Shadow Empire is a very in depth niche grand strategy game
It has a bit of a learning curve to it but you can pick up the basics easily and learn as things progressively get more complex with the technologies you possess.
Combat, logistics, and zone development are all very fun, central aspects of the game. Each type of weapon, besides its own statistics, has its own way of fighting and targetting with APCs/trucks being able to take the hit in place of whatever they were transporting or artillery dealing maluses to each unit they hit in the combat simulation. It makes synergy play a massive role in army composition which is a huge plus that MOST GRAND STRATEGY GAMES LACK. Seriously, why is combined arms so damn rare? Why do so many games have mass formations of pure tanks steamrolling pure infantry? This game gets it right like HOI4 does but makes your choices feel more simulated and impactful.
While the art style is quirky and reminds me a lot of older games I used to enjoy, there are many mods by talented artists that add a lot of personality and a feeling of grandeur that honestly is hard to come by.

There are a few issues I have with the game though that I'd like to point out.
1. Staffing and military organization is really weird most of the time and it is difficult to properly design a fun army to play with. You discover hundreds of preset army organizations very few of which are interchangable making reorganizing your army a headache. Additionally, support companies are unlocked via the political system and rolled out at random to units.
2. The political system is weird and based 100% on random decisions you make with ephemeral changes to the political landscape. Rather than events that give you strong changes to your policy and law affecting your disposition, it is stuff like "oh a bunch of sexual deviants from a neighboring region need asylum. Accept for -10 government economics, decline for -10 commercial/private economics" a dozen times each turn temporarily affecting the score?
3. You don't outfit your infantry with MGs, RPGs, MANPADS, etc. Lorewise the infantry has a few but you don't get to design and rollout the equipment to infantry companies. It would be nice if that stuff could be merged into the companies when you design the model.
4. Setting up a planet to play on is tedious. You have to re-roll countless times because all of the factors from how toxic the air is to whether or not it has edible alien life is 100% random and there's no way to teeter it to what you want or need

Last one is nitpicky but I wish farms only levelled forests and made agricultural terrain to a radius of 1 hex rather than 3. Levels all the beautiful nature in the region just to feed 30000 people? Silly

Despite these drawbacks, I wholeheartedly love this game <3

Shadow Empire is a very in depth niche grand strategy game It has a bit of a learning curve to it but you can pick up the basics easily and learn as things progressively get more complex with the technologies you possess. Combat, logistics, and zone development are all very fun, central aspects of the game. Each type of weapon, besides its own statistics, has its own way of fighting and targetting with APCs/trucks being able to take the hit in place of whatever they were transporting or artillery dealing maluses to each unit they hit in the combat simulation. It makes synergy play a massive role in army composition which is a huge plus that MOST GRAND STRATEGY GAMES LACK. Seriously, why is combined arms so damn rare? Why do so many games have mass formations of pure tanks steamrolling pure infantry? This game gets it right like HOI4 does but makes your choices feel more simulated and impactful. While the art style is quirky and reminds me a lot of older games I used to enjoy, there are many mods by talented artists that add a lot of personality and a feeling of grandeur that honestly is hard to come by. There are a few issues I have with the game though that I'd like to point out. 1. Staffing and military organization is really weird most of the time and it is difficult to properly design a fun army to play with. You discover hundreds of preset army organizations very few of which are interchangable making reorganizing your army a headache. Additionally, support companies are unlocked via the political system and rolled out at random to units. 2. The political system is weird and based 100% on random decisions you make with ephemeral changes to the political landscape. Rather than events that give you strong changes to your policy and law affecting your disposition, it is stuff like "oh a bunch of sexual deviants from a neighboring region need asylum. Accept for -10 government economics, decline for -10 commercial/private economics" a dozen times each turn temporarily affecting the score? 3. You don't outfit your infantry with MGs, RPGs, MANPADS, etc. Lorewise the infantry has a few but you don't get to design and rollout the equipment to infantry companies. It would be nice if that stuff could be merged into the companies when you design the model. 4. Setting up a planet to play on is tedious. You have to re-roll countless times because all of the factors from how toxic the air is to whether or not it has edible alien life is 100% random and there's no way to teeter it to what you want or need Last one is nitpicky but I wish farms only levelled forests and made agricultural terrain to a radius of 1 hex rather than 3. Levels all the beautiful nature in the region just to feed 30000 people? Silly Despite these drawbacks, I wholeheartedly love this game <3