30
votes
Intermediate turn based strategy games
I used to like Command & Conquer and similar games, but these days I find it stressful and too fast paced.
I want some recommendations of turn based games that does not have a steep learning curve like Hearts of Iron but it's not too simple like Advanced Wars.
It needs to be for PC and run on a Ryzen 3200G laptop.
X-COM and X-COM2 are great games. They are not strategies, more like tactical turn-based. And they are quite well made spin-offs of originals. You knowing C&C probably know those games too :-)
If you want more strategy-like, then maybe Civilization? Or Civlization: Revolution, which is much easier to learn and get going.
Or if you wat something more like chess (you are pesented with conditions and you have to play by some specific rules), try Into the breach. You won't know how good that game is until you try. Don't let graphics fool you!
Thanks! I played Into the Breach and X-COM 2 a lot!
Civilizatiom never really clicked with me, but I played only 2. I'll check Revolution.
Into the Breach was going to be my first recommendation. If you liked it definitely check-out FTL by the same people.
Theres also Phantom Birgade which has a similar (see what the enemy is going to do) mechanic.
If you like the idea of X-Com, but didn't love the newer games, I'd suggest taking a look at the orginal. You can probably get it for like $1, and there's been a few fan projects to update the interface to modern standards. I find the orginal a lot less stressful. You'll lose soldiers like crazy, but they're a lot more expendable. It sucks when you lose your best guy, but it's not a giant setback like in the newer games.
The ol XCOM can be played via Openxcom which can probably at least run in higher resolution...? Haven't tried, just know it exists.
And I second FTL. It is wonderful game! It is fast-paced, but you have ability to pause anytime and set new orders while paused, which kinda makes it user-turn-based. Great game!
Yes, if someone wants to play the original UFO: Enemy Unknown or Terror From The Deep nowadays, then OpenXCOM is the way to do it.
It's better in every single way, support for modern resolution, lots of bugfixes, less laggy UI (something we tend to forget about those two old games is how randomly-laggy their UI sometimes got), and lots of optional tweaks and rebalances.
Needs the original game files, but you can get them for a pittance on gog.com anyways.
Revolution is, excuse me for the terminology, dumbed down version of big Civ. I feel overwhelmed by big Civ games, but Revolution (or Revolution 2, actually?) seems much easier for me. Not that easy that it plays by itself, but there are simply much less elemens at play compared to big Civ game. It probably started as mobile game, just sayin'.
EDIT: Some spelling...
It was actually released for the Nintendo DS back in 2008 before they ported it mobile! That specific version was more "dumbed down," but it actually had some features that Civ 5 was missing on release (namely government types, I recall being frustrated that Congress wouldn't allow me to declare war w/o a reason, because I chose Democracy, and changing the government made your people revolt for a period of time). It had some really lovely ambience as well, birds chirping and such as you play.
There's also XCOM: Chimera Squad which leans toward smaller skirmishes and more hero-based units vs XCOM 2's more class-based units.
It depends a bit on what you want specifically and how "out there" things are supposed to be.
If it's just about the stressful high-speed part, I would recommend two things first, sticking with RTS:
But crossing over to TBS, here's a few I can readily recommend:
Has more Horatio lmao. I'm with Carighan here, Endless Space 2 is an excellent 4X game.
Endless Space 2.
The UI in this game is a master class in ease of use. Takes a genre known for handling like a boat and makes it drive like a porsche. The mid-game gets a bit sloggy, but the interface is so easy to navigate that it keeps momentum.
Is Offworld like the Anno games? It's right up my alley.
No Offworld is it's own thing, there is military to start with. It's definitely worth checking out, it's quite busy and fast paced at times and in the end couldn't keep my attention.
People already mentioned some good titles, i'm going to suggest some alternative turn based games that aren't necessarily strategy games
I know it's a fantasy game but for me it's up there amongst the best games of all time period. The ff tactics titles for gameboy advance end up being too childish for me, but the ps1 version is more adult oriented dealing with political intrigue, treaties and betrayals. It's easy to get into but the battles become increasingly harder so it never gets dull.
These developers would go on to make Tactics Ogre LUCT, which is another fantastic title with the same gameplay, but not final fantasy themed.
I'm playing FF Tactics on my RG35XX. Superb game!
There are some very old classics such as the Heroes of Might and Magic Series which has turn-based combat. Then, there is of course the Civilization series.
One of the more rogue-like turn based games is Darkest Dungeon (which has turn-based combat), also Slay the Spire (turn-based card game roguelike).
