Best Strategy Games

Strategy games are many and varied.

Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Historic, they all have their charms and issues.

Personally, I'm a WW2 game nut. I can't go by and decent (or even bad) WW2 game.

As far as Strategy is concerned, they dominate the genre for me. Sure, the Starcrafts and C&Cs still played a part in my gaming history, but the following games are my picks for best strategy games.

If you have not played these games, please do yourselves a favor and do so. They can be picked up in the bargain bin these days at your local gaming store.

Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts
(and soon to be released Tales of Valor)

The revolutionary RTS released by Relic/THQ several years ago is still going strong, and will most likely continue to cross new ground when it's next addon is released early this year.

Ridiculously good graphics, including visible facial animations on each individual soldier when zoomed in. Quality lacks at the micro level however unless you have a 1gb+ video card (or several of them).

Gold star also for the excellent use of physics and destructible environment. Seeing a M10 roll down a street, crush a wall and leave a gauge in the nearby building with it's barrel never gets old.

Blitzkrieg II

This game tends to go under the radar of most strategy gamers. From a small developer and relatively unknown distributor, it is surprising the depth and quality this game brings to the table.

From the beaches of Normandy to Stalingrad, and across the ocean to Peleilu Island and Okinawa, the game delivers quality WWII real time strategy, without the sometimes irritating base building and resource collecting element.

Each battlefront is given a specific number of reinforcement points, and you can use them in the lead-up missions or save them until the big battle on each front.

They can be used to bring in 4 different varieties of Tanks, Infantry, Artillery, AA and Aircraft.

Tactics can be as varied as you like, and it sometimes works to make the first runthrough of the big mission simply for reconnaissance purposes, so you know what units to purchase and how to employ them.

Graphics, which were good for their time (2004ish), are now slightly dated, but still good enough not to be a distraction.

A must-have for any serious gamer.

Steel Panters - World At War

A now ancient game (over 10 years old), Steel Panthers was one of the pioneering hex-based strategy games.

Units were selected out of a resource pool at the start of each mission and deployed into a small, skirmish-sized battlefield. Players would then take turns moving their units alloted distances, eventually coming into combat.

A great mathematical engine hid behind the graphics and calculated the chances for each shot, step and action to ensure that every match was different and accurate.

The other stand-out feature was the selectable nations. You could play as literally any country that participated in the war. I was proud to be able to command units of Australian commandos and Matilda tanks, which is a nice change from the overused Rangers/Airborne that seem to dominate every WW2 game.






Simply put, play these games.

What are your favorites?

[edit on 4-2-2009 by fooffstarr]

Good strategy games are hard to come by, personally, I love Civilization Revolution!!!!!!!!

If you are into the WWII strats and have not already tried look at the Combat Mission series, the original 'Beyond Overlord' and the latest in WW2 genre 'Barbarossa to Berlin' they also have a new one in development dubbed 'Campaigns' which will be on a much wider scale allowing you to have multiple battles going on in a huge 'campaign' instead of fighting in single pre-scripted missions which do follow larger campaigns. You can also download add-on's and other missions or make your own, its an oldie but well worth any strategy guru's or even newcomers time.

If your talking best strategy game of all time I have to give my vote to X-com that game had everything but I enjoy the Civilization games and the Empire Earth series as well.

For me no Strategy game has topped X-com yet though sadly and it's pretty old now.

AOE and AOE2 will always be my two favourite games in my youthful period of my life. This was the first game apart from diablo that I played on the internet and on Lan.

Silly question...

These are all PC games.. Correct?

I have a PS2, but actually perfer the PC games now that I have my new 24" Monitor

best strategy:

Medieval total war 2 with the Stainless steel mod.

Some guys have made a really good mod to the MTW2 that tries to be historical correct. You can play Lithuania as the last pagan faction in Europe.
see all details here: www.twcenter.net...


Warcraft 3 frozen throne: tower defence , DoTA and all the other homemade maps.


