I thought there was a needless amount of extra space on the battle maps. You would spend the first few turns getting close enough to actually do anything. I think that was just me, though.
And yes, the maps in general are ginormous.
I would rank them:
- Heroes Series
- King’s Bounty
- Age of Wonders
Another game that is sorta along those lines is Disciples Oneand Two.
Age of Wonders: Shadowmagic is a wonderful game. Yea, individual games can take forever to complete though, but this was never a huge issue for me.
I felt the same way. Especially when the AI would bring three or four armies attacking one square. The tactical battle alone would take literal days (keed u?).
And I say this as a guy who loves tactical battles, especially turn based.
Same.
On that subject, Disciples is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. You have a max of 6 units and they just fire back and forth at each other. The choices and the series overall is more simplified TBS, but fun nonetheless. Plus there is this quirky flag system. You basically place your stake on a plot of land and your control/influence oozes into adjacent land each turn. Your goal is to control the majority of the map. Cool mechanic that I think they deserted in Disciples III, but I do not have it, so I cannot be sure.
I love AoW:Shadow Magic, It has never been off any of my computers since buying it.
But just picked up Disciples 2 Gold and having a blast with it, great artwork even for an older game. And the more simplified combat is a nice change from AoW but it still has a lot of strategy involved.
Disiciples 2Gold is on for a great price at the Strategy First site for $4.99 with the coupon code, that’s where I picked it up.
Ah yes, duh, how could I forget about the Disciples games? EXCELLENT fantasy strategy games, they are.
They always reminded me a bit of Ogre Battle.
How good is Spellforce 2 compared to 1? I got 1 from GoG on a whim a few years back and enjoyed it. What changed?
Great! Thanks all, for the info and suggestions.
Completely forgot about Disciples which I considered getting at one point - in fact will get that first and then move on to AoW.
Relayer before you get Disciples, please know this: they liiiieeee!!! :p
- The two Dicsiples (there never was a third, do you understand menaces) may look exactly the same as any HoMM-like, but they are a completely different genre.
In terms of how you actually play a game, HoMM-likes are tactical combat strategy games that reward faction-specific spell/tech tactics, stack-o-doom, and map-choke tacs.
The Disciples are almost exactly the opposite. Combat is usually a foregone conclusion, and stylized beyond what most sane people would call tactical. Stack-o-doom & map choke tacs are somewhere between useless and impossible. Spell/tech tacs more situational than map/faction specific, and while you project power with your stacks in HoMM-likes, in Disciples the relative power of stacks (even whole piles of them) is much, much less important than how much power your empire can project onto them. And that, in turn, depends on resource management and control on maps open enough and with enough (and evenly enough matched) stacks that coking really isn’t viable.
If only I had Tom’s gifts of explaining game stuff clearly & concisely… But… I guess fundamental difference between HoMM-likes and the Disciples, is that while stacks are how you project power in HoMM, in Disciples stacks only lets you project power. The actual power you project is your empire.
It’s stretching it to call the Disciples Grand Strategy games, because they are simplified and stylized far, far beyond anything you’d expect in a GS. But they are much closer relatives of that genre than they are of HoMM.
Also, I’m in no way suggesting the Disciples aren’t made of pure awesomesauce with awesome on top. In my opinion they are way better games than any HoMM-likes I have tried, including HoMM 2&3. And if you do go ahead and get one, get D2. It has something like 5 times the content of D1, and beyond the story stuff, the closest thing to a notable difference between then (I mean, not counting graphics or the fact that D2 has some of the best art direction you’ve ever seen in a video game, ahead of even things like Morrowind) is that D2 lets units over-level. But IIRC it’s by something like +10%stats per +150%xp, so it’s not like it actually impacts the game balance.
Opposite…pfft. ;) Well, I did describe a few of the dissimilarities, but you are certainly right in pointing the additional differences. They are quite different in many respects. In most cases, my clear and concise descriptions are far worse than yours. I approached it from the standpoint that if you like Fantasy themed TBS games, it would hard to go wrong with Disciples one and two.
…I even INSTALLED Disciples II and I’ve never played it. Good-bye, three day weekend…
w00t, Raptor: Call of the Shadows for $2.99 this weekend. Or whenever the sale’s running.
Hmmm, only thing in that sale I don’t have is the Goblins Pack, which I might get for the soundtrack.
Brian, I love when you post in a GoG or Bargain thread as I can always predict that it will include the phrase “I am getting that” at some point. It is a comforting familiarity. :)
Do you have an iPhone? You totally need to be in that thread. $.99!!! You could buy 10 games on sale a day!!
I know, I’m weak like that.
Hey, there’s a game in this sale called Robinson’s Requiem that sounds pretty cool. Is anyone familiar, besides Big Bri whose opinion means nothing to me since he has repeatedly refused to meet me for a duel to the death?
OrfBC
4519
I played it years ago, but here’s what I remember. It’s a survival simulator and extremely, extremely difficult. I guess you could think of it roughly sort of like Minecraft, but without the building engine, and with lots and lots of dying. Instead, you desperately scrabble around trying to cobble together food and shelter and warmth from the junk you find laying around, enduring things like infected wounds becoming gangrenous and catching pneumonia and dying. It’s pretty hardcore. And finally, it does technically take place on another planet, but I don’t remember it feeling very science fictioney. It could easily have just been you stuck in the Rockies or whatever.
I didn’t get very far in the game, it was just way too hard.
Thraeg
4520
The Ishar compilation looks kind of intriguing too. I hadn’t heard of them before, and the screenshots look kind of Might & Magic-y, which is a big plus for me. I’m always up for battling the Darkness force.
Anyone played these?
Refused? How can I refuse if I was never even OFFERED?! throws down gauntlet
