Ask HN: Strategy games that positively push your cognitive boundaries?
Hey, folks. I'll keep it simple.
Does anyone have any recommendations for strategy games that have helped you develop new ideas that are useful in the life of an engineer/entrepreneur?
Looking to do a bit of gaming and maybe get a little bit of brain exercise. Thanks =) Starcraft 2 is definately that. Getting good at it pushes you to actively manage your attention span so you can multitask most effectively while making reads and predictions on the opponent. I've played far too much Startcraft: BW and 2 as Zerg but not any more. It's not just the development of a strategy but also being able to execute it under duress. You also end up watching the pros and seeing the strategies they develop. If you find it difficult, the single player, and group modes (2vs2, 3vs3 etc) are an easier way into laddering I play a lot of EVE Online these days. I do solo and small gang in frigates and there is some strategy in building a ship fitting and engaging and enemy but not in the same way as an RTS. I just prefer the slower pace compared to Starcraft "Tactical" squad based competitive games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Played at the high levels, are all about setting up an action plan, executing it the most efficient way possible, quickly reacting to a deadly yet highly rational opponent, and changing the plan as the situation evolves to prevail. In fact, most competitive games in the professional scene are played on a strategical level, such as MOBAs. If you don't like the stress and rapid pace, something like Xenonauts had a similar effect. I loved planning things out in incredible detail. I actually researched what military did, so we split it into several squads. There'd be a main assault squad with a mix of short and long range weapons, depending on the map. Then a few support teams. Some might be suppression teams with heavy damage but slow and vulnerable. You can also have a couple of sniper nests with a long range assault rifle supporting them. And then the fun happens when you watch your plans fall apart and do a post mortem. Starcraft II, any of the Microsoft Age of Empires/Mythology series. Total Annihilation. Hearts of Iron III/IV - All pretty much made me the man I am today. I know I've surpassed the 10,000 hour mark I am reluctant to admit. Being good at Starcraft combines skill from poker, chess and piano playing. I want to retire from real work eventually and spend a few hours a day in it. I’m surprised you left out Warzone2100! The (superior) open source TA equivalent What’s wrong with Spring RTS? I’m surprised nobody has mentioned factorio. Easily my favourite game and right up HN’s alley. Factorio does a great job of modelling some failure modes of scaling systems. For example, your train bus smelting depot is fantastic until you suddenly realise you have train throughput issues and need to completely rethink your rail architecture to keep up. A word of caution, it's called 'cracktorio' for a reason: it scratches a certain kind of itch in a certain kind of brain troublingly well. And its (currently) combat-free sibling Dyson Sphere Program ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Prog... ) which is still "early access" but I couldn't tell you the last time I experienced any kind of bug while playing it For me, the lack of enemies makes the game purely about scale and overcoming "bad luck" with resource allocations on the starting planet and local star system, without having to make hard choices about siphoning off resources to defend against critters --- Speaking of hard choices, I'll also submit Banished ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/242920/Banished/ ) for consideration in the "games that altered the way I think" category. I gained a lot of sympathy for project management after playing that game because it's (mostly?) about prioritizing assignment of people who could be doing any number of jobs, but which of them are the most urgent and advance the goals of the group? It's actually that "yikes, too close to reality" that makes me not play Banished very often (similar to the Zachtronics games mentioned elsewhere in the comments) but unquestionably I think they're good games and change thinking patterns You can just turn off combat in Factorio. Civilization series perhaps? I don't think it is going to be particularly useful to push cognitive boundaries though. There are lots that are essentially optimization exercises but that quickly becomes a diminishing returns situation. City builders like Anno and skyline are also worth a look. I personally enjoy Anno 2205 a fair bit Most of them do a decent job. Exceptions: Chess - it's a solved problem, and the rest is pattern recognition that won't help. It's still a fun game, but no better than Candy Crush. Strategy MMOs - they'll teach you leadership and training, but mostly taking responsibility. You'll learn to stay up at 3 AM putting your tribe above all else. You'll be pitted mostly against people who thought they could pay to win when things got bad enough. 1830 as many other 18xx series games. They are boardgames, but there exist an ancient msDos version of 1830, playable with dosbox. Really deep brain burner! Not exactly strategy, but it'd be a disservice not to mention Zachtronics (EXAPUNKS, SHENZHEN I/O and TIS-100 are my personal favorites.) Chess and specifically learning chess strategy changed the way I look at programming problems and problems in general dramatically. I've had pretty much the opposite experience. I tried to get better at chess and I managed to push to a rating of 1800 on lichess rapid. After that I felt like my natural ability had come to its limit and the only way left to improve was by memorising a lot of positions. And, of course, memorising an endgame table doesn't help you solve any other problems. How did You learn about chess strategy? There are plenty of books. There's Aimchess. Lichess has lots of free material. So does YouTube. Reddit too. The meme subbreddit is better to learn from than the actual chess one. If you're talking about strategy (long term) and not just tactics (correct next moves), a simple beginner trick is to try to control the middle 4 squares, then castle the king so it's not vulnerable, then start attacking. Past the early game it's mostly pattern recognition and geometry. Your moves try to threaten two pieces at a time. e.g. a bishop might threaten two pieces in a row. Or it may force a protecting piece away from a critical tile you need to win. I'm not sure what this has to do with programming though. Maybe some classical board game such as Axis & Allies? That one game that positively pushes my boundaries is the Cities Skylines; many factors come into play, especially when you're managing an entire city. It will exercise your cognitive skills. I actually took inspiration from nature and designed a trunk + branches kind of traffic system, where most of the traffic would go through a large series of "trunk" roads and rail, and the rest of the traffic would be distributed like branches. I thought it would get me into rigid patterns like SimCity did, but it was actually very organic. Company of Heroes Its a real time strategy game set in WW2 and there are lots of different ways to tackle games and different factions as well. dominions 5 is like civilization except arguably more complex and it actually has an active and competitive multiplayer scene, perhaps due to the pre planned nature of combat. not sure if I can tell you what ideas it has given me exactly but I am relatively new to the scene. crusader kings