Can you recomend me some game like CIV?

[ohioastronomy]

Is Europa Universalis turn-based or real time?

It's sort of real time, but you can control the pace and pause at any time. So, in practice, you typically run it fast between wars and slowly during wars.

The key thing about EU3 is that it's a sandbox; you do not "win" the game. You can do a world conquest (although the game is set up to make it difficult.) But you can equally well decide that your goal is to form Germany, recreate Russia, or do something offbeat like bring the Byzantine Empire back from the brink or conquer Europe starting as some obscure city-state. Or colonize North America as Scotland.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I've never played Galactic Civilizations 1 or 2. But man, I'm seriously thinking about trying it out...

 

[zonk]

I've never played Galactic Civilizations 1 or 2. But man, I'm seriously thinking about trying it out...

Galciv2 is pretty awesome -- the shipbuilder feature alone is worth the $30 (or whatever they're charging nowadays).

Imagine -- in the middle of a Civilization game -- you decide "Boy, I really wish I could create some sort of super-Pikeman with more movement to counter those swarming horseman".... The Galciv2 shipbuilder allows you to do precisely that -- you not only design the ships' aesthetics, but you attach weapons, engines, defensive systems, and other accouterments as you see fit... and you do it while you're playing the game so the ship is immediately available for building and use!

Talk about immersion -- you don't need a modder to make you a 'Star Trek' mod... you can do it yourself... in the middle of a game.... without so much as an ounce of modding experience.

 

[Sark6354201]

I heartily recommend EU (Europa Universalis) III with all current expansions (very important).

Also, to clarify, here's the version breakdown for EU3 (with their forum abbreviations):
EU3 vanilla
Napoleon's Ambition (NA)
In Nomine (IN)
Heir to the Throne (HTTT)

The easiest thing to do is to buy EU3 Complete, which is EU3+NA+IN, then buy HTTT. There is also a fourth expansion, entitled Divine Wind (DW) that is coming out soon which looks to be good.

 

[zonk]

I heartily recommend EU (Europa Universalis) III with all current expansions (very important).

Also, to clarify, here's the version breakdown for EU3 (with their forum abbreviations):
EU3 vanilla
Napoleon's Ambition (NA)
In Nomine (IN)
Heir to the Throne (HTTT)

The easiest thing to do is to buy EU3 Complete, which is EU3+NA+IN, then buy HTTT. There is also a fourth expansion, entitled Divine Wind (DW) that is coming out soon which looks to be good.

While I likewise rec EU3 (and yes, you definitely ought to just go complete at minimum, if not HttT) -- I would just caution that it's not truly a 4x title.

Research is abstracted to the point where you don't research techs - you research "levels", and diplomacy, religion, and managing your empire's stability take precedence over warfare.

It's a good title and like I said, highly rec'ed -- but it's not a 4x title nor does it aim to be, it's a period piece, deep historical sim that aims to model international interaction in a renaissance setting. I think it accomplishes that and then some -- but if it's a game where you gather W, research X, build Y, then conquer Z you want, EU probably isn't for you.

Not trying to scare anyone off of it -- just saying for EU, you have to be a lot more interested in relatively arcane historical what ifs -- like "what if Novgorod, not Muscovy, had united the Rus and kicked out the Golden Horde... or what if the Mongols had never been driven out of the Caucasus" than being handed a nation and attempting to use various means at your disposal to take over the world.

 

[Lanstro]

I'd have to vote against GalCiv2. I tried it for about 100 hours and after that, I just realised it was a really shallow version of civ4. The combat was worse, the ship designing was annoying and the much-hyped AI seemed nothing special. Civ5's more interesting so far.

I'll add votes to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (weak AI there also but still fun gameplay), Medieval II: Total War (ditto, also a range of good mods for it), and King's Bounty:The Legend or Armoured Princess (not a 4x at all but fun tactical combat).

 

[Ayt]

Gal Civ 2 with both expansions and EU3 with all expansions are exceptional games. To the fellow above me, if you played Gal Civ2 without the Twilight of Arnor expansion pack you played a very different game.

 

[carmen510]

I would recommend Alpha Centauri as an extremely well-made 4x TBS game.

I would also recommend Hearts of Iron II, if you're into TBS wargames.

