Looking for a Good Open-ended Strategy game....
 

My title says it all. I'm just looking for a good Open-Ended strategy game. Something Like the TW series. I've gotten a little bored with Rome and Medieval 2...

I originally wanted an Open-ended Napoleonic strategy game, but can't find one that people seem to be crazy about. I tried out both Cossacks 2 and Imperial Glory. I don't want a scripted campaign, I want something I can shape into my own...is there such a game? Is there a naval game that is like this? I looked at Pacific Storm, but once again, I'm thrown in between people that say it rocks and people that say it sucks. I've also looked at distant guns, but I'm in the dark as to how it actually is. I dug out my old Age of Sail 2, and quickly realised why I put it up (very fun, but the water rendering hurts my eyes)...so yeah, any suggestions?

You could try the Battle of Britain 2 flight sim, as even though it's a flight sim, it can also be played as a Non-flying campaign where you are a controller, so you can direct the Battle of Britain RAF defence, or the Luftwaffe's attack. And it's fairly cheap to get hold of. Not exactly what you are looking for, but cheap, so maybe worth a look.

Also not quite along the exact lines of what you want, but still great fun in a manner similar to the battles part of TW, is Combat Mission, which if you've never tried it is a turn-based WW2 battle scenario game very much like traditional military wargaming in effect, but with computer graphics. There are lots of scenarios for it available and it's great on multiplayer if you know someone with similar interests who can fight you as a human opponent online. Kind of like a great game of chess with high explosives!

If you can find a copy, the old Fighting Steel is also a similar thing to Combat Mission with WW2 battleships fighting it out, although not turn based. Graphics are somewhat dated now, so if eye candy is a must, you won't like it, but it's still a good game and it does run on XP.

Anyway, just some suggestions

:D Chock

Distant Guns is good. If you can live without tactical combat and just pure strategy, AGEOD's Birth of America and American Civil War is about as good as it gets.

PD

I second Birth of America and the Civil War game by AGEOD. Both are fantastic and well supported by the devs at the official forums. Their patches aren't just bug fixes, but they actually add content costantly.

I'll also throw out Take Command 2: Second Manassas and Galactic Civilzations II, both great games that involve strategy...but they don't exactly fit what you described :damn:

The Paradox Games grand strategy series is probably something you would really want to look into!
These are Crusader Kings (medieval), Europa Universalis (early modern europe), Victoria (19th century), Hearts of Iron (WWII), and their various remakes and expansions. These are high-level strategy games; think along the lines of Total War's strategic map, but with about 50 times more detail. The games are also not turn-based but continuous-time (you can pause and accellerate it). No tactical battles however; you only position large forces (divisions, armies, sair wings), give them missions and they do their work.

Highly suggested; I've only played HoI 2 (with expansions) so far, but the others should be quite as good. One cool thing is that I know of apps that would allow you to transfer your save games from one game to the next, meaning you could play through almost the entire millenium and come out with a totally different course of history.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/index.ph...=50&Itemid=138

I found Victoria quite diffcult to get to grips with but very, very rewarding once I had. I'm still waiting to see if the ancient Rome mod for it ever gets finished. If it did it would be pretty close to being my ultimate grand strat game.

Hoi2: Doomsday is one of my top three games ever. I've played it probably more than any other game I own.

CCIP is right about the save game export, though. In theory you could start a game with crusader Kings, export the save to EU, then to Vicky and finally to Hoi2. Take a long, long, long time, though.

I love Rome Total war (can't get into MTW2, though,) but as a history nut the overall arcadey feel does me in eventually.

I had Hearts of Iron 2 for quite a while, loved it, I can't think of anything bad to say about it, control everything from tech stuff, to production and your politics, by far one of my favorites ever produced.

Just bought "Making History: The Calm & The Storm" from Strategy First games. I havent got to deep into it yet but seems a little more complicated that HoI2. There's a patch that fixes some minor AI problems and allows you to be any country. You can't choose your ministers or cabinet but the production and research part is much trickier. You have to produce consumer goods as well as arms, research is tied to your production, it also goes off laborer happiness, if there isn't enough goods for them their productivity goes down. There's to manyh other aspects for me to list here but the game is definitaley showing promise.

Paradox's latest game is Europe Universalis 3 which runs from 1453 to 1789
or start anywhere inbetween at the historical level. I heard they are working
on an expansion to it with a Napoleonic theme to reconstruct that era. This
game is completely open-ended and entirely moddable so the sky is the limit.
You can pick any country of the time and take it where YOU want to go....

JIM

Since you seem to like the Napoleonic era, are you aware of the "Napoleonic Total War" mods? http://lordz.thelordz.co.uk/ There are versions for Medieval Total War and Rome: Total War. The version based on RTW has gorgeous graphics but no campaign mode, which is criminal IMO. :damn: The MTW version has a very enjoyable, fully functional single player campaign but by now the graphics are a bit dated. I am hoping that the team either adds a campaign to the RTW-based game or produces one based on Medieval 2.

Hmm..

open-ended naval strategy...

I hear War In the Pacific is a huge one controlling the whole Pacific theater. I've not tried it since my attention span is lacking. Hell, I still haven't finished up the precursor Uncommon Valor. Time intensive.
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/screens.asp?gid=294


As for other open-ended strategy games, they seem few and far between. For an easy-going yet enjoyable empire building series I can recommend Spartan (Ancient Greece) and it's predecessor Chariots of War (Really Ancients). Neither too extremely intricate but it'll keep you thinking on what you should do next running the kingdom. Kinda relaxing and a nice change after the hard-core ones but they still have diplomacy, trade, and all the usual trappings of running your own kingdom. Bargain priced with a no-hassle digital download option at Matrix.

http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=312
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=341

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Right now I'm looking into Europa Universalis 3 and HoI2. I played the HoI 2 demo last night, and it really is a bit complicated. I'm sure with time and training though...it'll be a bit easier.

I've strayed away from Distant Guns right now because of the price. $65 is a bit too much for me, especiall via online credit card purchase, which would mean me going to a convenient store, purchasing a prepaid Visa and then burning it all up. Heck, I don't even pay that much for my 360 Games (used video stores).

I played the demo for Pacific Storm. It was okay, nothing to get too excited about. Allies, on the other hand, I hear is great, but is it scheduled for an American release? I've only seen it on British sites...

I wouldn't call Distant Guns all that open-ended (and I love the game) :hmm:


As for HoI 2 - of course, there's a bit of a learning curve involved, but it's totally worth it! Lots of depth, lots of ways you can 'change history' there, lots of time to sink into it (a real black hole, that one :88))

Well, this topic has been helpful indeed!

I WOULD be getting HOI2, *BUT!* I found out today that in the first part of August, I am going to chicago to see U-505!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have to save all of my money so that I may plunder the gift shop.

I shall keep all of your suggestions in heart until then.

Still working on mastering IL2, btw. ;)

Falcon 4.0 campaign engine can be added to this. You can control air and ground forces as well as repair damaged assets with engineering units. You can also send special forces units by helicopter to capture structures such as radar installations. So, even though its technically a flight simulator it comes with the tools to control the entire logistics of a battlefield.

While not really in the genre your looking for "Sword of the Stars" is a lot of fun.

Turn based space conquest / building game.