Age of Empires Windows - 1997

 

Age of Empires is one of the absolute classics of the Real Time Strategy genre. It's fast-paced but has an excellent learning curve. For its time, it offered a diverse range of buildings, units, and tech-trees. Not to mention the differences between the cultures.

Though Age of Empires doesn't quite have the cachet of Warcraft or Starcraft, it holds up well even today as one of the best of the genre, offering lots of replayability at both the story and multiplayer levels. Additionally, the easy-to-use map builder tools allow you to create countless unique scenarios.

Age of Empires boasts fun and colorful sprites with detailed animations for all the various tasks each individual performs. Plus, there are a few neat surprises and hidden secret units (the iconic sports car with the rocket launcher, for example).

Age of Empires is a game you're sure to come back to time and again.

 

 

1830: Railroads & Robber Barons

 

Undeniably SimTex' most underrated game, 1830 is a complex and faithful PC conversion of Avalon Hill's popular boardgame.

As with SimTex' other games, strong computer AI keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting even in the beer-and-pretzel design (a normal game here lasts 8-10 hours). In addition to conventional decisions found in other railroad-building games, e.g. laying tracks, 1830 features a unique and challenging stock market model that truly is the best I have seen in games of this type (and, being a Finance person with a passion for business sims, I've seen quite a lot). Before the "Operation Round" can begin, you must first decide on which stocks to buy and what companies to float in the "Stock Round," using a very clever stock bidding interface.

The game isn't all about planning routes, either: as opposed to most railroad games in which the focus is on matching supply and demand (e.g. Sid Meier's classic Railroad Tycoon), the focus in 1830 is clearly on a more macro-level decision making. Instead of worrying about what types of goods to carry and how soon to replace obsolete trains, here your concerns are about cutthroat competition, hostile takeovers, and being ousted from the CEO chair

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Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder Windows - 2004

 Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder (aka Блицкриг. Рокот бури, Blitzkrieg: Pomruk Zagłady) is a video game published in 2004 on Windows by CDV Software Entertainment AG, 1C Company, Focus Home Interactive SAS, Nival Interactive LLC. It's a strategy game, set in a historical battle (specific/exact), real-time, world war ii and war themes