Greetings to all! I've played Total War titles for years and enjoy building an empire. Now I would like to broaden my horizons and am looking for similar games that satisfy this itch.
To categorize: in TW, 99% of the time I've only played the overarching map. The battles themselves are not that important to me.
I am variable when it comes to the setting. I like Sci Fi very much, if there is something there!
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I can recommend Age of Wonders games. Classic series is fantasy but there's also sci-fi spinoff Planetfall which you might enjoy even more.
Edit: Also Civilization obviously. I recommend especially 5.
Edit 2: If you don't mind really old games, check out Master of Orion 1/2.
Masters of Orion was a great game I had as a young kid. Never understood what I was doing until I was much older.
Got it in a scholastic book fair
It was indeed great game. Second one improved it to almost perfection, at least for its time.