Good turn based strategy (like Civ) for a novice?

MightyUnclean

Hey guys,

What turn based strategy games (I'm thinking like Civ) do you recommend for someone new to the genre? Something that's not terribly complex and has a good tutorial would probably be ideal. Any setting is fine, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, whatever. I'll probably buy on Steam.

Edit:  I think I asked this here previously a while back, looking for updated recommendations!

Thanks!

Scorchien

Great for begineers ..

  Warlock..https://store.steampowered.com/app/203630/Warlock__Master_of_the_Arcane/

                                                           or

   Sorcerer King ... https://store.steampowered.com/app/496730/Sorcerer_King_Rivals/

  I would try Sorcerer first .. great for a starter TBS

Nilden

Risk.

cameltosis

It's not a genre I play much of, but I'd recommend most of the Total War series, especially Warhammer and Medieval.

Granted, the battles are not turn-based, they're real time, but you can pause / slow down / speed up the time to give you enough time to micromanage whatever you need to. The rest of the game (the strategy part) is still turn based.

BrotherMaynard

In my long time of playing turn-based strategies, nothing has ever come close to Master of Orion 2. It's not really your classic Civ-style game, it's a 4X game, but to me after all those decades it is still the absolute master.

You can get the MoO 1+2 bundle for €5 on GoG.

Iselin

BrotherMaynard said:

In my long time of playing turn-based strategies, nothing has ever come close to Master of Orion 2. It's not really your classic Civ-style game, it's a 4X game, but to me after all those decades it is still the absolute master.

You can get the MoO 1+2 bundle for €5 on GoG.

MoO 2 would be my recommendation as well, It's a great intro to this type of game without the complexity bloat that became and is still fashionable in this genre.

cheyane

OP just a small peeve of mine and pay no mind but it would be nice when you ask all these questions in the threads like the recent one about EQ and EQ2 and people take time to type out a response you do come back and tell us whether you decided to play the games you asked about. It is just a small courtesy to do that don't you think.

AlBQuirky

Iselin said:

BrotherMaynard said:

In my long time of playing turn-based strategies, nothing has ever come close to Master of Orion 2. It's not really your classic Civ-style game, it's a 4X game, but to me after all those decades it is still the absolute master.

You can get the MoO 1+2 bundle for €5 on GoG.

MoO 2 would be my recommendation as well, It's a great intro to this type of game without the complexity bloat that became and is still fashionable in this genre.

I need to load this game up! I've had it in my library for years from GOG! I don't think I've ever played it, since when the mood hits me I usually go with Master of Magic.

Thanks for the recommendation

Mendel

BrotherMaynard said:

In my long time of playing turn-based strategies, nothing has ever come close to Master of Orion 2. It's not really your classic Civ-style game, it's a 4X game, but to me after all those decades it is still the absolute master.

You can get the MoO 1+2 bundle for €5 on GoG.

Iselin said:

BrotherMaynard said:

In my long time of playing turn-based strategies, nothing has ever come close to Master of Orion 2. It's not really your classic Civ-style game, it's a 4X game, but to me after all those decades it is still the absolute master.

You can get the MoO 1+2 bundle for €5 on GoG.

MoO 2 would be my recommendation as well, It's a great intro to this type of game without the complexity bloat that became and is still fashionable in this genre.

I think if you're going old-school, Master of Magic (MoM) is better than either of the MOO titles.  Personally, I prefer MOO 1 over MOO 2, 2 just gets too 'build everything, everywhere'.  MoM has unique races that have different units which does force exploring different strategies.  That really gives it a different feel than MOO.  (Also, capturing a city with a different race allows you to build your own blasted, infernal, mithril-wielding hobbit slingers).

There are quite a few games similar to MOO.  Horizon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Interstellar Space: Genesis are just a few.  The Galactic Civilization series is another option for space-based 4x gaming.  Lot's of micromanagement, though and all races tend to play alike.  I prefer the original MOO 1 over all of these.

MOM also has its share of clones: the Age of Wonders series is pretty good, but lacks the variety of strategic paths of the original.  MOM's big downfall is its age:  the graphics definitely need improvement.

Iselin

@Mendel

I haven't played MoM literally for decades. It was a let down for me (and many others) after MoO. Buggy as hell and kind of boring IMO. But that's a 27 year old remembered impression.

I understand that eventually (late '95) they took care of most of the bugs and improved the AI but I was done with it by that point.

Wizardry

I don't like the CIV design at all mainly because i don't care for the politics side in these  games and i want FULL control and not these large  BLOCKS of units.
So as mentioned by one of the posters,i perferred the Sorcerer King,the RIVALS version albeit not much difference really,a scam cash grab.
I have been waiting a VERY long time for someone to do a Sorcerer King type game with full unit control ,a large suite of items/gear and enemies/strategies.

Basically the team behind Sorcerer King did a good "beginners job"but we can do MUCH better and should.The problem as i see it is that the heavy marketing and success of CIV means studios might aim more for that type of design.

Other than SK i still to this day play two VERY old games for turn based ....Langrisser 2 and Bandit Kings of Ancient China,both can be played on EMU's.

Arglebargle

As a MOO2 aside, I sold my Roland Vocoder to the sound design guy for Simtex.  At a later meeting, he told me he made all the robotic style voices on MOO2 with it.   Gives me a little hoot whenever I replay it.

Cuddleheart

So, I saw this and was sure I have played a ton of strategy games like civ, and a lot of these games you guys mentioned are great strategy games.  

For me, though, my favorite way to play civ(and a lot of strat games) is to play a total domination game on the biggest map against a bunch of ai opponents.  Civ, for some reason, feels different than any other start game in this mode.  I wish I could think of another game that played like this.  Admittedly I haven't played a lot of games in the genre, but would love to get the civ total domination feeling from another game.

Mendel

Iselin said:

@Mendel

I haven't played MoM literally for decades. It was a let down for me (and many others) after MoO. Buggy as hell and kind of boring IMO. But that's a 27 year old remembered impression.

I understand that eventually (late '95) they took care of most of the bugs and improved the AI but I was done with it by that point.

It was Microprose (like MOO); it required v1.3 to work right.  (And MoM 1.3 was before 95; late 93, i *think* -- it was pretty quick to be fixed).

MightyUnclean

cheyane said:

OP just a small peeve of mine and pay no mind but it would be nice when you ask all these questions in the threads like the recent one about EQ and EQ2 and people take time to type out a response you do come back and tell us whether you decided to play the games you asked about. It is just a small courtesy to do that don't you think.

Ummmm OK, I'm not sure that anyone actually cares what I ultimately decide, but...I ended up getting Civ 6 and Orion 2.  I decided to skip EQ2 unless it becomes obvious that the developers are investing more time and money into it, and I'll probably play EQ when they launch the next TLP server.  There, courtesy achieved!  Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.