Poll: Best Strategy series

[jad4400]

With 2009 coming up and Empire:Total war only three long months away, I got to thinks, which series of strategy was the best? After a few minutes I realized that I should probably go on the Escapist and make a poll for this question.

So present your opinions, which strategy series do you think is the king of all stratagey series?



Note: Other games I wanted to inclued in the poll were: Sins of a Solar Empire, The Homeworld series, Heroes of Might and Magic, Empire Earth, Company of Heroes, Kingdom Under Fire and Commandos

 

[black lincon]

You forgot fire emblem, but I'll forgive you because you remembered Civilization.

 

[thiosk]

Total war is not exactly truly a strategy game.

It has more of a focus on tactics, so voting Total War as best strategy game doesn't really mean its the best strategy game, it just means you like total war.

i mean, maybe im pushing this little distinction a little to hard, total war has a strategic level, but thats kind of the same way as saying that mass effect has a driving level so its a driving sim.
total war is all about bringing the calvary in behind the phalanx.
drool

 

[Novajam]

I think they're all too different for one to be declared "best", however may favourite would be the Age of Empires series, particularly Age of Empires 3 and it's expansions. I also have a bit of a penchant for the series, as Age of Empires 1 was the first videogame I ever owned.

 

[Arcticflame]

It's hard to call dawn of war strategy. But it is my favourite of those up there.

In terms of what I would call strategy, civilisation was a game I played when I was very young, and it was loads of fun.

Except the french and their cannons.

Dam the french.

 

[Podunk]

Well, that depends. The list seems to be (as far as I know) all RTS games. My favorite series out of those would probably be the Starcraft/Warcraft games, just for the sheer fact that I've messed with them the longest. I've found an interesting under-apreciated gem for the game boy color, of all things, called Warlocked, which was a lot like World of Warcraft but with wizards you could save with their own nifty abilities and cool stuff like dragons you could train... so you could have a mage turn your enemies into chickens, then have a dragon roast them for your troops to eat and replenish their health... it was pretty fun.

Out of turn based strategy games I'd say it's a toss-up between the Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics series, depending on if my mood leans more towards modern and fantasy.

The series I can't stand however is Fire Emblem... The fighting is too much like rock-paper-scissors and seems very shallow for an ongoing series, not to mention that (at least on the handhelds) levels are copy-pasted directly from older titles... shameful.

 

[Silver]

Since civilisation is the only pure strategy game on the list, and Total War is the only other game with a strategic element to it I'm going to have to go with the first.

The other's may be called RTS, but they're not about strategy. Heroes might be considered slightly on the strategic side, but you didn't put that into the poll. Commandos is a compeltely different genre altogether.

Now The Guild, or Port Royale, those games are almost what could be up on the poll together with Civilisation and perhaps Total War, if you stretch your definitions a bit X-Com, UFO: Trilogy and UFO:AI have some strategic elements to it, especially the first series. Those are the one's that should be on the poll.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

DoW Represent!! I liked Age of Empires and Civilization is good, but I always can play Dow. Any time of the day (or night) I can play it. I could spend a month playing it and I'll still be having fun.

 

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

To be fair, it's entirely possible to play Total War like it were Civ-light and focus entirely on the Strategic level.

However, Total War's tactical combat blows every other RTS-type game out of the water. Total War.

It's true that the other RTSes are less about strategy, more about tactics and, more importantly, build orders. Company of Heroes a bit less so, but the common generalization's held up for a long time and with good reason.

 

[HobbesMkii]

Yada yada yada, blah blah blah, RTS that, Turn-Based this. I refuse to vote on this issue until you give Paradox's line of Grand Strategy Games, which spans four separate series, allowing a player to shape the development of the world from 1033CE to 1963CE. I've played pretty much every one of the those games you listed (and by the way, if you're doing StarCraft/WarCraft, you ought to do Dawn of War/Company of Heroes, it's comparable, it's the same company) and none of them compare in sheer depth and scope of Paradox's titles. It's like you guys are asking which color in Checkers is better to start with while those who partake of Paradox are debating English Opening vs Sicilian Defence in Chess.

Seriously folks, expand your minds. Beat the unit queue for something better.

(PS. And if you're going to list the regular old RTS stuff only, why the HELL is Cossacks not up there?)

 

[thiosk]

f

I refuse to vote on this issue until you give Paradox's line of Grand Strategy Games,

I read this and kinda went DUH? NO EUROPA UNIVERSALIS?

i mean its boring as crap *in my very very humble opinion* but thats a REAL strategy game, not like some of the garbage in the poll. Its kinda like vanilla ice cream with raisins (starcraft) or dates (dawn of war) or choco sauce (C&C)

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Well since you didn't have Hearts of Iron I voted Dawn of War.

 

[vede]

Battle for Wesnoth. Not a series, I know, but I don't much care, now do I?

No, I don't.

 

[Ronwue]

Total war by a long way.

 

[Geamo]

It was a toughie for me, as I play a LOT of strategy games;
Each have thier good points...played most of these.

I voted for Age of Empires, purely on the basis that it was a classic, Age of Empires 1 was the first videogame I got, and AoE2 was just flippin' incredible for the time.

Total War, Dawn of War and Warcraft are all mighty good games. Just the nostaligc value of AoE bumps it over.

 

[Dys]

For me company of heroes revolutionized RTS gaming. After playing it many other games I played felt...boring. Although Dawn of war (especially the upcoming sequal) also deserve some of the credit. Of course I still love the classics, but since playing CoH they all feel a bit..samey.

 

[Jandau]

Why is "Any "Sims" game" an option in a poll about strategy games?

 

[k3v1n]

I'm curious...why did you put starcraft and warcraft in the same spot¿?

 

[Unknower]

Total War, Warcraft and Age of Empires are my favorites.

Why is "Any "Sims" game" an option in a poll about strategy games?

Simcity-games might count as strategy games, even though there's hardly any explosions in them.