What game should I get?

[Ja'chyra]

Hey all

I'm looking for a decent game I can play on my laptop, the specs are:

Intel Core Duo T2300E Processor 1.66GHz
667 MHz FSB, 2 MB Cache
1 GB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
Double Layer DVD ReWriter Drive
14" Widescreen BrightView Display
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
128MB Intel Grpahics Accelerator Shared

The thing plays RTW with no problems but I haven't even tried M2TW

I am looking for a game that I can control my own town/village/country but one that has a little more involvement on the city side than TW, I also like the military and diplomacy side. I have tried EU and that wasn't really for me, it was a bit too detached for my liking.

Any suggestions?

[econ21]

You might have to try e-bay or something, as it is an old game, but Imperialism II is a very good country-level strategy game. It is in the Civ mold with exploration, expansion, combat, diplomacy etc, but more period specific (16th to end-19th century). It has less city-level micromanagement, so goes at a faster pace. Perhaps the best feature is the resource management side of the game - it is great fun and challenging trying to overcome the many bottlenecks to development. The AI is very competitive.

I also have Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete on my laptop. It is fantasy themed not historical, but again has competitive AI and gameplay that hits a nice compromise between ease of play and challenge.

Europa Barbarorum is worth trying if you have not done so recently. It is 0.81, but for all intents and purposes is a complete mod now - no CTDs or unfinished artwork. While it is most renowned for its attention to history, I also admire what they have done to the gameplay - making it more challenging, and - via the traits - more rewarding. I don't think you can beat TW for battles and mods such as EB build on the core engine well.

[Ja'chyra]

Thanks for the suggestions, HOMM 3 sounds interesting but is there any reason why you pick 3 and not 4 or 5?

[frogbeastegg]

You might have to try e-bay or something, as it is an old game, but Imperialism II is a very good country-level strategy game.

There's a budget re-release version of it. It's on Ubisoft's 'Revival' range, so it should be relatively easy to get hold of. It's on Play.com's 3 for £10, as is Heroes III (standard, not complete) and some other classic games like Patrician III.

[TinCow]

You could try Caesar III. No diplomacy and limited military, but it's a great city-builder.

Thanks for the suggestions, HOMM 3 sounds interesting but is there any reason why you pick 3 and not 4 or 5?

HOMM4 was very poorly done. HOMM3 is a far better game all around. HOMM5 won't run on your laptop (I think).

I highly recommend getting the HOMM3 'Complete' version, which has all the expansion packs in it. One of the pack introduces 'combo artifacts' which are very, very fun in the single-player campaigns.

[frogbeastegg]

D'oh! Don't post while I'm posting!

Thanks for the suggestions, HOMM 3 sounds interesting but is there any reason why you pick 3 and not 4 or 5?

I can answer that partially. Econ21 and others will be better able to describe the differences between the games themselves. Heroes 5 is a lot more demanding in terms of PC requirements. I played it on a fairly decent machine (P4 3ghz, 2GB RAM, 9800 pro 128mb) and it chugged on medium settings. Heroes 3 and 4 are older games and have far lower demands. They aren't 3D for a start.

Heroes 3 is considered the classic and best title in the series by many. Best AI, best campaigns, best MP mode, best random map generator. I can't really comment; I've barely played it.

Heroes 4 gets hammered a lot by series enthusiasts. Seems like either you like the changes it made to the formula or you loathe them. The AI isn't too hot. Again I haven't played it much and so will let someone else pick up the torch. I will say that I enjoyed my couple of hour session, and didn't find it to be a bad game.

Heroes 5 I have played quite a bit. Reportedly in its current state it's very close to being Heroes III in 3D with a few alterations and with a new series of campaigns. The plot is poor, the voice acting bad, the AI not the best ever. Otherwise it's a good game, and I enjoy playing it.


I got a special Amazon.uk exclusive edition of Heroes 5 which included heroes 1, 2, 3 complete and 4 complete all for the standard price of the game. Unfortunately it looks like it's no longer available.

You could try Caesar III. No diplomacy and limited military, but it's a great city-builder.

I'd recommend Pharoah, Zeus and Emperor over Caesar II myself. The refinements to the formula make for a more enjoyable playing experience, and allow for more complex cities. Maybe that's because I can't build a decent city without roadblocks

[Ja'chyra]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I think I'll give HOMM 3 a try then.

