Good strategy games that don't take 10-20 hours to play?

January 4, 2010 1:15 PM

I'm looking for a good strategy game for the PC which would take about 1-3 hours to complete.

I'd like to unwind after work with a good strategy game, but would prefer not to have to spread a single game over multiple sessions. (I want to avoid that impulse to play Just One More Turn when it's past time for bed.) However, I enjoy games that are more than just a coffeebreak-style diversion.

Something with the depth of Civ Revolution (but for the PC) would be ideal. I've heard good things about Armageddon Empires and will probably try the demo. Do you have any recommendations?

posted by steadystate to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

It's been a while since I played it, but I think that's the low end (small map) of Sins of a Solar Empire. It scales up to epic multi-day long games, but the small ones are substantial, without being too long. I may be remembering wrong though... but on the plus side, it's probably just a couple of dollars to pick up.
posted by cschneid at 1:18 PM on January 4, 2010

What about Real Time Strategy? Something like Command and Conquer? You can skip the campaign modes if you like and play single-serving "skirmishes" that, depending on difficulty settings, will fit neatly into your time frame. I'm a bit partial to Sins of a Solar Empire and Total Annihilation, but the scope of those games usually means a skirmish could easily last ten hours if you let it get out of hand.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:19 PM on January 4, 2010

I thought Armageddon Empires was pretty fun but it couldn't hold my interest for more than a few games.
posted by ghharr at 1:45 PM on January 4, 2010

Risk 2, specifically the "sametime" mode. it's not as deep as Civ, but it can be played in a sitting. it's not quite as basic as vanilla Risk, either. you declare all of your attacks at the start of your turn, and they are executed simultaneously with the PC players' attacks in one giant combat phase.

there is a tier system, basically, to determine which attacks happen first. border clashes (wherein two opposing forces meet between territories), surge attacks (you can opt to attack from one captured territory per turn, again bid before play begins. if you don't actually capture that territory on your turn, no surge), spoils of war (two players send forces into the same territory in a turn, and the defending territory is defeated before either attacking force is depleted. the remaining attacking forces then battle against each other to determine who takes the territory).

there are normal Risk trappings in there as well, but with twists. you're only able to fortify territories based on the number of adjacent territories you are in possession of. there are card sets to play. the map is the same, though you can turn on or off a handful of tertiary territories to make things more interesting.

and there are quite a few customizable features as well (game play type, whether territories are distributed/bid/chosen at the start of matches, etc). a session can be 90 minutes to a couple of hours. it's just deep enough to keep you coming back for more, i find. it's years old at this point, but still awfully pretty all things considered. you should be able to find a copy out there without too much trouble.
posted by radiosilents at 1:47 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you can find it, I believe there is still a version of Spaceward Ho out on the interwebs that will run on XP (although I have not been able to get it to run on Windows 7, unfortunately). It is not as complex as the Civ games, but I have found it to be the only computer game I come back to time and time again (and it was released about 15 years ago, so that is saying something). You can get through a game in around an hour, or a bigger map may take you days.
posted by markblasco at 1:49 PM on January 4, 2010

Battle for Wesnoth is a simple, free, turn-based wargame. Individual scenarios or multi-player maps take about 1-3 hours depending on size. There are at least a dozen or more single-player campaigns of a dozen or more scenarios each to choose from and an active on-line play community. The graphics are deliberately early 90's chic, but that only adds to the retro appeal. You can play it on virtually any computer as well.
posted by bonehead at 1:53 PM on January 4, 2010

risk 2 is so unbelievably awesome that the mere mention of it might harpoon my entire day.

pikmin is a good RTS game. everything is broken down into days so while it takes 15-30 hours to complete the entire game, each day is 15 minutes. play the first one and then the second for some bonuses.
posted by nadawi at 1:54 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

strange adventures in infinite space
weird worlds: return to infinite space
oasis
company of heroes
gratuitous space battles
posted by paradroid at 3:09 PM on January 4, 2010 [3 favorites]

2nding gratuitous space battles. It's not exactly what you're looking for from your description (each battle is a coffeebreak style thing although there is an overarching campaign), but it's pretty. The fighting itself is all automated btw, the gameplay is in designing and deploying ships and setting target selection tactics beforehand.
posted by juv3nal at 3:22 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

I discovered Risk II last week (having never played risk before) and I am totally hooked.
posted by imaswinger at 3:53 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: A lot of great ideas here that I will be following up, but Risk 2 sounds perfect. Thanks, everyone!
posted by steadystate at 6:27 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you can get past the lack of graphics, General is a pretty solid strategy game. (The official site and game server seem to be down but the game download link is working.)

Maybe not what you're looking for, but The Settlers of Catan is available online.
posted by lmm at 6:30 PM on January 4, 2010

I've been playing a lot of Defense Grid lately. It's a fantastic tower defense game and is very reasonable at $10 on Steam (although it was on sale for $2.50 last week). The first several levels go by pretty quickly as it introduces new towers to you. But after that, the strategy gets pretty involved and you will have to attempt levels a few times before you get them.
posted by johnio at 7:02 PM on January 4, 2010

I would second Catan online, although Catan contains an element of luck that erodes the strategic element a bit. I played it like crazy for 2 months and you can knock a game out online in like 20-30 minutes.
posted by kaizen at 9:50 AM on January 5, 2010