Any great empire building game suggestions?

Dragim

I have played all of the total war series.  Mainly medeival total war 2, which I still play.

I am looking for something new to try out.  I really enjoy empire building and would prefer something that is turn based, or "semi-turn based".

I also prefer to "fight the battles out" like you do in the total war games.  I have yet to buy civilization (except the xbox 360 version which is a lot of fun), but if I recall they just "automatically" resolve the battle based on unit strength, correct?

I am not limited to medeival games.  Space, modern day, ancient, anything is fine as long as it has solid gameplay.

Maybe even some real time games such as Age of Empires but not along the lines of command and conquer.

Thanks in advance for your input.

championsFan

Civilization is my favorite game series, so I am going to recommend Civilization 4: Complete as a great gaming package.   The game is entirely turn based, and so the battles between units are resolved by their stats and a random number generator, but where your strategy comes in is as a tactician, how you place your units.  Just as an analogy, it would be like saying that the battles in chess are automatically resolved :-)

Still, I have a friend who plays the Total War games, and he and I have never been able to convince each other to get into the other game, so good luck. 

whiterain

Check out Sword of the stars, its a turn based strategy game with real time combat, its pretty good, first strategy game in a long time I have played that challenged me.

Dragim

I might check out Civ 4.  I play Civ Revolution on my xbox, it is great fun.

Sword of the stars seems a little dated, but I might check it out.

 

I was looking at Sins of a solar empire though.  I know it isn't exactly turn based, but it looks extremely cool.  Has anyone played it before?

maji

There's always Stars!. You can create your own races from scratch if you want to, and it has even a play-by-mail-multiplayer-mode.

Stars! has received some generally positive reviews. PC Gamer UK's reviewer Andy Butcher gave the game a rating of 79% in its February 1997 issue, commending it with the following comment: "What makes it stand out from the many games based on a similar idea are its depth, and that it's been designed right from the start with multi-player gaming in mind".

zword97

Age of Empires 3 is probably one of the best(if not the best game building empire). It's based on real life civilizations and military units. It isn't very expensive since it was released in 2006 w/ 2 expansion in the next 2 years following. You don't need a high-end PC to enjoy the game. My PC is a P4/1GB RAM/nV fx5500 and the game runs on most high settings @ ;1280x800(widescreen).

 

Have fun!

Comnitus

Originally posted by Dragim


I might check out Civ 4.  I play Civ Revolution on my xbox, it is great fun.
Sword of the stars seems a little dated, but I might check it out.
 
I was looking at Sins of a solar empire though.  I know it isn't exactly turn based, but it looks extremely cool.  Has anyone played it before?

Sins of a Solar Empire is very cool, especially for an indy developer. It reminded me of Age of Empires and that's a good thing. I'd definitely give it a shot.

Igni

Both Sins of the Stars and Civilization are good.

You could also try Civilization with the Fall From Heaven II mod which is very, very well done:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171398

Dragim

Cool, I appreciate all the feedback.  I will probably buy civ 4 <with expansion packs for a better deal> as well as sins of a solar empire <with expansions packs for a better deal> and possibly Age of Empires 3 <with expansion packs for a better deal, and it will probably be cheap.>

I would guess I could get all these 3 games and expansion packs for no less than 100$.

Burngrass99

I suggest you play any version of rome total war..its a bit old but a good one!

 

Cyborg99

AoE 2. Solid game play and real life conquest (Atilla the Huns Conquest, The Crusades). Graphics are dated though. 

I learned more history from that game then from any history class.

Pyrostasis

AI Wars is pretty fun, its cheap, and you can have some absolutely EPIC wars in it, and MASSIVE universe to conquer.

pyrofreak

Ever played Rise of Nations? Damn good game.

 

It's turn based like Risk, but each battle is fought as a RTS. Your goal is to conquer the world.