Our strategy gaming enthusiasts provide a comprehensive guide to games that scratch the Civilization itch, breaking down recommendations by what specifically draws players to the genre – from city building and historical progression to turn-based empire management and fantasy 4X experiences, offering tailored suggestions for every type of strategy gamer.
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This episode serves as the ultimate buyer’s guide for strategy gamers seeking alternatives to Civilization 7, with Joe, Adam, and Tim systematically exploring options across multiple categories. From city builders like Cities Skylines and Anno 1800 to grand strategy titans like Victoria 3 and Stellaris, the hosts provide detailed insights into what makes each game unique and which aspects of Civilization they best replicate or improve upon. The discussion covers everything from beginner-friendly options to complex simulation games, ensuring every listener finds their next strategic obsession.
Critical Moves Podcast – Episode 21 Show Notes
Episode Title: Civ VII Sucks, So Play These Instead
Hosts: Joe, Adam, Timothy
Episode Length: ~46 minutes
Episode Summary
With Civilization 7’s controversial changes leaving many players seeking alternatives, the Critical Moves team delivers a comprehensive guide to strategy games that capture different aspects of what makes Civilization appealing. Joe leads the discussion while Adam and Tim provide expertise across various subgenres, systematically exploring city builders, historical progression games, turn-based empire management, and 4X alternatives. The conversation reveals the rich diversity of strategy gaming beyond the Civilization franchise, offering specific recommendations based on what elements players most enjoy about the genre.
City Builder Alternatives: Building Your Dream Society
Cities Skylines: The Urban Planning Simulator
Tim positions Cities Skylines as the premier choice for players drawn to Civilization’s city-building aspects, emphasizing its realistic approach to urban planning and logistics management. The game transforms players into urban designers, requiring careful consideration of traffic flow, public transportation networks, zoning laws, and infrastructure development without the pressures of military conquest or diplomatic intrigue.
The game’s appeal lies in its problem-solving nature, where players must balance competing needs like residential development, commercial growth, and industrial expansion while managing environmental concerns and citizen happiness. Tim highlights the popular community practice of recreating real cities and experimenting with alternative urban planning solutions, such as replacing highway systems with metro networks to observe traffic pattern changes.
Cities Skylines represents pure city-building without the strategic complexity that can overwhelm players who simply want to design and manage urban spaces. The game’s modding community provides extensive customization options, enabling players to create highly detailed and personalized urban environments.
Tropico: Caribbean Dictator with Personality
Joe champions Tropico as the perfect blend of city building and personality-driven gameplay, where players assume the role of El Presidente managing a Caribbean island nation through various historical periods. The game distinguishes itself from sterile city builders by imbuing every citizen with individual lives, aspirations, and reactions to presidential decisions.
The series’ strength lies in its ability to make players emotionally invested in individual citizens’ stories, allowing them to follow families through generations and observe how governmental policies affect personal lives. This human element transforms abstract city management into personal narratives about prosperity, oppression, and social change.
Tropico’s humour and light-hearted approach to serious political themes creates accessibility without sacrificing strategic depth. Players must balance competing factions, manage international relations, develop tourism industries, and navigate the moral complexities of authoritarian rule while maintaining the support necessary to remain in power.
Anno 1800: Economic Simulation Excellence
Adam’s passionate endorsement of Anno 1800 reveals a game that pushes city building toward economic simulation complexity, requiring players to master intricate supply chains and resource management across multiple islands. The game represents the pinnacle of the Anno franchise’s evolution, combining beautiful presentation with demanding strategic challenges that can overwhelm unprepared players.
The series’ strength lies in its procedural generation system that creates unique scenarios for each playthrough, forcing players to adapt their strategies based on available resources, island configurations, and competitive pressures. This randomization ensures that players cannot rely on memorized strategies, maintaining engagement across multiple campaigns.
Anno 1800’s real-time nature creates urgency absent from turn-based strategy games, with crises like fires, supply shortages, or economic collapses demanding immediate attention. This time pressure appeals to players who enjoy multitasking and crisis management but may frustrate those who prefer the contemplative pace of traditional turn-based strategy.
Historical Progression Games: Through the Ages
Empire Earth: RTS Evolution Through Time
Tim’s advocacy for Empire Earth centres on its ambitious scope, taking players from the Stone Age through futuristic eras within individual matches. The game captures one of Civilization’s most appealing elements – technological and social progression – while delivering it through real-time strategy mechanics that create different pacing and decision-making pressures.
