Other great Civ-like games?

[guspasho]

I'm kind of bored with Civ5, and I've been replaying Civ4 for a while now, and I'd like to try something else. Sci-fi themes and pure military strategy/tactics don't interest me, nor do RTS', I like turn-based, historical, empire-builder games. Can you recommend some good ones for me? What are the Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings games about, and are they any good? Thanks!

 

[Maniacal]

Previous threads on this should help you,but basically: Sadly not many games really do historical/empire building right, if well at all (especially not civ). However, Paradox's games are great fun and certainly some of the best around.

Crusader King's II is less about empire building though and much more about dynasty building, characters and politics. EUIII is pretty great for empire building though, it is still rather euro-centric but the last expansion and various mods help to address than and playing as Asian nations can be a lot of fun.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=415652&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=453908&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=386958&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=347696&highlight=euiii

 

[The_J]

If it doesn't have to be a recent game, then you should maybe look around if you can find "Knights Of Honor". IIRC there's also a demo available.

 

[History_Buff]

The Paradox games are excellent. EU3 is probably the most rounded game (particularly with the mod base it has). CK2 is the most recent, and super fun to play.

 

[sophie]

Previous threads on this should help you,but basically: Sadly not many games really do historical/empire building right, if well at all (especially not civ). However, Paradox's games are great fun and certainly some of the best around.

Crusader King's II is less about empire building though and much more about dynasty building, characters and politics. EUIII is pretty great for empire building though, it is still rather euro-centric but the last expansion and various mods help to address than and playing as Asian nations can be a lot of fun.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=415652&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=453908&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=386958&highlight=euiii

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=347696&highlight=euiii

also it should be noted that mods such as Death and Taxes greatly help with the Eurocentrism.

 

[aronnax]

I think Victoria 2+expansion+PDM mod is the best game produced by Paradox. Outclassed EU3 and Crusaders 2 in my opinion. It has enough eurocentrism for the period, yet plenty of love for Non Europeans to pull a Meiji.
It also balances war with enough diplomatic, economical and political issues that can keep you busy for days on end. I love it. It's beautiful.
*cries

 

[Dachs]

I think Victoria 2+expansion+PDM mod is the best game produced by Paradox. Outclassed EU3 and Crusaders 2 in my opinion. It has enough eurocentrism for the period, yet plenty of love for Non Europeans to pull a Meiji.
It also balances war with enough diplomatic, economical and political issues that can keep you busy for days on end. I love it. It's beautiful.
*cries

Its replayability blows, though.

 

[GoodGame]

Its replayability blows, though.

The mod PDM, or just the base game plus AHD?


I think the base game has quite a bit of replayability thanks to it taking a while to master a country.

 

[Dachs]

The mod PDM, or just the base game plus AHD?


I think the base game has quite a bit of replayability thanks to it taking a while to master a country.

The base game's replayability, which isn't significantly modified by either AHD or PDM. Fundamentally, the choice of countries you have is fairly limited, especially if you want to actually accomplish something, and most of the time, your objectives for same will be more or less the same stuff. The awful AI means that what variety that exists in terms of gameplay situations is usually of the bad kind. The number of scenarios is extremely limited, and modmakers have only created a few (e.g. Divergences). (Divergences, incidentally, is in that special class of alternate history mod that has awful alternate history in significant part because things were changed because different = better. Same with Kaiserreich.)

 

[History_Buff]

Its replayability blows, though.

Yeah, I have to agree on this one. I love the game, but you get about 8-10 games out of it. A little more with PDM (which is an excellent piece of work, and I love Nas and Ry for it), but so many nations feel exactly the same to play.

Perhaps my most fun game was China in PDM; the warlord era is a delight to play though. But I gave it up after that, was probably my 8th game.

Still vastly better than a game like Civ 5 (which the AI barely knows how to play, even with it's insane bonuses), but not quite as good as EU3.