Europa Universalis IV
I’m a divorced woman of color. Recently, my ex got our son Larry a video game called Europa Universalis for his 14th birthday. It seemed good for him, because it takes place in the distant past and he’s always been interested in history, so it seemed like a nice enough game, no graphic violence or anything, at least until I sat down and watched him play at it. I don’t know what sorts of racists made this game, but it’s basically a colonialism and genocide justification simulator. If you want to survive, you need to have access to money and soldiers, and the most (only) reliable way to ensure you have enough is to attack and conquer your weaker neighbors. If you don’t, you can be sure someone else will eventually come attack and conquer you.
– Real player with 4558.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Military Games.
So EU4 was a good game. Then they released the 450+ ‘bug fixes’. The entire game outside Europe has now been put back behind a new paywall unless you have the paradise DLC as it is now impossible to develop your provinces to spawn institutions as army tradition gives you impossibly high dev costs. I played one game and when I needed to dev an institution from a 1/1/1 grasslands province and starting cost is 120. That is only with 33 army tradition giving a 150% penalty. This was a custom nation and I had -20% dev cost. Good job paradox forcing everyone to buy your shittiest dlc in order to use any of the other DLC’s you have paid for. The game is now broken outside of Europe without the paradise dlc. You make me sick Paradox!
– Real player with 1819.5 hrs in game
Espiocracy
Disclaimer: Trailer & screenshots are early work in progress
GRAND ESPIONAGE STRATEGY
Choose one of 102 countries and guide character-driven national intelligence agency through rough seas of the Cold War. From Soviet KGB and American CIA, up to Israeli Mossad and British MI6, expect different approaches to grand strategy gameplay.
INNOVATIVE MECHANICS
-
Espionage finally made as it should be
-
Precise modelling of views & ideologies
-
Direct links between causes and effects
-
System of geopolitically active actors
-
Emergent multipolar simulation
-
Operation plans, campaigns, and opportunities
MEANINGFUL DECISIONS
-
Prioritize grand scale and leave micro to your operatives
-
Establish contacts, threaten, exploit, and trade
-
Manipulate public opinion, support and establish political factions
-
Launch coups and proxy wars, falsify casus belli
-
Hunt spies and terrorists, protect internal stability
-
Form alliances, prepare all-out attacks, break rules
-
Advise country leader on critical decisions such as military interventions
DANGEROUS TIDES OF HISTORY
-
Nuclear race: first atom bombs, thermonuclear revolution, mutually assured destruction
-
Huge progress in technology, simulated in the game with Kuhn’s paradigm shifts
-
After-war poverty, civil wars, controversial past
-
Configurable balance between alternate history and determinism
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Cold War Games.
Victoria 3
SHAPE A GRAND TOMORROW
Paradox Development Studio invites you to build your ideal society in the tumult of the exciting and transformative 19th century. Balance the competing interests in your society and earn your place in the sun in Victoria 3, one of the most anticipated games in Paradox’s history.
THE ULTIMATE SOCIETY SIMULATOR
-
Lead dozens of world nations from 1836-1936. Agrarian or Industrial, Traditional or Radical, Peaceful or Expansionist… the choice is yours.
-
Detailed population groups with their own economic needs and political desires.
-
Reform your government and constitution to take advantage of new social innovations, or preserve the stability of your nation by holding fast to tradition in the face of revolutionaries.
-
Research transformative new technology or ideas to improve your national situation.
DEEP ECONOMIC SYSTEM
-
Expand your industry to take advantage of lucrative goods, taxing the profits to improve national prosperity.
-
Import cheap raw materials to cover your basic needs while finding new markets for your finished goods.
-
Secure vital goods to fuel your advanced economy and control the fate of empires.
-
Balance employing available labor force with the needs for new types of workers.
PLAY ON A GRAND STAGE
-
Use your diplomatic wiles to weave a tangled global web of pacts, relations, alliances, and rivalries to secure your diplomatic position on the world stage.