The game’s appeal lies in witnessing direct unit evolution, watching primitive warriors transform into modern soldiers and eventually futuristic mechs within single battles. This progression creates emotional investment in technological advancement while providing clear visual feedback on strategic development choices.
Empire Earth’s campaign modes provide structured historical narratives that guide players through different eras and civilizations, offering educational value alongside entertainment. The game’s customizable civilization system allows players to create unique combinations of cultural bonuses while maintaining historical authenticity through visual and technological evolution.
Paradox Grand Strategy: Deep Historical Simulation
The discussion reveals Paradox games as the ultimate destination for players who want to dive deep into specific historical periods, with each title offering unprecedented detail and authenticity within its chosen timeframe. Crusader Kings focuses on medieval dynasty management, Europa Universalis covers the Age of Exploration, Victoria 3 examines industrial revolution economics, and Hearts of Iron depicts World War II military strategy.
Adam and Tim highlight the interconnected nature of these games through the mega-campaign concept, where players can theoretically guide a single nation from medieval times through space colonization by transferring save games between titles. This ambitious scope demonstrates how different games can complement each other to create comprehensive historical experiences.
The hosts emphasize how each Paradox game teaches historical lessons through gameplay, with Victoria 3 particularly noted for demonstrating the complexity of social and economic reform. Players discover how different interest groups resist change, why certain policies fail despite good intentions, and how technological advancement affects social structures.
Victoria 3: Economic and Social Revolution
Joe’s enthusiasm for Victoria 3 stems from its sophisticated modelling of 19th-century industrialization, where players must navigate the complex relationships between technological progress, social change, and economic development. The game transforms abstract economic concepts into engaging gameplay through detailed population modelling and realistic interest group dynamics.
The game’s strength lies in its educational value, demonstrating why certain historical changes occurred and why others failed. Players experience first-hand the challenges facing historical leaders trying to modernize their societies while managing competing interests from aristocrats, industrialists, workers, and intellectuals.
Victoria 3’s pause-and-play mechanics create a hybrid between real-time and turn-based strategy, allowing players to contemplate complex decisions while maintaining momentum. This system accommodates both careful planners who want to analyse every decision and action-oriented players who prefer continuous progression.
Turn-Based Empire Management: Strategic Depth
Total War: Epic Battles and Empire Building
Tim’s discussion of Total War games reveals their unique position as hybrids between turn-based empire management and real-time tactical combat. The series offers something for every historical interest, from ancient Rome and medieval Europe to Napoleonic warfare and fantasy Warhammer battles.
The hosts emphasize the importance of choosing Total War games based on preferred historical periods and fantasy tolerance, with Warhammer titles offering extensive magic and hero systems while historical entries focus on authentic military tactics and empire management. Napoleon Total War receives special mention for its unique naval combat system.
However, they warn that Total War games heavily emphasize military conflict over city building, making them unsuitable for players who prefer Civilization’s peaceful development options. The series assumes players enjoy tactical combat and military strategy as primary gameplay elements.
Age of Wonders 4: Fantasy Evolution and Magic
Joe’s analysis of Age of Wonders 4 highlights its innovative approach to civilization development through magical transformation rather than technological advancement. Players can fundamentally alter their societies by adopting traits that transform citizens into plant people, giants, dwarves, or other fantastical beings.
This transformation system creates unique replay value as different evolutionary paths lead to dramatically different gameplay experiences. The randomized trait selection ensures that players cannot repeat identical strategies, encouraging experimentation and adaptation.
The game’s condensed timeframe focuses on magical and social evolution rather than historical progression, appealing to players who enjoy fantasy themes and character customization over realistic historical simulation. Combat receives more attention than in Civilization, requiring players to engage with tactical battle systems.
Endless Space 2: Streamlined Space 4X
Tim describes Endless Space 2 as perhaps the closest alternative to Civilization’s core experience, transplanting familiar mechanics into a space setting with polished presentation and streamlined complexity. The game provides the 4X experience – explore, expand, exploit, exterminate – without the overwhelming complexity of some alternatives.
The game’s accessibility makes it suitable for players seeking Civilization-like experiences without investing extensive time in learning complex systems. However, Tim notes that this simplicity may not satisfy players seeking deeper strategic challenges or more innovative gameplay mechanics.