I can not assess if those games are in the right complexity range for you, I am afraid. But all of those should run on a regular laptop.
I played the hell out of Slay the Spire! I love it. It's a nice quick time killer.
Monster Train is really good in that genre, too
A LOT of rogue-like games nowadays could work for OP. Card-based or turn-based ones allow you all the time in the world to pause and think about things before doing them (as opposed to the twitchy action-based ones like Hades and Rogue Legacy). And their very nature makes it okay to lose/die frequently since that's a major part of the game. You just pick up where you left off and try something new/better. And you won't feel as discouraged as you would if, say, you lost a game of civ after ten hours invested into it.
Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Dicey Dungeons, Against the Storm, Darkest Dungeon, FTL, etc. all fit the bill perfectly and in different ways.
There are dozens (probably hundreds, really) of great rogue-likes for you to choose from.
Well, the question is if OP wants roguelikes at all. Most have high complexity, and they might actually prefer the classic "table top view" turn-based strategy.
Absolutely. I was just adding in my recommendation for anyone else in a similar spot (looking for fun-but-not-too-intense strategy games). One good thing about roguelikes (well most of them at least) is that they have varying scales of difficulty. So you can make your experience as easy or difficult as you want. So newer players can just worry about beating the game in its normal or easier mode, while more experienced players can fulfill additional (and optional) quests and challenges, like the ascension modes in Slay the Spire, which add more and more challenges the further you go.
Finally, a chance to talk about Moonbase Commander, one of my favorite games that few people ever played!
Backstory
Moonbase Commander is a 2002 RTS game from a very unlikely developer, Humongous Entertainment. They were founded by former LucasArts developers, included Ron Gilbert, the creator of Monkey Island. Humongous was well-known for developing point-and-click games for little kids (Putt-Putt, Freddie Fish, Pajama Sam), which are still playable in ScummVM and a lot of fun if you're a five-year old.
Moonbase Commander
In 2001, they developed a unique game that was a complete departure from their previous releases. Moonbase Commander was a turn-based tactical RTS with ballistics-based mechanics similar to Scorched Earth or Worms. The turn-based nature of the game made it similar to chess: you had to plan your moves in advance and balance tactical vs positional play.
Unfortunately, the game was a complete commercial failure, winning ign.com's Best of 2002: The Game No One Played award.
Mechanics and gameplay
On the surface, the game is simple - there are a few types of structures and a small number of weapons, but the game is exquisitely well-balanced. Every single weapon or tactic in the game has a defense, yet every defense is vulnerable to another weapon or tactic. For example, launching a simple bomb can be countered by deploying an anti-air unit. But the anti-air unit can launch only one missile at a time and is disabled on the next turn, so it can be defeated by one bomb followed up by a second bomb the next turn. The counter to that is to deploy a second anti-air, but that could be countered by using a cluster bomb that separated in three pieces. The counter to that is to deploy four anti-airs, but then you start running out of space to place structures.
The ballistics-based mechanics made a big difference in the feel of the game. Instead of simply pointing to the location where you wanted to build a new structure or attack, you had to point a launcher in the desired direction, hold the mouse button until you reach the desired launch power and release. If you calculated your angle wrong, or held the button too long, the new structure would be placed in the wrong location or collide with an existing structure and explode. This added an element of physical skill to an otherwise boring chess-like-game; a small change with a huge impact on multiplayer games. There were many games where I was certain I was losing, until the opponent failed to make a crucial shot. Similarly, you could come up with a sequence of very hard to pull-off moves that would turn the game around if you could execute them flawlessly.
Playing Moonbase Commander today
Moonbase Commander is available on GOG and Steam, or you can download the original iso from the Internet Archive. It has a single-player mode with computer-controlled opponents and a series of challanges, which is very helpful for learning the game. But the best way to play is against another human player, if you can find another person to play with (which is very unlikely). The game originally supported only LAN-based multiplayer, but it was extended to support Internet play with a third-party utility called Moonbase Console.
Resources
It picked my interest. I'll check it out.
Being older it'll probably run easily on Linux.
I haven't tried it on Linux myself, but people on the GOG forums reported that it runs just fine under Wine. Good luck!
That ballistics mechanic sounds really cool I'm definitely going to have to give this a go myself
Someone already mentioned it, but Heroes of Might and Magic, the best version (3) is also on sale at Gog for $2.49. It's a very simple to play game and you'll be able to jump right in and understand what's going on.
Warlock 2 is a sort-of Civ-esque 4x game, but it focuses on smashing your opponents, rather than diplomacy, science, etc, so it's very straightforward.
