Any Grand Strategy gamers?

[Oni]

Grand strategy has you taking control of a country and doing whatever you want from economic build up to military operations of whatever magitude you choose. Most current Grand Strategy games are by Paradox Interactive games

Hearts of Iron
Victoria
Crusader Kings

Koei has Romance of the Three Kingdoms series

I was thinking about picking Crusader Kings II when I had some time and was wondering if any one else has a taste for these life draining games.

[The Domer]

While their not quite as in-depth as the Paradox games, I've poured countless hours into the total war series, especially Medieval II and Empire.

[OmgOhnoes]

Up until Empire i loved the TW series, then the series tanked.

My personal favorite are Paradox games. Can spend days on single games depending on difficulty, mods and your personal goals.

Europa Universalis, i find, has a lot more depth than Victoria from a grand strategy point of view. Victoria has much more micro-managing which can be tedious. Of course you could let the AI manage the micromanaging but then you are basically removing 3/4ths of the game's strategy.

One of the modders for EU III is coming out with their own game relatively soon Magna Mundi it should be called. If it's anything like the mod it will be ridiculously good. The kind of game you play if you like punishment. It knocks you down then keeps on kicking you - good for a challenge.

[Oni]

I don't know how I left out the total war series, that a good one.

Ah, yes the Magna Mundi mod, I played that originally because it attempted to accurately show feudal Japan.

My personal favorite is Hearts of Iron II KaiserReich, in it Germany won WWI and has very interesting alternate histories. The French are the aggressors and German is moving towards democracy in WWII, hows that for a twist! Very interesting unrest in the US as a facist and socialist rebellions threaten to tear the US apart.

[One_Medic_Army]

I play sins of a solar empire, which is a start small, build large type rts.

[Oni]

Not really a grand strategy game but you are welcome to discuss anything strategy related in this topic.

I liked Sins of a Solar Empire, I like how it's a fast paced RTS with some x4 elements. I never got any of the expansions though, I should though...probably revive my interest. Sins of a Solar Empire brings me back to my youth when I would play Masters of Orion or Space Empires for countless hours.

[One_Medic_Army]

The next iteration (Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion) is currently in closed beta and will hit in September, and includes the stuff from Diplomacy and Entrenchment.
Entrenchment and Diplomacy add the ability to fortify, diplomatic victories, alliances, tech pacts, and such.

[edit] Oh, and the closed beta is on steam, as is sins:trinity, and probably the new game as well.

[The Domer]

Up until Empire i loved the TW series, then the series tanked.

I thought that Empire was really tedious, but with DarthMod it's actually a lot of fun.

[Boss Llama]

The thing that always stops me from playing the Total War series is the atrociously bugged army/battle interface. I love the idea behind it and eagerly loaded it up, but the combined incompetence of soldiers and glitches affecting their deployment in battle kills it for me. My strength is on the battlefield, not always in the larger geopolitical strategy sections, so these problems hamper them way too much for me.

I'd love a good one that combines the empire and the battle sections in equal quality.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

I'd say my favorite of these type of games is a mod for rome total war called Europa Barbarorum which tries to make Rome TW in 272 B.C. as historically accurate as possible. But besides that I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings 2 since I bought it. I'm really liking it but let me warn you. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE DEMO! Good god its almost the complete game minus the ability to save. So if you're anything like me you find that you're way to drawn into your kingdom to leave....

[Oni]

The thing that always stops me from playing the Total War series is the atrociously bugged army/battle interface. I love the idea behind it and eagerly loaded it up, but the combined incompetence of soldiers and glitches affecting their deployment in battle kills it for me. My strength is on the battlefield, not always in the larger geopolitical strategy sections, so these problems hamper them way too much for me.

I'd love a good one that combines the empire and the battle sections in equal quality.

This is pretty much why I don't spend much time on the Total Wars series as well. I tried to order the armies and command them exactly how I want but it always becomes a mess, I didn't feel like much of a Roman when it just ended up being one mass of people against another. That said I do play alot of Hearts of Iron which is little animated sprites that shoot at each other while I watch and hope that a progress bar swings to my side. At least I have more control on the outcomes of those battles even if it is a graphically bland game.

[MrBlah]

Buzzy turned me on to Master of Orion a while back.... I could play games like that for endless hours upon hours. Since I don't have the time for that, I play a text based MMOG that offers similar bits to it. All you see are numbers. Which calms me down. http://www.earthempires.com/

I could spend 3-6 hours a day playing this, easily, but I limit myself to playing only on one server. So I might spend 20-40 minutes at best.

[Oni]

I'd say my favorite of these type of games is a mod for rome total war called Europa Barbarorum which tries to make Rome TW in 272 B.C. as historically accurate as possible. But besides that I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings 2 since I bought it. I'm really liking it but let me warn you. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE DEMO! Good god its almost the complete game minus the ability to save. So if you're anything like me you find that you're way to drawn into your kingdom to leave....

I'm going to buy it soon but I just don't have the time. I spent countless hours uniting ireland or trying to consolidate power in germany in the original. It's just such a unique game, trying to keep power in the family is sometimes very difficult. I'll follow your advice though because I got way wrapped up in every game I played.

Buzzy turned me on to Master of Orion a while back.... I could play games like that for endless hours upon hours. Since I don't have the time for that, I play a text based MMOG that offers similar bits to it. All you see are numbers. Which calms me down. http://www.earthempires.com/

I could spend 3-6 hours a day playing this, easily, but I limit myself to playing only on one server. So I might spend 20-40 minutes at best.

Masters of Orion is insanely addictive, I love the old 4x strategy games. I don't play those type anymore because I can't stop myself actually. Like you, I could easily waste an entire evening on them and be shocked when it was 2 am. Probably should have stopped playing with huge galaxies....but where is the fun without sprawling empires.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Yeah because of that everytime my wife sees me playing she always has to pipe in, "Ohh back at the crack again I see.".

[Ixtab]

Oh man, I have spent so many hours playing MoO2. I was so excited when the third one was coming out, but I then I felt kind of let down... it wasnt nearly as good as 2.
I actually still have MoO2 installed too.. Every once in a while I get the urge to go back and play more.... I also have been looking for another, newer game like it, but I havent found anything quite as good.

I also play the older Medieval: Total war... Again, I still have it installed too. I loved it, though I was also disappointed in the battles. I liked the larger aspect of the game enough though that I could still enjoy it quite a bit.