Endless Space 2’s space setting allows for creative faction design and unique technologies while maintaining familiar victory conditions and progression systems that Civilization players will recognize immediately.
Pure 4X Alternatives: Exploring the Genre
Spell Force: Conquest of Eo – Hidden Gem Excellence
Adam’s passionate recommendation of Spell Force: Conquest of Eo reveals a game that combines elements from Age of Wonders, Heroes of Might and Magic, and traditional 4X strategy into a unique fantasy experience. His description of staying awake all night playing suggests exceptional engagement and replay value.
The game’s focus on hero development combined with traditional 4X empire building creates a personalized experience where players invest in character progression alongside territorial expansion. This dual focus provides both intimate character development and grand strategic planning.
Adam’s emphasis on the game’s hidden gem status suggests that exceptional strategy games can succeed without massive marketing budgets or widespread recognition. His recommendation carries weight given his extensive board game collection and strategic gaming expertise.
Old World: Ancient Era Focus
The hosts identify Old World as the most direct Civilization alternative, focusing exclusively on ancient and classical periods that typically serve as early game tutorials in other 4X games. By concentrating on this historical period, Old World provides depth and complexity to eras that other games rush through.
This focused approach allows for more detailed simulation of ancient politics, religion, and social structures without the design challenges of spanning thousands of years of technological development. Players can fully explore ancient civilization mechanics without worrying about medieval or modern era transitions.
The game appeals particularly to players who find Civilization’s ancient era most engaging but wish it lasted longer and offered more strategic depth before technological advancement changes gameplay fundamentals.
Shadow Empire: Complexity Warning
The hosts’ collective admission that none have successfully started Shadow Empire despite multiple attempts highlights the barriers facing extremely complex strategy games. Their comparison to Dwarf Fortress suggests exceptional depth paired with intimidating learning curves.
This discussion reveals the tension between strategic depth and accessibility in modern game design. While some players crave unprecedented complexity and simulation detail, others find such games impractical given time constraints and learning requirements.
Shadow Empire’s cult following indicates that audiences exist for extremely complex strategy games, but mainstream success requires balancing depth with approachability – a challenge that few developers successfully navigate.
Failed Civilization Challengers: Learning from Attempts
Humankind: Civilization Clone Struggles
Tim’s assessment of Humankind reveals the challenges facing direct Civilization competitors, noting that the game provides familiar 4X experiences without offering compelling reasons to choose it over the established franchise. The civilization-switching mechanics that mirror Civilization 7’s controversial changes failed to create engagement for Joe.
The discussion suggests that successful Civilization alternatives must either focus on specific elements (like city building or combat) or offer genuinely innovative mechanics rather than attempting to replicate the entire Civilization experience with minor variations.
Humankind’s reception demonstrates market difficulties facing games that position themselves as direct competitors to established franchises without clear differentiation or improvement over existing options.
Millennia: Ugly but Interesting
Adam’s brutally honest assessment of Millennia as “hideous” despite being mechanically sound illustrates how presentation affects game reception regardless of underlying quality. His observation that the development team remains intact suggests potential for improvement in future iterations.
The game’s age-changing mechanics, allowing entry into magical or post-apocalyptic eras based on player actions, represent genuine innovation that could distinguish it from traditional historical progression systems. These alternative timelines provide narrative variety absent from strictly historical games.
Adam’s comparison to Civilization’s evolution from the poorly received first game to the acclaimed second entry suggests that ambitious games sometimes require multiple iterations to achieve their potential, with initial releases serving as expensive beta tests.
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Episode Verdict
This episode succeeds as both a comprehensive buyer’s guide and a celebration of strategy gaming’s diversity beyond the Civilization franchise. The hosts effectively organize their recommendations by specific player preferences rather than attempting universal rankings, acknowledging that different players seek different experiences from strategy games. Joe’s structured approach ensures thorough coverage while Adam and Tim’s expertise provides authentic enthusiasm and detailed insights. The discussion reveals how various games excel in specific areas – from Cities Skylines’ urban planning focus to Victoria 3’s economic complexity – rather than attempting to be everything to everyone. The conversation’s strength lies in helping listeners identify what specifically they enjoy about Civilization and directing them toward games that excel in those particular areas, suggesting that the strategy genre’s health comes from specialization rather than homogenization.
Next Episode: Can You Lead? Luke Hughes on the Emotional Weight of Burden of Command
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