Best 4x Fantasy Game around?

[Cikomyr]

I read a little thread on steam about what is potentially the best 4x Sci-fi game, and Distant Worlds came often in the first spot, so i purchased it and can definetly see its potential. There is a lot of fun variety there, and multiple gameplay choices. My masterstroke, so far, was to steal a Pirate Faction their galactic map, which put me ahead of everyone by auto-exploring about a third of the galaxy.

Anyway. I was wondering if there had been a 4X fantasy game that passed under my radar.

I know of Age of Wonders 3 (which i found.. Disapointing). I liked playing Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, but i bore easily of that game, for some reason. Perhaps Sorcerer King would be better.

I looooooved Fall From Heaven 2, had a blast with Majestic 2.. I was utterly disappointed in Eador (too bad, i really wanted to like it).

Someone has good alternatives?

[Aidan305]

Endless Legends is a very fun Fantasy 4x, and I've also heard good things about warlock: Master of the Arcane.

[Grytorm]

Crusader Kings 2 has a Game of Thrones mod. And there is the game Dominions 4 which is a bit lite in some categories but has a good amount of depth to it. Definitely focuses a bit more on Expand and Exterminate.

[Narkis]

I'll second Endless Legends, it's the best of the recent commercial fantasy games, even though it has no magic. I've yet to find something that I liked quite as much as Fall from Heaven 2 though.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane was pretty fun, though nothing groundbreaking. Warlock 2 was disappointing.

Dominions 4 has the best magic system ever, lots of very different nations to choose from and quite a bit of customisability for your nation's ruler, but the rest of the game is kinda lacking and it suffers from the typical indie problems of bad interface, bad documentation and obtuse mechaincs.

[Cikomyr]

I purchased Endless Legends while it was Early Access... Hmm.. I wasnt really thrilled, but perhaps i should give another go

[Starwulf]

Hmmm, Fallen Enchantress maybe? Elemental was it's precursor and it was fun, but the creator released it before it was even 1/10th of the way completed(literally there are a million and one things missing from it) and then said "nope, not finishing it, we're moving on to Fallen Enchantress". So might not be the best company to take a chance on, I've heard FE was considerably buggy at release, and I have no idea if they continued working on it or gave up on it as well or not. I refuse to spend the money to find out again. Still pissed about blowing $30 on Elemental when it first released only to get screwed when they said they weren't finishing it.

Man I'm an idiot. I read like the first few lines of your post(skimmed it) and missed that you already mentioned Fallen Enchantress ><

[DodgerH2O]

To this day I haven't found anything I enjoy quite as much as Master of Magic. It's spawned at least two "Spiritual Successors" but the opinions I've read on those are pretty bland.

This thread has given me a few things to try that weren't on my radar, but if you're ok with retro games (and some occasional weird mechanical quirks) MoM is great.

[Cespenar]

If you haven't seen it, the latest expansions polish Age of Wonders 3 quite a lot, in my opinion, adding lots of fun stuff.

Other than that, MoM is pretty much the Ur-Fantasy-4x if you discount the earlier Warlords because of its much smaller scope.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Crusader Kings 2 has a Game of Thrones mod.

Not a 4x, it has no exploration unlike the related EU series (which isn't really a 4x series either but can't be completely discounted as one).

[Narkis]

Hmmm, Fallen Enchantress maybe? Elemental was it's precursor and it was fun, but the creator released it before it was even 1/10th of the way completed(literally there are a million and one things missing from it) and then said "nope, not finishing it, we're moving on to Fallen Enchantress". So might not be the best company to take a chance on, I've heard FE was considerably buggy at release, and I have no idea if they continued working on it or gave up on it as well or not. I refuse to spend the money to find out again. Still pissed about blowing $30 on Elemental when it first released only to get screwed when they said they weren't finishing it.

Man I'm an idiot. I read like the first few lines of your post(skimmed it) and missed that you already mentioned Fallen Enchantress ><

Fallen Enchantress was free from the start for anyone who bought Elemental, as an apology for the whole mess. I don't know if the offer is still valid, but I could try to find out if you're interested.

[Starwulf]

Fallen Enchantress was free from the start for anyone who bought Elemental, as an apology for the whole mess. I don't know if the offer is still valid, but I could try to find out if you're interested.

When I looked it up a while back, it said that it was only free to those who bought the digital version within X months after release. I bought the boxed version after that particular date and thus wasn't eligible for the free Fallen Enchantress. Unless they happened to change that, in which case that'd be cool, though I don't look forward to hauling my computer 30+ miles to my buddies place to download it, LOL.

[Cikomyr]

If you haven't seen it, the latest expansions polish Age of Wonders 3 quite a lot, in my opinion, adding lots of fun stuff.

Other than that, MoM is pretty much the Ur-Fantasy-4x if you discount the earlier Warlords because of its much smaller scope.

I do know of MoM, and i liked it a lot. But i prefer the more modern feel of Fall From Heaven II.

What do the expansions add to AoW3?

[Grif]

I do know of MoM, and i liked it a lot. But i prefer the more modern feel of Fall From Heaven II.

What do the expansions add to AoW3?

The first one, Golden Realms, adds the Halfling race and fleshes out the world more with items and more neutral creatures. (As an aside, Halfling Dreadnought is awesome.)

