Strategy First

Background

Strategy First is a Canadian-based game company. Though it published a number of well-known games, the company itself had not reached acclaim and still exits as a down-echelon brand. In 2004, the company filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Silverstar. Despite heavy losses (the reason Silverstar closed their other division Empire Interactive), Strategy First continues to exist in "vegetation" state.

1st Logo (August 11, 1999)

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Visuals: There is a foundry full of hot molten metal. It then pours down on the red-colored stencil of the Strategy First logo, which depicts profiles of four people (a knight, a military soldier, an astronaut and a football player) inside the circle. From the side is the dripping, then the logo turns firescreen and bursts into flames, leaving the golden form. The company name is above while "Presents" appears below.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Sound of hot metal bubbling, steaming, a low rumbling noise, and a harsh explosion (which sounds like the Sentry in Team Fortress 2 exploding) followed by a metallic "shing".

Availability: It was seen on Clans, Man of War II and Disciples: Sacred Lands.

2nd Logo (April 20, 2000-2002)

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Visuals: The sequence starts out with the words "connecting... loading..." trembling and flashing against the background with faint random numbers flickering. The large number "1" flashes as the numbers brighten up, followed by a "0", which causes numbers to blur into a live-action blurry shot of the Strategy First office, as morphing arrow-like objects in corners of the screen and a wire frame ring appear. When the ring is facing towards the camera, the shot of the office becomes sharper, and the ring disappears. White letters fly toward the top left corner of the screen, reading "WWW.STRATEGYFIRST.COM", as multiple blueprint-like drawings appear on the screen. Afterwards, two swirls appear to distort the image, and a kaleidoscope appears. The word "GAMES" appears, rapidly flashing through multiple fonts and styles, and at one point a completely different symbol. The URL then untypes itself. More distortion effects appear. and "GAMES" and the office image fades out while shaking. More numbers appear throughout the screen as a 3D wireframe model of the text "Strategy First" rotates on-screen. Meanwhile, the background turns blue with multiple white outline effects. The wireframe model fades out, as "STRATEGY FIRST", blurry and in 2D, fades in. In a similar manner, "Let The Games Begin!" zooms in above the text. The background then wipes to a black color, as the top text disappears in an exploding fashion and "STRATEGY FIRST" tilts before turning white and wiping away. As the logo ends, the same emblem from the last logo rotates before fading out.

Variants:

• The print logo, in golden, was sometimes used.
• On Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and Steel Beasts, the slogan "Let the Games Begin!" doesn't appear.

Technique: CGI and live-action.

Audio: A pulsing bass line, later being joined in by a bending electric guitar note, hi-hats. All of them transition into the powerful and loud tech-house music. The music fades to a wind blowing sound and a fiery whoosh.

Audio Variant: On Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and Steel Beasts, towards the end, the music winds down like a vinyl record player being turned off. On the latter, the wind-down comes later than usual.

Availability: It was seen on Empire of the Ants, Legion, Submarine Titans, Europa Universalis and Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. The print logo used on Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood.

3rd Logo (January 22, 2002-)

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Visuals: The screen fades to a dull blue, 41 degree tilted machine with the logo on the window. The logo rotates 90 degrees to face the viewers with the name below.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Clanking sounds.

Availability: Appeared on Disciples 2 and all of its additions, Alien Blast, Galactic Civilizations and other lesser-known games.