I thought they redeemed themselves pretty well with Tribes of the East; and now Eternal Essence makes it even better.

It's great for hotseat... it's like the best board game that could never be, because it would require just too many little pieces and counters.

However, aside from the models and animations by Puppetworks for Heroes VI, the entire rest of the game was pure garbage.  Disciples III: Reincarnation is just flat out superior.

Surprisingly, I do find Clash of Heroes to be pretty fun; but it's a different type of game.

III is going to be tough to beat.

Civ5,

Civ4 FfH2 mod,  #2

Endless Legends (beta),

X-com Enemy Within,  #3

GalCiv3 Beta,

Pandora First Contact,

Distant Worlds -Universe  (personal fav)  #1  

BTW, I have a coupon for the entire DW Universe, to give away.  Only ask for it if you know the game and really like it - please don't ask 'just to check it out' - youtube is for that.  I already had the first four installments so i could not see using this coupon when I could get the same thing for $10, which I did.  It will work on steam.  -e

Those charts do not discount single player.  If a game uses steamworks and requires steam to be running, it's an exact match for the entire player base at any given time.

When it says 1k people are playing Rebellion, 900+ people are playing Rebellion in single player.

Aside from FE:LH? Dominions 4. Crusader Kings II. Europa Universalis IV. Pretty much those, at the moment.

Disciples 3, if it counts:P

VI had great art, that's for sure. Beautiful game and the whole series is great for hotseat. VI tried some interesting stuff that I like -- area control, the ability to transform castles (kind of on the fence about this), a switch to the leveling system that removed the random aspect. But the factions didn't feel as interesting, as there was just not enough differentiation in the special abilities and what heroes could do. Balance was somewhat questionable and the the lack of a mouse-controlled camera is criminal.

Two things really mess up the game for me, however. First, the maps, while beautiful, are annoying. It feels like every map is a series of portals and the end game always devolves to whether or not you can catch an opponent out of his castle and unable to teleport back.

Worse than that is the AI. Why can't Ubisoft write a decent AI for these games? It is not fun to play against a cheating, idiot AI.

Check out Eternal Essence.

for you Brad: http://www.bonddisc.com/ref/h5/ai.htm

- a bold project by a really insightful acquaintance who goes by Quantomas.

This Eternal Essence sounds interesting, can you give more details because a quick search on it and I'm getting only stuff from 2012.

there was an active community forum..

edit: http://eternal-essence.com/ - click community for up-to-date infos

I'm seeing scifi on that list too, sooo here is my fantasy list. 

Xcom Enemy Within Long War- Enjoying it sooo much and impossible is brutal Also after I get my SSDs LP Time.... very sooon.... 

Sins Rebellion Star Trek Armada 3- can't wait for the expansion so holding off on it for the moment.

FE LH: Waiting for sale on latest 3 dlcs and then grab them and play LH. For now on a break. (ya I missed the memorial day sale because I was on vacation and derp) Steam sale maybe right in the wallet?

Age of Wonders 3. June gonna play this a bit and do some multi with some friends.

Sots 2 Sweet delicious multi has started up again. Love me randomizer!

Gotta fit Dominions 4 in this summer and I have stopped playing civ 5 communitas for awhile now. Maybe ill get a fix in later. 

Oh ya gotta fix DW Universe in here too. Crap this is gonna be hard. 

Most of huge Civ V player base got their copy from http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/75606190436/so-much-civilization-the-humble-sid-meier-bundle-is (3$ lowest price for Civ V?) and from GMG giveaway (free Civ V copy).

Brad if you want also huge player base for FE /FE LH put this games in some bundle (humble is the best) and earn money on dlc?  

Stardock humble bundle

example:

1. 1$ for Gal Civ I (steam + drm free) , Sotse Trinity (steam +drm free) , Demigod, Political M.

2. Pay more than the average price:  Gal CiV II (steam + drm free), Fallen Enchantress + Map Pack(steam+ drm free), Dead Man s Draw

3. If you pay more than $8: Fallen Enchatress Legendary Heroes

4. If you pay more than $15: Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

+ info about dlc for Sotse Rebelion/ FE LH in humble store with big discount -25%

+ special promotion for Gal Civ III in Humble Store (-25% if you buyed bundle for 15$ +)

100 000 new players/fans or more ? (if happen)  What do you think ?

p.s

sorry for my bad english

-FE LH is ok game(better then AoW III/Civ V for me), but AI is still to stupid (i loved AI from firsts beta bulid) and focus more on tactical battles

-Age of Wonders is much better then Age of Wonders III (and have better price now : 1$ https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly)

Yes disciples 3, a great game which really doesn't reach it's potential! It's sad that the company went bust or something? I was looking forward to a mountain clans DLC.

And when you actually look at that game from a programmers point of view, they done a really good job on it under the circumstances:)

Fallen enchantress, Sins of a Solar Empire, Civ 5 Brave New World(way better than the basic game), Warlock 2, Mount and Blade.  Technically mount and blade isn't fantasy, yet its attempts at realism could and should be implemented into a fantasy game.  Real time game play or bust, I always discredit all turn based games as second rate to well designed real time mechanics(thank you Sins for showing me this).  A game with a core design something between mount and blade with an over arcing game with similar mechanics to sins of a solar empire, with some of the fantasy elements of Fallen enchantress, in a persistent world with well implemented RTS elements would be EXACTLY what people want.  You need to be able to fight over territory, to own it.  64 bit OS requirement, no more pandering to 32 bit.

You would have my attention and support.

It might be what you want, but I honestly wouldn't touch that.

RTS, no matter the implementation, just leaves me cold

Then you should buy a sweater, life is an RTS.