Whatever happened to the turn-based strategy game? I haven't played a truly good strategy game, other than Civ3, in forever. It seems like everyone is preoccupied with real-time strategy games. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, as I enjoy Starcraft and Warcraft as much as anyone else, but I want something new and cool, damn it.

One of my favorite games of all time is Emperor of the Fading Suns. You've probably never heard of it, because it was released forever ago and my brother and I were the only two people on the planet who gave a damn about it. It's a TBS game set in a dystopic futuristic world, where the Emperor has died, and it's up to the five major noble houses to decide amongst themselves who is to be the new Emperor. (Read: galactic war)

If you're familiar with TBS games at all, you'll probably understand that this barely scratches the surface of what the game has to offer--no TBS is really all that simple. There are a number of other factions throughout the galaxy who you have to deal with, in addition to scrabbling up as many planet and resources as you can get your grubby little paws on. The Symbiot are a deadly race of aliens who want nothing more than to absorb all life. The Vau are another race who is above the politicking and have little use for pithy human technology, instead trading Firebirds (money) for maps of your planets. The League are the merchants of the game, rich and powerful, who provide resources to the various factions... for a nominal fee. The Church will send out its Inquisitors if they get a rumor of a sect researching proscribed technologies.

Again, this only scratches the surface. Add in the fact that you can play with up to four other people (or four computers) and it becomes a little overwhelming. I've never played with more than one other person, and even then it was difficult--a turn can end up taking an hour if you have enough planets and factories. However, playing with another person does add an interesting facet to the game, and generates a lot of stories. To this day my brother won't let me forget how I shot down his freighter carrying priceless Scepters (the items that allow you to cast votes to elect a Regent).

To this day, I don't know why I love this game so much. It's buggy (although a fan patch fixed 90% of the bugs) and the micromanagement system can stretch your turns out into hours-long affairs. At one point, I was fighting a three-front war, building an attack fleet to take down the Hawkwood's home planet, all while simultaneously freighting hundreds of troops up to my front lines. I think each turn was taking me about 2 and a half hours. After I took care of all of those, I swore to only make war on one planet at a time, and only micromanage 3-4 tops.

My point is that it still is one of my favorites, and I would love to play a game that adequately captures its feel, without sacrificing too much of its nostalgia. So far, Civilization and Romance of the Three Kingdoms look like my best bets, but they still aren't quite what I'm looking for.

PS: There are no good Flash TBS games to be found. Dicewars is the only one so far that even piques my interest, but the computer cheats pretty hardcore in that game, so I'd rather not play it. How hard is it to make a Risk-esque game with some computer players?!