Looking for a Fantasy strategy game

Alright, so I'm done with my RPG marathon (NWN2/MotB + The Witcher + Oblivion = RPG headache!) so now I'm looking for a fantasy strategy game.

Looking for something slightly dark (i.e not the latest Heroes V) and epic-feeling, but I seem to be drawing a blank here.

I've played Age of Mythology, Age of Wonders, Heroes of Might and Magic, Warlords, Disciple, Master of Magic, Warhammer (MoC and DoA), Spellforce, Rise of Legends, Lords of Magic, Warcraft, Starcraft and all their respective sequels.

These elements all need to be there:
magic
various races (elves, dwarves, etc.)
good plot
good long campaign

Is there anything that came out in the past couple of years that's good, or that's about to come out before the end of the year?

 

Heh, you certainly have played a lot of games and pretty much all the good ones in fantasy strategy genre that comes to my mind. Have you ever tried Fantasy General? Yes, it's very old game, but hey, so is Master of Magic.

 

I believe I have the perfect game for you, the Disciples series. Disciples III is being developed right now, it's a turned based game similar to HoMaM but a lot better, imo. Disciples II is a little old now but it's still good.

*edit* I guess I should have completely read the list of games you played...

 

Conan is set to come out early next year and i think it fits perfectly with what you want...for now im not too sure...Gothic 3, Fury, Vanguard, and an old one Forgotten Realms: Demon stone (or something like that)

 

would assassins be considered RPG? that one looks good but probably wont be out till 2009? for Pc atleast. Jade Raymond is hot

 

Yea, I'm looking forward to Disciples 3.

Not too interested in RPG -- really looking for RTS or TBS...

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

When you say fantasy strategy game first thing in my head was final fantasy tactics. But from what you described I dont think its the kind of game your looking for.

 

Battle for Middle-Earth I and II are good RTS fantasy games.

I still play BFME2 against friends.

 

If you can find a copy of it, Sacrifice is an outstanding game.

 

If you have a PS2 the Nippon Ichi games are fantastic but they are turn-based strategys.

 

Yeah, I recommend Battle for the Middle Earth I and II too! It uses the same engine as Command & Conquer Generals. =)

There is also rise of legends... but that one I cant play on my laptop FX 5200go... grrr.

 

There isn't anything recent that fits into what your looking for, unless its empire earth 3 but I wasn't impressed with the demo.

 

How about Fantasy Wars? It's recent turn based fantasy strategy and what I have read it should be pretty good too.

 

LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth 1/2

Spellforce 1/2 - Spellforce doesn't appeal to everyone though, so you would want to check it out before buying it.

 

Hrm, I already played Spellforce 2 and Rise of Legends.

I'll definitely look into Fantasy Wars.

I also wasn't impressed with the EE3 demo.

I played the demo of one of the BFME games (forgot if it was the 1st or second) and can't quite remember the reason I didn't like it. I think it was because the computer I had at the time couldn't handle it. I'll dl the demo and try it again and see.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

My bad, didn't notice that you had played Spellforce. How did you find it anyway?

 

It wasn't bad - it didn't do either aspect particularly well (RPG and RTS), but was a decent mix. It got kind of tedious though because of that towards the end. The gauntlet mission was kind of fun though. You basically had to take on the main Orc stronghold, which had 3 tiers of towers at different heights.

If you want the opposite mix (i.e. RTS with RPG type hero classes instead of RPG with RTS elements) try out Dragonshard. It's basically a RTS except every single unit is an AD&D type class (you have limited units).

So I tried out the demo for Fantasy Wars, and I didn't know whether to cry or laugh at the intro movie (this is a bad thing). Still I played through the scenarios. The more I tried it, the more I felt I was playing a truncated version of Civ 3 (yes that's right Civ 3, not IV!) - without all the empire building aspects. It's not a bad game, but all in all, Fall from Heaven is better (Civ IV mod that turns it into a fantasy setting with spells and the like).

Incidentally, CivIV and Fall from Heaven is awesome

 

I absolutely LOVED Sacrifice!

I actually still play it every once in awhile. It isn't a pure RTS, more of a hybrid, but that is what made it stand out as such a unique and enjoyable experience!

 

BFME2 is definitely different than BFME1... since the battle system got much better, and you can make your own hero units.

 

I own a copy as well. To my knowledge it's gameplay is still fairly unique as games like Spellforce and Overlord copy features from it (I got this in 2000). Modern computers today can run the game smoothly although the game engine itself hasn't aged too badly IMO.

Recommend OP try and find a copy.

 

How about DarkFall? Sounds like it has promise.

 

Sacrifice - that's the one where you're a wizard of some sphere and you align yourself with one of the really odd-looking gods? And you have the little mana things following after you ... I remember that! The god icons were awesome.

Never heard of darkfall, I'll have to look into it.

 

That'd be it. Hmm... I think I need to reinstall it. It's been too long.

 

Hrm. I just tried Battle for Wesnoth. It's quite good and it's free. Did get tired of it after a few playthroughs though (it gets really repetitive).

It did give off serious Disciples vibes though. Makes me wish Disciples III would be released sooner.

Ah well.

So, I just played the Universe at War demo after the Supreme Commander demo...what a mistake. Universe at War felt horribly unepic and limited after Supreme Commander