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I’m a big fan of the Total War series, but have singularly failed to find any similar strategy games that have engaged in the same way. Following google investigations I’ve tried Crusader Kings, and a few others but they’ve never really stuck. In desperation I even loaded on Harpoon from back in the 90s (time has not been kind).
Can anyone recommend a decent strategy game?
Xcom?
I've never really got on with that kind of RTS.
I'm more of a fan of command and conquer /starcraft /age of empires type strategy games. There's loads of similar games too.
I. E build a base and farm resources then attack the enemy. <
That said I'm currently playing civ6 and it's pretty good.
I tried Age of Empires, never got on with it. Will look at Xcom.
Any more?
DirtyLyle - is it the battles, or the strategy side that you enjoy most and are trying to replicate in another game?
For grand strategy it's hard to beat Europa Universalis or maybe Hearts of Iron for WW2 specific.
I've found it's harder to find real time battles with the same attraction as the Total War series.
Hmmm, good question. Ideally the game would include both, but maybe it's the strategy side. Will look at the two you recommend.
Is there nothing available with the battles in that case?
After EA gutted Westwood (devs of C&C) some of the team went off and created another company, they have just released Forged Battalion on early access and it has that feel with a lot better AI.
They are Billions is quite fun when the hordes attack.
But for that Total War feel why not the Total War Warhammer 1 & 2
Oh forgot for that Harpoon feeling why not Cold Waters?
Already played the Warhammers to death!
Will check out Cold Waters.
Played Company of Heroes, Dawn of War?
I just finished Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, which in some ways is proper Homeworld with all the interesting bits removed, but that aside is a good solid olde-worlde RTS. Quite irritating in that it feels a bit unfinished but still, worth it I thought.
I don't know if Stellaris is actually fun, but it's gripping.
Ooh, no, they look good for playing battles.
Hardly any of these suggestions came up on my google searches, interestingly...
I don't really know anything else that does grand strategy with detailed battles in the same way. Europa Universalis 4 is worth a look, I like the series a lot more than Total War but it will take longer to learn.
Otherwise you could check out Knights of Honor and the Cossacks series, they're quite old now but they're RTS games with formations of units rather than individuals.
Cold Waters has a very active modding community on it, you can get mods to change it so you can play as the Russian subs, even some of the warships too.
Company of Heroes is pretty ancient, but it basically broke the trad RTS genre by being too good. Throw the Blitzkrieg mod at it and it could come out today and still get top reviews (there's a sequel but it's not as good imo). The story is ace but the skirmishes are surprisingly excellent too
Dawn of War is a bit up and down, the second one turned into a weird sort of RPG/RTS/lane pusher thing and kind of sucked imo but some folk liked it. The original looks horrible now but it was pure wish fulfillment when it first came out.
HoI4, Endless Space 2, Stellaris not RTS. Great games
I can't think of any good real time battles like TotalWar, but lots of the suggestions above are good.
I'm hoping Cold Waters goes on sale, then i'll give it a whirl.
The Humble Bundle guys have a Paradox Strategy "Pay What You Want" still on - that might be worth a look for some cheap strategy.
+1 for Hearts of Iron
Very good recommendations, have started on Europa Universalis, looks excellent so far. Someone just needs to cross-breed in with Total War, and it'd be the perfect game to swallow days when I should be doing something prodcutive.
Couple more suggestions, they're strictly battle simulators but very good ones. Think Total War's battle scenarios with more depth to them.
Ultimate General is easy to pick up but still fairly challenging.
Scourge of War is very hard and has a bad UI, but it's main draw is having scenarios covering everything from small skirmishes to multi day battles, and being able to take command at any level in the hierarchy.
It plays as a straight RTS if you want, but you can choose to have the camera locked to your chosen commander, and receive/send orders by courier, which makes it unlike anything else I've played.
Oh, FTL. No it isn't really what you asked for but it's fantastic, and cheap, and quick to play.
Warcraft 3 and expansion pack.
ULtimate General looks great, I think that's the sort of thing I was after. I knew STW wouldn't let me down...