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What is your favorite retro wargame? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I've been getting back into the classic Close Combat games, and they're some of my very favorite of the wargame genre.

I'm curious what retrogaming's favorites are. I'm not too particular on what constitutes a "wargame," it could be anything from Final Fantasy Tactics to Steel Panthers.

To throw a couple more out, I really enjoyed Rome: Total War for the 4x strategy and the Combat Mission games for their simulation systems as well.

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

Command & conquer: Red Alert

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I'm more of a Tiberian Dawn person myself

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

It's a close second, but red alert has the better balancing in my opinion

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I just don't like the style of RA as much, and I'm usually a campaign-only player for C&C anyway

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Fair. I get that. I had the same problem with red alert 2. It could be the better game, but the style just doesn't interest me. For the later games mainline c&c has the better style. Including c&c3 and ra3.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

There is even an open source version

https://www.openra.net/

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

EA just opened sourced the real RA as well!

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Rise of Nations

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Total Annihilation

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

That soundtrack chefs kiss

I loved just loitering on the main screen for that lovely white noise/cave sound/immortal machine music vibe.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Man I haven’t played Close Combat in probably 27 years but I instantly recognized that screen shot. Great game!

I still play C&C Generals and Supreme Commander fairly often. Not sure I’d call them retro but they are pretty old!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Generals:Zero Hour is still a great play, especially with mods.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Commandos

With commandos 3 breing my fav

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

The joy of slowly advancing position… preparing the covert mission objectives… hours of careful planning and precise movements… only to hear « Alarm!! Alarm!!! »

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I was having a blast playing through Combined Arms recently. It's a mod (or revamp) of OpenRA which provides a story an campaign that involves factions from all C&C and RA games, including the Scrin.

And best of all: Since it's based on OpenRA it's completely free. I highly recommend check8ng it out. It's well balanced, it involves a cool story, and while I'm mostly a tiberian dawn kind of guy, I'm sure it'll appeal to Red Alert fans as well.

Ever wanted to see how the mammoth tank fares against a tesla coil? Or a scrin carrier against a Yak? Well now you can try it.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Historyline: 1914 - 1918

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Empire Earth

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Oh, I'd forgotten about that game. I actually liked it better than Age of Empires.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I loved close combat games! I still want think and look for similar games. It left a void I haven't quite filled.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Sudden Strike 2

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Warlords 3 Dark Lords Rising, Age of Wonders a close second.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I played so much Warlords 2 multiplayer with my siblings when I was a kid. I should check that series out again.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I never really played 2, but the art and music in 3 are amazing. Very fond of that era in fantasy art.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

If war-themed FFs fit in, and if people accept a 19 y.o. PS2 game as retro, Final Fantasy XII is pretty good, and points for the story going more the infiltration and diplomacy routes instead of protagonists buldozing everything like in previous games.

And on a more classic sense of war, Outlive is pretty good but hard. Also wasn't expecting the units' quotes (at least in the Portuguese dubbing; haven't checked it in English) to be as silly/amusing, but it helps cracking up some smiles here and there.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Falcon 3

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Fallen Haven

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

There was an old fighter pilot game that I used to play on linux back in the day all the time in the early 2000s. I can't remember the name but it was because my dad's laptop was very cool to me and ran SUSE, so I played that, super tux, and a few free games because the alternative was a windows 95 machine with a 10 gig upgraded hard drive.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person on earth that remembers Close Combat. I loved how the units felt like real people instead of automatons. That’s definitely a franchise I would love to see return.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I completely agree; the buildup and production involved in most RTS games is tedious to me. Close Combat seems like the perfect middle between simulationist war games and RTS chaos. It was actually developed as a Squad Leader game before they lost the Avalon Hill license.

The Combat Mission games were fairly similar, with my favorite feature being a mode where you issue orders in 1 minute increments; you're watching the battle play out in real time, but it's still turn based. Edit: Apparently they're still making these. Here is the one I remember playing most. I still like the Close Combat games better to just jump into though.

The only modern franchise I've played that has a similar play style are the Total War games, but I think they realize WWII isn't a great fit for them.

this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
63 points (98.5% liked)

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