Battle Brothers is one of my favorite, more recently, strategy games. Basically, build a band of mercenaries and go on contracts to build-up the name of your mercenary company. You can get very deep into theorycrafting and meta-game strategies if you like, but for me, I just jump in and play and see how well I can do without diving in to out of game stuff. I have about 60-hours in this one so far, it's very immediate and understandable, with a lot of tactical depth.
Now, stay with me here, I'm going to throw out a few turn based strategy adjacent games. These are all real time, but slow enough that they're easy to play and react to when you need to. I also grew up with C&C and can't keep up with Micro in modern day RTS games, but these games really fit the bill when I want something slower.
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 my absolute favorite RTS series these days; been playing it for years. If you've played Company of Heroes, forget what you know, this is very different. While CoH, I find, tends to be very micro heavy and needing quick reflexes, Men of War is much slower. You can even turn down the game speed to its slowest settings, so you have plenty of time to address all the things. In fact, that's how I learned how to play. No base building here, just a simple counter that builds-up, where you can then order new units once you have enough points. There's a lot of granularity to this game--such as, each soldier has an individual inventory. You can run one guy over to another, pick up his weapon and continue fighting. You can manually control soldiers and vehicles; try to track another vehicle, get the crew to bail out, kill them and then steal the vehicle, repair it and turn it against the enemy--but you can completely ignore all that and just play.
Duskers. Sometimes you might need a quick reaction, but it's all part of the game to fail. A roguelike where you're investigating different wrecks in space, you interface with the game through the command line, telling drones where to go and what to do. In each new wreck, you scan adjacent rooms for threats and methodically try to figure out how you can avoid them to get your drones into the next room to claim that sweet, sweet salvage.
Majesty. You're in charge of a fantasy town, you need to kill monsters, expand your kingdom, etc, etc. But you don't directly control much. If you need the den of a monster cleared out, you set a contract for it and a hero will pick it up and go take care of it (if they can). Gotta be honest, haven't played this at all on PC, but spent a lot of time with it on Android a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Been on my list for quite awhile to jump back into on PC.
Love that mod. HoMM 1/2 is the absolute best art style.
Since I saw you say you loved X-COM, the Shadowrun Returns series has similar combat from my understanding. I would suggest trying Dragonfall or Hong Kong over the original, if you ever decide to go back to it, it is available as a mod for Hong Kong. There are a few User Generated Content modules available if you find yourself liking it, so you can pack in several other stories. I think I got them on GOG for about 2 to 5 bucks a piece, so they're pretty cheap to try out.
Other folks have suggested Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre LUCL. If you do like the fantasy genre I recently picked up Triangle Strategy and loved it as much as those two. FFT and Tactics Ogre can get a little easy towards the middle, whereas Triangle Strategy felt like it stayed pretty even over the course of the game. Each of the characters have unique skills so you can experiment with a pretty wide cast.
Already played Shadowrun and loved it! Invisible Inc is another one I found cool too.
I'll check Triangle Strategy.
Good luck and have fun!
If you were already a fan of Shadowrun, the Divinity Original Sin and it's sequel also offer some fun strategy elements. Very similar gameplay and I don't think they're terribly intensive on the machine. Now I have to go check out Invisible Inc.....Hope you enjoy!
The three shadowrun games are very fun and can vary in difficulty.
I'll say that while most Fire Emblems are very easy, the Lunatic modes can actually be quite difficult if you go in blind. That said, part of the charm can either be engaging earnestly with the game, or finding what mechanics you can twist to obliterate with a single super soldier. You can also just blast through most of the text if you don't care for it.
No one have mentioned Total War, so I will. Total War games are turnbased in campaign maps, but live during battles. Live battles can be paused anytime though. It's not a steep learning curve, you can play the game relatively easy once you do a tutorial. Play on the easier settings in the beginning and just have fun. There are plenty of youtubers you can watch who go more indepth if that is something you want. Total War are mostly historical games, but in recent years there are also Warhammer games. They are great as well.
I've been enjoying Unity of Command II lately. It's not too complex but has it's quirks and a surprising depth for what it is.
Works on my mac, so it'll probably run without a hitch on your PC.
Valkyria Chronicles is fun and not too difficult unless you're trying to optimize for winning in as few turns as possible. I think the first one and the fourth one are available on Steam.
Oh I recently found the thing for you! Mechabellum, it's an auto battler, hear me out on this one but it's basically like an rts for old people. Meaning the fun in rts for a big part is countering what the opponent is doing and that's exactly what you do. And it has a surprising depth to it. Unit placement and upgrade choices matter. It's fun. Caveats: it's in early access and is supposed to go free to play in a year. So you're paying them for the privilege of testing but it's been a fun experience without a store or transactions and the like.
