Risk-like Strategy games! Recommend me some!

WMain00

I have a craving at the moment for a good strategy game in the same vein as Risk. I was wondering if there's any games out there that could fill that craving for me!

Before you rush into recommending, here are ones i've tried:

Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War - Empire b0rked, Napoleon BORING
Europa Universalis: A game ceases to be fun when I require to read an entire encyclopedia to understand how to play the game.
Civilization 5: Is alright as a sort of long running game, but it doesn't fit well with just conquest fun. Takes waaay too long to create units, and even if i ramped it up to modern era i'd have to wait a while before I began global domination, by that time I may have ran out of turns!

So, anything else you think I might enjoy, give it a shot! I want some "conquesting the world" fun!

Klash

Both the Battle for Middle-Earth 2's expansion and C&C3's expansion have Risk-modes.

BfME's version is actually a good bit of fun, C&C3's is too lose and has no squares/countries (instead every unit/group of units can move X or Y distance, like in Total War games).

Thats all I can think of.

Kris_xK

You've played all the modern ones I can think of, so maybe something old school like Castles II or Jagged Alliance 2?

I think Advanced Wars has a sorta worldmap, although I dont recall it being very deep.

CowShark

Like the board game Risk?

Seems like it's been down today, but www.warfish.net has pretty much the same gameplay as Risk (but it's play-online in turns) with different maps.

Artereis

I haven't played it yet, but I bought Hegemony: Philip of Macedon at PAX because it looked pretty interesting.

WMain00

CowShark wrote: »

Like the board game Risk?

Seems like it's been down today, but www.warfish.net has pretty much the same gameplay as Risk (but it's play-online in turns) with different maps.

Nah, just the same sort of genre. World map, armies, take over bits of nations. Cackle as you do so!

Orestus

How about "Strategic Command", I'm fairly sure it is available on GOG.com, its a simplistic World War 2 Strategic level game. Looking at the wikipedia page I guess there are some more modern sequels (the one I've played is from 2002).

Senshi

Dunno if Defcon counts, but I hear it's got a bit of a cult following. If you have an iOS device, Strategery plays just like Risk on randomly generated maps of various sizes. Has multiplayer and some fairly punishing AI difficulty levels.

Skull2185

Well, XBLA has an awesome version of Risk available. Complete with Human, Cat, Zombie, Robot and Yeti armies.

ACSIS

HOI III

and Axis and Allies: Iron Blitz (yes, there is a computer game and albeit being old its very good and faithful conversion of the boardgame).
Btw: if you play a session of bordgame A&A and you do exactly whats suggested in the tutorial as the first german move you will see some very odd face expressions ^^

My top turnbased fantasy strategy game recommendation is still Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, but it is not very risklike. Think a super-expanded Master of Magic wich gets everything right.

WMain00

Hoi3 looks complicated. Massively complicated.

ACSIS

Massively detailed, and therefore complicated. But you can automate every aspect, production, diplomacy, government, etc. Practically you can get the computer to play it on its own. My recommendation is focusing at one aspect till you get the hang of it, to break away more and more from computer aid. It IS a very good game but not easy, thats right. Not your usual point&click RTS diet, but well worth it.

ystael

WMain00 wrote: »

Europa Universalis: A game ceases to be fun when I require to read an entire encyclopedia to understand how to play the game.

When I read this I kind of made a sad-panda face and thought "Europa Universalis III isn't that complicated..."

Then I remembered. I used to play Advanced Squad Leader (sample rulebook page). My idea of "complicated" may be slightly distorted.

Tamin

ystael wrote: »

WMain00 wrote: »

Europa Universalis: A game ceases to be fun when I require to read an entire encyclopedia to understand how to play the game.

When I read this I kind of made a sad-panda face and thought "Europa Universalis III isn't that complicated..."

Then I remembered. I used to play Advanced Squad Leader (sample rulebook page). My idea of "complicated" may be slightly distorted.

As an example, the original SL has only twelve different tank and assault gun types, and only five different armor ratings, from -2 to +2. By contrast, ASL has separate counters for 56 different types of tanks and assault guns for the Germans alone, with armor values from 0 to 26, based on actual thickness and degree of slope. Beyond Valor includes 99 separate German vehicles simulated in the game, including halftracks, armoured cars, anti-aircraft vehicles, and softskins.

I have a sudden urge to acquire this game, take about a month off from work, find some friends, and play the everloving shit out of this. Diet would be assorted candies and mountain dew; neckbeards required.

Phyphor

WMain00 wrote: »

Hoi3 looks complicated. Massively complicated.

Yeah, if you consider Europa Universalis overcomplicated... (both are by Paradox)

Kris_xK

IMO, EU3 (especially with its expansions) are far more accessable than HOI3.

Meaning I can kick ass in Eu3 but cant do shit in HOI3.

Phyphor

Even as Germany?

Zedar

HoI3 overwhelms me to the point I don't even know where to start trying to do something. EU3 is relatively simple. I don't think it would be that hard to pick up. You certainly don't need to have read an encyclopedia to play it. EU2 on the other hand...

