should have been game of the year) and the movie Serenity took the rest of it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-10-03 10:45pm

I'll be honest - I never played or investigated Fallout Tactics due to the backlash A_T mentions. This isn't the first time I've heard it's actually a good game in it's own right.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-10-03 11:31pm

Honestly? Combat-wise, it's a better game than FO normally is. It's turn based is much more complex, the engine doesn't have the WOEFUL zig-zag syndrome, there's more dynamic weapons, formulae for hitting, enemy times, the rudimentary implementation of vehicles, etc...

You can even use mines, remote-demo charges, or suicide bombing to beat missions. It's just not an RPG. That's the main deal. Oh well.

darthkommandant · Post by **darthkommandant** » 2006-10-04 08:47am

My list
Consoles: Shattered union (2nd US civil war with lots of speciial weapons to unleash on fully destroable cities. What more can be said)

PC Combat Mission Those games are so much fun
And of course
Advance Wars for the game boy is my facorite due to portablility and ease of use.

Akhlut · Post by **Akhlut** » 2006-10-04 09:21am

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together for the PS1 is, by far, my favorite turn-based tactical game, ever. I sent well over 30 hours on that game and would have spent far more on it had my multi-page memory card not taken a shit on me and deleted my game. >.< I have no clue where to find it these days, as every retailer is selling it for obscene amounts of money. For instance, the cheapest I've been able to find it online is about $50, and sometimes up to $90. It had a great story, as to be expected from Atlus, and an awesome combat system.

Vyraeth · Post by **Vyraeth** » 2006-10-04 11:03am

Someone already mentioned SPWAW (Steel Panthers: World at War) and SP:MBT (Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank), and let me just second them, they're awesome games, and they're completely free.

Some other good tactical games are Civil War Generals 2 (avaible from HOTU without sound, I actually had a copy of the original), a game that let's you fight out the American Civil War.

There's also 1848, which is available as a free download, just google it (the year might be off, try ForLiberty instead). This game let's you play as Hungarian or Austrian forces throughout an entire war. And theres also ForLiberty, which lets you fight out the American Revolutionary War. You can play as the Americans or the British, and each side is very unique, presenting you with alot of viable strategic and tactical options.

ForLiberty is around 20 bucks, I believe, but also includes a copy of 1848 (made by the same company), and is in my opinion, well worth the money.

It's important to note though that these games are at the regiment/batallation level, instead of controlling a small squad of guys like in X-Com or JA2, you control an entire army. The graphics aren't great either, but if you're a strategy affiencdio like myself then you probably don't care as much.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2006-10-04 03:14pm

Sharpshooter wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:In otherwords, SimEarth meets Ascendancy.
Er? Isn't Ascendancy the anti-automation game?

Yes, which is why there was the bit about SimEarth. MOO3 copied a lot from Ascendancy, particularly the starlanes concept. And SimEarth literally played itself.

DrMckay · Post by **DrMckay** » 2006-10-04 03:23pm

Don't forget the WORMS series... Super Sheep anyone?

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-10-04 04:19pm

X-com
Jagged Alliance 1 & 2
Battle Isle series
Combat Mission

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-10-04 05:34pm

Urm- the Battle Isles were strategy games.
And I'm not sure the WORMS family of games quite fits the bill, either.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-10-04 06:02pm

Right now, Advance Wars DS and Worms: Open Warfare on the DS are amazingly fun. Though the best turn based games on PC for me are MoOII and anything by Creative Assembly.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-10-05 03:17am

Batman wrote:Urm- the Battle Isles were strategy games.
And I'm not sure the WORMS family of games quite fits the bill, either.

Battle Isle had turn based tactical battles in one of its forms I'm sure...

And Worms HAS to count. The followers of the Dark Buffalo must be purged!

Ravencrow · Post by **Ravencrow** » 2006-10-05 04:15am

Stark wrote:I'll be honest - I never played or investigated Fallout Tactics due to the backlash A_T mentions. This isn't the first time I've heard it's actually a good game in it's own right.

I guess I wasn't too attached to the stuff about keeping true to the Fallout universe, so I just didn't understand all the bad press about it. It was a good game, it even comes with a map editor though it wasn't the most user-friendly.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-10-05 04:40am

Fot:BoS was pretty good, but if you wanted Fallout 3 you would have hated it.

I played it wanting a JA type game in Fallout. And I got what I wanted.

I was even trying to build a mod for it at one point... Had some really cool new perks/flaws and stuff to add in too.

Karza · Post by **Karza** » 2006-10-05 04:56am

Jagged Alliance 2
X-Com: Ufo Defense
Silent Storm
Fallout Tactics (Yeah, I think it's a good game too, although the robots are a somewhat tedious foe)

Jagged Alliance 2 is the top dog for me. Its combat and terrain modeling aren't the best, but no other game has the sort of adorable miscreants as heroes as the JA2 mercenaries. There's nothing quite like blowing some foe's head off with a CAWS or maybe a Dragunov, and then remarking "Geez, talk about losing face..." or "I'd go easy on the details when informing his mother."