I'd be happy for either RTS or TBS. I find TBS games a little harder to get into but it would be nice to learn a game with everyone here. E.g, games like Stellaris or Endless Space feels like something I should love, but they are so deep that I often bounce off - that could be remedied with a group play. Endless Space, in particular, fascinates me due to the visual design and fantastic worldbuilding!
Considering the current Steam sale, should we fast-forward the selection process a little bit? I'd be thrilled to play any of the following as a group:
Company of Heroes 2
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Endless Space 2
Any Homeworld title
Battlefleet Gothic 1 or 2
Those are just some suggestions, but I'll likely jump into any active playthrough regardless of what's chosen! 
I'm interested in this but probably only as a primer for playing something I've not really played before, or at least not much - I'm currently mired in Civ 6's Gathering Storm expansion, and it's probably the strongest Civ I've played since Beyond the Sword.
There's a lot of Scope in Strategy and I would be tempted to "pick a theme" each month. Start with the big ones - RTS games, 4X games, Grand Strategy, TBS etc - and work from there? I'm not sure what voting would be like if something like Stellaris was up against XCOM2 or something. That would feel a little disconnected.
Only a suggest though. I shall watch this thread with interest!
I would love to join you! Tend to only play single player so this will give me an opportunity to try something new. I'm good with whatever is chosen, happy to purchase the game if I don't already own it.
Suggest some of the rebooted RTS games:
Age of Empire, AoE II, AoE III
Rise of Nations
Total Annihilation is out on Steam as well
Any of the Total War games would be interesting.
Not sure how the XCOM games translate but would be interested.
Hi all - first welcome to the group! Secondly, please bear with me while I get things organized. I’ve been sick the last day and am still trying to catch up.
Hi all - first welcome to the group! Secondly, please bear with me while I get things organized. I’ve been sick the last day and am still trying to catch up.
Hope you feel better soon!
Strategy is my #1 genre, but I've come to the conclusion that the Game Clubs don't suit how I play - particularly with strategy games. As an example, I've been playing Battletech on and off since launch day, I don't have the focused way of playing these kinds of games that a Game Club needs.
But I'll pitch in a few suggestions anyway, and I'll be following along the conversation...
Expeditions: Vikings and Druidstone: Secret of Menhir Forest are both a little off the beaten track, but solid.
Phoenix Point is a good, if little fiddly, alternative to XCOM.
Football: Tactics And Glory is very much worth checking out, even if you don't care about soccer.
Invisible Inc iis one of the best strategy games of the last 5 years, IMO
Massive Chalice is Double Fine's take on TBS
Bionic Dues and Templar Battleforce are both a hugely indie and quirky.
I heartily concur about Football: Tactics and Glory. Great game, though I am partial to sports games. I do own Massive Chalice, but never had a chance to dip into it. Would love to do so!
My suggestions (such as they are) I'll break down into categories and see what people think:
4x:
Thea 2: The shattering
Galdius Relics of War
Interstellar Space Genesis
RTS
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (I've played this but it's a game that deserves to be played by a hell of a lot more people)
Grey Goo
Offworld Trading Company (It's sort of an RTS)
TBS
Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus
Druidstone (which I've played to a point)
Expeditions: Vikings - I've played through Expeditions: Conquistadors and although these verge into the RPG space they are well worth investigating.
only if anyone is interested!
I can see at the very least this group will lead me to buying another couple dozen strategy games in the upcoming months. Win win!
I heartily concur about Football: Tactics and Glory. Great game, though I am partial to sports games. I do own Massive Chalice, but never had a chance to dip into it. Would love to do so!
Massive Chalice reminds me of For the King, which is another game that I'd like to dig into with a group.
I'd be interested! I'm wary of overcommitting to clubs, given that I'm pretty much always in on the JRPG Club, but I could see myself hopping in and out of this.
I also have a suggestion, based on something that I used to see on forums for the Civ series. There, they would regularly run a "game of the month" which would give everyone a common first-turn save. The GotM would announce a specific leader, difficulty level, and victory condition, and then everyone would strive to achieve that condition with that leader, and compare their results. That might be more focused than people would like, but I could see it being helpful, for 4X games especially, to have something to unite the experience. Maybe everyone turns on the same, specific starting conditions, or something like that.
Considering the current Steam sale, should we fast-forward the selection process a little bit? I'd be thrilled to play any of the following as a group:
The Steam sale ends a week from tomorrow. Are we voting before then?
