Wanted: fast strategy game

[Aliquantic]

(Do we have a thread for generic game suggestion requests? I couldn't find any :s)

I'm looking for a multiplayer game (mainly for 2 players) with a reasonable amount of depth but that have to be pretty fast-paced. I'm really looking for a game (video game or board game) that resembles the pace of a fighting game, but in a different genre, so to speak. Blitz variants of existing games is the best example I can think of, but I'm having trouble coming up with original games that play very fast. Starcraft comes close for a RTS but isn't really my cup of tea, Dominion works pretty well as a board game but we played that too much, there's always the old arcade standbys (Windjammers, TSS, Magical Drop 3 and so on) but those aren't exactly strategy games.

It'd be hard to have much strategy in a game the speed of TGM, I wonder if there's such a thing as a strategy game that emphasizes speed of thinking, over speed of reaction. Any recommendation outside of Blitz chess and the like? Thank you (I can't really come up with a label for the sort of game I'm thinking about either... blitz is the best I can think of, games for the adrenaline junkie?)

[Moniker]

Might wanna give Total Annihilation or whatever its spiritual sequel is (Supreme Commander?) a spin. It's a really fast RTS. Also various DOTA games; League of Legends is really good and free.

The entire Command & Conquer series is bundled for $30USD on Amazon right now: http://www.amazon.com/Command-Conquer-U ... collection

Been thinking of picking that up, myself.

Last thought: I'm pretty sure Frozen Synapse has a timed-turn mode. That would probably be pretty interesting. I'm a big fan of speed Chess, too. That'd probably be the closest experience.

[Kyper]

There's a collectable card game that isn't a collectable card game called Spectromancer, with the dude who created Magic being one of the co-designers. Instead of building a deck, you're dealt random cards in the 4 elements and you pick a class that determines your cards for your 5th element/house. Based on what cards you have, you can somewhat determine your opponents cards and form an initial strategy (there are some draw rules to increase your predictions). Each turn is 60 seconds max although most people only take maybe half that, and there's a Blitz mode that makes it only 15 seconds.

[KAI]

KKND 2: Krossfire is fast as fuck, you can end a VS match in less than 10 mins.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

2 player-styled Mahjong can work if you set a time limit (when time's up, that hand's the last hand). If you don't have an automatic mahjong table, you can simply shuffle the tiles in a bag and draw the necessary tiles that way to really speed it up. There's a serious strategic element of learning to read what tiles the other person is waiting on because you can crush whatever hand they were making before they can win so long as you figure out what they need, as well as learning to build hands that have unusual/unexpected waits so that what you discard doesn't make the shape of your hand obvious.

I can't really think of much else because I tend to like games with 4-ish players as far as board games go, and I don't play many wargame/strategy video games...

[Obiwanshinobi]

When Heroes of Might & Magic V was announced, I read about a "launch break mode" of sorts, likened to 1vs1 fighting games of all things. Not sure if made it to the final product.
Lost Kingdoms - a (sorta) real-time card battling game - has a 2 player mode. Considering it's by From Software, whose Kuri Kuri Mix rocks hard, I doubt it's any bad.

I'm really looking for a game (video game or board game) that resembles the pace of a fighting game, but in a different genre, so to speak.

If you searched for a real-time, speedy dungeon crawler, I'd recommend Spelunky, Crimson Tears and the original Bomberman (especially the GB port). Furthermore, BurgerTime Deluxe is a game where execution is trivial, but you need to think FAST.

Last but not least, don't forget about co-op games of brief runs. In that respect, I doubt Gauntlet Dark Legacy (with controls in ROBOTRON mode) can be topped, provided all gamers know what they are doing (this being Gauntlet after all). Also: cooperative - the aforementioned Kuri Kuri Mix, competitive - Monkey Golf in the original Super Monkey Ball and split-screen in the first Burnout (bumper camera recommended).
(I've been researching local co-op lately and trust me, Monkey Golf and Kuri Kuri Mix are very, very safe bets.)
Enough said about co-op in shmups.

[Ghegs]

Air Mech?

[Ganelon]

I used to have fun playing 2-player General Chaos.

[SuperDeadite]

"Z" an old DOS RTS by the Bitmap Bros. It's still the fastest paced RTS I've ever played. No buildings, no resources, just a mad dash for territory control. The strategy is all about fast fast combat. The "arcade RTS", but still a lot of real strategy required. If you sit around and build up a huge army, the CPU will slaughter you, you have to rush, but smartly, not blindly. Seriously if you haven't beaten the CPU in the first 10 mins, you are probably screwed. Great sense of 90's humor too. Just avoid it's sequal "Z: Steel Soldiers", it sucks.

