Thanks again!

Rise of Nations is a great game.. bit dated though.

As for Medieval II, this looks very promising. I have only played the ROME : Total War and didn't enjoy it at all as it was lacking in various areas. But Medieval looks enjoyable and has some great reviews. Sad that you don't have a multiplayer campaign mode though. Perhaps there's a patch out for this, not sure. Either way, with the support mentioned above of new mods still coming out it seems to be greatly supported.

This entire issue of me searching for an "empire builder / RTS" originated so that a friend and myself can have some real EPIC scale world-domination type gameplay and battles. Though I think I will be checking out Medieval II for myself on the single player campaign, the epic multiplayer battles could at least settle some of our intrigue.

I've also read up on "Dawn of Discovery" which looks rather good, except once again no multiplayer - though I'll check out it's single player as well :)

Thanks for all the input everyone. If you read this post and think of another title which has somewhat better multiplayer support, feel free to let me know.

Again, thank you for the support in trying to find that 'special' title. It's nice to see the GameSpot community assist each other ;)

Lords of the Realm III is the one I was talking about being so buggy. I actually loved that game, still, didn't help crashing all the time or the units getting stuck in the wall for the entire battle.

Supreme commander is ok... I like the defensive buildings, I can stretch out a game for hours on that one - except no empire / civilization element. Its just the one map and there you go. Still fun though but not exactly what I am looking for...

... then again if I knew exactly what I was looking for, there wouldn't be a point to this thread :) hehe

As for Sins... what a waste of a game imho. I would much rather delve into Galactic Civilizations II (which I am doing), though the game type is correct I guess... except it needs to be on a planet instead of the universe :) hehe.

Yes I know.. I'm picky - like I said, I'm in a lull and don't know what I want to be playing. Something that makes me think, and can be played out on a lesuirly pace. I'm pretty much fed up with COD4 and DragonAge - which is the two games I now play mostly because I can't think of a nice Strategy to get my hands on.

Thanks for your input, keep them coming please ;)

Hi All,

Could you please bounce some ideas around... I'm in a bit of a lull at the moment.

I am seriously in the mood of a great strategy game - unfortunately, not the standard fast-paced mayhem we have lately.(WC3, C&C, SC, DoW)
In all honesty, I'm looking for something of a base/empire builder. Imagine Civilisation and Stonghold combined (if there is such a thing).
(and no, Not ROME series)

Civilisation alone is a bit boring for me after a while, though I love the research. Isn't there a game where you can just build your base / castle / kingdom / empire and defend defend defend?
A long time ago I had Lords of the Realm but that game was so buggy. And I didn't hear too many great things about Stronghold series.

I LOVED the strategy element of Company of Heroes. That was a bit slower paced, and you could really do strategies there... flanking, surprise attacks etc.
But again, that didn't have the base / empire building focus.

Anything out there that has elements of the following :

Civilisation / Company of Heroes / Research / Stronghold ??

Thanks

As you can see from the suggestions, you have a basic selection of +- 4 games.

Company of Heroes : World War II RTS, VERY immersive and extremely well thought out. (Actually installing it again now)

WarCraft 3 - ROC + TFT : Fantasy battles, magic and mayhem. Multiplayer is fast paced (usually)

Command and Conquer (3?) : Not a big C&C fan, I'm more a WC3 fanatic, but still a nice fast-paced sci-fi RTS

Age of Empires : Haven't played 3 yet, but I loved 1 & 2

Dawn of War Series : if you like WARHAMMER 40k at all, this is a definate must play.

I have 1 or 2 alternates as well...

World in Conflict,
Galactic Civilizations II (single player only)

(forgot about Starcraft!)

With that list you are bound to find a RTS gameplay type you will love. most of them have excellent single player, and fantastic multiplayer.

Personal recommendation will be Company of Heroes, you really feel part of the game, trying to save evey unit. Not like C&C where you just mass-produce.
The single player campaign is probably the best one I have experienced in a loooong time.

Sam, I'm not a Sport game fanatic, so I'll list the current games that I think are great (and even better than that :) )

Call of Duty 4 (FPS) - Definate MUST HAVE, even if you're not a fan of the genre, this is truly great (and addictive)
The Witcher (RPG)
The Orange Box (FPS/Puzzle)
World in Conflict (RTS)
Hellgate London(ACT-ADV/RPG/FPS)
Rainbow Six Vegas (FPS) - if you liked GoW, then you'll probably like this too...

Keep an eye out for these in the coming months / year...

Assassins Creed (PC)
Fallout 3
StarCraft II

...Crysis also has a lot of hype, though I haven't experienced the game personally, but worth a look at least.

Hope it helps...

Honestly, my 2 games that I switch between at the moment is Call of Duty 4 and The Witcher, both are really stunning games, looking at storyline, performance, addiction-rating, graphics, sound... well, pretty much all areas :)

Cheers