Base building is a super common element of games. The deep and varied Ball x Pit implemented it rather brilliantly as an additional mechanic to engage with in between runs. Other games take the concept a little further and task players with building whole cities. The next step beyond that is building an entire culture.
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In the biggest and most involved strategy titles, fans may need to find homes for their people, settle them, and nurture their population's growth. For there, peaceful prosperity or more violent expansion may be on the cards. It's a tall order, and such games are often replete with complex systems and mechanics to manage. There might be natural disasters to challenge them, limited resources to use with care, and so on. Here are just some examples that genre fans can explore.
Civilization 7
A New Way Of Building And Continuing A Culture
The Civilization games have always been about precisely that: Developing a civilization and advancing it towards a victory condition of your choosing. For a military victory, for instance, you'll need to conquer every other Civ's capital city, while for a science victory, you'll have to be the first to achieve a series of lofty scientific achievements (establishing a Mars colony, for instance). However you plan to approach a game of Civilization, it'll typically start in the same way, with your first Settler seeking a likely spot to establish your first town.
From there, the buildings you create, the units you build, the Civics and technologies you focus on, and a range of other decisions will determine how your people develop. You can build wide (lots of smaller towns) or tall (a few bigger and more sophisticated towns). You can send out tons of soldiers, or you can spread your religion far and wide. Your settlements can be production-focused in some places, or your workers can concentrate on food output in others. In Civilization 7, the transition between ages will see you adopt a new Civilization, helping to represent the passage of time, but your growing empire continues.
Crusader Kings 3
Grand Strategy On A Sizable Scale
The Medieval period is fertile ground for developers of strategy games, and the Crusader Kings series is one of the most beloved examples. In terms of gameplay, the campaign of Crusader Kings 3 blends elements of Total War and Civilization, seeing some conflicts and other activities like assassination attempts take place on the world map (while zoomed in). The player's goal is to lead their dynasty to dominance, playing to the strengths of their leaders and important players in their faction.
Of course, there's a lot to manage for a Medieval ruler. Later, additional content would add features like a customizable throne room for schmoozing, and a factor called Grandeur, with which more influential people can be convinced to visit and be influenced by your cause. This is a game for those who really like to dig in and micromanage their realm, with crucial features from the religion of key characters and the tithes paid in particular areas to tweak as appropriate. Much of the Medieval world is available for the taking.
Humankind
Exploring The Nature Of Humanity
Humankind is another title that closely resembles the Civilization series, sporting a similar world map across which the player can survey their developing domain. The system of sending units across it, by selecting them and then the area of the map they're to travel to, will be extremely familiar to anyone who's spent hundreds of hours with Civilization's 'hex' system. Nonetheless, there are some interesting wrinkles that set Humankind apart.
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Typically, players will want to keep their domain growing. The danger of doing so is that, as the Roman Empire eventually found, all that land means there'll be trouble somewhere. Lacking Influence will mean that others in the player's path don't take kindly to their overbearing presence, so it's important to carefully manage relationships with neighbors and one's own people in order to continue to evolve safely. Battles, when they inevitably become necessary, are perhaps a little more involved, with units reaping important advantages from their positioning.
Songs Of Syx
Tiny But Mighty
Songs of Syx immediately sets itself apart from its larger-scale counterparts with its pixel art aesthetic. Civilization players will be used to City-States as convenient extra assets, offering very nice bonuses to those who can become their Suzerain (Hungary's Matthias Corvinus also gets additional bonuses from levying their troops). In this title, though, players can develop their own city-states and watch them become forces to be reckoned with.
Rather than a civilization, players choose a race (or opt for a random one), and this helps define what they should focus on. Humans, for instance, farm well and have a high intelligence, and so buildings and strategies should focus on these qualities. At the beginning of a game, the player then selects from a series of titles, such as The Leader or The Negotiation, which further help define their playstyle. From there, it's a matter of managing the land and your expansion through detailed tooltips that explain the assets of each area. There's a lot to learn in Songs of Syx, but those who grasp its systems will be able to develop and maintain huge lands and potential armies of hundreds or even thousands.
Stellaris
Develop An Interstellar Empire
As we've seen, the Medieval era is a common one for empire-builders, and for an even greater scope, some series advance those fledgling empires through historical periods, from the ancient era to the modern day. A more futuristic direction, however, is taken by other games, such as Paradox Development Studios' Stellaris.
The goal here is to develop a thriving empire in a region of space, and it's clear right from the Create New Empire screen just how involved this will be. Some of the different species have their talents in different areas vital to the cause (in terms of the jobs they can do), and certain Civics will be appropriate for your empire and its goals (the Police State Civic will reduce Unrest, for instance). As fans conduct trade, develop faster-than-light technology, and so on, traversal becomes as easy as moving characters around a conventional land map. There are always complex mechanics to bear in mind. Importantly, Civics can become inactive if a separate Ethics bonus is incompatible with them, so it's a game that requires full commitment and focus. Everything up to archeotechnologies has to be carefully considered.
Distant Worlds 2
The Vastness Of Space
For a lot of strategy fans, the more complex the better. It's the depth of gameplay, the freedom to explore a wide variety of systems and make the best use of them all, that's key. In that regard, Distant Worlds 2 lets players tweak everything from the number of stars in their galaxy to the speed of research, from the proximity of pirates to the nebula density, before the game even begins. Chosen races have their own particular conditions through which to win the game, though there are also routes to victory through other factors, such as economics or the territory controlled.
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Players may start off on their species' home planet, with its unique traits, then take a scout around the galaxy near them for potential spoils to expand to. Controlling new planets is the priority, allowing for potentially rapid and highly profitable growth, but it takes time to build up your capability to spread across the stars. Making use of the assets you have at any given moment is key, as is steadily building towards an ultimate endgame. The Boskara, for example, have a proclivity for researching weapons and increasing their power, and so expansion through force is an appropriate underlying focus. Grand strategy games can be frustrating at times, but there's always a lot to do.
Northgard
Survive The Harsh Viking Age
Back with the historical setting that so many such strategy games employ, Northgard offers the player a choice of Viking clans to lead, with each one having its own specialties. Fenrir, the Clan of the Wolf, has a martial leaning, with a power bonus for battling beyond its borders, while Eikthyrnir, the Clan of the Stag, benefits from extra supplies and resources. Different relics and lore bonuses help to guide a clan's growth, but don't force a player to adopt particular playstyles.
While able to build much more than just bases for your clan, there are limitations on what can be built per region, encouraging the most effective use of both the land and resources available. There is also a story mode to lend a bit more structure to a genre that can sometimes lack it in this sense, as well as the chance to challenge another clan for domination in multiplayer. Northgard isn't a AAA grand strategy with nigh-infinite content, but it offers a well-designed and balanced strategy in a substantial package.
Populous: The Beginning
The Beginning Of Something Incredible
1998 strategy classic Populous: The Beginning was the game that started many on a lifelong appreciation of the genre. That magical feeling of building up an empire from scratch and watching your chosen tribe expand is unmatched. This was not the first Populous game (though it is in terms of its place in the series' timeline), but it was the one that gave players an avatar in the world and direct control of them, similarly to the creature in Black & White.
The goal isn't simply to control the world, but the whole galaxy. Growth is all about giving orders and having structures built in order to provide supplies, strengthen the tribe, or otherwise serve them. The other occupants of the planet need to be defeated to proceed, which means that it's vital to outstrip their growth and strategically overpower them. The player's avatar, of course, will help with this, through the title's well-known magic system. Depending on the spells available, they can help their tribe or attack enemies.
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