The second one, Eternal Lords, adds the Frostling (basically ice men) and Tigran (war kitties) races and an entirely new class, the Necromancer, and adds several quality of life fixes and features. I'd recommend grabbing both.

[Silfir]

Like DodgerH2O, I'm stuck at Master of Magic. I've tried a number of the more popular titles suggested, including Endless Legend, Fallen Enchantress and Dominions 4, and none of them managed to be quite as fun, for one reason or another.

Maybe I got left behind by the general trend in 4X design, because I also don't like Civ V (or IV, or III) nearly as much as I still adore Civ II or Alpha Centauri, the latter of which to me is the best 4X ever made. I might be drawn to Master of Magic simply because it's a close relative of those titles.

[Cikomyr]

Silfir, ever tried Fall from Heaven?

[Silfir]

Ah, looks like that's a Civ IV mod? No, I haven't. I have played Civ IV and liked it... okay. Unfortunately, I don't own it on Steam and don't know where my copy is off the top of my head.

[Cikomyr]

I really

Really

REALLY recommend it.

Its lots and lots of fun.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Also, Civ II: Test of Time wasn't mindblowing, but it was still a pretty good suite of stuff that included a fantasy version of Civ II. Nice graphics, too. Probably doesn't run by default on Win7, but I suspect fan communities have figured something out.

(And from my brief browse, copies of the game are really cheap.)

[Sian]

In length of Fall Form Heaven, i'd suggest the Modmod of it, called Erebus in the Balance, which tweaks quite a few things for the better

[Narkis]

When I looked it up a while back, it said that it was only free to those who bought the digital version within X months after release. I bought the boxed version after that particular date and thus wasn't eligible for the free Fallen Enchantress. Unless they happened to change that, in which case that'd be cool, though I don't look forward to hauling my computer 30+ miles to my buddies place to download it, LOL.

I'd also bought a box copy of Elemental and was able to get Fallen Enchantress for free, so it was definitely not just for the digital version. There might have been a time limit though, I don't remember that at all. I'll try to find out more.

And you could just download the setup file on your buddy's computer and put it on a USB stick instead of moving your whole computer.

[Knaight]

It might be worth retrying Age of Wonders III - there have been a handful of major patches that have all added a lot to the game, some of which feels like it should have been there from the beginning.

With that said, I consider the Dominions series stronger, particularly Dominions 3 with the Conceptual Balance Mod. It's horrifically complex, has a learning curve riddled with overhangs, and has a UI that seems to actively work against you. It's also the game I've played the most of by a large margin, as there's just so much good there that it's worth delving into the complexity and getting used to the quirks of the god-awful UI. There's a huge number of nations, and the people who came up with them include a university professor who specialized in ancient mythology - it's not your discount-Tolkien, it's not your D&D fantasy, and it works beautifully.

[Starwulf]

I'd also bought a box copy of Elemental and was able to get Fallen Enchantress for free, so it was definitely not just for the digital version. There might have been a time limit though, I don't remember that at all. I'll try to find out more.

And you could just download the setup file on your buddy's computer and put it on a USB stick instead of moving your whole computer.

If it turns out I could still be eligible for FE, please let me know, while I'm pissed that they basically abandoned Elemental, the truth of the matter is the game was still damn fun even with all that it was missing, and if FE is anything like it, I'm sure I could have a good deal of fun with it.

[Eldan]

Crusader Kings 2 has a Game of Thrones mod.

Also a quite large and fun Elder scrolls mod. But I wouldn't call it 4x. It's a pretty pure strategy game.

[Drasius]

Maybe I got left behind by the general trend in 4X design, because I also don't like Civ V (or IV, or III) nearly as much as I still adore Civ II or Alpha Centauri, the latter of which to me is the best 4X ever made. I might be drawn to Master of Magic simply because it's a close relative of those titles.

I assume you've seen Pandora: First contact then? Basically a remake of alpha centauri, to the point where I call the factions and leaders by their old names, with a graphical update but the production rate seems a touch slowed down.

Completely agree with you on AC though. So many hours spent guiding the University to victory.

[Silfir]

I've heard of it - but never picked it up, I think based mostly on Totalbiscuit's WTF is, which concluded by saying that while Pandora replicates most of the mechanics and the lore, it feels like it just borrowed the soul of Alpha Centauri. It just doesn't quite get there.

And there's the old, tired rebuttal: If I wanted Alpha Centauri, I could just play Alpha Centauri. I'm not the target audience of an Alpha Centauri remake.

[yakri]

I'll second Endless Legends, it's the best of the recent commercial fantasy games, even though it has no magic. I've yet to find something that I liked quite as much as Fall from Heaven 2 though.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane was pretty fun, though nothing groundbreaking. Warlock 2 was disappointing.

Dominions 4 has the best magic system ever, lots of very different nations to choose from and quite a bit of customisability for your nation's ruler, but the rest of the game is kinda lacking and it suffers from the typical indie problems of bad interface, bad documentation and obtuse mechaincs.

There's not really anything wrong with the UI, and the documentation is actually pretty intense. Obtuse mechanics are everywhere however.

I haven't been able to find any other 4X strategy with anything approaching the complexity of Dominions 4, I've put over 400 hours into it and haven't come close to mastering it yet, there's always more to try/learn, and the game has a decent mod community. I can't really say that I could put so many hours into any other 4X I've ever heard of and still not have mastered the game twice over.