-
Employ threats, military prowess and bluffs to persuade enemies to back down in conflicts.
-
Increase your economic and military strength at the expense of rivals.
-
Accumulate prestige and the respect of your rivals as you build an industrial giant at home or an empire abroad.
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Military Games.
The Heroic Legend of Eagarlnia
First off: I can’t believe that this game is priced under $19.99. It’s $12.99 — that’s simply unreal.
As a player who has never really played any grand strategy games before, The Heroic Legend of Eagarlnia has been a very surprising and enjoyable experience considering it’s an early access game developed by a dedicated team of four. If you had been watching/following this game for some time, you’ll know that Eagarlnia has gone through some rocky periods throughout the years, as the development team had been very silent about the game’s progress and status despite hosting it on Steam’s platform around late 2019. There were some hints here and there that the game would be localized to English, but there wasn’t any concrete information to go on for several months. Fortunately, the team would resurface to announce that the localization for English was well under way, and that the demo and early access release would arrive soon. If it wasn’t for their decision to localize, I most likely would’ve never stumbled across this gem of a game simply because of the language barrier.
– Real player with 636.5 hrs in game
If you’re a lover of oldschool strategy games of this kind then do not hesistate and acquire this title for yourself. The game features a truckload of detailed artwork (so many heroes…), beautiful music and enjoyable game mechanics. The weak part is definitely the translation but I think they are working on it. It’s functional but at times it can be difficult to understand the correct meaning of a skill (example: a skill says that it is good against fighters but there are no fighter units… the closest would be soldiers but it might also refer to warriors or spearmen).
– Real player with 127.2 hrs in game
Hearts of Iron IV
Let’s be real, you’re here because you want to finally have the chance to play as a Nazi.
Maybe you’re someone like me. I’m always the good guy, the Jedi, the Paragon, the lawful good.
Then when playing Hearts of Iron IV something in me snapped, I came to see that in these strategy games you are the villain, you are evil.
Embrace it, let the hate strengthen you, harden your heart to the lamentations of your foes, sit atop a throne of skulls steeped in blood and command all you survey.
If I’ve learned anything by talking to other gamers, it’s that if someone makes a game where you can kill people, some gamer is going to kill everything that can be killed in that game. Be that gamer, and enjoy this gem of a game. 10/10
– Real player with 3419.8 hrs in game
after 1500 hours i can tell you the developers dont care about this game, mod creators make better and more enspired content as 1 or 2 people they charge 20 dollars for them to break your game and kill the community with there unenspired lazy dlc filled with expliots and bugs tank designer is so broken and transport planes are actually supply a whole army with 200 planes and its taken them more them weeks and they still havnt fixed it it is just a value they have to change in the game code modders have already fixed it in days sad to see that this company is all about the money so sad man i just want to play a game that is made by people that care
– Real player with 1562.3 hrs in game
Imperiums: Greek Wars
So, I have been playing this game for about near 40 hours at the time of this review.
Imperiums, focus' on the Greek Wars time era. And the developers do a very good job in portraying accurate history, in my opinion. The game keeps trying to ‘curb’ you back toward history. However; you can fight against that, and go your own way. However it requires more effort or ‘elbow grease’ to get there. Basically, to ‘go against’ history; the game feels harder! Usually. Usually when trying to go against history. I really like this aspect of the game.
– Real player with 323.7 hrs in game
As a strategy game Imperiums is one of a kind. Designed from scratched with pen and paper by a passionate developer and now released as the second entry in a hopefully long lasting series of strategy games.
Over the years the game is shaped and finetuned by the help of a small, but very dedicated playerbase who can discuss with the developer in forums on Steam and Discord.
Hundreds of players already mentioned their complains and wishes for the game and the developer keeps a list with urgent must have features and nice to have features for the future.
