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As not-fun as it may sound, I like to manage personnel in a game.

The game where I really started to enjoy roster management was X-Com:UFO Defense, which I played on the PS1. For me, it was the perfect experience for enjoying the management of a group of digital followers. The draw here was the customization of group makeup and the type of progression that your soldiers and your entire corps would make over time.

X-Com charges you with the defense of Earth during a multi phase, politically charged alien invasion. You're tasked with setting up a base, running surveillance on alien activity, stopping alien aggression and investigating all parts of the alien offensive. To this end, the countries of the world form and fund your endeavors, allowing you the resources to hire scientists, engineers and troops. The scientist and engineers were "nobodies", in that they never were given any inch of personality or personification. For all intents and purposes, you were buying robots to research and build things for the cause. Though you hired the troops in the same way as your tech guys, via a simple "purchase x amount of troops" sort of interface, the troop management was something special.

Your soldiers each come with pre-assigned names and stats. For example, you'll receive a soldier named Ludiya Petrov. Her exceptional skills include Throwing Accuracy and Firing Accuracy. However, she has low bravery and low strength. Aside from names, you have no manual control of your solders' stats. You have a fresh recruit right off the streets, with basic skills and no experience. And based on these skills, you have a bunch of non-scripted decisions to make.

Most strategy guides and FAQs for the game will tell you to go through and amend your soldiers' names with what job role they are going to do well (ie "Ludiya PetrovSHRP", if Ludiya has high Firing Accuracy, as in "SharpShooter"). This  gives you a sense of what type of gear to outfit this character with, which for better or worse, the game does not smart-equip for you. This ends up giving you a real functional sense of how your team works and what type of roles you have. Given enough time, and loot, you may even want to sack soldiers that just are not up to your caliber. While I always like the wild card factor, some may put a minimum-cap on Bravery, and get rid of anyone that scores low in that stat. Its certainly a palpable concern, as missions can very easily start to go horribly wrong and see tons of casualties. When most of your vets are dead, its at once hilarious and frustrating to end up left with only a few new recruits, with low bravery, who drop their guns and start running around in a panic. Or even worse, if they just start firing off shots in the dark, taking out their higher ranked buddies.

The most satisfying parts of all this were the results of continued success. After a successful mission, some mysterious power assigns promotions to your surviving members, which I believe is primarily based on kills. In addition to a snazzy new rank graphic, your troops gained significant, but seemingly random skill boosts. The effect here was, after half a dozen not too costly wins, you end up with a varied squad of battle tested vets and fresh rookies filling in for the fallen. You've got yourself a real team that in itself is a precious commodity. Aside from whatever silly story you've built on their largely emotionless backs, you have valuable MVPs that you are compelled to protect. If nothing else, you really don't want Ludiya to get taken out, or be the first one out of the ship, because you don't want to lose that earned experience recklessly.

Along with this, your squaddies' progression starts to double back onto the decisions of what gear to give them. Lt. Petrov will continue to get first dibs on the most damaging new rifles, because she's a deadeye sniper. But she also gets the thickest armored suit that you have, because you feel like you just can't afford to lose serious talent like that. Not to mention, there's a slight emotional attachment. Ludiya's your ace. Your leader. If you lose her, its like you're back to square one, save for her fellow squaddies that have grown up and survived with her.

The end effect is fairly intense, and one that I have yet to really feel duplicated in a game, much to my disappointment. I need my hogs and, in a very ones and zeroes sort of way, they need me. I set them up for greatness, and they rise to that greatness, because and in spite of my efforts. There have been other experiences with games, like Madden 200X and its Franchise Modes.  Though that experience is very much less dire than X-Com's unforgiving system of loss.

Am I alone on this one? What's your favorite game that deals with personnel management?