I have all of the American versions of the Fire Emblem games as well as Final Fantasy tactics. I love these games, but there are some mechanics I wish I could change.

I'm looking for a grid based strategy war game that I haven't played before.

Any suggestions?

Closest thing you'll find is probably X-Com.

Advanced Wars for the GBA

Heroes of Might and MAgic for the PC

Xcomm: Enemy Unknown is really fun. As is Advanced Wars for game boy.

Two solid suggestions.

Mage Knight on the DS

Have an iOS device? Hero Academy.

Fire Emblem - the newest one is on the 3DS

more generally any SRPG or tactics game

Am I way off base to say Heroclix Online. Seems like a reasonable answer. Sucks that there is no campaign mode, single player.

You're not off base. I have HCO and it's decent, but it is a bit lacking in gameplay, and extremely annoying and dissapointing that they haven't put all of the clix in. Also since I pretty much only play DC they have nothing but fast forces and tabapp clix..

Also, I'm looking for something handheld to play on the bus for baseball roadtrips. I didn't actually say that in the original post.

I would recommend Fire Emblem as well. It's a fantastic strategy RPG, and one that uses unique characters instead of generic units. There's also a save feature that lets you pause inbetween battles.

The real challenge, assuming you don't choose easy mode, is keeping your guys alive. If they die in a battle, they're gone for good.

Battle For Wesnoth looks pretty good and apparently has a solid challenge rating to it. Been debating downloading it this morning (it's free).

Fire Emblem. I played that a lot before moving to Heroclix. It's like Final Fantasy Tactics but once one of your characters die, they stay dead the whole campaign. It also has a rock-paper-scissors system of weapons (swords-axes-lances), not unlike the Pokemon system.

Thrilled to see all the lover for Fire Emblem

Definitely! I play through the game from time to time. Mostly when I need a MK fix. The game plays so much like the tabletop version. One of the best physical to video ports I have ever played.

X-Com:Enemy Unknown