this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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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] 2 points 2 days 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] 5 points 3 days ago

Commandos

With commandos 3 breing my fav

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Command & conquer: Red Alert

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

EA just opened sourced the real RA as well!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm more of a Tiberian Dawn person myself

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] Valon_Blue 4 points 4 days ago

Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days 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] 10 points 4 days ago

Rise of Nations

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days 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] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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 4 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Historyline: 1914 - 1918

[–] neidu3 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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] 4 points 4 days ago

Sudden Strike 2

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days 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] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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 4 days 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] 2 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Fallen Haven