[O. Van Bruce]

You may like World of Tanks (?). See some gameplay and download the client. You'll have to grind your way for getting the heavier tanks and best equipement but that's part of the fun.

Also, don't be decieved by any person that says it's Pay to Win. You only get things faster by paying money, that's all. The client automatically puts you against people of your same level/equipement.

[Jonathan Ingram]

I second General Chaos and Z suggestions. Can`t go wrong with either of them.

[Obiwanshinobi]

WH40K: Dawn of War doesn't have depletable resoures. This can make it very dynamic (you're supposed to conquer and defend all the time), but there's no local co-op on one machine I'm afraid.
I intend to try out Lost Kingdoms multiplayer this week.

[Ixmucane2]

You might have played enough Dominion, but did you explore brutally fast setups in which there's a race to "go off" and/or to end the game? Crossroads, Inn, City, Minion...

[Obiwanshinobi]

How about Chaos League? RTS-like controls.

[MadScientist]

Greed Corp (PC/XBLA/PSN) was pretty good. I didn't play a huge amount of multiplayer, but I think the rounds were around 10-15 mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3x5WWKGulM

[Obiwanshinobi]

No news about Lost Kingdoms multiplayer from me (but I played singleplayer and the potential is pretty obvious).
I do, however, have another suggestion - Pursuit in Burnout 2. 3 may be better known as a vehicular combat game, but Pursuit of 2 is the kind of energy bar gaming that should appeal to broader audience. Any car can be the pursuit car and you're free to choose target car and track too, so it's extremely customisable. Two drawbacks:
a) you can't practice as target car against CPU and
b) split-screen feels more like a downgrade in 2 than it felt in 1. Not sure why (it's halved in both games), but for regular racing on split-screen I'd still recommend 1 above 2 and 3.
If only Burnout 2 supported LAN, Pursuit would be one of best reasons to set it up, though.

[dcharlieJP]

Two player Advance Wars can be a hoot and pretty fast especially with animations off

[Aguraki]

[BPzeBanshee]

Seconding AirMech. Very fast. I enjoy it a lot when I play. Most matches don't go for more than 15 minutes (10 if you're good against shit players/AI on small map).

[CMoon]

Blitz Chess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8

[O. Van Bruce]

What is that? American Civil war simulator nostalgia edition?

[Ghegs]

That's North & South, a classic from way back when.

[ZellSF]

Shadow Armada simultaneous turn-based strategy game. Pick your ships, give them movement orders and action orders, hope you get your timing right and anticipate what your opponent is doing correctly. It's a long time since I played it, but I doubt games can last more than 10 minutes at most. You get 80 seconds a turn to plan all your moves.

It is sadly abandoned though, so you'll have to find someone to play with on your own (AI is decent but not great) and the balance might be extremely broken.

[Squire Grooktook]

Thirding for AirMech. Nice balance of action and strategy, very fast paced and frantic, very smart, and very fun.

[ZellSF]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYnU_cDBM5Q <-- Shadow Armada, not a good video, but just to show the game. Need to figure out why Google hates 4:3 material.

[Ed Oscuro]

I mention it every now and then, but Bloons Tower Defense 5 and Bloons TD Battles. Colorful, very fast, deep strategies, and tons of replayability and modes. They have premiums but all the important stuff you can grind for without paying (and it doesn't take all that long either). You can go back every day just for the TD5 Daily Challenges alone, including the nearly full year of 2012 challenges in the vault. Great community (you'll need it for daily challenges). They just added a co-op mode to TD5. Battles is good too, but I didn't play it for very long.

The only real downsides, aside from the lag issues in co-op (possibly being ironed out now) are a couple facts - one, tower placement is VERY finicky, and you can fit more towers in by switching to low quality mode (right click, preferences, etc.). The endgame, i.e. past level 100, is also really slow on computers (at least on default quality), and Flash isn't helpful too, since it loves to crash often. If the Flash deities smile on you, though, it's pretty stable.

I want to check out some other Western-style RPGs and RTSes but this one is definitely quality and a keeper. Best yet, it's free.

[drauch]

The entire Command & Conquer series is bundled for $30USD on Amazon right now: http://www.amazon.com/Command-Conquer-U ... collection

Been thinking of picking that up, myself.

You might want to read up on that and just buy the last C&C collection. The DRM is some of the nastiest yet.