Games for conquerors.

[Tweed]

One of the greatest privileges of being the sterner sex is the want of conquest, even if it's only 0s and 1s. I'd like to start compiling a list of games that appeal to that primal instinct. So I guess I better provide a few examples:

Mount and Blade (Warband, Etc.)

mb2.jpg

Massive armies, tactics, and lots of places to take over. A bit of micromanaging too. M&B is one of the de facto games of this kind. The first time I completed a king run was a great feeling. This is one of those games I actually avoid playing because it will swallow up months of time as I move from vanilla M&B into the scores of mods that are available. You could go on playing this for ages with all kinds of different scenarios and not get bored.

X Series (Except for Rebirth)

x42.jpg

Conquest on a different scale. Start small, work your way up to a commercial overlord. Take over the galaxy and cruise around in your expensive warship that costs an obscene amount of credits. Become the only supply line for a product because you destroyed all of your competitors, ruin the economy. Later games have tried to improve space combat, but it's still an economics sim first and foremost. X4 is almost, actually, kind of functional now.

Civ Series

civv2.jpg

Kind of goes without saying. A bit less complex or tactical than the previous mentions, but still the same kind of appeal. I enjoyed Civ IV and V the most, never bothered with the newer ones. Loads of mods to keep it going.

Kenshi

kenshi2.jpg

Start in the gutter, get beat up by everything and everyone when you can't run away like a *****. Get eaten alive by the local wildlife. Get stronger, get more people, sell lots of drugs, and eventually get revenge on everyone who stood in your way.

The previously mentioned games are all very different from each other, but they all appeal to the desire of conquest. What other games stratch this kind of itch?

[mynameismortis]

Crusader Kings 2-3? Conquering Europe and creating new Roman empire is my goal every run

[ThulsaDoomer]

I have been playing Rome 2 with the mod Divide Et Impera currently and it's the one of the only reasons to play Rome 2, it's superb.

Since I was unfamiliar with the mod, I assumed Rome was a good start to grasp the basics. While true in the late game sense, the early game is absolute chaos. Replenishment is a lot slower unless your general has bonuses for it, plus the population system also restricts this on top of recruitment per region. It means losses are felt a lot more than in the vanilla game, and I have a mod that also forces the AI to abide by these rules. I had to restart numerous times because I kept getting gang banged, Carthage randomly deciding I should die 20 turns in, etc. In my current attempt, the Greeks have entered into a coalition with a bunch of Gauls in the Alps to stem my expansions, which has embroiled me down in constant defense for numerous turns now.

To make matters worse, Carthage decided it's time to renact the Punic Wars, but luckily Syracuse has been holding them back somehow, while my sole Thracian ally means Illyria is provided a semblence of safety for the moment. I have two full legions bearing down on these filthy *** Greeks which hopefully will mean the end of them for good. A bit hesitant to push northward given there's always more ****** off Gauls and Carthage scares me.

Anyway, great mod, far more historically faithful and even offers a Macedon and Mithridatic Wars campaigns as well.

[Oyster Sauce]

San Andreas

[Demonic Fate]

Crusader Kings 2-3? Conquering Europe and creating new Roman empire is my goal every run

Counter-intuitively, I find that CK has less focus on conquest for me, because a lot of the provinces you can take don't feel very interesting in and of themselves. The satisfaction comes more from making those smug fuckers with their dumb culture and wrong religion disappear into the gutter of history. But I'll often happy to defeat them and then pawn off their lands to a cousin or something.

Out of the Paradox stable, more economic-focused games like EU and Stellaris make conquest IMO much more satisfying, because spotting a gold-mine province on a trade route or a size-25 planet on a hyperlink chokepoint triggers an urge to yell "MINE!" and ready the fleet.

[Algol]

Hearts of Iron 4 = Goated

[mercerxiv]

More or less all of paradox games, matters of quality nonwithstanding. You can map paint in all of them, some more than others.
Total War series, comes in many flavors.

[Vaako]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

[mercerxiv]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

Worse yet MMO conquering fantasy will be limited for most people to playing **** to the big clan leaders with clear personal issues. Most of the time the whole PvP side of things will be split between a handful of sweaty nolifer nerds that almost universally seem to end up colluding to keep any newcomers out. If your fantasy is being private fuckface in charge of putting boulders into the trebuchet, maybe then it's for you.

[Vaako]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

Worse yet MMO conquering fantasy will be limited for most people to playing **** to the big clan leaders with clear personal issues. Most of the time the whole PvP side of things will be split between a handful of sweaty nolifer nerds that almost universally seem to end up colluding to keep any newcomers out. If your fantasy is being private fuckface in charge of putting boulders into the trebuchet, maybe then it's for you.

