Seeking game recommendations

Hey duders… I don’t know about y’all but this lockdown situation has left me with many interminable hours with not much to do, so I’m looking for game recommendations based on the following criteria:

-I like city building games (I have cities skylines and wrung all the fun I think I can muster from it)

-I love the campaign mode of the total war games (especially Empire)

-I’m okay with the civ games (I own IV)

-my favourite moments in all games are the beginnings of a.o.e. and rise of nations, with the nomad setting on, to scout out a place on the map to start my civilization.

Not a fan of combat in most strategy games but I guess the style I find most tolerable are Xcom/Advance Wars style combat. But I’d be fine with a game that had zero combat…

I’m looking for PC games that can scratch that sort of itch that came out between 2004 and 2012… though I can be persuaded to try something… somewhat older…

I’d love to hear your suggestions, thanks!

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Check out Factorio, Rimworld, Banished, Frostpunk, the Tropico series, and maybe Stardew Valley.

This guy stole my recs. Also check out the Anno series. A new one just came out but they have a variety of them, historical to sci-fi, and they're really all about supply chains and resources.

I will also plug Evil Genius (which came out in... 04!) with the overhaul mod. Graphic still look great and it's still fun. i think Children of the Nile still holds up pretty well even if its missing some life to the overall package compared to modern takes. I would also theoretically suggest Kenshi although it has combat so if you can get past that part it has a lot of management and builder aspects. I haven't played it yet but might grab it soon.

@audreyedtodeath: cities skylines is having a free weekend on steam this weekend

Best city builder out there these days. Took Simcity’s crown

They've got ridiculous learning curves, but I think Crusader Kings II or Europa Universalis IV might be worth a look if you like the campaign modes in Total War games. CK II in particular really deemphasizes combat compared to most big strategy games.

@banefirelord: I actually got CK II a couple years ago but found it totally impenetrable :/

I really should have emphasized that little detail at the bottom more because that’s the itch I really want to scratch. You know how some people like RPGs for just creating characters? I like strategy games for starting settlements :O

@stephen_von_cloud: for children of the Nile do you get to… umm… choose where along the Nile you want to set up shop? That kinda seems like it’s right up my alley if you can…

Try the Tropico games! They're really well done.

@colonel_pockets: I’ve always been curious about that series, but can you describe the opening of a playthrough of it for me? I really want to be the person who places all the stuff, I don’t just want to click on a node and pick a building from a list :/

@audreyedtodeath: To my memory it has a campaign (similar to other builder games out there mostly) and a free mode. I believe you get to choose different areas and maybe have multiple settlements going? I played it when it came out and again probably 3 years ago and still really liked it but its been long enough I forget some details. It's enjoyable and way less finicky than other historical builders of that period.

Just checking over your responses and post, I do think you should check out Anno. Those games are all about expansion from my experience, often by sea between different islands looking for resources, and I believe you can basically turn combat off, with it not being too big of a part anyways. You build new settlements quite often in the ones I've played but it all is building to something bigger. Like each may be a little map of its own but you are building a whole network.

This isn't the most recent game, or the best in the series, but just to give you an idea if you haven't seen it. Although I do have to say with all this said I am not a huge fan of the series, for reasons I can't fully put my finger on. Seems like I should like the historical ones more. I think because it has so much of a pure economic focus. I do like Tropico as mentioned by others as well and I do think the new one has an island expansion kind of thing going on as well.

@stephen_von_cloud: this is gonna sound crazy but I actually listen to the Anno 14…something soundtrack when I’m playing AoE :D

(I’ve never played any of them but it comes up in YouTube searches for AoE music and it’s just good strategy game music in general…)

I should give one of those games a shot, but I’m definitely going to give Children of the Nile a shot!

@audreyedtodeath:hope you like CotN. I think its still great, wish they made more stuff just like it. And it really is a huge step up from previous historical city builders. I don't know if you ever tried those, games like Pharaoh and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom by Impressions, but they are entirely about cramming things as close as possible together and puzzling out roads and routes of units along them. Extremely maddening to me. No real life or creativity to them.

@stephen_von_cloud: I’ve never really fused my appreciation for strategy games with my appreciation for sim city style games… someone I dated in high school was way into a city builder set in… Ancient Rome? I think? And they’d always make fun of me when they’d see me playing SC3KU… which was more my style at the time… and now you know how old I am :p

But I don’t wanna get stuck with the Seven Hills or whatever, I want to pick my spot on the map! It took me a while to realize that that’s what I liked about PUBG… I normally am not into multiplayer shooters…

Hi Duder

If you're up for something more humorous and probably you've already seen Vinny play Satisfactory before, that might scratch the builder itch. Combat is present but definitely not a primary focus of the game.

I've had a tonne of fun running huge stretches of conveyor belts, being obsessive about building symmetry and remodeling my factories on the fly.

Granted it's still in early access, so if you're the type to solely focus on one game at a time you might exhaust it's content in a short time.

Regardless, keep entertained, safe and healthy this Easter/Passover/excuse for a break!