Looking for some good Strategy Games

[Zenicetus]

The other strategy game I'm playing now in addition to M2TW, is Galactic Civilizations 2 with the Dark Avatar expansion, which is essential if you decide to try the game. You can buy it online and there is no copy protection (please support the developer if you decide to play it). There's a demo, I'm not sure it includes the Dark Avatar enhancements:

http://www.galciv2.com/

It's a turn-based strategy game, with no tactical combat (all ship battles and planet invasions are auto-resolved), so it doesn't have the same feel as Warcraft or Starcraft. You might still enjoy it because the AI is so good. It's all about making the right decisions about expansion, tech-ing up, warfare, how you design your ships and where you send them. You can win through military conquest, tech advancement, or cultural conquest, and all of this can be adjusted if, for example, you only want to enable a military win.

There is also a very cool shipyard feature where you can design your own ships from 3D modular parts. It doesn't affect anything in the game, but it's a great way to personalize the game. I've been lost for hours in the shipyard tweaking my designs.

The AI is very tough, even when it's not given any cheats. This is partly due to the auto-calc'ed battles, I think. Galaxy maps are randomly generated, so each game is a little different. You can choose randomized races and AI quality to play against, or design custom races as opponents. I like to leave most of that randomized, so I never know exactly what I'll run into with each new game. That's a nice change from a highly scripted singleplayer game like Warcraft, or the fixed starting positions and factions in M2TW.

Anyway, if you can handle a turn-based game that doesn't include a tactical layer, check it out! I think it's one of the best, if not THE best pure strategy games out there right now.

[Marshal Murat]

Dawn of War 40k was a very enjoyable game. Especially the uniform painter.

Game was lots of fun, got me hooked onto the 'Horus Heresy' series.

Company of Heroes.
Recently purchased it, can't stay away. Beautiful painted loading scenes, excellent garrison ability, WW2, explosions, fully destructible environ.
When I say 'fully destructible' I mean it (even if it may not be grammatically correct)

I'm on a map with hedgerows everywhere.
A couple 105 howitzer bombardments later the place looks like the moon.