Thats why barely anyone defends keeps if they are often outnumbered 1 to 30. At most they kill npc guards. But it functions a little different in daoc, you have guilds which can claim keeps and own them but for taking keeps many guilds form battlegroups and fight together, there isnt much of a benefit of owning a keep except for porting to one of the three realm mainlands maybe. Also everyone can put up ballistas/trebuchets/catapults/rams if there is enough space to deploy them.

But it used to be fun in Battlegrounds which are only accessible at lower levels. But they put a stop to that last year on the Eden shard by removing xp off command that you will level out there really quick from pvp kills now. You could camp the oil area solo over the gate and wipe hole groups which ran clumbed together through the gate. Quite fun when everything what isnt a fulltank dies instantly from that. But you only have like 2 doors in keep where you can do that so the timing must be good.

[Tweed]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

Something that should be fun gets reduced to the usual MMO systematic ********.

[Vaako]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

Something that should be fun gets reduced to the usual MMO systematic ********.

You still can have fun but its tough to balance arround in pvp. If you allow porting into the keep you will have to many defenders and nobody will try. If you dont allow it only if enough groups are arround they will even show up. Then you have others which just go afk inside and wait for people to show up and they watch a series meanwhile. But incase you have even numbers it can be quite fun with the right class and you dont get insta sniped by wizzard with his firebolts and die in 2-3 hits and you can cast them really fast but usually only a problem for casters which have low armorfactor and hp.

[mercerxiv]

mmorpg and sieges are probably the most boring aspect of pvp especially as a melee without heal backup
Dark Age of Camelot Siege Warfare!

Something that should be fun gets reduced to the usual MMO systematic ********.

You still can have fun but its tough to balance arround in pvp. If you allow porting into the keep you will have to many defenders and nobody will try. If you dont allow it only if enough groups are arround they will even show up. Then you have others which just go afk inside and wait for people to show up and they watch a series meanwhile. But incase you have even numbers it can be quite fun with the right class and you dont get insta sniped by wizzard with his firebolts and die in 2-3 hits and you can cast them really fast but usually only a problem for casters which have low armorfactor and hp.

Bigger problem is that for sieges to work you need a lot of other assumptions to be true. Like them having garrisons, people actually having incentive to defend them rather than just flip it over once the other zerg leaves, etc.. Nobody wants to sit on a keep for an hour just in case it gets sieged, but how are you going to have staffed garrisons without that? NPC are not a great solution, since they are dumb and bad, most you can expect is inflated stats to make them die slower. But that usually happens after the castle has been already breached.

[Vaako]

Something that should be fun gets reduced to the usual MMO systematic ********.

You still can have fun but its tough to balance arround in pvp. If you allow porting into the keep you will have to many defenders and nobody will try. If you dont allow it only if enough groups are arround they will even show up. Then you have others which just go afk inside and wait for people to show up and they watch a series meanwhile. But incase you have even numbers it can be quite fun with the right class and you dont get insta sniped by wizzard with his firebolts and die in 2-3 hits and you can cast them really fast but usually only a problem for casters which have low armorfactor and hp.

Bigger problem is that for sieges to work you need a lot of other assumptions to be true. Like them having garrisons, people actually having incentive to defend them rather than just flip it over once the other zerg leaves, etc.. Nobody wants to sit on a keep for an hour just in case it gets sieged, but how are you going to have staffed garrisons without that? NPC are not a great solution, since they are dumb and bad, most you can expect is inflated stats to make them die slower. But that usually happens after the castle has been already breached.

Yeah thats the issue which was also in the Warhammer mmorpg towards the end. People just pve raid keeps for some easy points and nobody shows up to defend. Thats why I said in my initial post that they are really boring at 50 and also heaviely reliant on what class you are there. If you have no healing or stealth you will die really fast alone.

But most of these issues I never had in battleground, keeps had side entrances you could easiely slip into and then go to the oil area to wipe a few and get some points. If you dont play at meta levels you often dont have these problems in pvp, where one side dominates and once they do almost everyone switches to the winning realm or just loggs off.

Most fun I had surely was mount and blade with sieges. Even if the AI is often very stupid.

[Valter]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker gives you the task of settling a patch of wildlands, conquering it from the native monsters, magical beings (hippies) and a rival nation. There's some diplomacy involved too so running up and conquering by killing everyone isn't the sole option, but carving out civilization from hostile wilderness is definitely one of the game's main plot points. I quite enjoyed seeing my kingdom slowly grow into the uncontested power in the lands.

