Grand Strategy Wargames/4X Games

[Desih]

The genre nickname has always seemed a bit pretentious to me, but I'm still a huge fan of 'em.

*Just in case you're wondering what I mean/talking about, I'd say they're strategy games which have a large portion of their gameplay (and depth) devoted to politics, economics, and technology, as opposed to just combat. I'm talkin' about games like Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Victoria, Sins Of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, Civilization (Depending on who you're talking with and which #'s.), Master Of Orion, etc. There are plenty of them out there, and I'm not going to even bother going in to the mass of tabletop games.*

So, which ones do you play? Are you a fan? Do you hate them entirely? Am I even doing this right?

Personally, I play a ton of Crusader Kings 2, and Sins (Vasari Loyalists, hands down most OP.), to name a few.

[tlmiller]

I've never found many that I was a fan of.  I have played Sins, but can't stand the game.  I think 90% of the game is useless fluff that feels like it's in the game just to make it appear as though the developers did something.  Rather than just saying "hey, lets give everyone 3 or 4 research technologies that do something, then just clone everything else so it's completely pointless, but people won't realize that until they've already paid!!"  Can't wait for Ascendency to hopefully fix some of these very broken tech trees.

Heroes of Might and Magic I liked a little back in the day, but again, many of the things you could research to improve EVERYONE had.  If everyone has the same research that does the exact same effect for everyone, just drop it, it's a useless inclusion.

Essentially, most of the 4x games I've ever played leaves me feeling empty becuase of useless "waste time and resource" type of "upgrades" such as that.  They're there only to make the game take longer, and kills my enjoyment.  If I found one that didn't bother with time wasters, I might enjoy it.

[Waffle Wagon]

The genre has some great concepts, but the execution hasn't been exactly stellar. The space 4x games I've played always got plain boring after a while, there just doesn't seem to be much to do after you conquer meaningless planet #78. Sins was more fun than most, but honestly if it wasn't for SOGE I would've stopped playing it a long time ago. The faction and ship designs do absolutely nothing for me, and there seemed to be a lot of stuff that felt like it was tacked on just to fit the 4x mould, without consideration of whether or not it made sense.

For example, why do you have to research the ability to talk and trade with other factions even if you start the game on the same team?! That's just a stupid idea that sucks time and resources away actually important projects. I could go on about the horribly bloated tech tree, but tlmiller basically listed a lot of my complaints about the game quite nicely.

[Rovert10]

I wouldn't call SoaSE a true 4X Game. It's an RTS with elements of 4X sprinkled in and made to be on a much larger scale than your standard RTS. The system is very much simplified to cope with Real Time.
I have to give credit in that it's one of the most successful at mixing the 2 genres.

I won't argue in favor of SoaSE as a game as a whole because we all know what happens here when we do start on that argument.

[Desih]

Actually I don't know what happens xD

I agree that the tech tree is bloated. There is a lot of stuff that could be tweaked, combined or removed.
I've been giving Sins a rest for the past while, and just been playing a lot of Paradox games. Right now, whenever I play a game, it's tie between Crusader Kings, TR 2.1 (Of Course), LoL, Europa 4, and DayZ. (Not all the same genres, I know.)

I usually play more Grand Strategy Games then 4X though

[tlmiller]

I play mostly TR 2.1, AOE II HD, some SOGE although haven't in a while, and once in a while if I can keep it running for more than 10 minutes without crashing and burning Star Wars Rebellion.  I think I grew up in the wrong age, when games replay value and stability was paramount, and not just how pretty the graphics were.

[Corey]

I won't argue in favor of SoaSE as a game as a whole because we all know what happens here when we do start on that argument.

You're missing some context on that.