City builders are ok but I really like sending my troops of to plunder other towns. That reminds me I might try Warrior Kings again, that was ok.

[frogbeastegg]

City builders are ok but I really like sending my troops of to plunder other towns.

That's possible in Zeus and Emperor, in an abstracted way. Once you have a military force in either of these games you can go to the world map and dispatch them to attack a hostile city. If your force is strong enough you conquer it and it becomes your vassal, paying tribute. There are a few extra diplomacy options available with vassals, such as requesting they lend their military strength to yours. It's simplistic but I found it fun. Nothing like conquering half of Greece and having them tribute you expensive goods you previously spent a tonne of cash buying from them.

[Stig]

Your computer isn't good enough for the new coming Settler VI, which is a pity as it will be a great came (I've seen some trailers, and I am really going to buy that game).
Unluckely Settler V is nothing other than an ordinary RTS.


Anno 1503 on the other hand might be of your liking, not the newest game but it certainly has a good city builder aspect. Little diplomacy but also some military.

Or you could try Patrician III as Froggy said, or Port Royale II. Haven't played those myself, but heard that they are good


Linky to Anno 1503:
http://www.anno1503.com/english/index.php4?language=2

[TinCow]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I think I'll give HOMM 3 a try then.

City builders are ok but I really like sending my troops of to plunder other towns. That reminds me I might try Warrior Kings again, that was ok.

I think you'll be very happy with HOMM3. Issue 4 of the Gahzette (see link in my sig) has a nostalgia piece I did on HOMM2 which you might find interesting. HOMM3 is essentially the same game with better graphics, more factions, more monsters, more artifacts, and better AI. Essentially more of everything that's great about the series.

[Marshal Murat]

I liked Port Royale 2 and Patrician 3. They are very money oriented, all about trade, with some battles, some diplomacy.

Port Royale 2 is very fun, especially once you get the 'Golden Route' as I call it, you can splurge on galleons, buy guns for the ships, then go pirate hunting.

I was thinking about Company of Heroes, but haven't really looked into it. Any thoughts?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I really like Crusader Kings. It's almost like EU, but much more involved, considering you manage your dynasty in addition to your provinces and county/kingdom/duchy. It might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's so cheap in the Paradox store that it's hard to go wrong with it.

[Bijo]

I was thinking about Company of Heroes, but haven't really looked into it. Any thoughts?

I approximate CoH would run reasonably sufficiently on his machine using low settings. But: it does not regard any city-building, dimplomacy, and the likes.

[Ja'chyra]

I got HMM 3, Homm 4 and Alexander all for £15 from GAME last night so I gave it a go.

It's not exaclty what I was wanting but it seems a decent game so I will give it a try and see how things go. I mainly want it for nights when I'm away with work as it happens about 5-6 times a month.

[Veho Nex]

ummm well i would say pharaoh

though it is low end came out long ago probably back when egypt still had a pharaoh

Clicky!!

[Lorenzo_H]

Company of Heroes is so hard to get a hold of. I ordered it from Amazon in May. Here I am in August, and it still hasn't come. I am going to have to buy it from a store.

Has anyone mentioned Civ IV yet? Civ IV is a must for everyone.

[econ21]

Has anyone mentioned Civ IV yet? Civ IV is a must for everyone.

But not for the laptop the OP mentioned. CivIV is very demanding in specs for a strategy game.

[Ja'chyra]

I've got Civ IV and it plays quite well on the laptop but I was looking for something that is more city orientated than world and that you can fight the battles.

[Blodrast]

I've got Civ IV and it plays quite well on the laptop but I was looking for something that is more city orientated than world and that you can fight the battles.

Hmm, how about the old UFO X-COM 1 & 2 ? No problem with specs there, and you do get base management (not that much, but still - there's a ton of research to do, designing bases specialized for research/manufacturing/engineering), and of course there's the battles.

There was also Seven Kingdoms, IIRC, or Knights & Merchants (I think there's K&M 2 out there, but never played it, only the first one), both of which have some city management and there's the battles of course.

