Recommend me a strategy game...

[Spectrum_Prez]

...that either:

a) plays like the campaign mode in the Total War series.

I've tried the Civilization series but it didn't really do it for me, something about the size of the tiles and the way the units worked. I played 2 as a kid and 4 more recently, neither really clicked for me.
So, anything besides that.

OR

b) is focused on economic growth. I've tried the Anno series and that was fun for a while but got boring pretty quick. Anything similar to that but less islandy and more epic in scale?

Thanks a lot for any suggestions.

 

[Barry93]

Warcraft III, it doesn't fit your criteria but you should still play it anyway.

 

[CrafterMan]

Supreme Commander

 

[TheTim]

either warcraft III or company of heroes

 

[Tomster595]

Hearts of Iron would probably be good.. I haven't played it THAT much.. A bit too complex for my liking, but it fits your criteria I guess.

 

[The Night Shade]

warcraft 3 or any comand and conquer

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Warcraft III, it doesn't fit your criteria but you should still play it anyway.

either warcraft III or company of heroes

warcraft 3 or any comand and conquer

Uh, I've played all of those. Please, read my first post, I specifically asked for a certain type of strategy game. I grew up playing RTS: Red Alert, Starcraft, WC3, Empire Earth, AoE, the lot. I'm looking for something a little slower paced now.

But thanks for posting anyways... I guess.

Anything by Paradox interactive.

That being, Victoria, Hearts Of Iron II or III, Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis.

Probably the biggest Strategy games can get. You control a country in real time, although you can pause and issue orders, and you do a condensed version of what most countries do. The wars are great fun.

I'd recommend Hearts Of Iron II, it's the WW2 time period one. It's easier to get into then the others, but it's great.

If you get Crusader Kings, Europa II, Victoria and Hearts Of Iron II, you can export the games between each so you can get a continuous campaign from 1066 to 1964.

I did that once, took me about a month. Let's just say, Iceland is a lot more powerful in that then it is now.

As in, it rules half the world, and most of the people in the world are of Icelandic descent now.

Ok, I'll look into those. But these are basically in real-time, but slow paced, not turn-based right? Kind of like Sins of a solar empire, but larger scale?

 

[quiet_samurai]

Chess!!!! Or any of the Warcrafts.

 

[Nodalor]

Rome Total War. Epic game, mix of styles, a bit old but still nice visuals.
Either that or Dawn of War.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Birth of the Federation or Sword of the Stars.

 

[zestamaster]

STRONGHOLD it is enomonicly based and has a good malistristic point BUT OLNY GET THE OLD ONES
NOT 2 OR LEGENDS or warcraft

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Try Warlords Battlecry. Given that it's old but as far as I can remember it is a quicker paced RTS.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

STRONGHOLD it is enomonicly based and has a good malistristic point OR warcraft

Yeah I remember Stronghold, that was a good series. Unfortunately, I've pretty much had enough of it for now.

Rome Total War. Epic game, mix of styles, a bit old but still nice visuals.
Either that or Dawn of War.

I mentioned the Total war series in my first post. I like it a lot, but am looking for something focusing mainly on the campaign map style gameplay but with better AI and more complexity.

 

[ottenni]

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade has some of those elements.
Hearts of Iron is something i really want to get as it looks great.
And sins of a solar empire ain't bad either.

 

[The Madman]

For grand strategy games Galactic Civilizations 2 is among the best out there. Absolutely massive map populated with dozens of unique race each fielding its own fleet of completely customizable ships which the player will have to counter by designing and building their own type of ship or, if they're lazy, just using the default (boring) designs. All this powered by one of the most impressive AI's out there that is truly capable of kicking your ass in more ways than you'd ever thought possible on the harder difficulties and at the lower settings plays and reacts exactly as you'd think a genuine human player might.

For 'economic sim' as someone else mentioned, the Stronghold series is excellent. Build a castle, feed the peasants, raise an army, and fend off the enemy. For such a simple formula it's extremely entertaining.

I'd suggest this one: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/stronghold_crusader

Good luck!

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

snip

Oh ok, brilliant, that looks exactly like what I was looking for, something fun.

I had a look at Paradox's wiki page, there are several series they have going at the same time.
Which one do you suggest I start with? I'm kinda tempted by the one set in ancient Rome, but none of the games have very high metacritic scores and sound sort of buggy.

 

[Spiner909]

Economic Hmm...Tropico 3?
Or maybe Supreme Commander?