Greetings to all! I’ve played Total War titles for years and enjoy building an empire. Now I would like to broaden my horizons and am looking for similar games that satisfy this itch.
To categorize: in TW, 99% of the time I’ve only played the overarching map. The battles themselves are not that important to me.
I am variable when it comes to the setting. I like Sci Fi very much, if there is something there!
Who has tips for me?
I mean… Welcome to 4x! There’s so very much out there. Have you really played no sid Meier’s civilization? That’s just a half step up on the empire building complexity (and a quarter step down on combat, which you don’t have much interest in if I understand correctly.) there are a number of other civilization inspired games that are coming out right now, as well as some older ones that have a different spin on the civ framework (I don’t have a list in front of me). Galactic civilization 3 is another half step deeper into the empire building genre, Stellaris and sins of a solar empire are also rubbing elbows with greatness of space 4x (sins is a very slow rts which might be intriguing to you). Back on earth we go for the much more involved 4x, crusader Kings, Victoria, and Europa universallis, those are entries that will make creative assembly, and their total war series, look like children playing with blocks and a peg board.
Listen, Crusader Kings 3 is really interesting. You’re specifically playing the ruler of your nation, not the nation itself. You’ll play as your heir when you die. It’s much more roleplay oriented than other grand strategy games. Even Total War Three Kingdoms with its focus on the characters and their relationships doesn’t come close. Give it a look.
And obviously Stellaris.
How about Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord? It might be more action oriented than TW but still it’s a decent Kingdom-ing game.
Thanks so much for all the tips! Sounds like I’ll have to give Stellaris a go, when the next Sale drops.
Bannerlords 2 and the others you all mentioned, sound really interesting, too! Damn, the next Sale’s gonna kill me financially and socially.
And older game that people seem to like a lot is Sword of the Stars (2008), while despising the 2nd for lacking features and bugs aplenty. You can get it on GOG too, if you prefer, and being old makes it very cheap even out of a sale. I’ve tried it once but got slightly intimidated by the UI, but then again I barely spent 10 minutes in game (I also gave up on X3 the very first time I played, so…)
For a “lite” version of space empire building, Sins of a Solar Empire can probably satisfy you as well. It’s an RTS, you only play skirmishes, but there’s a lot of setting up new colonies, researching new tech, building stuff besides shipyards, propping up your fleet, etc. Combat doesn’t require a lot of micromanagement, usually just using a capital ship’s power every few seconds and defining target priorities.
If you are into open source, give Remnants of the precursors a try, it’s a modern spiritual successor of the oldie Master of Orion.
Paradox has you covered. Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Rome, Stellaris, Victoria and Hearts of Iron. Take your pick and enjoy.
