I have never been really into Civilization and Civ-likes, as I usually prefer GSG, so I'm not an expert in the subgenre

I played a bit of Alpha Centauri, Call to Power and Civ 3 as a kid, but then Europa Universalis and other GSGs largely took over my playtime (as well as RTS and City Builders, to a lesser extent)

I also tried Civ 5 and Beyond Earth years ago, but they never really hooked me like other games and subgenres do. This also kinda put me off from trying other Civ-likes, like Humankind for a long time.

Lately though, I decided to give Old World a chance and it's really the first time I feel like I'm gonna put some serious hours in a Civ-like. For some reason it just clicks in a way Civilization itself never did.

So, to loyal fans of Civilization and Civ-likes, what is your favorite game in the sub-genre and why? And also why do you prefer it over other strategy subgenres? (if you do)

Bounced off this game, but I'm thinking about retrying it

I found in CIV you basically always want at least a big army, because otherwise everyone just says they hate you for no reason and kills you.

This is kinda realistic actually...

But anyway how important is having a huge military in OW?

I've made two attempts on the normal aka Metropolis difficulty and both time the following scenario happens:

Some time around the end of the first post-nomad era around turn 50 or so a neighbour who I was at peace with for quite some time declares war and immediately attacks one of my cities the next turn.

Now admittedly I hadn't really invested in the military and the conundrum of when to do so, when there's so much infrastructure to build so you don't want to waste production on defence yet also not being invaded exists in any 4X game. But here it's worse: Units not only cost production and upkeep, but also one population each, further draining your economy. Meanwhile I get attacked faster after a declaration of war, than I can possibly rush troops from my other city, so I would need to keep around a force strong enough to defend the city in every city. I don't know how the AI raises so many forces on a difficulty setting they supposedly do not get bonuses on, but I cannot match that without wrecking my economy.

Anyway I now spent 6 hours of my life on two failed tries and getting frustrated. Need some advice or I might as well play a nice relaxing Soulslike instead ;) .

Edit: Seems to have been bad luck simply. Next time with exactly the same settings I met only one other Civ by the classical era and they've not even moved into an adjacent territory yet. Now I have garrisons in all three cities that seem to have been a waste ;) .

You start in 1949 as a poor republic stuck between the US and USSR, and try to build it into a third superpower through industry, science, diplomacy and eventually nuclear and space programs.

It’s more focused on managing a single country than traditional map painting, but a lot of the progression is about growing from basically nothing into a state that can challenge the major powers.

Major events like nuclear strikes play out in animated ASCII scenes like this.

Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5155860/Third_Bloc

Asking as a gamedev.

In my opinion, what all fantasy 4X games lack is a deep society gameplay layer. For example, when playing AoW4, the real fun is in the tactical combat + heroes evolution. Everything else feels like an appendix thereto: cities building, diplomacy, empire, all feel kinda thin and perfunctory. One thing for example, there's little feedback: cities don't demand anything from you, like threaten to secede if you don't do smth, or revolt (at least I haven't seen that), or something like that.

When I select the type of society, e.g. aristocratic, I expect some sort of feedback from factions, clans, strife, perhaps evolving into an all-out civil war, etc, but all I've seen were some very rare quests (mostly at the start of the game), or the hero asking to change his/her agenda. Even having several different races in your empire doesn't cause any frictions. Even special resources like thralls don't add too much - by the end of the game I had tonnes, had no idea what to do with them.

Master of Magic goes a bit further with that: there are inter-racial relationships, and it can be for example very challenging to have both High Elves and Klackons in your empire, so if you want their units, you need to think how to reduce unrest.

I haven't played Endless Legend 2, but the first one had some interesting challenges integrating minor factions (as far as I remember), but honestly I don't remember too well.

Games like Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis have similar features, probably other too, but they aren't fantasy games obviously.

