Your favorite Civ 6 alternatives

[Stringer1313]

You must be an interesting person. I play a lot of Civ VI while my husband plays much Diablo 3, but neither of us finds the other game attractive (and I've seen other civ players disparage Diablo). You've poured time into both. No need to analyze your interests (unless you want to), but I wonder what pulls a person into both games.

I play diablo when i dont feel like using my brain and just want to blow off steam by seeing hordes of monsters die

 

[Leucarum]

speaking of civ like games, Has anyone tried the new board game Tapestry? Is it complex? I can handle complexity but im asking for my husband-- Spirit Island is about his max level of complexity but Pandemic is the most comfortable level of complexity

I've played it twice now and really enioy it. I wouldn't say that the rules are super complicated, but there are a LOT of things you can do each turn so the struggle to decide what you should do is very real...

 

[Haig]

Any tips on how to get into loving EU4 ?

I haven't yet had that epic feel to it that I get from Civ... I know the basics but not any deeper strategies or things to do. what is a good nation to try it and can you tell me how you started liking it?

 

[DWilson]

@Haig I like to pick someone with an achievable goal, and then just slowly work your way towards it, ignoring things otherwise. E.g., pick a northern Italian option like Milan and try to form Italy.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Any tips on how to get into loving EU4 ?

I haven't yet had that epic feel to it that I get from Civ... I know the basics but not any deeper strategies or things to do. what is a good nation to try it and can you tell me how you started liking it?

I like to play "counter-history", like seeing if I can dominate the British Isles with Scotland instead of England (it's not easy!) or forming Russia with Novgorod or Kazan instead of Muscovy/Moscow, or colonizing Canada from Prussia or Denmark. I rarely play an entire game - much too time-consuming - but picking a single goal, as @DWilson said, and trying for it makes a nice game, and you can set the goal as small or as large as you like for the time you feel like investing in it.

 

[tiamats4esgares]

For those who have never tried it, let me elaborate on Thea 2. You should really consider giving it a go.

You control a small group of people and your main goal is to just survive. If you can do that, try and save the world too.

There's tons of RNG, and it's not usually in your favor. Random events happen when you move around the map. Some you can somewhat control the outcome of via your choices, while others are completed up to RNGesus.

There's a huge crafting aspect of the game which is fun. You can gather crafting ingredients (and food) lnc on the world screen, or find in battle. Use to craft goods, or trade for something in town.

There's also 3 types of "battles", or challenges. Physical (fight someone, overcome on obstacle), mental (talk someone into something, or figure out a puzzle) or magical (fight with magic, dispel curses) . And there's a bunch of classes for characters that are good at some things and bad at others. A warrior is great in a physical fight, but vulnerable to magic. A crafter makes crafted goods quickly, but hand her a sword and she's lost. Etc.

You start with a 1 to 7ish people, depending on how you want (VERY customizable) which is also dictated by difficulty (harder difficulty, less people). You can start with basic classes like warriors and crafters, but better ones like witches and healers you have to get in game -- normally by kids grouping up. This takes dozens of turns and is RNG based plus based on their stats.

You can be greedy and try to start with a super strong shaman but have no other units. Or you can have a rounded group with a warrior for physical fights, crafter for mental, and kids that you train to be what you want. In addition to starting characters, you'll get more from random events (yay RNG!) Or recruit from a village, once they like you enough (mainly by doing quests for them).

In addition to random events where choices matter, there's story events and choices matter here too!

You will die many times before you get going good. Lots of times when you're like "can I clear this boar nest? Not sure, so let's try" and 3 of your dudes die and you might as well restart. Or your main character dies, and you are forced to.

Resource management. Crafting. Turn based battles. Merciless roguelike. Super fun.

 

[enKage]

According EU4
Kazan (!!! one of my fav country ever), Novogrod, Milan are great to play, but I would not say they are a good introduction.

IMO Portugal is the best training ground and "fall in love in EU4" country, allowing to get familiar to most aspects while not being constantly endangered, striked by early disasters or bad leaders (England, Castille), requiring some diplomacy skills (France), more diplo skills (Austria) or offering no challange (Ottomans).

Next step - Poland. save beginning and rising threats

probably these two countries I played the most, even later, and still can play once again doing sth completely different.

 

[_Mooc_]

Haha! As a swede, I always tried to make the Baltic Sea a Swedish inland sea in EU 3. I havent played 4 yet though....

 

[KayAU]

Haha! As a swede, I always tried to make the Baltic Sea a Swedish inland sea in EU 3. I havent played 4 yet though....

My goal in EU IV last time I played was to unify Scandinavia under its natural leadership (Norway, obviously), as well as to colonize Vinland.

 

[_Mooc_]

My goal in EU IV last time I played was to unify Scandinavia under its natural leadership (Norway, obviously), as well as to colonize Vinland.

Haha! Rather the Norse than the Danes! Yeah, I always tried to colonize N.America too.

