[McCall]

British trains have small seats. Smaller than the average man. Even a thin one. They also go very, very, VERY slowly...

So has anyone got any good tips for turn-based games suitable for a laptop? You know, the kind where you don't need to go frantically clicking around or relying on reflexes.

I've already got the obvious candidates: Civ4, Galactic Civs 2, People's General, Sword of the Stars.

Any others out there?

[Solatar]

I like Battle for Wesnoth. Free, open source game.

[The E]

Megamek, if you fancy a bit of Battletech (Although I don't know off-hand if that works offline).
FreeCiv, if you want Civilization without 3d graphics leeching your battery.

[Colonol Dekker]

X-Com for the weeeeeeeeeen

[SpardaSon21]

I'm going to have to second Sword of the Stars, although the tactical combat can really eat up CPU with its per-polygon hit detection and real-time projectile tracking.  Make sure you have at least AMoC or the UC though.  The final expansion, Argos Naval Yards would be best, simply because it adds MOAR to the game.

[NGTM-1R]

Megamek, if you fancy a bit of Battletech (Although I don't know off-hand if that works offline).

Megamek's AI is actually fairly good.

[Galemp]

Age of Empires works pretty well, if you have an eensy weensy retractable mouse like I do.

[Locutus of Borg]

AoE is FTW

mainly because you can design any battle you want with the, quite intuitive, letter editor.

But IT IS RTS

[Galemp]

But you can set the speed...

[Thaeris]

Best strategy game(s) ever: Combat Mission

http://battlefront.com/

I'm not a fan of the new one, it's just the interface. Combat Mission is best played turn based... or is it?   The game actually takes your commands then excecutes them simultaneously with the enemy's commands, so it's literally turn-based and real-time at the same time! Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord was the first released and should still work with Vista (if that's what you're running); the only thing it can't seem to process is fog.

-Thaeris

[Liberator]

I've always enjoyed a round of Alpha Centauri.  Also, if you can dig it up, Master of Magic is still as cool as it ever was, fire up D-Fend and you are good to go.

[Sushi]

If you're willing to go RPG instead of RTS, Neverwinter Nights is perfect for this scenario IMHO. There's enough high-quality community campaigns to last a lifetime of train rides.

[McCall]

Cheers guys. There's more out there than I thought. Haven't actually tried an RPG before though. Maybe I should.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about X-Com. I've got that too. Thank heavens for dosbox (it also let me resurrect Sensible World of Soccer '96/'97 - stuff all that fancy graphics FIFA and PES nonsense!)

[Liberator]

If you don't already, I heartily recommend D-Fend as a tasty gui coating for DOSBox.  Course I'm too lazy to screw around with text files and D-Fend can act as a manager for all your DOSBox programs.

[headdie]

If you don't already, I heartily recommend D-Fend as a tasty gui coating for DOSBox.  Course I'm too lazy to screw around with text files and D-Fend can act as a manager for all your DOSBox programs.

i will second that.  being able to store setup data and create desktop shortcuts from the saved data.  currently running Defend Reloaded which supports windows games

[Titan]

If you don't want to get X-com, UFO:AI is a free fan-made remake. It's pretty cool. Lots of replayability.

[Wobble73]

Best strategy game(s) ever: Chess
http://battlefront.com/

-Thaeris

I believe there are plenty of chess games available for the PC, my personal favorite was BattleChess, seeing a knight stomp over thump the queen, class! 

[Galemp]

You could buy Castles and Castles II from GOG.com for cheap. They're ancient games but they're REALLY good.

[Thaeris]

Best strategy game(s) ever: Chess
http://battlefront.com/

-Thaeris

I believe there are plenty of chess games available for the PC, my personal favorite was BattleChess, seeing a knight stomp over thump the queen, class! 

 

That's an interesting misquote there, Wobble. Have you ever played a Combat Mission game? You might just enjoy it.

If you want a good, old-fashioned RPG you might check out Spiderweb Software's Avernum series (which is based off of the archaic Exile series). Good story, long games. My only complaint with the game as-is was the lack of tactical complexity due to terrain in certain situations. I'd also recommend trying one of the first three games... the ones after that look to me like overkill on the storyline. Enjoying that style of gameplay is another matter entirely... it's not exactly the most exciting thin in the world...

-Thaeris

[phatosealpha]

If you can scare up a copy, Silent Storm: Sentinels is a lot of fun.