GoodOmens

Rise of Nations (and the strange steampunk off-shoot Rise of Legends) has a turn-based Risk-like with RTS battles. Plus it's awesome.

RoyceSraphim

What was that flash game you could download that was really just like risk, it was free, just colors and shapes, you had to build a port in a nation to go across water, damn, what was it called...

cj iwakura

If by some miracle you have a Saturn, Dragon Force is the best of its kind.

Gigantic world map with armies you move between territories, and real time battles that play out when armies clash or invade other castles.

ystael

Tamin wrote: »

As an example, the original SL has only twelve different tank and assault gun types, and only five different armor ratings, from -2 to +2. By contrast, ASL has separate counters for 56 different types of tanks and assault guns for the Germans alone, with armor values from 0 to 26, based on actual thickness and degree of slope. Beyond Valor includes 99 separate German vehicles simulated in the game, including halftracks, armoured cars, anti-aircraft vehicles, and softskins.

I have a sudden urge to acquire this game, take about a month off from work, find some friends, and play the everloving shit out of this. Diet would be assorted candies and mountain dew; neckbeards required.

If you are seriously interested in trying it, the first ASL Starter Kit gives you everything you need to play eight scenarios designed for a slightly simplified version of the game. (The first Starter Kit covers basic infantry combat only -- no artillery or tanks -- believe me, that's enough to start with.) The only other thing you need is VASL, which lets you play with other neckbeards over the internets, no face-to-face contact (or cardboard pushing) required!

If you're interested in a board wargame of WWII tactical infantry combat, though, I might also recommend Combat Commander as an alternative to ASL. The design is clean and straightforward, clearly informed by the lessons of ASL without carrying all of its historical baggage forward. It feels very different; because you use cards to perform actions, you have a lot less fine-grained control over what goes on, which many players think gives better perceived realism.

ystael

GoodOmens wrote: »

Rise of Nations (and the strange steampunk off-shoot Rise of Legends) has a turn-based Risk-like with RTS battles. Plus it's awesome.

Every time I see somebody mention this game I think I have to go back and buy it. Then I remember that I suck at RTS. I tried Rome: Total War and immediately thought "you know, this game would be great, except I can't play these battles to save my life".

SammyF

Crown of Glory is a Napoleonic-era grand-strategy wargame with scaling levels of intricacy. There's an simple-economy version as well as a much more detailed version (the difference being, essentially, that in one version, creating a calvary unit involves raising tax revenues to pay for the costs of raising a unit, whereas in the other version you need to have the grazing space necessary to raise enough horses to mount the soldiers). You can also play with an abstracted combat model where the computer compares unit strengths, rolls some die and resolves the combat for you when units meet, or you can play a brigade-level tactical engagement by yourself.

Basically I got this game when I realized that Empire: Total War had some issues. If you drill down all the way to the most detailed version, it can be a whole hell of a lot to get your head around, but if you turn all of those off it's not any more difficult than Risk.

***

While I've never been thrilled with Empire: Total War after my enthusiasm for the naval warfare aspect wore off and I was no longer inured to some obvious AI flaws and bugs that make my games crash, I still have nothing but good things to say about Medieval: Total War.

ystael

GoodOmens wrote: »

Rise of Nations (and the strange steampunk off-shoot Rise of Legends) has a turn-based Risk-like with RTS battles. Plus it's awesome.

Is Rise of Nations available on any of the PC download services? I checked Steam, Impulse, GoG, GamersGate, GFWL Marketplace, Direct2Drive, and couldn't find it, but it's entirely possible that I'm an idiot somehow.

Zedar

Any of AGEOD's games probably fit the bill too. I've never played any of them myself, but they look interesting (if perhaps a bit complicated).

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-WW1/world-war-one
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-ROP/rise-of-prussia
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-BOA2/birth-of-america-ii-wars-in-america

Michael H

Zedar wrote: »

HoI3 overwhelms me to the point I don't even know where to start trying to do something. EU3 is relatively simple. I don't think it would be that hard to pick up. You certainly don't need to have read an encyclopedia to play it. EU2 on the other hand...

I think that they're both equally complicated in terms of game mechanics, though obviously HOI has a lot more combat involved.

Big-picture, though, I think HOI just makes more sense. You know what you're supposed to do: win WWII. We all know how that rodeo played out, so it's comfortable and easy to wrap my mind around. I feel good about killing ze bad guys and cackle maniacally when killing ze good guys.

(On a completely unrelated note, I just started "Fatherland", an alt-reality book where ze Germans won. Interesting read so far.)

EUIII? I know they give you missions to complete, but big picture it's still "just do the best you can". There's no real goal I can wrap my mind around, just "what if" scenarios that I make up, like what if Denmark tried to invade south and take out as much of central Europe as it could? The answer, at least in my attempt, was not much.

Phyphor

SammyF wrote: »

Crown of Glory is a Napoleonic-era grand-strategy wargame with scaling levels of intricacy. There's an simple-economy version as well as a much more detailed version (the difference being, essentially, that in one version, creating a calvary unit involves raising tax revenues to pay for the costs of raising a unit, whereas in the other version you need to have the grazing space necessary to raise enough horses to mount the soldiers). You can also play with an abstracted combat model where the computer compares unit strengths, rolls some die and resolves the combat for you when units meet, or you can play a brigade-level tactical engagement by yourself.