– Real player with 158.9 hrs in game
Red Button
fun short
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
usa are cracked
add more stuff
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Steel Nations
Wait
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
Early access doesn’t mean an unfinished game that has 0 features. Bugs and overall control of this game is beyond early access. Small developers releasing their game as early access should consider finishing the game to some extend at least. I understand the game has been done without a budget or anything but this is literally unplayable. Instead of trying to make 243 playable countries make 4 and make them really “playable”.
EDIT: Oh and the “5 playable modes” do not exist there is just one mod to play and the thought that they might try to sell them as dlcs is haunting me. Please if you respect the players for at least one bit pull the game out and fix the issues.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Rise of Hegemony
Rise of Hegemony is a strategy game inspired by great games such as Civilization and Victoria. Triumph over your neighbours by successfully managing your country economically, diplomatically and militarily. The path to global hegemony is up to you.
-
Subdue your enemies by pure military force.
-
Forge alliances and diplomatic pacts to be part of an unstoppable coalition.
-
Educate your people to eclipse your rivals technologically.
-
Become an economic powerhouse and make other nations dependant on your resources.
In-depth economy
Rise of Hegemony features an in-depth economical system where every province contains a discrete number of people that all need resources to survive and thrive. Lacking access to sufficient amounts of critical goods such as food will cause your population to starve. Without access to weaponry your soldiers will be woefully unprepared to face enemies in battle. Trading with other countries is important, being dependant on them is perilous.
Build up your country
Starting as a fledgling country the way you want to conduct yourself on the world stage is up to you. Acting peacefully and benevolent has its benefits, but sometimes a more warlike approach is a quicker way to achieve your goals…
Randomly generated worlds
Even with the same strategy every game can take a vastly different course when the world looks different and countries will develop distinctively depending on their starting conditions.
Moddability
Rise of Hegemony leaves a lot of room for mods to expand on the game. Do you prefer to focus on a certain time period? Perhaps a fantasy setting is more to your liking? The possibilities for alternative scenarios are plenty!
Strategy & Tactics: Wargame Collection
To start off I wanna say this isn’t a game of high quality. In fact, I found one of the games in this collection as a mobile game for my phone first (the WW2 Sandbox one) and it was pretty fun, but had all the ads and in-app-purchases that you see with mobile games. I definitely suggest that as a mobile game because it was free and pretty in-depth compared to most strategy games on mobile. On computer, meh. It was incredibly cheap, and even cheaper on sale, which was the main reason I bothered getting it. The deal was pretty good, because this is a 3-pack of games. They all play basically the same, so once you learn one, you learn all of them. As far as strategy games go, it’s simple compared to other games like it, and the mechanics become second nature within half an hour to an hour. The tutorials are pretty trashy, and don’t cover anything more complicated than basic movement and attacking, which means it’s up to you to really explore how combat and movement work. The AI is actually pretty good, but can be predicted and outsmarted with some practice. So why am I recommending this? This may not be a great game, but it’s cheap and simple. If you’re new to strategy games, or just enjoy casually playing them and don’t like diving heavily into grand-strategy games, this is a good choice for you. There’s also a mobile version, which I suggest for anyone. If you really like the complicated and in-depth mechanics that you find in games like Hearts of Iron and Victoria 2, though, stay away from this game on PC. There’s quite a bit of content, but you’ll get bored pretty fast, and personally I would take Hearts of Iron IV any day over these 3 games.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
Ok, here’s my take on the game. I’m used to playing Axis and Allies, both the Milton Bradley board games as well as the old Nova Games, which was the best…I also play the triplea version, which is excellent. This game is much more in line with the Milton Bradley games. A relatively simple game, simple mechanics. That being said, there are some very nice features that I enjoy. You can plot out moves in a step by step fashion. Moving infantry to take the first territory, then “relocating” mech units into the newly taken territory, and then launching an attack with them into the next. You are not required to to plan out every move for all your troops, they can be executed one at a time. This is definately a “beer and pretzels” kind of game.
– Real player with 35.1 hrs in game