The 2005 Independent Games Festival nominees have been announced and there’s a strong strategy presence.

In the Open Category, Slitherine’s Legion Arena, Black Hammer’s Supremacy: Four Paths to Power and Donohoe Digital’s War! Age of Imperialism go head to head with seven other games.

War! Age of Imperialism is a bit of a surprise since I reviewed it for Do-It-Yourself Games over a year ago. It’s hardly a new game. Still, it’s a very good turn based game, best enjoyed in multiplayer. I have an ongoing game at the moment and find myself in a lot of trouble. I have an obvious target, but it will take some time to get all prepared for the attack.

Legion Arena is Slitherine’s latest ancient wargame and is certainly an exciting idea. It’s sort of an RPG game where you build the ultimate ancient army through a series of victories against historical enemies in an RTS combat environment. Arena is most exciting since it is the debut of the combat engine for Slitherine’s upcoming grand strategy sequel Legion II. I’ll be honest – to this point I’ve found their games range anywhere from average to poor. I hate to say this, since the McNeil’s who run Slitherine are two of the nicest guys I’ve met in the industry. They always have time for questions. Legion II will certainly be seen as a Rome: Total War rip-off, which is a shame since Slitherine’s been mining the ancient world for grand strategy ideas for years now.

I know very little about Supremacy: Four Paths to Power. Its graphics look dated, but the idea of a turn-based space soldier game is very appealing.

In the Web/Downloadable category there is no strategy game that looks as brilliant as last year’s winner Oasis. Lux is a Risk-type game, but looks like there is a little more customization to it. I should try the demo before I say too much about it. Pretty colors. And Canadian too. Like me.

Star Chamber from Nayantara Studios is a 4X multiplayer strategy game – a tough market to break into since the idea of a MP strategy game is pretty off-putting given the time that most of them take. The developers promise short sessions, though. It looks a little like Master of Orion, only it’s clearly different. It uses cards to control play (a much more common mechanic than it used to be. The Magic the Gathering influence is spreading pretty far and wide. Star Chamber even has deck building. Odd concept for a 4X game.