Looking for turn based war/strategy games • Gaming • PC • Eurogamer.net

Phreedh 15 Jan 2008 10:10:58 675 posts
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Could anyone point me in a general direction when it comes to rekindling a flame of old? I used to love playing turn based strategy games on my C64 as a kid and dabbled a bit with a few WW2 conflict simulators on my PC when studying at the uni.

Not looking for multiplayer games, strictly single player business. Something akin to boardgames like Advanced Squad Leader etc...

Graphics are not important. As long as it's not real time and multiplayer I'm happy. WW2 or cold war alternate reality would be great settings!

Any tips much appreciated!

RMXtreme 15 Jan 2008 10:18:44 3,145 posts
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Hearts of Iron II

Phreedh 15 Jan 2008 10:27:02 675 posts
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Leolian'sBro wrote:
UFO: Enemy Unknown. Your search is over.

That's mainly tactical though, not looking for that. It's a great game though, and I played it to bits.

RMXtreme seems to be spot on though. Hearts of Iron looks like the mutts nuts! Cheers mate!

To give a further idea of what I've liked in the past, I loved Panzer General but would like something a bit heavier and more involving.

Anyone tried [link=http://www.slitherine.com/games/ceaw">Commander - Europe at war or the games from

jellyhead 15 Jan 2008 10:28:10 24,346 posts
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A couple of Indie games that are supposed to be excellent:
Naked War( Bugger, just reread the post and this is play by email sorry ).
Brass Hats.

The UFO series and especially the original Gollop developed X-Com games are well worth a look.
Laser Squad Nemesis wiki.
Laser Squad Nemesis homepage, again it's play by email as i misread your first post. DOH!

I'll ask my wargame mad mates.

marilena 15 Jan 2008 10:29:57 8,232 posts
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Make sure you get Hearts of Iron II, as it's much better than the first.

I'll think about it a bot more, but my first recommendation would be Battle for Wesnoth, a free but great turn based strategy game in the mold of Advance Wars. It's fantasy, but you should give it a try.

Whizzo 15 Jan 2008 10:30:19 44,765 posts
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If you've not had a look at Combat Mission I suggest a demo download as it sounds right up your street.

mingster 15 Jan 2008 10:35:16 3,483 posts
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Armegeddon Empires... search over.

A review is on Eurogamer

Tiger_Walts 15 Jan 2008 10:46:33 16,674 posts
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Whizzo wrote:
If you've not had a look at Combat Mission I suggest a demo download as it sounds right up your street.

I second this.

The last time I played I did the Paris mission. House to house fighting with tanks in the street. Great stuff.

TechnoHippy 15 Jan 2008 10:47:54 14,707 posts
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Panzer General is one of my favorite old school wargames, have to run it through DosBox these days though.

jellyhead 15 Jan 2008 10:58:12 24,346 posts
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Just received this reply from one of my friends.

The best games are Close Combat series (3 being the best)
ebay link.

Also Talonsoft East/West front is a huge game I think he'll like.
You can go from Platoon to Army. It's huge...!!
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=318

Matrix Games do alot of WW" games.
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/?p=19

The best of the lot is Steel Panthers.
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=297

Hope it helps, there may be more on the way. I imagine these may be the Hex-grid type games but check them out anyway in case they aren't.

Sorbicol 15 Jan 2008 11:01:01 591 posts
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You could give Silent Storm a try if you can find it. However you might find it more of a X-COM style tactical game rather than what you are looking for.

Otherwise I'll add my name to the Laser Quad Nemesis reccommendations.

bauhaus 15 Jan 2008 11:14:11 3,518 posts
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RMXtreme wrote:
Hearts of Iron II

Teh bestest wwii game evah!!

Phreedh 15 Jan 2008 11:17:47 675 posts
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Leolian'sBro, the new Mighty Empires is just an add-on to Warhammer... ie crap, I assume.

All: Cheers for great tips. While I'm not looking for a game like Wesnoth atm, I'm glad it was brought up as I was about to try it out a while ago but forgot.

Seems like many games can be played on OS X so hopefully I won't have to boot up Windows. Sweet! =) Hearts of Iron 2 (and Doomsday expansion) is even a universal binary. w00t!

Stickman 15 Jan 2008 11:18:28 29,877 posts
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Hearts of Iron 2 is indeed great, but it's not turn based or tactical.

As Whizzo and TW have said, Combat Mission is what you want. You can get the three bundled for about �10 these days. Don't get the new one!

Razz 15 Jan 2008 11:23:19 63,427 posts
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The only game you should be playing is Civ.

TurboBailey 15 Jan 2008 11:29:22 688 posts
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Yeah CIV 4

FWB 15 Jan 2008 11:32:31 54,407 posts
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Check out the Matrix Games website. There are quite a few tactical and strategic games there. I think a few of them aren't turn-based, but are real-time-turn-based, if that makes any sense to you.

I also put in another vote for Hearts of Iron 2. Complicated and not turn-based (but due to the pause button can pretty much be played as such). Still, Paradox are one of the greatest strategy game developers on the planet.

jellyhead 15 Jan 2008 11:34:08 24,346 posts
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and as i posted earlier here's the Matrix Games website.

Phreedh 15 Jan 2008 11:34:44 675 posts
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jellyhead wrote:
Hope it helps, there may be more on the way. I imagine these may be the Hex-grid type games but check them out anyway in case they aren't.

Cheers mate! Hex is teh sex, so I don't mind!

LB: I bought the original Harpoon ages ago, for the Amiga, but my wee sprog mind couldn't get to grips with it back then. The Warzaw Pact gave me a proper beating each time. =) I still loved it, for some reason.

Stickman: Elaborate on "not turn based", I thought it was. That it's not tactical is not a problem, I'm more looking for strategical scale. I don't want to faff about with individual armament and.

Stickman 15 Jan 2008 11:53:07 29,877 posts
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Like FWB said, it's not a 'you go, I go' affair, more a constant flow. You can pause it though to issue commands and whatnot. If it's strategic level WWII fare you're after then there's really no better. Sorry, I thought you wanted tactical level!

FWB 15 Jan 2008 11:54:53 54,407 posts
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I'd say it feels a lot like a turn based without you ever having to wait for your opponent to make his/her move. There are about 5 speed settings all adjustable at the tap of a key, so you can speed through any boring preparation periods and slow right down for intense conflict.

Clive_Dunn 15 Jan 2008 12:18:30 4,862 posts
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Another vote for Hearts of Iron 2 here, set the difficulty levels to hard and have fun fighting the Russians as Germany.

alco75 16 Jan 2008 10:08:59 341 posts
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Armageddon Empires

8/10 on EG.

Awesome.

GloatingSwine 16 Jan 2008 12:33:02 3,713 posts
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RMXtreme wrote:
Hearts of Iron II

This. Get Doomsday for even more war.

GloatingSwine 16 Jan 2008 12:35:00 3,713 posts
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Clive Dunn wrote:
Another vote for Hearts of Iron 2 here, set the difficulty levels to hard and have fun fighting the Russians as Germany.

Pfft. Germany has it easy. Try conquering the world as Peru.

Universal_Hamster 16 Jan 2008 12:55:48 4,948 posts
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Jagged Alliance 2 is ALL YOU NEED.