Tactics games? (recommendations)
 

I was wondering if anyone could recommend me a game or a gameseries to try out. The type of game I'm looking for would probably fall under the "strategy game" genre, but I'm more interested in games that are won on the tactical level.

As an example, from the Total War series I've played Shogun and Rome. R:TW campaigns tend to have a series of interesting battles at the start, then after a while the game turns into me moving unit stacks and fleets across the strategy map, autoresolving the battles as I can't be bothered fighting endless (and meaningless since even if I lose there's a whole lot more where they came from) full stack vs full stack battles turn after turn. Shogun is similar (me vs Hojo Horde).

Even my (probably) favourite game of all time UFO: EU (x-com) falls apart at the strategic level as you can just manufacture laser cannons or milk alien base supply ships for unlimited resources. At this point the tactical battles turn uninteresting since units and resources become expendable. And mind control is broken. But it's still a good game.

So I guess what I'm mostly looking for is squad or regiment level tactical battles like the Myth series or Warhammer series, or Jagged Alliance, it doesn't have to be about swords and sorcery. And anyone interested in this sort of stuff who hasn't played those games should play them (not Mark of Chaos).

I was always a big fan of the Gangsters series of games, although not strictly fighting or a 'traditional war' style strategy games, you do have to hire, promote and control your hoods, extort businesses, start businesses, earn money, buy guns & cars and explosives, bribe cops/D.A's, send hitmen to whack your opponents etc. The first game was always my favourite, but very hard to get into due to the unnessesarily complicated GUI.

Next I'd recommend Janes Fleet Command. It was a VERY hard modern naval battle sim, not a buying/selling kind of strategy game, more 100% based on tactics; preserving the units you do have and using them and their specialities to the best of your ability.

Other than that, I just run back to the XCOM series when I want a bit of strategy!

Hope that was some help, I'm sure someone will come with some better suggestions soon! :max:

Stu

I was going to suggest the Myth series, but it looks like you already played that.

Soldiers : Heroes of World War 2 and it's "sequels" (stay away from Faces of War,it sucks), S.W.I.N.E and other Stormregion games like Codename:Panzers

1942 The Pacific air war series
Campaign mode is an extreme tactical exercise.

Do you have a preference between turn-based and realtime, or can the recommendations come from either category?

Real-time or turnbased isn't an issue. Although I wouldn't mind if real-time had pause. I don't play Starcraft multiplayer or any FPS so I don't think I have good micro or reflexes.

Thanks everyone for the plethora of suggestions for games I've never heard of! I will be sure to check out the games about gangsters and warring rabbits. I might skip the extremely hard naval and aerial simulations though, as the extent of my tactical knowledge is pretty much "hammer&anvil, bait&ambush, use cover, get the high ground" which I doubt will be of much help in those games.



This sure is a nice place. I'm sure there are lots of internet gaming communities in which a question like this gets answered with suggestions of a game about 12-year olds' schoolyard snowfight (which is as far as I got in Final Fantasy: Tactics).

Far as realtime squad level goes: Syndicate, Syndicate Wars, Waterworld, Space Hulk. Battletech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge can also count, but your control over the units is less perfect than what you may be used to.

For turn based squad level, you could try Power Dolls and Incubation.

For larger scale turn based strategy, the Battle Isle series, History Line 1914-1918 and Lords of the Realm. Lords of the Realm is somewhat reminiscent of the Total War series, but the game's mechanics make it really hard for any side to field massive armies and a lot of the battles are won (or lost) by morale rather than sheer manpower.

EDIT: And also, if you're into console stuff, try Front Mission.

I think what you're searching for is Norm Kroger's Operational Art of War series.
http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/...-of-war-series

I'd say Fallout 1 and 2, and the SSI Gold Box games like Pool of Radiance could fit too. Or even the Infinity engine games like Baldur's Gate. They're RPGs rather than strategy games, but the combat requires lots of tactics. Or more recently, there's Dragon Age.