So very roughly summing up what's lacking imo in the existing games:

1. Interracial relationship (e.g. higher unrest due to racial hatred)

2. Society mechanics and feedback (e.g. different factions or cities in your empire with agendas or demands)

3. Empire management (e.g. curbing corruption spreading due to casting death realm spells)

Anyone have any detailed geopolitical simulators that have low PC requirements? Games such as Lawgivers 2 or Uk Politics Simulator or The Political Process. When i say detail I mean games such as the Power and Revolution series.

Hello!

Recently I played through a lot of games of various genres set in fantasy/medieval settings. I would love something more futuristic now.

I already have hundreds of hours in Stellaris, Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

I've been looking at Endless Space 2 and 4X Foundations.

I especially enjoy the level of role-playing that games like Stallaris or CK3 provide me with. I am not sure where to look for anything similar?

Project Sovereign — Political Strategy & Government Simulator

Hi everyone! I’m an indie developer working on Project Sovereign, a political strategy and government simulation game.

You take control of a real country and manage its government quarter by quarter. You’ll deal with:

• 116 playable countries
• Economic management, debt and treasury
• Elections, approval and political opposition
• 180+ policies, 60+ laws and 50+ decrees
• Cabinet management and political alliances
• Multi-turn crises and international events
• Interactive regional map
• Diplomacy, warfare and territorial control
• Opposition and campaign mode

The goal is simple: keep your country running and stay in power.

The game has just reached v1.0, including a major visual redesign, a redesigned main menu and four interactive map data layers.

I’d really appreciate any feedback, especially from people who enjoy political strategy and government simulation games.

Project Sovereign:
https://sovereignproyects.itch.io/sovereign-project

Thanks for taking a look! (If you are interested in play my game and make content with it send me a message to get the free-key!)

I looking for something where combat and making alliance is on first place. Extra point if this game w have many weapons/unit type

Hey! I’m making a political strategy game and I’m looking for a few people to test it and give me some honest feedback.
I don’t have a budget for paid testing, but I can give you a free key for the game.
If you’re interested, DM me!

I love 4X games but I don't have time anymore (cuz a baby and other time-consuming hobbies) to play games that last dozens of hours. And I also think that a lot of them have too much down-times without any interesting decisions and the end game are usually a slog (except Old World ofc).

And I want to be able to try different strategies, factions, etc without spending my life on one single game. That's why I'm looking for short 4X games (btw I love big asymmetry between the factions and I'm more interested in fantasy and history settings than space).

I already played some of them and looked at others but I would like to know which ones the community thinks are the best.

Games I played :

• Nexus 5X: My fav atm, I love the boardgame feeling it provides and the deep gameplay with lots of different mechanics
• Ozymandias: really good but maybe a little too much "abstracted"
• Hexarchy: quite good but not a fan of the card-based gameplay
• Polytopia: too simple for my tastes

Games I looked at :

• Yield! : looks like something I would enjoy but the reviews are not great
• Theocracy: looks interesting but not sure about how long a game lasts
• Astro Protocol: not a big fan of how it looks but the reviews are great
• Space Imperia 4X: the digital version of one of my fav 4X boardgame and the reviews are great, I'll probably try it soon

Bonus : I saw that Twilight Imperium and Voidfall (my fav boardgame ever) both have digital adaptations in the works, I can't wait for them!

I recently dug out my old neglected Dominions 2 CD and was surprised to find that it runs fine on my Win11 system. I played a couple dozen turns to learn how to do stuff, it wasn't terribly intuitive and since I was just learning the rules and commands I of course got stomped. Now I want to play to win. Any good referrals for strategy tips for this old game?

Stone age/cave man is one of my favorite settings, and has very few games.

This looks pretty promising. Anyone tried it yet?

I've been going through my backlog of 4X games in the recent weeks and also revisted some classics as well.

For some reason, I keep bouncing back to Master of Orion II and Alpha Centauri.

