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If you like Civ 5 and 6
I've played a lot of both Civ 5 & 6. What's another good game to move into from there at about the same level of complexity (not insanely complex, in other words).
It can be sci fi, fantasy, or whatever, I don't care. I mainly play it to relax and I can stop any time.
It can be sci fi, fantasy, or whatever, I don't care. I mainly play it to relax and I can stop any time.
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I have some of those in my Steam account. Picked them up on sale and never played: Gal Civ 3, Warlock 2, AoW 3, Endless Legend, and BE.
Looks like I have a lot to dig in to.
Crusader Kings 2. Real time game with the option to play at a "faster" speed / top level or to turn the speed right down and micro-manage. Whatever works best for you.
Major differences between CK2 and Civ is succession (and winning).
1. CK2 is a population of characters. You decide whether to start as an Emperor or as an insignificant noble. So "unequal" starts - but that doesn't matter.
2. You manage your character's rise to greatness - or not! And every character in CK2 plays "the same". Your character has skills, advisors, ambitions and options. The game manages all the other characters as though they were you. So your advisors have skills, ambitions and options. So this is not Civ were you will be called a warmonger whatever you do.
3. And at some point your character dies. You become your successor. Who depends on the rules of succession - it may not be your son or daughter! Chaos may follow. If you arrange things though so your goodies "stay in the family" by giving your lands and titles to your kiddies ... see point 2: every character has ambitions - were you planning for an early grave? If you don't give them anything though ...jealousy .... early grave? As it is with your other followers and rivals: iron fist or velvet touch. Unlike Civ though there is a logic to the consequences.
And the fact that the interface will let you find out - if you wish - what is going on!
Released in 2012. Lots of DLC - th eexpansions best considered different games. (Same game but its not the same.) If you want to check it out find any base game or package. Best deals may be on Amazon. The DLC they stopped releasing retail and is all on Paradox's own website or Steam. (Runs under Steam). Periodic 75% off offers etc.
That may be the hardest part -- all too frequently, people will try to explain how one feature works using features from other DLCs that you might not have (or don't want to consider for now). Isolating advice and help without cross-contamination from other DLCs/advice is tricky to sort out.
If you like CK2, you might also like Europa Universalis IV, too. It's another huge game from Paradox using the same real-time engine as CK2, but from a more traditional 'player controls country' perspective. I think it may be even bigger than CK2 as far as DLC and cost. And, yes, convoluted advice and horrific learning curve.
My personal favorite of Paradox's Grand Strategy games has to be Victoria II. It's much more confined with fewer DLCs. It has a more limited scope than CK2 or EU4, making it easier to learn and measure success.
Although Paradox likes to lump some of their other games in with "Grand Strategy", Hearts of Iron III is purely a standard war game at the operational level, much like some of the monster board games from SPI or Avalon Hills (from the 70s-80s). (HoI 4 had a lot of problems, mostly not fixed yet). Stellaris is very much a 4x game that hopes to maybe become a Grand Strategy game, but that may be years away and a few dozen DLCs down the road.
Paradox will also publish the next installment in the Age of Wonders series, titled Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It is due out sometime in 2019. From all indications, it will be a more Civ like experience, but set in space, if that is what you want.
If you choose to invest your time (and money) into a Paradox game, you will want to spend a lot of quality time on their forums at paradoxplaza.com.
Good luck with your choice, and good gaming!
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
As for the main Civ lineage, I still think Alpha Centauri is the best Civ game ever released. If you haven't played it, you should definitely consider picking it up. You can get the modernized version with adaptions to modern monitors along with the one Expansion.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Sometimes when I'm done working for the day, it's just really easy to slip into Civ, so that's why I've been playing it for so long. I might have to just knuckle down one day and get to grips with CK2 or EU.