Basically I got this game when I realized that Empire: Total War had some issues. If you drill down all the way to the most detailed version, it can be a whole hell of a lot to get your head around, but if you turn all of those off it's not any more difficult than Risk.

***

While I've never been thrilled with Empire: Total War after my enthusiasm for the naval warfare aspect wore off and I was no longer inured to some obvious AI flaws and bugs that make my games crash, I still have nothing but good things to say about Medieval: Total War.

... well I guess I'm going to be getting this. I'm a sucker for these types of games

SammyF

Phyphor wrote: »

SammyF wrote: »

Crown of Glory is a Napoleonic-era grand-strategy wargame with scaling levels of intricacy. There's an simple-economy version as well as a much more detailed version (the difference being, essentially, that in one version, creating a calvary unit involves raising tax revenues to pay for the costs of raising a unit, whereas in the other version you need to have the grazing space necessary to raise enough horses to mount the soldiers). You can also play with an abstracted combat model where the computer compares unit strengths, rolls some die and resolves the combat for you when units meet, or you can play a brigade-level tactical engagement by yourself.

Basically I got this game when I realized that Empire: Total War had some issues. If you drill down all the way to the most detailed version, it can be a whole hell of a lot to get your head around, but if you turn all of those off it's not any more difficult than Risk.

***

While I've never been thrilled with Empire: Total War after my enthusiasm for the naval warfare aspect wore off and I was no longer inured to some obvious AI flaws and bugs that make my games crash, I still have nothing but good things to say about Medieval: Total War.

... well I guess I'm going to be getting this. I'm a sucker for these types of games

Feel free to PM Pollo Diablo for a second opinion on this one if you'd like -- I'm pretty sure I first heard about it from him in a thread very similar to this one. In fact I'm kind of disappointed to see that he hasn't shown up to offer anything new to the discussion since I gathered that grand strategy games are a favorite of his.

GoodOmens

ystael wrote: »

GoodOmens wrote: »

Rise of Nations (and the strange steampunk off-shoot Rise of Legends) has a turn-based Risk-like with RTS battles. Plus it's awesome.

Is Rise of Nations available on any of the PC download services? I checked Steam, Impulse, GoG, GamersGate, GFWL Marketplace, Direct2Drive, and couldn't find it, but it's entirely possible that I'm an idiot somehow.

I've never seen it available online.

And I just realized I left a couple words out. "Risk-like campaign mode with RTS battles" makes A LOT more sense.

WMain00

I think what pisses me off with EU and HoI3 isn't so much that I don't understand what to do, but rather that it's so horrendously bogged down and overly complicated. Aspects of playing the game should be done via a simple left click/right click. Instead I find myself having to click repeatedly just to do certain movements. For instance the loading and unloading of troops onto transport ships seems to be an overly complicated mass of performing things.

When things start to bog down like that it's just easier wandering over to the Total War series. They might be broke, but at least you can command your troops to do something without extreme over complication.

Michael H

I saw this game and immediately thought of this thread:
http://sillysoft.net/vox/

I stumbled upon it at the Indie game portal Show Me The Games.

Take a loot at these maps!
http://sillysoft.net/vox/maps/

I'm download the demo now to give it a whirl...

Looking at the Dev's website, it's the same company that makes Lux Deluxe, a Risk clone of the iphone/ipod that I've put many hours into. Good stuff!

Screens!

SammyF

Michael H wrote: »

I saw this game and immediately thought of this thread:
http://sillysoft.net/vox/

I stumbled upon it at the Indie game portal Show Me The Games.

Take a loot at these maps!
http://sillysoft.net/vox/maps/

I'm download the demo now to give it a whirl...

Looking at the Dev's website, it's the same company that makes Lux Deluxe, a Risk clone of the iphone/ipod that I've put many hours into. Good stuff!

I'm downloading it now to check it out. If it's good we should totally make a game-on for it.

edit: I really wish I could say I was still interested. :?

ham_solo

There's a new online game called Victors United (http://www.victorsunited.com/). It is very similar to Risk! They have more maps though. If you have ever played conquer club it reminds me of that but victors united is better IMO because the games go faster.

Muriden

This may seem like too easy of an answer but why not Risk: Factions? The extra game modes are fun and the short single player campaign is pretty amusing.

myky25

The best strategy game is Market Glory.

There are many activities you can choose from, in this strategy game. You can work, set up companies, run for the government, recommend referrals, gain military ranks and build your own organization. All of these help you increase your income, as you receive money for every single one of them. It's easy and fun and the best part is that you don't depend on anyone else to earn money, but on your own strategy. Start planning your activities, study the markets, make tranzactions and earn money for that.

Ed Gruberman

One I have played a lot and enjoyed is actually Settlers of Catan for Android. Might be able to play it on PC as well but it has scratched my Risk itch in the past. And having it on my phone or tablet so I can just pick it up made it a great timewaster.

Google Play link