Origin Stories: Our First Strategy Games (ep.106)

Al, Jack and Joe each trace their strategy gaming origin story, from Populous on the Mega Drive and Lords of the Realm II to Age of Empires II on the family computer. They discuss what strategy games had then that they lack now, what they would hand to the next generation, and whether the classics still hold up.

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This episode is a trip down memory lane, with a spread of ages from Al’s late forties to Jack’s mid twenties. Each host names the first strategy game that hooked them and the game they sank the most hours into, and the conversation moves through Westwood classics, Civilization’s pull, shareware demos and children discovering City Skylines. The hosts debate what older games did better, especially story, and what modern ones do better, such as patching and ongoing support, before choosing the game they would most like to play again for the first time.

Critical Moves Podcast: Episode 106 Show Notes

Episode Title: The Games That Got Us Into Strategy
Hosts: Al, Jack, Joe
Episode Length: ~43 minutes

Episode Summary

Al brings Jack and Joe together to talk about the games that started their strategy gaming journeys. With ages spanning about a quarter of a century, the three trace very different routes in, from Populous and Red Alert to Lords of the Realm II, Sim City 2000 and Age of Empires II. They compare which games they sank the most hours into, what they would give their own children, what older strategy games did better than modern ones, and whether those games still hold up today. The episode ends with each host naming the game they would most like to experience again for the first time.

Joe’s First Strategy Game

Joe begins with Lords of the Realm II, a real time strategy game in which you chose a persona and fought missions against AI opponents, each with their own personality, including a bishop who was better at generating money and was the hardest to beat. He played it with his stepdad, who became even more hooked than he did. Joe later checks his memory and adjusts his answer, saying Warcraft II and Sim City 2000 came earlier, with Lords of the Realm II the game that fully hooked him, and Red Alert coming afterwards.

Jack’s Origins on the Family Computer

Jack jokes that Endless Legend 2 was his first strategy game before settling on Age of Empires II, played as a child on the family computer, probably introduced by his father, who was a Civilization fan. He recalls Stronghold 2 on the same machine and later buying Star Wars: Empire at War and the Lord of the Rings strategy games. He says Age of Empires II stuck because of its iconic sound cues, such as a new villager being produced or a gold deposit running out.

Al’s Start: Populous and Red Alert

Al first names Red Alert, then thinks again and decides his first strategy game was probably Populous on the Mega Drive in the early nineties, a god game where you terraform land and grow your followers. Jack and Joe say they know of it but never played it. Al also recalls Civilization II and, later, the Red Alert Remastered Collection.

Children and the Next Generation

Al says his son Lucas, who is nearly eight, has played Red Alert and loves City Skylines, spending hours building road networks and cities, and would rather listen to episodes he appears on at bedtime. He contrasts this with Joe and Jack, who introduced themselves to strategy games, and notes that Jack had the advantage of a parent who showed him the genre. The hosts agree that children take to city builders and creature games, with a short tangent about Planet Zoo, Jurassic World Evolution and a low poly dinosaur park game called Parkosaurus.

The Games They Sank the Most Hours Into

Joe says he played the original Sims and Sims Medieval heavily, but the strategy game he spent most time with was Red Alert 2. He recalls feeling confident enough to try an online match for the first time, being quickly beaten, and not playing online again until PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Jack names Age of Mythology and Stronghold 2, partly because he loved their map editors, and adds that he played a lot of the console exclusive Civilization Revolution on Xbox, with its Simlish speaking advisers, as a way back into strategy games.

Civilization II and Just One More Turn

Al says his real hook was Civilization II, staying up until four in the morning with exams ahead because there was always something about to happen, such as a wonder or a tech about to arrive. The group laughs about railways making movement seem unlimited, and Joe recalls a late game assault in which a handful of advanced troops fought a medieval stack of around fifty units.

What Joe Would Hand His Child

Joe says his science minded child would be given SimAnt or Spore, which moves from cell stage to creature to tribe to a basic 4X game. Jack reflects that Spore is a good choice because it is effectively locked until you are old enough to understand it, and wonders whether the frustration of running out of things to do in games such as Roller Coaster Tycoon helped lead him to a career in games. Al chooses the Red Alert Remastered Collection for newcomers because it works on modern machines in 4K.

What Strategy Games Had Then That They Lack Now

Joe says older games worked harder at story, direct counters and memorable units, naming Red Alert 2’s Tanya, Chrono Legionnaires and chrono tanks, and argues that modern games rely too much on visuals and trailers. Al mentions that he has interviewed Jason Henderson, the screenwriter of Red Alert 2, for The Final Level, which launches in January, and promises Joe an early preview.

What Modern Games Do Better

Jack says modern games are more accessible, and that an old game had a particular charm because there were not thousands of releases a month, so you owned one and lived with it. He also argues that patching means a game evolves with the player, using the Gandhi bug in the first Civilization as an example of something that would be patched today. Al adds that expansion packs such as Aftermath and Counterstrike for Red Alert, and the two for Total Annihilation, were very different from modern DLC, and that some bugs from the era felt like features.

Shareware Memories

Joe asks whether Al remembers shareware games, and the two reminisce about demos from PC magazines, playing only the first level of a game such as Duke Nukem 3D repeatedly, and a time travel game Joe loved as a twelve year old. They half promise a future episode on shareware.

Do the Old Games Hold Up?

Jack says yes, citing his regular Age of Empires II sessions and his interest in Populous, Sid Meier’s Pirates, Cossacks, Dark Reign and early Anno titles, though he admits that modern games such as Crusader Kings benefit from a decade or more of updates, and that City Skylines makes it hard to justify going back to Sim City. Al notes that Supreme Commander, released in 2007, is nearly twenty years old, and that Jack, who was five when it came out, and Joe, who had left the military, never played it.

Supreme Commander Livestream Challenge

Joe promises that if the channel reaches 2,000 subscribers, currently around 1,911, Al will teach him how to play Supreme Commander on a livestream, just as he showed Al how to play Terra Invicta. Jack jokes that every episode includes a subscriber milestone challenge, and Al admits his own plan to play Star Wars: Empire at War never came off, adding that Tim has stepped back from the show but remains welcome to return.

The Game They Would Play for the First Time Again

Jack picks Age of Empires II, partly because it remains the game he still plays most and because so many developers he has interviewed cite it as an inspiration. Joe picks Red Alert 2 for the story and cutscenes, which felt like playing a movie. Al picks the original Red Alert, saying the remastered collection was a nostalgia trip and he would love to forget it all and start again.

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Episode Verdict

This is a warm, easygoing episode that works because the three hosts come from such different eras and keep revising their own answers as memories surface. The most interesting thread is Jack’s reflection on whether the frustrations of childhood strategy games shape the designers they become, and the contrast between the old expansion pack model and ongoing patching gives the nostalgia a useful edge. Joe’s argument that modern strategy games have lost the storytelling of Red Alert 2 is a fair challenge, and Al’s mention of an upcoming conversation with its screenwriter adds a reason to look forward to The Final Level. The shareware tangent and the Supreme Commander livestream challenge are good fun, even if neither goes far, and the closing picks of Red Alert, Red Alert 2 and Age of Empires II are hard to argue with.