Pathfinder: Wrath of The Righteous gives you a similar task, though not as an official monarch. You are a crusader commander tasked by the queen with striking back at the ongoing demon invasion and take back the ground mortals have lost thus far into the war (though you can decide to pursue a different goal later if you so wish), and it's a great feeling to see what were once historical mortal strongholds, now riddled with demons, get reconquered and, for example, established as major trading hubs while your army expands further to drive the fiends back into their crevices.
And there is an army management minigame to this, unlike in Kingmaker, further emphasizing the scale of the war as you have to keep the enemy counterattacks properly subdued lest you lose road access and army resources iirc. Don't know if losing enough battles results in a game over, but I hear if you let them just pile up and retake all the roads you can get softlocked. It is by no means anywhere near as in-depth as a proper strategy game, but I quite enjoyed it for what it is.

[DemoGraph]

San Andreas

I was so bummed at this game in my youth.
First they let me conquer all da hoods, then I put the plot on hold to mappaint, then plot takes it all away... and later they don't bring the mechanic back in any meaningful way. The plot doesn't even support that riches-to-rags shift properly.

[Nemesis]

Crusader Kings 2-3? Conquering Europe and creating new Roman empire is my goal every run

Hearts of Iron 4 = Goated

Can't forget Europa Universalis.

[Rienen]

Mount and Blade and various Paradox games came to mind when I saw the thread title, but they have already been mentioned.

The X series has also been one that I've attempted to get into, only to realize that I tend to forget the controls in between sessions. They seem fun, but man, they're not something I should be jumping into when I'm tired and just want to turn my brain off.

That said, two separate Steam Sale videos this weekend recommended the Conquest of Elysium and Dominions series by Illwinter. I know nothing about the dev, but the gameplay of each looked like they'd be fun if you're willing to brave a learning curve.

[Reichspepe]

I have been playing Rome 2 with the mod Divide Et Impera currently and it's the one of the only reasons to play Rome 2, it's superb.

Since I was unfamiliar with the mod, I assumed Rome was a good start to grasp the basics. While true in the late game sense, the early game is absolute chaos. Replenishment is a lot slower unless your general has bonuses for it, plus the population system also restricts this on top of recruitment per region. It means losses are felt a lot more than in the vanilla game, and I have a mod that also forces the AI to abide by these rules. I had to restart numerous times because I kept getting gang banged, Carthage randomly deciding I should die 20 turns in, etc. In my current attempt, the Greeks have entered into a coalition with a bunch of Gauls in the Alps to stem my expansions, which has embroiled me down in constant defense for numerous turns now.

To make matters worse, Carthage decided it's time to renact the Punic Wars, but luckily Syracuse has been holding them back somehow, while my sole Thracian ally means Illyria is provided a semblence of safety for the moment. I have two full legions bearing down on these filthy *** Greeks which hopefully will mean the end of them for good. A bit hesitant to push northward given there's always more ****** off Gauls and Carthage scares me.

Anyway, great mod, far more historically faithful and even offers a Macedon and Mithridatic Wars campaigns as well.

One of the best TW mods out there. I especially like what KAM (the combat guy) did with the battles. While I still wish Rome 2 had the old 1hp system from before, I think DEI's battles are the best in the new engine by a mile.
The progress of troops via the different reforms is also a great and immersive touch.

In better times, DEI would not mean what everyone thinks of today, but Divide et Impera, the greatest Rome 2 mod

[asf]

that map needs to be painted

[Vaako]

Shadows of Mordor and Shadows of War have this too. But no good siege mechanics really.

[Tweed]

Crusader Kings 2-3? Conquering Europe and creating new Roman empire is my goal every run

Hearts of Iron 4 = Goated

Can't forget Europa Universalis.

Every time I tried to get into EU and HoI I bounced off.

[sheet]

SimAnt

[A Chinese opium den]

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[Acrux]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Command and Conquer.

[Oyster Sauce]

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade has a fun map-painting campaign.

[Stack of Turtles]

I played https://atwar-game.com/ for a while, would play with HQ bros.

[Oyster Sauce]

viewtopic.php?t=1421-advance-wars-with- ... ultiplayer

[ThulsaDoomer]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Command and Conquer.

I figured the thread was more orientated towards broader conquest/map painter games, otherwise I would have. That being said, for any Tib Sun fans, check out the mod Twisted Insurrection. Absolutely killer soundtrack all made for the mod, majority of the campaign missions are fantastic (a few stinkers), and it makes Mental Omega feel less of an insult given that mod went full yuri ***** weeb near its end.

[Acrux]

I never cared for Mental Omega.

C&C Reloaded is what I play these days. It's built on RA2 and has the campaigns for RA2 and TBS (including Firestorm) included. The guy making it updates pretty regularly and he's working on a Cabal faction now.

The only negative in my opinion is that AI tends to spam too many units

https://www.moddb.com/mods/cncreloaded