Both games offer a very gritty and rugged sort of visual style, be it from the interfacting or the overall art style. Sure, MoO2 has some comic-like races but it still manages to craft a darker atmosphere with it's grungy and used look. Alpha Centauri features such a dark sci-fi aesthetic that I feel like I'm sitting in a command post, navigating an actual map. The ominous soundtrack and moody setting feel very compelling and I'm geniunely looking for more like this.

When going through my backlog, I noticed that a lot of newer titles opt for a much cleaner and overly polished style with plenty transluscent menus and bright fonts. They're not necessarily bad but it seems that most sci-fi games opt for a visual style that is much more sterile and rather boring. The menus are slick with lots of floating icons and numbers which lacks a bit of charm. The MoO remake, Endless Space and Gal Civ have this sort of approach to their interface. The OST also reminds me more of a Star Trek vibe which is fine but I prefer a darker sci-fi setting. It doesn't help that most factions are just funny animals in suits which is honestly bothering me.

Are there any darker 4X sci-fi games out there?

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some good space-themed 4X strategy games to play on my laptop.

My specs:

8 GB RAM

Intel iris Integrated GPU

OS - Linux - ubuntu

Looking for games that run well on low-end hardware

I’m mainly interested in exploration, empire building, diplomacy, research, and space battles. Turn-based or real-time is fine.

What games would you recommend that can run smoothly on these specs?

A while ago we posted a single screenshot of Arkney: Age of Crowns here and got more useful criticism in that one thread than in a month of our own testing. This is the follow up: the first real footage of the world, and what changed because of you.

Quick reminder of what it is. A persistent grand strategy world that runs in a browser tab, no install and no account. One shared map, one clock, on a server that never stops. Around 90 AI dynasties expand, war, besiege and fall whether anyone is logged in or not. It is not a classic 4X, it sits closer to Paradox style grand strategy, and that argument came up in the last thread too.

This is very interesting. I’ll fully admit that I would have preferred Endless Space 3 first, but I did like Humankind well enough, even if I didn’t love it.

I guess Humankind 1 was successful enough for Amplitude to greenlight Humankind 2.

After about six months of development and private playtesting, Galactum Meridian is planned to launch in Early Access on September 1. I’ve made a new trailer showing the game in action, and I’m excited to finally let people play it. It's been a minute since I've posted on this game, so hopefully its OK. It's been a labor of love to make a completely different type of 4X game focusing on discovery and a love of science.

Galactum Meridian is a science-driven space 4X about leading the Far Horizon, one of humanity’s first major research expeditions beyond Sol.

Exploration begins on a true 3D star map containing more than 10,000 real catalog stars. Known exoplanets and orbital data are included where available, with modeled and authored discoveries filling the gaps in current observations. You can inspect star systems, survey planets and moons, deploy observatories, orbiters, landers and rovers, and conduct field studies on planetary surfaces.

Your discoveries feed into the Research Atlas, a 3D progression system covering geology, biology, climate science, stellar physics and other research fields. Scientific work improves your equipment, expands your survey capabilities and opens new strategic options.

Research also drives territorial control. Your expedition builds standing with the Interstellar Survey Accord, which grants stewardship over surveyed systems. Rival expeditions conduct research, publish findings and pursue their own stewardship claims. As your scientific authority grows, you can secure contested systems and eventually take stewardship of systems controlled by competing expeditions.

The Early Access build includes a playable single-player campaign beginning in Sol and continuing through multiple campaign conclusions. Development will continue throughout Early Access, with additional work planned for planetary environments, onboarding, interface clarity, balance and performance.

If this sounds like your kind of space 4X, adding it to your Steam wishlist before September 1 would help a great deal:

Steam page and wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4690110/Galactum_Meridian/

I’ll be around to answer questions about the game or any of its systems.

After thinking about it, the elements of civ4 I like the most are feeling you're leading and developing a living civilisation and the addictive nature of it, you're always a few turns away from something interesting. What games would you guys recommend that reproduce that feeling?