Now that I think about it, yes, the UFO games break with X-Com tradition by not being strictly turn-based. They’re certainly still in the same vein, though.
If you must have turn-based, one game nobody’s mentioned yet is Fallout Tactics. This game got a bad rap for not being a proper third Fallout, which it definitely isn’t, but it’s a nice little squad shooting game all the same.
Let me add a counter-opinion. Real-time pause is not equivalent to turns.
I pretty much love all turn-based tactical and wargamers, including JA2 and the original UFO’s/X-Coms. I do not at all enjoy the tactical battles in the recent UFO series.
For me the comparison is the same as that between the turn-based combat of Temple of Elemental Evil and the real-time with pause and underlying turn-based of Baldurs Gate combat. Again, love the former, dislike the latter.
I would never recommend the recent UFO’s to someone who liked turn-based and disliked real-time with pause. I’m perfectly happy that others like them, but for me they ripped out the heart of the game and replaced it with the insidious poison of real-time.
Or if you have a PSP and you like medieval demon girls, you could get Jeanne d’Arc (and the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles sequel). Note that both games contains heavy doses of anime RPGisms.
I see no-one has suggested Romance of the three Kingdoms XI? While I haven’t played the full game (due to little available gaming time and a huge backlog) I did try the demo some time ago, and was reasonably impressed. It’s also quite cheap (19.95 dollars at D2D and 24.95 euros at Gamersgate). Maybe someone else can weigh in on the merrits of the full game though?
Also, Incubation, a fun TBS from the 90s, though very puzzly in its missions.
If you get Space Empires get number 4 and then the mod which improves the AI, I forget its name.
If you liked Panzer General, you might enjoy Slitherine’s Military History Commander – Europe at War Gold.
Another TBS game I have read mixed reports about is War Leaders.
It isn’t out yet, but the demo of Empires of Steel is. Give it a look if you like beer and pretzel games.
I’m with you on this, at least in part. I can enjoy real-time-with-pause now, after some adjustment, and think it’s preferable to full on unpausable real-time. But it is not and never has been equivalent to real turn-based.
I’m not a rabid turn-based zealot, at least I think not. For context, I adored Herzog Zwei, and regretted becoming so good at it that my friends did not wish to play. I played Dune II endlessly, and I remember many early late-night/early morning transitions due to Command and Conquer.
I only started to develop a simmering resentment of real-time when it began to replace turns in games where I would prefer turns, like many, certainly not all, predominantly single player rpg’s, tactical and strategy games.
Wow! Thanks for mentioning this, it’s a great find and right up my alley. I haven’t had a chance to get a feel for how strong the AI is but this is like a perfect update to the old Empire/Strategic Conquest games with some Xconq mixed in. If anyone else is a fan of these older games this is definitely worth a look. I can’t wait til this releases now.
Real time with pause has its place but it is IMO highly overused nowadays. There’s a lot of games that should be just pure old fashioned turn based and suffer from the real time treatment. I don’t think every game should be turn based but sadly I often feel that game devs feel that every game should be real time, even ones where the fit is clearly off (I’m thinking of the Paradox games here; even though I know they have many many fans I cannot play them without thinking: this would be so much better if it were truly turn based.)
Looking at the games mentioned in this thread just confirms my depressing sense that turn based strategy games (as opposed to hex-wargames) are pretty dead these days. The vast majority of mentioned games are pretty old, and of the few new ones, most are from indy houses. I love indies but they have their weaknesses. Feh. I’m not finding anything to scratch this itch…
The War Engine over at Shrapnel Games is free.
The first Age of Wonders is good t o revisit.
The battlefields were just too friggin’ big. If they could have managed some interesting layouts on a smaller scale, I think that would have made all the difference for me with the AoW games.
I agree with most of the games mentioned above. Especially Age of Wonders 2.
You might also consider:
Etherlords 2- like Magic the Gathering but without the whole “collectible” thing.
Massive Assault- hex based, no luck involved, fun “secret allies” system.
Temple of Elemental Evil- tactical squad based game with the DnD ruleset.
Oasis- Civ in 5 minutes. Sounds impossible, but its very impressive distillation of the essentials of 4x gaming.
Tony
I hear you, it is my favorite genre as well.
Have you tried sequels to the games you have mentioned - Elven Legacy and Armored Princess? (AP may not have been released to the eastern markets yet. Elven Legacy is very good)
Etherlords 2 is somewhat of a combination of King’s Bounty (the new one) and Magic: the Gathering. Travel on an overworld picking up resources and battling opponents using a deck of cards you assemble on the way. There are 5 or 6 different deck types and global enchantments impact some of the battles. I found the game very fulfilling and had hoped for a third one in the series:
Sadly I don’t think it is anywhere. Amazon has it used for $20 (ouch), but there’s a copy on ebay for cheap. I’d recommend picking it up, and if you do, I recommend getting the Nova or newer Hyperion fan-made patch, which really makes the game more playable, especially in the later stages.
Let me second this. IMO, It is the best 4x space game around.
I thought they were an excellent size myself. Just big enough to do some maneuvering instead of lining up in a closet. Charging fortifications meant you had to face one volley of ranged fire before getting to a gate. And mounted units actually meant something.
I am so with you. Real time with pause doesn’t even come close to scratching the same itch as a turn-based game. It’s not just about being able to pause the action to think about things… the strategy in turn-based gaming is all about managing discrete actions, and knowing exactly which you can do in a turn, and what your opponent can do in a turn, and looking ahead to try to out-think your opponent, much like in chess. Real-time games, even with pausing, are messier. Everything is happening at once, and actions overlap each other, and there’s not much opportunity for the sort of move-prediction thinking that you get in turn-based games, other than in a very general sense.