Help me infect the next generation

**salty99** · 11-15-15, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

No worries.

My query is niche, oddly specific, and a bit quirky; so I'm happy for any feedback at all.

I don't mind going the retro-game route. I've bought him games from GOG, and Steam has old titles too.

But new titles are also fine. In a lot of ways they're better - I don't have to worry about compatibility issues.

Really good nostalgia in your list though. I've played some of those.

Two things: The game needs to be playable on Mac OS X.

Second; you've also mentioned a Total War title. I've never played them. Are they good? All of them? There's, like, a dozen of them. I was looking at Total War: Napoleon and it seemed like a massive campaign rather than the sort of thing where you could have a quick game.

But I'm willing to listen to experience.

Æ

I've played every total war to date, and they all basically follow the same formula.

The "campaign" is an asynchronous turn based affair. You possess regions, each with their own buildings, populations, and income. When you want to build a new building, it will say "x turns to build". Same with units. You manage each region like a governor, setting taxes and economic plans and whatnot. newer games have added more features in this area, but still not as complex as a game like civilization.

The rts part comes in when there's a battle. Say a player in one region has an army with 10 units and they want to attack another player or ai who has an army with 12 units. When you "attack them", the game zooms in on the specific location of the units and then let's you set up your armies formations and stuff. Once you hit "start" the battle is fully in real time, and any commands you give to units will be performed immediately.

It's not a classic rts base builder like other series, the big focus is on large cinematic battles

**AetheLove** · 11-15-15, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by rush2049

That I did work on Warzone 2100, its a great game.

I worked on it before it went open source a lot. We put out three or so unofficial patches to the game that added lots and lots of content and new features, as well as fixed lots of bugs.

The project is now much further along after we got a lot of signatures and tracked down the publisher/developer and got them to open source the game.

The campaign is really good, and long. And multiplayer is good both skirmish and online.

It does run on OSX and linux and Windows. And the computer doesn't have to be very powerful either.

It is really really fun, in fact I am going to go download it right now and play a few rounds with my father...

Thanks. That's two recommendations. And free too!

I'll def check it out.

Æ

**AetheLove** · 11-15-15, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by salty99

I've played every total war to date, and they all basically follow the same formula.

The "campaign" is an asynchronous turn based affair. You possess regions, each with their own buildings, populations, and income. When you want to build a new building, it will say "x turns to build". Same with units. You manage each region like a governor, setting taxes and economic plans and whatnot. newer games have added more features in this area, but still not as complex as a game like civilization.

The rts part comes in when there's a battle. Say a player in one region has an army with 10 units and they want to attack another player or ai who has an army with 12 units. When you "attack them", the game zooms in on the specific location of the units and then let's you set up your armies formations and stuff. Once you hit "start" the battle is fully in real time, and any commands you give to units will be performed immediately.

It's not a classic rts base builder like other series, the big focus is on large cinematic battles

Sounds more like something I want to play with one of my friends. I think he already bought Napoleon: Total War, but I doubt he's played it.

You have though. Which version should I get? There's all these Packs. Do I care about them? Are they just extra unit types?

Do I even want the game if I can't deploy the Royal Scots Greys?

Æ

**salty99** · 11-15-15, 06:46 PM

Lol royal Scots greys are not necessary, the DLC has never been necessary for any of the games. There's tons of different units for every faction already. The DLC typically add new factions and units, but there are so many you don't need any more.

The one exception is with Rome 2: Attila. That one is basically a whole new game on its own. New game map, new battle mechanics, new armies, etc.

**SpiritOfF1re** · 11-21-15, 06:38 AM

Originally Posted by salty99

The one exception is with Rome 2: Attila. That one is basically a whole new game on its own. New game map, new battle mechanics, new armies, etc.

I'm guessing you confused something, but Rome 2 and Attila are separate games, Attila is the most recent Total War installment, not a DLC

The most outstanding DLC to mention would definitely be Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai, which is a standalone expansion for Shogun 2. I would say these are considered the most solid Total War games, but the older Medieval 2 is also a favorite.

Napoleon and Empire are a bit more niche due to the whole TW franchise being ancient or medieval period battles previously, the firearm warfare was a huge difference and plenty didn't find it to their liking. Empire and Napoleon also seem to get the most complaints about bad AI...so I'm not sure which one to play first between the two for myself :P

some Napoleon siege AI

Regardless, I'm sure everyone agrees the best Total War is without a doubt... Warhammer!(soon)

As for playing with your nephew I wouldn't recommend Total War until like 15+ years old...my suggestion would be Age of Empires 2, I started it when I was 9 or 10, and it still gets updated and expansions lol. Though my usual battles are around 2 hours, you can save both singleplayer and multiplayer games(never done LAN, suppose it's the same) to play later. Its only flaws in my mind are 1. it doesn't exactly have much variety between civilizations, those differences are much more noticeable in competitive play. And 2. unit pathing...but if you played SC and broodwar much I doubt its anything new :P