Need to get EU4 though....its just...Paradoxes DLC business model....

 

[jasper]

On the topoc of board games, civ has a board game out and it is pretty fun. It has recognizable features and mechanics like wonders, terrain types and culture borders. It also has Victory points like twilight imperium.

For better or worse, it is simpler than twilight imperium leading to quicker games but lighter gameplay.

 

[japanesesamurai]

Any tips on how to get into loving EU4 ?


I haven't yet had that epic feel to it that I get from Civ... I know the basics but not any deeper strategies or things to do. what is a good nation to try it and can you tell me how you started liking it?

I had the same: What am I supposed to do in this game? Theres no victory confition. And I didnt play it for half a year or so because of it.

Now I love it.

For a beginner, I would advise these things:

1/ start as a weak nation. Like Flanders who is in a PU under Burgundy. And just try to survive. If you start weak as a beginner, you will learn the importance of diplomacy and economy. You will probably die because of diplomatic blunders.

2/ pick any nation with a unique mission tree, and try to finish it as quickly as possible.

3/ dont play on ironman just yet and reload a lot so you’ll get an idea of how the different centuries play, and what all the buttons do.

4/ play anywhere in Europe outside of the HRE that is not the papal state. For example: Aragon, Venice, other Italian state, Poland, ...

5/ learn the protestant / HRE mechanic as a member of the HRE


Now thzt you have learned the Europe game, you can really start playing.

If you want victory conditions like me, you browse through the achievements and pick a few. Pick a nation you know is in a position to complete your goals.

For this to work properly, you need to leanrn all thebasic mechanics first as I mentioned. Otherwise you might pick a nation that is incapable of achieving goal x. For instance, you can not form a nation as the papel state as it is an “endgame tag”.

A good first proper campaign would be the following: from the list, you pick these as victory conditions:

-Get 100 absolutism

-Form Prussia with 125% discipline

-Dismantle the HRE

-Form Germany.

This is the most logical order, but you can achieve them in any order you prefer. Although different orders are not always possible.

If you payed attention while learning the game, you know you need Prussian culture, and you need to occupy all the elector princes capitals including the emperors capital to dusmantle the empire (there are other ways). You want to rule as a ruthless absolute ruler to gain absolutism and you need a bunch of german provinces to finally form germany. Narrowing down the options, you come to the conclusion you need to pick Brandenburg, Pomerania, Teutonic Order. You can play as France too probably, but thats just silly.

Now that you’re ready to play your first proper campaign, set difficulty to hard (its just way better and realistic) and play by the iron man rules. You can enable iron man officially but the monthly save is just very annoying.

Iron man rules are simple: - historic lucky nations on; - don’t reload a save game and always save on exit.


EU4 is a really really good strategy game if you go for different achievements in one game. And if you set your goal before you start playing and stick to it.

You can also start playing and see where you end up and pick up achievements as you go. But I don’t like it that way. Its very boring.

Also, you need to complete all your goals before january 1821 or you lose as you would on iron man achievement play.

On the Wiki, export the achievement list as a PDF and if you wish, checkmark the ones you have completed.

The only problem I have with this game is the length. One game, depending on your goal, might easily take 50 hours.

Also, don’t always go for the easiest route. For example: you can form the ERE with Ottomans (which doesnt make much sense) and its probably, together with Aragon the easiest route. Instead, pick Tunis and form the ERE. It’s like payback time with Carthage

Other games I play quite a bit:

Crusader Kings 2 (start as a lousy count and form a de jure kingdom. Become independent and hold your independence for at least 50 years without losing or gaining territory. Thats the only way I prefer to play this game)


Total war Shogun 2: its a hard game. As AI is good and aggressive. Its a well polished game. Has excellent DLC.


Total War Empire: easy game. AI is not that amazing but nevertheless its quite fun and has, as Shogun, a good pacing.


Stellaris is fun but I’ve not gotten into it that much. I prefer pre patch 2.2. Currently I play patch 2.1.


I dont like Hearts of Iron or Imperator Rome that much. Victoria 2 is too much of a simulator for me.

 

[smvalentine]

Humble Bundle has EU IV along with most of the expansions and some extras for $17 through 3/3. Between this and the current Steam sale you could buy everything in the series for about $80, assuming I correctly deciphered the overlapping DLC offerings. (What I paid for Civ VI Digital Deluxe).

 

[Ondolindë]

Humble Bundle has EU IV along with most of the expansions and some extras for $17 through 3/3. Between this and the current Steam sale you could buy everything in the series for about $80, assuming I correctly deciphered the overlapping DLC offerings. (What I paid for Civ VI Digital Deluxe).

I decided to give EU4 a try and this Humble Bundle deal is really something. Thanks for pointing it out. The game looks daunting, but loads of fun.

Now, I have to double down on my time management. I don't have much time to spend on games, so Civ VI will have to give way.