Are there any strategy games that capture the early game exploration feel really well?
This early aspect of the game where most of the map is within the fog of war and you just have few units with which you can explore is my favorite phase in games like Civilization and hell, even in shit like Broodwar.
I wonder if there is some game that really focuses on this early game aspect of uncovering the map. Bonus points for if there are hostile creeps etc cluttered around the map so that uncovering more of it is more involved than just moving units around.
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Stellaris is great with it. Some might even argue it's the only good part of the game.
Stellaris is kind of too large scale in terms of scop for me to properly get the vibe from it that I am looking for. The early game exploration in it is cool, sure, but it is still taking place in space, you finding anomalies in new solar systems etc, instead of your small tribe of people or whatever exploring an unknown environment, facing dangerous beasts or hostile tribes inhabiting the land etc.
Basically I am looking for a game where I have to lead a small group in a quest of trying to survive and establish themselves in an unknown and hazardous land.
Oregon Trail and it's many successors
>Basically I am looking for a game where I have to lead a small group in a quest of trying to survive and establish themselves in an unknown and hazardous land.
That's sounds exactly like entire Kenshi
Sure, if he'd like to find nothing and do nothing
I dunno how Thea only gets mentioned between the lines here when it's a perfect fit. 1 and 2.
Arguably darkest dungeon.
Against the Storm in some way.
Organ Trail is underrated kino
Civilization or Shadow Empire, those are the ones with great exploration
In Stellaris you get bombarded with events when exploring and ultimately its not that exciting in general
>explore left or right?
endless legend, get community patch
What does the community patch do? I have endless legend but I haven't played it in ages
https://endlesslegend.fandom.com/wiki/Endless_Legend_Community_Patch
colonization might scratch your itch mate
>get seasoned scout
>tell him to auto explore
>don't have to think about him for the rest of the game
The only "good" exploration bit is right at the very start when you sail up and down the coast for a bit looking for a non-shit settling spot.
Get the We The People mod and stop being a lazy autoexplore homosexual when you, you know, want to explore the map for frick's sake
SMAC maybe?
Smac is kinda the ideal but it is so old that I kinda am annoyed to play it, plus I have basically seen all it has to offer because I played the shit out of it in my teens
they are billions is fun early game
I find it a little frustrating establishing your base as you push to build your first commie blocks with no walls/limited chokes.
I liked exploratory aspects in AoE3, Ancient Conquest, Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, Egypt: Old Kingdom, HoMM series, Majesty, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, Seedship, Space Rangers 2, Slipways, Caravaneer, Jagged Alliance, Renowned Explorers, Backpack Hero, Pathway (that game was overall disappointing though).
I also saw anons enjoy Against the Storm, Thea 2, King of Dragon Pass and Curious Expedition (the first game, not the second).
>Egypt: Old Kingdom
underrated gem
>Egypt: Old Kingdom
overrated coal
Fallen Enchantress and SpellForce may interest you, but they're somewhat RPG-inclined.
Fallen Enchantress is like a mix of HoMM and Civilization, while SpellForce is a lite RTS with lite RPG elements.
Then there are Empire Earth campaigns, which are narratively-focused but reward exploration and are generally interesting to discover new settlements and story points.
There's also Thea, but didn't like that one and not really that much of a strategy game.
Actually playing Spellforce Conquest of Eo right now. It is somewhat close to the type of exploration gameplay I like.
Civ 4 Fall from Heaven early game barbarians make life real rough
Pre-dynasty Egypt
Europa Universalis IV
>eu4
it's good if you're underaged and dont know basic geography
or you randomize the new world i guess
>a game set on a world map let's you have fun exploring
uhhhhh anon, are you in middle school?
He probably meant with that mode that randomly generates a different Americas.
Anyway, once you've played a game with fun exploration a couple of times, you've seen most of what can be seen and get an idea for how the game generates the map everytime and you'll eventually forget how fun exploring was initially.
Age of mythology
Is there any game that lets you get a tech lead over everyone to the extent that Civ 2 did? I remember having aircraft carriers against injuns n shiet.
Doesn't every Civ game allow you to do that?
I primarily play Civ IV, and on Noble I easily out-tech everyone. Only at Monarch and up do I meet my match.
You can beeline techs using very specific slingshot strategies that have been developed through almost 2 decades at this point.
Aside from that, someone called "WastinTime" actually performed a spaceship launch in 210 BC and won the game with a spaceship victory at 60 AD.
He did this using a strategy named "Wonderbread".
Basically, he converted food into production through "whipping" (slavery mechanic), which he then invested into building wonders.
But he didn't actually build the wonders. He de-queued the wonder and queued it again in another city just before it was finished.
He did this 8-10 times until some other civilization built the wonder first.
What does this do? Well, if another civilization beats you at building a wonder, you get "fail gold", meaning you are compensated for the production that went into the unfinished wonders that in your cities.
This strategy was boosted by bonuses that increase wonder production, such as a specific resource or a civ bonus.
He manged to get 3500 gold in 2000 BC.
He used that gold to settle tons of cities from which he produced great people to bulb specific research and create corporations.
The full thread is here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/lets-play-deity-bc-space-strategies-from-a-10-year-veteran.574724/
Keep in mind that Deity is ridiculously difficult in this entry to the civ series.
Sid Meier's Colonization/freecol
Not strictly a strategy game (I mean, sort of), but Curious Expedition.
Humankind has a well done early game.
Its the only thing it did right
also Spore
I second Shadow Empire. Hex and counter wargame with procedural worlds.
I wish it wasn't a war game and just leaned fully in to the sci-fi post collapse society builder stuff.
Running a horrible little Stalinist city-state of 80,000 people on a frozen empty ball of ice is so kino.
Caveman2Cosmos' prehistoric era makes the map very hostile with big cats and sharks easily killing your early scouts. Barbarian stacks are also a genuine threat and you can't build cities until several techs in.
Age of Wonders 3 almost plays like an RPG in the early turns.
Patrician taste, fren.