solo turn based empire builder

parone · #1 January 28th, 2012, 06:05 PM

guys, im looking for a solo game, with the kind of depth/complexity of dom, but more for single player. i loved dom II, but really, this game is made for MP and modding. i am not that into those things.

are there any other games you can suggest? i loved warlords and there were a few other turn based games i enjoyed, but most were a bit simplistic(HoMM and its ilk).

any suggestions would be much appreciated

Edi · #2 January 28th, 2012, 06:22 PM

Conquest of Elysium 3 is coming out on February 20th, so not all that long. Check out the dev log thread in this forum.

Olm · #3 January 28th, 2012, 06:36 PM

I really enjoyed (and still do so sometimes) Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic.
The only rightful heir to Master of Magic (Which I also dig out time and again).
Fantasy War is also very good, but thats more on battle tactics, no empire building. Its successor Elven Legacy looks good, but I did not try it yet, as all my time goes into Dom3 atm.

parone · #4 January 28th, 2012, 06:43 PM

olm, was that the first age of wonders? god i loved that game. always played the big map, and had to have played in 200+ hours. i gog AOWII but was underwhelmed.

as far as COE, is that basically a dominions built for single player? i know it was a precursor to Dom. those things, by the way, are pluses for me.

Olm · #5 January 28th, 2012, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parone

olm, was that the first age of wonders? god i loved that game. always played the big map, and had to have played in 200+ hours. i gog AOWII but was underwhelmed.

No, it was planned as an expansion to AOWII, but then came out as a standalone game. It's often referred to as AOW 2,5.

I played AOWI and remember that there was one single thing that ruined the game for me: Heroes were much to strong. After some training they would crush every army.

In SM that is much better balanced. I do not remember having played AOW II, I guess I advanced to SM immediately.
Well, all I can say is: It's great, and there is much community content (great scenarios!!) for it. You can probably get it for small coin and should give it a try.

ghoul31 · #6 January 28th, 2012, 07:01 PM

The civilization series was probably the deepest empire builder.

I spent many years playing civ 2

Olm · #7 January 28th, 2012, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghoul31

The civilization series was probably the deepest empire builder.

I spent many years playing civ 2

Oh yes, Civ 2 was great. Never played one of the later thoroughly, but I still sometimes start a Civ 2 (really Freeciv) game.
What it misses ist battle tactics.

curtadams · #8 January 28th, 2012, 08:17 PM

Civ 4 is a big improvements over earlier Civs in terms of depth because much more effort has been put into balancing strategies. Expansion in particular is no longer an unmitigated good. It's also highly mod-able and there are fantasy versions if you are playing on a PC (not on a Mac due to OS-dependent advanced modding).

Civ 5 supposedly has tactics but this is offset by the fact the computer doesn't do tactics well. My computer doesn't support it so I can't say from experience.

Doo · #9 January 28th, 2012, 09:06 PM

Civ IV with the Fall from Heaven 2 mod is great to scratch that fantasy empire building itch. It has complexity but of a different type than Dom3. You need the Beyond the Sword expansion to play Fall from Heaven 2.

Civ V is.... not worth the money. It can be fun and I have enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it over Civ IV. I hope Civ VI will bring back the glory for the franchise.

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is looking good. I have the beta and am impressed with what I see. Elemental:War of Magic was a poor game, Fallen Enchantress seems similar but is so much better. Barring an epic failure the game should do well.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane from Paradox looks nice but without being able to see how the combat AI is its hard to say if it will be Civ IV: Fall from Heaven with tactical combat or another Civ V.

brxbrx · #10 January 29th, 2012, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doo

Civ IV with the Fall from Heaven 2 mod is great to scratch that fantasy empire building itch. It has complexity but of a different type than Dom3. You need the Beyond the Sword expansion to play Fall from Heaven 2.

Civ V is.... not worth the money. It can be fun and I have enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it over Civ IV. I hope Civ VI will bring back the glory for the franchise.

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is looking good. I have the beta and am impressed with what I see. Elemental:War of Magic was a poor game, Fallen Enchantress seems similar but is so much better. Barring an epic failure the game should do well.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane from Paradox looks nice but without being able to see how the combat AI is its hard to say if it will be Civ IV: Fall from Heaven with tactical combat or another Civ V.

I played Fall from Heaven more than I played Civ IV. Fall from Heaven was freaking awesome. A shame it wasn't made by a full-time team, the Civilopedia could have used some major help.
Elemental is supposed to be a hot mess. I guess we'll see.
That Warlock game has been getting a little buzz from the Civ community, mostly because its graphics are largely the same. We'll see there too.
Have to agree with you on Civ 5. Except my hope is in a major overhaul expansion.

I play Space Empires V, with the balance mod- excellent AI with that, although I don't like the way they've lumped all the ship control technologies together (researching life support systems is not the same as researching crew psychology!!!)

As for Conquest of Elysium, is it really empire building? I think the OP wants diplomacy, construction, social engineering and whatnot. CoE seems more like Domlight