Thread: Empire Games

Originally Posted by Bayside

Can anyone recommend to me any good empire building type games? I'm looking for a type of game that is kind of like Age of Empires and stuff, but not entirely focused around battle like those games are. Something like a kind of combination of a Sim City game and Age of Empires, so you build up an empire or city state and then can duke it out with other states.

Un, you may want to try out the Civilization series, because you can build nations and choose to go to war or not, and advance from the Dark Ages to the Space ages.

The only reason it turned me off personally is all the units are represented in oversized models. Just look up the gameplay and you'll see what I mean...

Ah, looks pretty cool, thank you. I don't like the oversized models either, I'd prefer to go into like a localized battle screen with normal sized units, but whatever, I'll try it out anyway. Thanks.

The Civ games really rule the genre, especially if you don't want to be at war the whole time. My favorite is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, built on the Civ III engine but starting with a colony pod on a hostile alien world. The factions in SMAC are ideological rather than ethnic, so you have a Green faction, University, UN Peacekeepers, Communists, Authoritarian, Fundamentalists, and Capitalists.

Age of Empires was the game of my childhood. I must have played that for about 5 years; longer than any other game I've owned. I'm going to play it now, in fact I hope it's still installed.

Look up Age of Empires 3.

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

Look up Age of Empires 3.

I tried the demo of this, and couldn't bear it. I didn't like that there were only four nationalities you could play, and they were mostly the same anyway. Aztecs and Vikings ftw

And for the ultimate strategy/empire game, play Diplomacy, a real world game. It's kind of like risk, but without so much war, and with much more alliances and truces and things. You need quite a few people to play it though, who won't get bored

Diplomacy?

Zeus: Master of Olympus

Whether or not you do battle in this game is up to you, but it's not necessary at all. You can try to conquer the other city-states (Sparta, Athens, etc) but it's more fun just to make the cities and see how they run.

It's a few years old, so you can get it for cheap. It's my favorite empire building game, I used to play it all the time back in the day. Plus ancient Greece is good.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

The Civ games really rule the genre, especially if you don't want to be at war the whole time. My favorite is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, built on the Civ III engine but starting with a colony pod on a hostile alien world. The factions in SMAC are ideological rather than ethnic, so you have a Green faction, University, UN Peacekeepers, Communists, Authoritarian, Fundamentalists, and Capitalists.

I second the recommendation of SMAC (and SMAX if you can, er, acquire it ). I love designing my own unit types.

The Total War games might be for you - turned-based campaigns with real-time battles. I have Medieval II: Total War, and it's a great game. Amazingly enough, that one is set in Medieval time (1080-1532 or thereabouts i believe). The other total war games are set in feudal Japan (Shogun Total War, which is a bit out-dated, but still seems like fun), Rome Total War, and the first Medieval game. Or if you fancy waiting you could get your hands on Empire Total War, which looks like it's going to be one hell of an amazing game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_W...game_series%29

Originally Posted by Ardent Lost

The Total War games might be for you - turned-based campaigns with real-time battles. I have Medieval II: Total War, and it's a great game. Amazingly enough, that one is set in Medieval time (1080-1532 or thereabouts i believe). The other total war games are set in feudal Japan (Shogun Total War, which is a bit out-dated, but still seems like fun), Rome Total War, and the first Medieval game. Or if you fancy waiting you could get your hands on Empire Total War, which looks like it's going to be one hell of an amazing game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_W...game_series%29

^ this

Also, Civilisation II.

Have you seriously never heard of either?

Originally Posted by MrDoom

I second the recommendation of SMAC (and SMAX if you can, er, acquire it ). I love designing my own unit types.

Actually, both are freely available at Home of the Underdogs--I went and dled SMAX right after posting in this thread

Sadly, you don't get all the movies. I would grab the disc of Alien Crossfire just for those.

Originally Posted by Identity X

^ this

Also, Civilisation II.

Have you seriously never heard of either?

I played Medieval: Total War, didn't really care for it. And I just got Civilization II, and it confuses the hell out of me, I don't like how your units have to take turns when moving and everything.... It's not bad, but it'll take some getting used to I think. Once I get past the learning curve, it seems like it'd be pretty fun.

I think Empire Earth 2 will be your cup of tea. It has all the things you've described and one of my favorite games personally. I think I can relate to what type of games you're talking about too. I don't like the over-sized models of Civ, although I did enjoy the 2nd one. I don't like the crappish graphics of some empire games that look statically, instead I prefer games that you can advance through the times (B.C- A.D) With many many type of civilizations/races to pick from, good graphics that any computer should handle well, simple but in-depth with options, can be tactical, city building w/ military to have hundreds of soldiers on screen(can zoom in and out too) and much much more. Trust me, Empire Earth 2 (not 3) should be your kinda game, I hope

Ah, looks great, can't wait to try it out, thanks.

Originally Posted by Bayside

Ah, looks great, can't wait to try it out, thanks.

No prob. If you're going to play the great online aspect of it, then buy the full game as there are more people(a good many). The demo version, no one plays online anymores...except me because my full version got misplaced....

Originally Posted by Bayside

And I just got Civilization II, and it confuses the hell out of me, I don't like how your units have to take turns when moving and everything.... .

It's called turn-based strategy, it's what we had before RTSs

I still prefer it, actually. Especially in the likes of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Civilization (never "got" Advance Wars though).

Originally Posted by Identity X

It's called turn-based strategy, it's what we had before RTSs

I still prefer it, actually. Especially in the likes of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Civilization (never "got" Advance Wars though).

Yeah, I'm just an impatient bastard. Board games always drove me crazy, I hate taking turns, I want it to be my turn all the time.

I never played it but "black and white" seems cool. I think you play the role of God and your actions determine if you're considered good or evil.

Yeah actually, Black and White is really good, I haven't played it in quite a long time because the second one was quite a disappointment really....