…and are there any modern games which still use this, uh, paradigm?
The last game I can think of like this was Disciples II. Basically, levels consist of a map, and your icon gets a certain number of movement points per turn (similar to Civilization). When you run into other icons, it triggers a turn-based battle between your two parties. The battles themselves are direct matchups between character abilities, damage-dealing capacity, etc.
The gameplay style may not be terribly popular these days, but I rather enjoyed it. I found it very immersive for some reason, and in the case of Disciples, I thought the art was gorgeous.
I should say that I am aware of the Sonny series, which are stripped-down Flash games that use this combat style. They focus on ability development and inventory management, and are fun in themselves.
I believe I remember seeing this game genre described as “Adventure” in the past, but I don’t know if that term is still applicable.
Disciples is turn-based fantasy strategy, isn’t it not (with some role-playing mixed in)? Like Heroes of Might and Magic (long term addict here), and Age of Wonders?
Thank you. Sorry for the raging ignorance. I don’t play much in the way of video games anymore. I was just thinking about what an enjoyable experience Disciples II was, and thought maybe about trying some others.
I don’t know about PC games, but there are some really good turn-based strategy games on handhelds. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, R-Type Command, and Jean D’Arc on PSP and Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Disgaea, and Advance Wars on the DS.
My Google-fu must be failing me. Do you know of a download location for HoMaM3? All I’m seeing are patch sites and torrents. Or will I need to track down a CD somewhere?
Not sure if there’s one out there. Unfortunately the company that made Heroes 1-4 went bankrupt several years back. The rights-holder outsourced 5 to Nival Interactive, one of the Eastern European game studios that’s popping up everywhere lately, and they did a decent job, but not anything in line with the best of the originals. 3 is ten years old but the graphics and the gameplay still completely hold up.
If you Google “Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Demo” you should be able to find that download legally around. For the full version you’re probably looking at trying to dig up the CDs somewhere, since as far as I know, 2 through 4 aren’t available anywhere as legal downloads at this time.
Seconding Age of Wonders. It has a lot of civ-building, but battles work the same way, and there’s a crazy amount of different civilizations and units.
Just popping in to support the advice to play HOMM3 first, and only 4 and 5 after that, if at all (I’d vote for not at all. 3 is the pinnacle of this genre, though).
The new King’s Bounty features very HoMM-esque combat (though you run around the map in semi-real time.). In fact, HoMM was originally based, I believe, on the OLD King’s Bounty, and the new one keeps to that feel pretty well.
I would suggest Battle for Wesnoth.
It is a free open source turn based strategy game. It is also fantasy based. I really like it. I have only played it on Linux, but I am pretty sure their is a windows port.
Boy, how could I forget Wesnoth after all the posting I did in the Wesnoth thread a couple weeks ago? @_@
Anyway, it’s not really a ‘windows port’. I think it’s just a ‘windows compile’ - Wesnoth has apparently been designed to be multi-platform from the getgo, so yeah, playing it on Windows is as easy as running the installer.
Disciples 3 is in the works, and I’m definitely going to check it out. I heard it could come out this year, but I have no idea if that’s still accurate.
Also, you might check out Fantasy Wars and Elven Legacy, both of which have demos available.
Also, Dominions 3, which is really scarce on the graphics, was a fun, and very complicated, game. Not sure where you could get a copy of it, though.
And some of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games were made for PC, but it’s been a while since any of come out I believe. Another in the “if you don’t mind poor graphics” category.
Elemental: War of Magic is another one that’s due out in the future, made by Stardock, one of my favorite companies. Speaking of which, Galactic Civilizations II is along the same lines, but in space.
Oh, and if decide you like the space stuff, Master of Orion II is a classic. Too bad they never made a sequel…
Oh, one other thing – if your favorite part of Heroes of Might and Magic-type games is the actual combat, definitely try out the new King’s Bounty - it minimizes empire-building and maximizes the tactical combat. Not a terribly in-depth game, but fun. Not sure why I never finished that one…