Looking for a strategy game as a beginner

[Ezekiel_Meron]

I'm looking to try out some strategy games, but not RTS style. Europa Universalis and Victoria 3 was warmly recommended and I like how they are looking like. But being a relatively new player in the genre, could it be too overwhelming to start with?
I've also been looking into Total War and recently announced Kaiserpunk. First looks to be more combined with real time strategy, and Kaiserpunk looks to be a global strategy game merged with Anno style production game.
Any thoughts on what would be the best place to start?

[Venus]

It will certainly take some time to learn how to play the game, I am 500+ hours into Eu4 and I can't even tell you how some things work. Paradox strategy games have a lot of mechanics and systems that you need to learn, but once you have learned the basics you should be fine to learn the rest as you go along. If you ever struggle you can always try watching youtube videos, they are a great resource for learning some strategies on playing the game.

Also in terms of where to start I have always found Crusader Kings to be a relatively easy game to learn. If you enjoy the medieval era and roleplaying as a dynasty then it is certainly something you should look in to.

[QTV]

I went into EU4 not having played any 4x or grand strategy games. It was quite rough getting into EU4 without any familiarity, but not impossible. Best 2k hours of learning I had.

[Rialm]

what type of strategy game? if it's a 4X then Civ 6, it's really easy to understand. if you are talking about RTS Warhammer Retribution, and then people like Total war. Grand strategy game, the easiest to understand is Stellaris and CK3. But they are so different. EU4 is not difficult, it looks complex because there are a bunch of buttons, but if you understand the basics you can jump in with no problem at all.

[D-Black Catto]

it doesn't matter if you are new because every game has different mechanics and you need to learn it from the scratch anyway

[Big Moustache]

If you are new to strategy gaming, best skip Paradox titles. It is overly complicated for beginners and if you can not micro manage well enough, it's game over.
I recommend Battlefleet Gothic armada for getting into it. The campaign is easy to understand what you must do. And stampeding a battleship through a cluster of scout ships never gets old 😂

[dbond1]

This is a question I think that revolves more around the player. Some people are naturally fit for a game like this, others are not. Only the OP can know for sure. But you'd need to try it to know. Our posts and opinions won't do it.

I'm a big Total War fan and Civ too. All of these are great games/series. But of these three, EU IV is the most dense. Paradox does a marvelous job of putting everything you need to know to play in the tool tips. But there is far more to learn and understand in EU than the others.

I think all three would be good choices. I'm less of a fan of Stellaris than others might be. I got in at release and liked it, but eventually hated the combat and shelved it. To be fair I've not given it another shake and that game has expanded massively so is probably better today.

Crusader Kings/2/3 is good too but not really my cuppa. But it did lead me to EU IV and that's fine.

Not knowing anything about the OP, I'd recklessly recommend Total War first, but I'd hate to think a potential good EU IV player were missing out. Maybe buy the base game in the sale, give it a go and you'll know in a few hours if it suits you.

[Jean-Maurice Nya]

Alpha Centauri. Simple, efficient, atmospheric. Being turn based it suits beginners.
If you're looking for a strategy game that implies leading a country/faction/... It could be something like Commandos/Desperados/Invisible,Inc.

[Mars Junior]

It could certainly feel overwhelming, but my recommendation would be to watch a few guides. You'll see how laid out the game is now. Mission trees guide you to your next step as well as the "estates." When I started learning I also did not care about ironman mode. It is perfectly fine to learn the game with the console to correct your mistakes. You learn from the mistake and continue to make more mistake, but your game is never actually over when playing with the console open.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Fragoos:

If you are new to strategy gaming, best skip Paradox titles. It is overly complicated for beginners and if you can not micro manage well enough, it's game over.

I agree. I'd recommend the Civilization series. You start with a couple units that become a single city and scale up from there. Unless you crank the difficulty way up, it's an easy 4x strategy game with a very gentle learning curve.

[Lord Kraken]

I agree with Marquoz regarding the Civilization games. My grandson played and enjoyed Civ 5 at age 6 a few years ago, with a little help from his grandfather. He missed a lot of the nuanaces that an older player would have glommed on to, but it hooked him on strategy games. He is looking forwrd to EU4 when he is 10+, which is maybe a little ambitious. ( :

[Ezekiel_Meron]

Well I will definitely jump into some YouTube videos to see how the things work in EU4, this really interests me as a game and as a concept.

But I will try EU4 for sure soon, I already bought it!!

And you say Crusader Kings and Civilisation are good way for me to get introduced to strategy games genre? I will try to check it out too.

[Jean-Maurice Nya]

If you go for the Civ series, go for 2 and 3 if you want to stick with basics although I do recommend Alpha Centauri because it's Civilization in space but with an underlying story through a pretty original content.
4-5-6 have mechanics of their own. I prefer the 4 for a more interesting warfare part, but the other two are fine. You could go for Beyond Earth as an Alpha Centauri 2 and relies on the Civ V engine. Not as atmospheric but fine enough.

Crusader King will be harsher than Civ considering you'll have to manage a dynasty as well as countries, it has more layers. I recommend Europa Universalis III instead. As for one of their latest, Imperator: Rome kept most mechanics simple even though pop management can be overwhelming at first. Civ 5-6 are more accessible on that matter.

[dbond1]

Everyone has their own opinion, and I would say play 5 or 6, skip the earlier games.

Civ 5 is the one to play if

-- You want decent warfare out of the AI
-- You want mechanics that both reward and restrict tall/wide play

Civ 6 if those two things are not high on the priority list. For me Civ 6 is the best installment in the series. But they got it wrong with how the AI goes about building and using combat units. I know plenty of people will recommend Civ 4, but for me that's a big step back if only for the switch to one unit per tile. My opinion only.

I don't know if I'd recommend Crusader Kings as an entry level strategy game, but again, it all comes down to the player.

[darkestkhan]

Originally posted by dbond1:

Everyone has their own opinion, and I would say play 5 or 6, skip the earlier games.

Civ 5 is the one to play if

-- You want decent warfare out of the AI
-- You want mechanics that both reward and restrict tall/wide play

Civ 6 if those two things are not high on the priority list. For me Civ 6 is the best installment in the series. But they got it wrong with how the AI goes about building and using combat units. I know plenty of people will recommend Civ 4, but for me that's a big step back if only for the switch to one unit per tile. My opinion only.

I don't know if I'd recommend Crusader Kings as an entry level strategy game, but again, it all comes down to the player.

An entry-level RTS? That would be Age of Empires. Entry-level grand strategy game? Not sure, maybe Stellaris (it is relatively simple). Entry level 4X? Civilization. Or Endless Legends.

CK is definitely not an entry-level game.

This is of course assuming you even need an entry-level game.

[Big Moustache]

I played Civ 3. Early and midgame are fun. Than it becomes a race for the bomb. I like the early industrial period best. When swords are switched for fire arms.
And having a agressive Ghandi as neighbour was hilarious

If you want a awesome game that plays like Civ series but has space marines and tyrranids: Warhammer 40k Gladius: Relics of war. This game also start from single tile and found a base. Than conquer map. You can team up or go solo. Combat is brutal and satisfying.