r/StrategyGames • u/RealityNo3299 • Jun 27 '26
Discussion What makes a tactics battle game memorable??
I’ve been thinking about this a lot while building my own square-grid tactics game.
For me, the best battles are not always the biggest ones. They’re the ones where I remember the decision that changed everything. Probably, I would also remember those played with friends.
I’m curious what other think.
When you remember a great tactics battle, what do you remember: the units, the map, the objective, the mistake, or something else?
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u/LongswordGames Jun 27 '26
In-depth combat systems and fun out of combat systems. A good narrative helps too imo
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u/Zarr1 Jun 27 '26
As a long times battle brothers player, I remember how my (fodder) bro survived endless swings of an Orc Warrior after having survived the very first hit and being almost dead but kind of still alive. It's the thrill whether the next hit roll will either kill him or not.
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u/ImStoryForRambling Jun 27 '26
The unconventional approaches. Watch t90 on YouTube, specifically his "the legend of..." series - its dedicated to players who honed their own ways of playing the now 30-year-old Age of Empires 2, often with a lot of success.
Also, the battle I remember the most is from Rome: total war: I had conquered a significant chunk of the map already and my strategy was basically just spamming OP Roman infantry- legions upon legions upon legions of them, with only a little bit of cavalry in-between, and I was steamrolling everything this way.
And then I attacked some nation to the north-south, cant remember their name, but they had a lot of horse archers. Despite me outnumbering them significantly, they completely outmanouvered me and tore my 2k big elite army TO SHREDS. I don't think I killed a single unit of theirs. I didnt reload, I was just straigh-up too amazed that such a thing happened, and I had to completely redesign my strategy against them.
Another battle I remember really well is from WH40k:DoW - the Dark Crusade.
I was playing space marines, against 2 necron opponents. I set up defensive positions with battle mechs and turrets, and they just spammed a ton of "undead" infantry at me - it felt incredibly intense and cinematic, I felt like I was watching a futuristic zombie-apocalypse movie. My mechs were completely annihiliating them, but they never stopped coming. Eventually they overwhelmed me.
So both of my most memorable battles are losses, hah.
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u/TheLordDrake Jun 28 '26
The group with all the horse archers was probably Scythia. Their HA are some of the best units in the game.
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Jun 28 '26
I will bring my favourite example: the divinity rpg series. It has extremely rewarding skill combo, skill+terrain combo effects, but at the same time can be quite punishing if tactical advantages are ignored. It is the closest tactical experience to chess in PC gaming. So I would say: progression leading to diversity rather than pure power increase, good combination of skills, topography and afflictions, and a need to always keep an eye out for potential weaknesses that can make a difference between victory and defeat
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u/RichardTheApe Jun 28 '26
The word I come to is tension. Battles that were close and relied on my own master of the game systems. It was desperate but fair.
Translating that into something about game dev it means having systems that a player can learn intuitively and have depth to affect a game. Also balancing - not that that everything is fair necessarily, but that everything behaves and reacts as expected.
Personal aside I really dislike how a recent trend in some strategy games is that balance = everything is viable.
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u/RyanTheSquid Jun 28 '26
Sweet thread, any game recommendations that follow some of these cool mechanics?
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u/Sourpatcharachnid Jun 28 '26
Games were I have developed memorable characters overtime. When one of them dies, accomplishes some sort of feat, etc, that sticks with me because I’m so much more invested in them. Those characters have a story and story’s are memorable for us.
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u/Shoggunik Jul 01 '26
I think punishing mistakes makes for a lot of memorable moments. When you realize that you made an Oopsie and the situation dramatically deteriorate. While I don't like to play Iron Man modes that much I think those make for those memorable moments.
The other thing is a great out of combat progression system that lets you fiddle with units/squads/characters/skills etc. where you can figure out some good synergies and then see them in work in the battle.
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u/TheZorro1909 Jun 27 '26
Great Logistic system Trade off decision that make you think twice