How to get into Grand strategy games

[v1rus]

Never tried a single one of those.

Started playing Total War: Warhammer, and decided the genre deserves way more attention then I gave it. Problem is, i know jack shit where to start from.

Also (just to prove how clueless I'm), how do Grand strategies compare to games like Homeworld? In my mind, they are quite similar.

 

[spectre]

By definition, grand strategy lets you take a race/empire/faction/nation through a series of wars. I admit, that's a very broad definition, and includes stuff like 4X games, total war series, paradox grand strategies (I'd say each is a genre of its own).
Main difference from Homeword and similar RTS games is the scope - you will be controlling the resources on a very high level, tackling political issues, economy, research, etc. and usually won't be bothering with ordering individual men around.

To illustrate it further, in a typical RTS game you are thrown around into battles and have to make do with what you are given, whereas on grand strategy level you get to affect who do you fight your wars with, where do you fight the battles and what
you are fighting with.

Regarding getting into a typical paradox-style grand strategy game like Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, I can't really help you here because I never could get any enjoyment from that.
Biggest obstacle is learning how to play the game and how to have fun with it, the in-game tutorials are pretty poor in this regard, so you're better served by let's plays and youtube.
Big part of the fun is playing out a scenario that is laughably improbable when it comes to real history.

When it comes to a more typical 4X game, you can approach these like a boardgame with AI opponents. The bit about laughably improbable scenarios still stand, but the point of games like the Civilization series is to throw history out of the window.
I recommend that you start with the classics here as the genre pretty much already gave us what it got best: Master of Orion 1 and 2, Civilization (4 seems like a decent starting point, and has plenty of excellent mods), Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Most of these are old, so it pays to drop the graphics whore act asap.

Regarding Total War series, my opinion is that Total War War Hammer is pretty shite. Though if you want more where it came from, I'd recommend the first few games in the series. If you can't make it past the graphics, Shogun 2 is a decent compromise.
Rome 1 is also good and Medieval 2 is worth it with modding.

 

[v1rus]

By definition, grand strategy lets you take a race/empire/faction/nation through a series of wars. I admit, that's a very broad definition, and includes stuff like 4X games, total war series, paradox grand strategies (I'd say each is a genre of its own).
Main difference from Homeword and similar RTS games is the scope - you will be controlling the resources on a very high level, tackling political issues, economy, research, etc. and usually won't be bothering with ordering individual men around.

To illustrate it further, in a typical RTS game you are thrown around into battles and have to make do with what you are given, whereas on grand strategy level you get to affect who do you fight your wars with, where do you fight the battles and what
you are fighting with.

Regarding getting into a typical paradox-style grand strategy game like Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, I can't really help you here because I never could get any enjoyment from that.
Biggest obstacle is learning how to play the game and how to have fun with it, the in-game tutorials are pretty poor in this regard, so you're better served by let's plays and youtube.
Big part of the fun is playing out a scenario that is laughably improbable when it comes to real history.

When it comes to a more typical 4X game, you can approach these like a boardgame with AI opponents. The bit about laughably improbable scenarios still stand, but the point of games like the Civilization series is to throw history out of the window.
I recommend that you start with the classics here as the genre pretty much already gave us what it got best: Master of Orion 1 and 2, Civilization (4 seems like a decent starting point, and has plenty of excellent mods), Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Most of these are old, so it pays to drop the graphics whore act asap.

Regarding Total War series, my opinion is that Total War War Hammer is pretty shite. Though if you want more where it came from, I'd recommend the first few games in the series. If you can't make it past the graphics, Shogun 2 is a decent compromise.
Rome 1 is also good and Medieval 2 is worth it with modding.

Not that I cant get past the old graphics, just that i want a slight change from it :D

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Paradox, generally considered king of the grand strategy genre, are having a 75% off sale on Steam for about the next 24 hours. So at that price you'll be able to own Europa Universalis IV and all the DLC with out having to re-mortgaging your house. You'll merely have to sell your car instead.

If you want a game similar to Total War: Warhammer then I recommend the improbably titled King Arthur the Roleplaying Wargame. It has a turn-based strategy map and realtime battles, but it's more of a story-driven game. It may actually be an easier starting point for someone coming from an RPG background who's unfamiliar with strategy games than Total War is. GoG only has the "collection" version which is overpriced at e19.99 at the moment (the DLC isn't worth is). Steam has the base game for e9.99. Maybe wait for a sale.

 

[thesheeep]

I would suggest getting Europa Universalis IV, and just start playing and rolling with it.
The tutorials are fine to get you started and with each attempt, you will gain some knowledge on how to do better.

There really isn't a light variant of this IMO. Jump in and learn to swim!

 

[v1rus]

God, you guys werent kidding when you said tutorials suck

Started Empire campaign in Total Warhammer, and I fuck know what half of those buttons do. And those loading times...

 

[Jokzore]

Empire is probably the hardest faction to play in WH Total War , you're gonna be besieged on all sides and can expect 0 help from your supposed allies. Try playing Bretonnia, Vampire Counts or Dorfs first.
Don't be afraid to send your generals right into the fray , thats what they're for , and they resurrect after a while if they died. Always aim to control a whole province so you get a bonus. Always have a Hero escorting your armies, for scouting purposes but most importantly to slow down enemy armies, the AI cheats in that it measures distance with super human precision so the only way to catch a fleeing army is to obstruct them using a Hero.

 

[Severian Silk]

If you want something like Homeworld that is also a 4X game, you could try Sins of a Solar Empire or Sword of the Stars. Both of these were developed by people who worked on Homeworld: Cataclysm. I've never played them, so dunno how good they are.

 

[Jason Liang]

Grand Strategy games aren't really about military tactics. Battles are resolved abstractly. Military conflict is one gameplay element (even a constant element), but diplomacy, economic management, crisis management, exploration and land development are even more important gameplay elements. For example, in EU III, where and when to build an Embassy, where and when to change your National Focus, where and if you should build manufactories and Centers of Trade are all vastly critical choices. Recruiting and maintaining a large army is horrifically expensive, and expanding through military power is complicated and not immediately rewarding.

As an introduction, I would start with EU III (with all expansions) instead of EU IV. I would say start with EU II but the graphics are really dated now and it runs horribly. I think EU is the most accessible of Paradox's GS lines (CK II isn't really a strategy game). Both Victoria and HoI are more alien to typical gamers, by design. In the EU games, you play an absolute monarch who has direct control over nearly every aspect of your nation, whereas by Victoria's time, you are reduced to a limited ruler who must struggle with your own population's desires - it's much trickier to influence the game than in EU.

EU III is a purer GS game than EU IV. And EU IV has mechanics that only make sense as an expansion from EU III. EU IV "fixes" many of EU III's dumber gameplay - i.e. Merchants and Colonists - but the systems they replaced those with move the series away from pure GS.

Stellaris is not a bad intro to grand strategy, were it not a crap game in itself.

 

[Old One]

If you want something like Homeworld that is also a 4X game, you could try Sins of a Solar Empire or Sword of the Stars. Both of these were developed by people who worked on Homeworld: Cataclysm. I've never played them, so dunno how good they are.

I like Sword of the Stars a lot. I think a Homeworld player could grasp that one quite easily, or at least he would find it familiar in some ways. Sins of a Solar Empire leans more toward RTS.