Introduction

Hello everyone! Welcome to Strategy Game Insight.

Obviously, this blog is about strategy games. This is my favorite genre of games; I like to win by pitting my wit and plans against my opponent, not by clicking faster and more precisely (though some strategy games today come down to this). I could bore you with a life story of why I like this genre the most, but I think I'll just cut to chase and leave that for later.

This primarily concerns PC strategy games, but I may cover games from other consoles and board games as well. I also may sometimes discuss a game or two that may not be considered a pure strategy game but that still incorporates a decent amount of strategy (Rainbow 6 for instance). Also be warned that I often like somewhat older games and may not be able to discuss in depth recent strategy games coming out. I will however post news about upcoming games that I look forward to and will probably provide some links.

What will I discuss? The games in general, history, and especially strategy. As a hobby, I like to peruse books like Sun Tzu's Art of War or Musashi's Book of Five Rings, so I will very likely talk about various applications of such texts. I also like war history (and general history) a lot and may refer to it now and again as an example or reference point. In addition, I play chess and practice martial arts, so I get different viewpoints about things and am able to make various connections others may not think about. (As an interesting aside, my martial arts instructor is a good Starcraft player)

I don't think I really need to say anything else besides this. I'm not a huge fan of games like Command and Conquer and Starcraft. Why? Good question because they are not bad games. I personally like to play a strategy game to see how various real life strategic principles apply and to practice outwitting opponents. In games like Warcraft and Starcraft, there is certainly strategy, but you have to do a lot of micromanaging and must learn the ins and outs of each unit thoruoughly to be good. I am more interested in large scale strategy without having to learn a new system of combat that has almost no bearing on real life strategy. I especially like games where intelligence and deception is extremely important. While great games, many of the mainstream strategy games are largely about micromanagement and don't have a whole lot of room for mind games and wit. Some games I am fond of are Total Annihilation (that old classic), its successor Supreme Commander, any Total War game, the Close Combat series, and the Stronghold series. There are certainly other games I like, but I shant try to name them all here.

I may talk about the mainstream strategy games from time to time. I also realize that the Command and Conquer series is changing and it will most likely merit some attention. These are just not my favorite games.

Anyhow, onto the rest of the blog!

-Mark Bukovich