Long time ago, when there were no 1st person shooters and massive MMORPG's, I played Warlords (I, II, III), a turn-based strategy game where you run 1 of 8 factions, command your armies to conquer cities, build more armies and annihilate the other AI-controlled factions. The game had pretty good AI, so it was fun and challenging.

These games I can no longer run on my PC, except maybe in DOS BOX. Battle for Wesnoth and LordsAWar! are decent Warlords spinoffs that can be played for free. But these games are all ancient.

Is there anything modern that would fit this bill? Maybe there is a Civilization variant that has strong AI and is challenging? Any other game you can suggest?

I am a fan of Wargroove. IDK if you played Advance Wars on the GBA in the mid 00s but its very similar to that, except its more medieval/fantasy with units. Simple to learn but gets complex with how to use your heros and what units to build to counter your opponents. Its like $20 bucks max on Steam.

The XCOM series is a turn based strategy shooter game. I have never played it but its worth looking into.

I still have friends that will break out the occasional Heros of Might and Magic game. But thats way too hardcore and inaccessible for me to get into, but may be more the type of game you are looking for.

Fire Emblem is a popular franchise in this genre, not sure if its on PC tho.

If you have a GBA or an emulator, Advance Wars 1 & 2 and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance are great games as well.

I mean, Civilization is the cream of the crop for this genre. IV is probably overall the best/most popular, but both 5 and 6 have some interesting upgrades/advancements.

NGL I have always thought that the Civ series were RTS games, not turn based, and Im not a huge fan of RTS's generally, because I suck at them.


I might have to give it a shot.

I'll chime in with a strong second vote for both Civilization and XCOM. Both are turn-based strategy, although not quite the same genre as Warlords. Civ is closest.

I'll be due for the annual XCOM2 ironman campaign some time in Q1 2023. Maybe something silly this time, like Specialists only.

I just noticed that some of the old SSI game library was released on Steam. I found the Dark Sun series, and Stronghold; both favorites of mine as a wee lad. If they release a playable version of Fantasy Empires on modern PC, I'm all over that. DOSBOX doesn't help because the "active" battlefield sequence can't be controlled.

I have no experience with the GOG ecosystem, but I think if it's on their website, it should be playable. Here are the Warlords games: https://www.gog.com/en/game/warlords_i_ii

Jagged Alliance 2 with 1.13 mod. It might be hard to find the latest one.
Slay the Spire (counts I guess, it's the best card based single player game)
X-COM 2 (expansion not necessary imo)
Battle Brothers (Legends mod and all expansions)
Into the Breach (more like chess with a level of randomness)


I hate Civ 6 with passion, Civ 5 with balance and AI mods and all expansions.

Edit: Oh yeah, Endless Space 2 is kinda cool and different, expansions not necessary.

I have about 450 hours of Civ5 and had the same extreme reaction you displayed here when I first tried Civ6. I stuck with 5 for a while after 6 was available, but revisited it after the expansion dropped.

I now have 600 hours into Civ6 and completed the full Immortal hall of fame. Deity is a step too far into micro-management for my tastes. It's no Civ4, but it turned out to be a solid entry into the series after all the expansions and DLC.

Slay the Spire is another excellent suggestion, but that's a deck builder.

If you do end up trying XCOM2, I recommend grabbing the expansion as well. I think it adds enough to the experience to be worth the extra couple bucks. The biggest gripe people have with XCOM2 and War of the Chosen is if you min/max, you get super overpowered and the endgame feels too easy. They're not wrong, but it's also not a situation that a new player is in any risk of bumbling their way into.

Slay the Spire comes directly to mind.

There is also SpellRogue, similar to Slay the Spire but involves dice rolling. It is currently on play-test and can be downloaded from Steam for free.

I would also recommend Advance Wars on Nintendo Switch, a turn-based war game (I used to play it on my GameBoy when I was a kid, I never played it on Switch but if they didn't change the game's core features, I bet it is still quite good).

While it's not really in the same genre as Warlords, Civ 4 has (one of?) the best soundtracks of any game. It's also turn-based, not a RTS. If you've not played it, get the "Beyond the Sword" version and enjoy.



Oh man, googling this game has brought back memories: it was one of the few games I could run without a keyboard - super important when you're grounded and your parents had taken it away...

90% off several games listed above.

https://www.indiegala.com/store/publisher-sale/2k

Redeems for Steam keys.

Lets derail the thread a bit.

Civ 6 doesn't make strategic decisions after first 20 turns. You have to basically design the optimal district layout and expansion then unlike in Civ 5. So you're not making strategic decisions after turn 20. Also going wide is almost always optimal making every game extremely laborious. AI can not handle the mechanics and if you're alive at turn 100, you win. Except... the turn timers get ridiculous since you have to change cards, manage multiple research trees, manage all the production and in intervals produce workers. It doesn't have these changes of pace (expansion continues forever, making and improving tiles continues forever etc. or something as drastic as democracy, communism, fascism ideology). It's just work and no strategy. Extra bonus loathing for designing a game mechanics that require to use map filters.

Yup. This is the reason I don't think it's needed. Someone experienced in that kind of games can run into that problem first time.

Both valid takes, and it comes down to whether you purposefully optimize the fun out of your games or if you're willing to shake things up.

One major reason I only play on Immortal difficulty instead of ticking up to Deity on Civ6 is because I don't find it entertaining to abuse every single optimization at the player's disposal. It feels like work. I'd lose far too often on Deity for my particular style of play.

Same goes for XCOM2. It might be optimal to just overwatch endlessly on untimed missions and let the aliens come to you, but **** that noise. Yellow moves into fog at the start of the mission is how we roll in this house.

I play my strategy games like speed chess. Fast and acceptable is better than slow and optimal.

I can also vouch for XCOM, inso is correct about it. I never could get into Civ, though.

I loved the Heroes of Might & Magic series, especially 3 and 5.

If you're into history/WWII, check out Unity of Command 2, the AI is actually good and it lets you either roll with or change the course of history.

(Obviously these are not "modern" but all are available on Steam so you should not have issues playing them)

Also, worth noting, the Long War mod for the series is incredibly great, but it is much harder and a lot of things are changed. It's very detailed.

Civ and Xcom are the obvious choices.

I have a ton of time in Civ V - it's brilliant.

To get the most from it you need the DLCs, especially Brave New World. The Vanilla game is pretty meh.

To really get the most of the game (and anybody who got bored of the game should try this) you need to get the mod 'Acken's Minimalistic Balance' (link below) - it's absolutely fantastic, beefs up the AI massively and makes it much more aggressive and challenging. I could cruise the regular game on deity, but even immortal with Acken's mod is a desperate struggle all the way. It is so so good.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil.../?id=494196954