If you need help organizing just say the word. Maybe a Google Doc of nominations?
The Steam sale ends a week from tomorrow. Are we voting before then?
+1 on this. While I have a healthy share of the games noted above, I wouldn't mind paying less money if it's an option.
INITIAL VOTING - Midnight PST July 2
Thanks everyone for bearing with me on this - still recovering from a nasty bit of stomach flu. Here are the games that everyone has mentioned. Please submit your top 5 by July 2. (I'm open to additional ideas but we seem to have an initial good mix). Once we have whittled down our initial group I'll post prices and links. My goal is to have a final pick before the sale ends.
Alpha Centauri
Battlefleet Gothic (1 or 2)
Battletech
Bionic Dues
Civilization 4
Civilization Beyond Earth
Company of Heroes 2
Crusader Kings 2
Druidstone: Secret of Menhir Forest
Endless Space 2
Europe Universalis 4
Expedition Vikings
Football Manager
Football: Tactics and Glory
Gladius: Relics of War
Grey Goo
Hearts of Iron IV
Homeworld: Deserts of Karak
Imperator
Jagged Alliance 2 (forgot I had this)
Massive Chalice
Offworld Trading Company
Out of the Park Baseball
Phoenix Point
Templar Battleforce
Thea 2: The Shattering
Total War: 3 Kingdoms
Total War: Medieval 2
Total War: Shogun 2
Total Warhammer (1 or 2)
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Warlock 2
X-COM: UFO Defense
Thanks for doing this jdzappa, and I hope you have a speedy recovery! Don't rush.
My top 5:
Company of Heroes 2
Endless Space 2
Battletech
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Homeworld: Deserts of Karak
I'm always up for some games of Total War Warhammer, but there is a pretty active thread for it already
Thanks A - I'm feeling a lot better. And thank you for going first!
Here are my picks:
Endless Space 2
Gladius
Alpha Centauri (I've never played it believe it or not)
Company of Heroes 2
Imperator
I'll vote for:
Alpha Centauri
Civ IV
I don't have most of these and I want to limit my purchases this month, so most likely I'll just be watching.
Get better soon, jdzappa!
I tried to vote for games with as few barriers to entry as possible - good (and not too niche), affordable, not too time-consuming, and capable of running on modern PCs without too many hitches.
My picks:
Alpha Centauri
Total War: 3 Kingdoms
Total War: Shogun 2
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
Jagged Alliance 2
My picks would be:
Warhammer 40k Mechanicus
Thea 2: The shattering
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
Company of heroes 2
Battle fleet gothic 2
Company of Heroes 2
Endless Space 2
Massive Chalice
Warlock 2
Total War: Shogun 2
I'll vote for some games I already have to start this off.
Battletech
Endless Space 2
Company of Heroes 2
Total War: Shogun 2
Offworld Trading Company
Thanks for doing this, jdzappa!
My votes:
Battletech
Company of Heroes 2
Total Warhammer (1 or 2)
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Europe Universalis 4
I kind of went with Mind Elemental's thinking, and came up with this...
Alpha Centauri
Expedition Vikings
Gladius: Relics of War
Jagged Alliance 2 (forgot I had this)
Thea 2: The Shattering
Really looking forward to this!
I'm curious, how long are you thinking for each game? Some of the ones on the list (EU4, CK2, I'm looking at you) I knocked off my vote because I don't think I have time for them in a month, but if it were 2 months then that'd be different.
I vote for these, as I have games in progress for all of them, which is about the only way I'm going to find the time to participate here....
Football: Tactics and Glory
Druidstone
Battletech
Expeditions: Vikings
Phoenix Point
My votes:
Company of Heroes 2
Battletech
Total War: 3 Kingdoms
Battlefleet Gothic (1 or 2)
Homeworld: Deserts of Karak
Endless Space 2
Alpha Centauri
Battletech
Company of Heroes 2
Massive Chalice
Warlock 2
I followed Sundown's approach and picked games I own that I have not spent a lot of time in.
I followed Sundown's approach and picked games I own that I have not spent a lot of time in.
Same. Even then, it’s hard to limit to 5.
Europa Universalis 4
Hearts of Iron 4
Thea 2: The Shattering
Offworld Trading Company
Total War 3 Kingdoms
Here are my five:
Crusader Kings 2
Europe Universalis 4
Football Manager
Gladius: Relics of War
Massive Chalice
I'm looking to play games I already own this time around, so if a game is picked that I don't currently, I don't mind watching and jumping in at a later time.
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