Best War/Empire Games

[Shryan]

I love war games. My favorite right now has to be Rome: Total War. It has instilled in me a new desire to conquer the globe and not just the old roman empire.

That said, I'm trying to find a pc game that has the same general board game format as Rome and Risk 2 without the 3-d battles that takes place in a modern time. I guess it doesn't have to be modern; but it at least must have navy and ground troops. A modern one with air units would be awesome.

I like the individual turn style as opposed to the real-time conquering. Any one have any suggestions for pc games of these types?

-Thanks

[simple_inhibition]

hearts of iron 2 doomsday
review 1
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/786/786526/imgs_1.html

[Capper]

Rome:Total War is an awesome game, very involved, very addictive.
I was also a big Command and Conquer fan

[gvblake22]

I like the Dune games a lot. I've played through Emperor: Battle for Dune several times on every difficulty with each house; still one of my favorite games.

[Mithosphere]

well, lets see, rts games right? well Rise of Nations is a goodie, along with the expansion pack (thrones and patriots) and then the latest game Rise of Legends. Both games have you conquering the world map in a Risk-ish style. Essentially they take you through each age, like Ancient, information, modern, gunpowder, enlightenment, i think there are a total of 10 or 11 ages, and with each age brings better technology and other nifty things.
http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/

And if youre really feelin adventurous, id say to take a swing at Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and the expansion pack Winter Assualt. Man its an awesome game, its from the Warhammer 40k universe so you get to play as Space Marines, Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Imperial Guard, and in the upcoming release the Necron. Its definitely a real time game though, but man all mighty the graphics are great, full 3-d camera, like you can zoom into a single Marine that takes up the entire screen, or pan out to the entire battle. Additionally there are some cool mods that you can download for free, one is called total war, this allows you to have essentially epic sized battles, much like Rome Total War, just with Fire Prisms and Ork Flamers.
http://www.dawnofwargame.com/homepage.php

Both games have excellent multiplayer, well, depending upon how many people are playing, it can take anywheres on average from 20 min to 5 hours (also considering skill of players involved).

[Shryan]

Thanks guys! I'll have to take a look at these suggestions. I just ordered the Babrbarian expansion pack for Rome. I'm hoping tat'll give me a few days of fun!

[Tyreal]

I've always loved the Total War series. In fact, sometimes I still pop in the old Shogun Total War to have some old school RTS fun.

[yurimxpxman]

I've stayed out of this thread until now because I thought I'd never played enough War/Empire games to recommend one. But I just realized that Star Wars Battlefront II is not only an Empire game but a war game as well! It's really fun! You have to check it out! 8)

[drew and not u]

Yeah the total war series is my favorite, nothing like storming Rome on elephant back. I have Dawn of war and I was kinda disapointed. I think they could have done alot more, and were misleading about the customization.