Furthermore all the age of empires games. The remakes but especially 4 I enjoy because it feels fresh. The older ones are great too and still get support. Not necessarily slow paced games though.
I've been scratching a similar itch as well. I recall playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GBA, and loving it. You can easily find an emulator and ROM for it.
I picked up Warhammer 40k:, Mechanicus which also has the same feeling, but with grimdark skin. I've been enjoying working my way through this game.
What genres do you prefer? I haven't played Hearts of Iron, but a game I always seem to come back to that's almost in this category is Stellaris. It's technically real time, but with a very fluid time management function to pause and slow down or speed up the passage of time.
The learning curve isn't walk in the park easy but I didn't find jumping into it insurmountable, and there are good tutorial videos out there that help you get the basics fast enough. The automation tools within the game help a lot, but still allow you to micromanage if you wish. There is a lot of choice in the game, and that gives it a lot of depth and replayability. The base game has been pretty cheap in the past so if you give it a look and it interests you I'd put it on a watchlist and wait.
I prefer sci-fi/space settings.
I'll check Stellaris. Thanks!
Awesome, if you have any questions let me know. I might be able to help!
I played quite a lot of stellaris but I always end up winning as a pacifist because I can't build a fleet that will survive any battle at all. So I end up making gifts and bribing my neighbours until they love me and release me out of their vassals. Then the endgame scenarios kill them all and I survive and win because I hunker down in some corner.
I would love to finally get some fleet going that can survive the easiest battles and go another route, but it's always the pacifist, no matter how I start.
I've recently gotten back into it after a ~2 year hiatus. It took a bit of tinkering and reading but kiting missile+carrier cruisers and battleships (speed, so afterburners, plus all the M and S slots filled with missiles, and the arc emitters on the X slot for battleships), with swarm corvettes with disruptors has been working out really well and punches pretty high. The corvettes die pretty easily but tie up enemy ships so much, especially the AI, and they are cheap to replace.
Give that design a try and see how well it works for you!
Songs of Conquest on Steam is a fantastic retro-style Heroes of Might & Magic spinoff that I've been playing a little of recently if you want something that's not 100% tactical combat.
I really like Concordia. It's a board game originally, but the digital adaptation is really good, too. I enjoy playing it against the AI, and also playing asynchronously against friends.
It's all about resources / economy - no battles.
He's a review of the board game: https://youtu.be/X9u6IuoIPUA
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1450330/Concordia_Digital_Edition/
I played Concordia online a lot at boiteajeux. Really cool game.
There's lots of games here that I have heard lots of good things about - I'll try to add some more niche or less mentioned ones here, that I also enjoyed.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is currently on sale on GOG
While I'm not entirely certain it will run on the 3200g, the required specs are low enough that I think it should.
It's a turn-based RPG based on DND 5th edition, which CAN have quite significant complexity, but the game also supports choosing the classes for your entire party - meaning you can pick simpler ones without issue. I believe it also provides recommendations should you not want to customize each levelup.
I've enjoyed this games combat and exploration quite a lot, and the story is decent enough to be enjoyable too, though I will say it is one of the weaker elements. It does show that this game comes from a smaller studio.
Ill add another recommendation that only kinda fits the criteria here though:
Neverwinter Nights 1 - an older game with a lot of similarities to the above, as well as the critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate series, with some of the same studios involved.
This game is not quite turn based, but pausing to queue actions is an optional, but very encouraged part of the gameplay. I think this could also provide a similar answer to what you are looking for in terms of RTS, which allows you to control the pacing.
While the game shows its age, I had more than enough fun with it to completely ignore the dated graphics, and it of course comes with a reduced price tag for that reason.
For Turn-Based try Brigandine The Legend of Runersia
I love the art-style, there are some organization elements, you can change class, and equipments.
Others have mentioned good Turn-Based Strategy games, but since you mentioned that you liked CnC games, what about some very simple Real-Time Strategy games.
Iron Marines have no real resources to worry about, it's just 1 resource and you don't have to gather it, Macro are basically just build buildings in a pre-determined points, there's an android version that's free so you can try it first.
Starship Troopers doesn't have any resources, just supplies, units are free to call anytime as long as you have the supplies available, the most important mechanics is to keep a clear firing line for your units.
Both are campaign only, no multiplayer, no skirmish mode, and both doesn't have too many units for you to control, I think it won't get too overwhelming, difficulty is also on the easy side.