About the HOMM series.
The fans are kinda divided into 2 camps: some that think homm3 was too cheesy/obsolete, and the (considerable) changes that homm4 brought were great, and some who think homm3 is the core of the series, and homm4 is completely messed up.
There's some people in between the two extremes, but not that many. It all comes down to personal taste, in the end.

You WILL be able to play homm5 on your laptop. I've played it on a desktop with a P4/1.8GHz, 512 RAM and a GF4 MX440/64 megs. It's not smooth or great, and I don't remember the settings (they were either on high, or medium, I can't recall, but it looked more than decent. I *think* they were on high.) It played absolutely fine, sometimes it'd choke up for half a second while dragging the minimap around too much, but very much playable.
Now whether you'll like it or not, that's a completely different ball game. Homm5 was developed by Nival/Ubisoft, after NWC (who developed the rest of the franchise) went belly up. So you may notice that the game is ... different from the rest of them.

Personally, I think that homm3 is excellent, and I think that *some* of the things that homm4 brought are very good - but not all. homm3 probably has some of the best campaigns in the series (at least to my taste), but the homm4 ones are pretty good too.

One more thing - since you got the homm games, check out celestialheavens, they have a lot of fan-made maps/campaigns, some of which are very, very good. But I'd start with the campaigns first, if you haven't played the series before; then, when you get bored, you can play the fan-made maps, they are usually much better than the scenarios that come with the games.

[econ21]

The fans are kinda divided into 2 camps: some that think homm3 was too cheesy/obsolete, and the (considerable) changes that homm4 brought were great, and some who think homm3 is the core of the series, and homm4 is completely messed up.
There's some people in between the two extremes, but not that many. It all comes down to personal taste, in the end.

Um, I am not sure it is personal taste. The HommIV strategic AI is plain broken. Most scenarios, the AI just does not fight you. Its heroes die against random monsters, fail to flag resources or muster significant armies. This is in marked contrast to Homm3, which has very good AI.

The Homm4 battlefield AI is fine and I really like the hero character development system & better balancing of spells. But those virtues - like the pretty graphics - just makes the fact that it is a broken game more painful.

The other big plus for Homm3 is pace - it romps along at a fine rate so you can play a big scenario in an evening. Homm4 drags a bit; something Homm5 suffers from too - I blame the graphics.

[Blodrast]

Um, I am not sure it is personal taste. The HommIV strategic AI is plain broken. Most scenarios, the AI just does not fight you. Its heroes die against random monsters, fail to flag resources or muster significant armies. This is in marked contrast to Homm3, which has very good AI.

The Homm4 battlefield AI is fine and I really like the hero character development system & better balancing of spells. But those virtues - like the pretty graphics - just makes the fact that it is a broken game more painful.

The other big plus for Homm3 is pace - it romps along at a fine rate so you can play a big scenario in an evening. Homm4 drags a bit; something Homm5 suffers from too - I blame the graphics.

Well, I think we're in agreement actually. I said that some things are good about homm4, and some things are not good - I didn't go into details (I deliberately chose not to)...
In my previous post I mentioned three groups of people and their opinions - I didn't give my personal opinion (I tried to avoid that as much as possible). Ja'chyra is free to make up his own mind, I tried to be as objective as possible.

As far as my personal tastes are concerned, again, I think there are good things, and I think there are bad things in homm4, and some of them get down to the personal preference level (e.g., the spell system, or the graphics, hero classes and specializations and skills). Some, as you say, are indeed objectively good or bad (e.g., lack of strategic AI).

[TinCow]

IMO, the HOMM series reached its pinnacle with the HOMM3 Shadow of Death campaigns. The combo artifacts you get for the Lich hero are simply amazing. It's fun assembling them and stomping the world flat with them. Then it's fun defeating him with other combo artifacts!

[seireikhaan]

I have to agree with what has been previously said about HOMM3 complete. A very nice game, and the combined artifacts can be simply devastating. Fortunately, they made it rather difficult to attain the needed artifacts to complete them. A personal favorite of mine for undead heroes: Cloak of the Undead King, or something like that. Basically, you combine the three items that boost necromancy, and you get this uber item for necromancy. Basically, if you've got expert necromancy with your hero, you'll get back an incredibly large % of troops(I forget exactly how much, I think an extra 50%) and instead of raising skeletons from the dead, you raise Liches from the dead. I once had 1,345 liches in my army because of it.