 

[Thormodr]

Gamer's Gate has a sale on the Age of Wonders trilogy for $20 with a soundtrack bundle. Pretty good deal. I think I'm going to pick it up.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-AOWT/age-of-wonders-trilogy-with-soundtrack-bundle

I also recommend EU3 with all the expansions. A fourth expansion will be coming out in December called Divine Wind. Very fun game with excellent replayability.

Victoria 2 is also very fun. The Victorian era is pretty interesting. The game runs from 1836-1936. Pretty decent representation of politics and industrialization.

Finally, I have found Elemental to be pretty fun actually. It'll be even better with patch 1.1.

 

[zonk]

I'd have to vote against GalCiv2. I tried it for about 100 hours and after that, I just realised it was a really shallow version of civ4. The combat was worse, the ship designing was annoying and the much-hyped AI seemed nothing special. Civ5's more interesting so far.

I'll add votes to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (weak AI there also but still fun gameplay), Medieval II: Total War (ditto, also a range of good mods for it), and King's Bounty:The Legend or Armoured Princess (not a 4x at all but fun tactical combat).

Re: Galciv2 --

that's actually the downside of the shipbuilder... it's such a neat toy that you find yourself designing ships more than playing, and SB aspects had such granular improvements that there were 'better' options by the time you built your first prototype.

Personally -- that's why I always just played defensively until I exhausted the tech tree... THEN built my ships... THEN went to war!

 

[Ayt]

Ships can be set to autodesign for you in Arnor, so that took care of one of the issues people had.

 

[Lanstro]

I had the complete edition - autodesign did not seem like a good idea. The emphasis on the combat system was on designing ships to counter what your prospective opponents were building. I didn't trust the AI to come up with the most efficient designs for that purpose.

The military branches of the tech tree was just tedious - laser 1 to 5, better lasers 1 to 5, mega lasers 1 to 5, then laser defence 1 to 3, better laser defence 1 to 3, then equivalent copies for missiles/mass drivers. To play optimally you'd have to update ship designs every tech or three (so every 10 turns or so). Soooooo much micromanagement for what was essentially a rock paper scissors combat system. And when you finally fought, there were no terrain considerations, very rarely were there choke points and levelling your ships just blandly increased their stats a bit.

So for me, the core gameplay was quite similar to civs 3 and 4, but just inferior in most aspects. At least civ5 takes a new approach to a lot of key elements, and even though it is currently worse than civ4, it's at least quite different.

 

[Tee Kay]

Another vote for EU3+expansions and Victoria2

Or you could just play Civ2,3,4 and Alpha Centauri.

 

[Andvare]

If you plan on getting EU3, be sure to get the expansions, as the core game is bland, but it's a whole different beast with the excellent expansions (especially HTTT). EU3 also have a quite active modding community, and friendly forum here:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forum.php

(I'm Mork over there)

Victoria is quite fun, but be sure to patch it to 1.2.
(I prefer the US, China or Japan to any European nation, but Prussia is quite fun to play)

 

[Sonereal]

1. Civ4+BTS+A New Dawn
2. EUIII+Expansions+Rising Nations or Magna Mundi
3. Victoria II
4. Hearts of Iron 3 (just kidding) Galactic Civilizations but I hope you don't get this far because both of these games are tedious. If you get GC, make sure to get the latest expansion because it makes the game playable. If you get HoI3, make sure you get the $20 patch-err, expansion.

 

[Thormodr]

Rise of Nations may be an old game but I still find it fun. Brian Reynolds, who made the excellent Civ II and SMAC made a true classic.

 

[501st Legion]

Like some of the other posters here, I'm also going to recommend Civ IV, Europa Universalis III (with all the "expansions"), Medieval II: Total War, and Rise of Nations. Add Rome: Total War if you are a fan of the legions (or the classical period basically), and perhaps Napoleon: Total War if you have an interest in the Napoleonic Wars.

 

[MoonFlare]

Alpha Centauri,Sins of a solar empire

 

[Peregrine]

Just purchased GalcivII w/all expansions included for 20 bucks this last weekend. It's out there and inexpensive. Much thanks to this thread in general for narrowing down my choices of Paradox games. There were sooooo many titles that held appeal, couldn't decide which one(s) looked best. Based on the suggestions here, think I'll try to get Victoria first, see how that goes, then get EUIII.

 

[Adam7Eight]

As of last night the wife has given me the ok for a new game, now, I can't decide on GC2: Ultimate or EU3: Complete. I've tried demos, I've read reviews... they both appeal to me.

Decisions, decisions...