But Iam waiting for someone to combine Total war rules with the history and game length of Sid Meyers civilization (and with a small RPG twist). If a game like that came out, i would quit IRL.exe

I liked Master of Orion 1 and 2 (*NOT* 3) and Age of Empires II. I haven't played very many games in this genre, but I'd recommend those to anybody. MOO1 is old enough it kind of shows its age, though, but unless you play #2 first, you'll probably still like it.

StarCraft with tournament settings sits as the throne for strategy games IMO.

It blends in the mixture of skill sets ranging from reflexes to strategic creativity.

Here's an example: (sorry, couldn't embed)
www.youtube.com...



I testify the fact that it takes more than speed and strategy to win in a game of StarCraft. Those Korean players combine everything in the book to make sure they will win. X_X

Turn based?

That would be the Civ series of games. Or perhaps Age of Orion series. Unfortunately, I'm not patient enough to finish those.

Real time?

I like Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, StarCraft, and Age of Empires II.

Only problem is my computer is too old to get into big multiplayer games on SupCom. (And since I hate lag as much as they do, I don't blame them.) And I'm just not hard-core enough to be competitive on some of the others. I end up playing the computer to chill out or goof around. (Things like how many kills can I get this time? Or can I win by only using such and such unit(s)?) If I knew people that were as mediocre as I was, I wouldn't mind a few multiplayer rounds though. 2v2 is usually fun.

Also I heard TA:Spring is actually pretty good. So it might be worth checking out. (And it's free!) But I have enough games already.

Apart from Company of Heroes I am pretty bad at online RTS too. I only win at CoH because I have read the top tier player's strats and copy them to the letter.

The new game Order of War is pretty awesome. No base building, but the unit mix is huge and can lead to some interesting tactics. Not to mention the graphics, when zoomed right in, are fairly nice.

reply to post by darkangel831


LOL angel I was about to ask the same question. Are these pc games?

Can I go old school and mention Risk?

For me the best RTS is ALL of the Total War series...

Some of my other favorites include...

AOE 1 and 2
Warcraft 1 and 2
Total Annihilation
Sudden Strike 1 and 2

There are probably others but its late and my Brain has stopped working

:bnghd:

OH!!! Almost forgot... HOMEWORLD!!!! Love that game... and Homeworld 2...

[edit on 4-11-2009 by Muckster]

[edit on 4-11-2009 by Muckster]

As far as game play goes and equal faction / class / race strength I have to say after playing many a strategy game I still think Star craft wins.

Perfectly made strategy game IMO. Lets just hope SC2 holds up to this standard.

reply to post by GambitVII

StarCraft with tournament settings sits as the throne for strategy games IMO

could not agree more


2nd line



Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 1/2/2010 by AshleyD]

I'm a huge fan of turn based strategy games, personally. One game that was awesome, but is relatively unknown is Master of Magic. It's essentially Civ I, but instead of researching tech, you're researching magic. What I'd love to see is a combination of them; something like Arcanum, but in a global strategy game.

In space, Master of Orion 1 and 2 were great. 3 tried, but micromanaged everything for you, and trying to get the computer to stop playing your empire was extremely difficult.

Another space strategy game that I love (and am actually playing in another window right now) is Space Empires V. It requires a TON of micromanagement, but that's part of its charm. You can set up ministers to micromanage your colonies or to design your ships for you, but I've never used them, so I don't know how effective they are. The combat's unique, too, in that it's a turn based strategy game when it comes to moving fleets, colonizing and developing planets, as well as other logistical aspects, but combat is semi-real time. When playing single player, you can pause it and issue orders, or you can go real time and issue orders (though this is rather difficult when you have battles with 4 or 5 fleets each containing 50 ships or so!) One of the best parts about the game, too, is that it's all easily Modable. All the data files are text files. So if you're playing and getting half way through the game before running out of technologies, you can lower the rate research facilities generate research, add a few hundred levels to the techs already available, or create brand new techs. Wanna play in a Star Trek universe? Create your own ship skins similar to the Klingons, Romulans and Federation, or download some others have already created.

Good, good, good, goooooood times!