If you’re enjoying your time with Total War: PHARAOH – or just the Total War games in general – you may want to pick up some more titles within the strategy and tactics genres, and we’ve put together our top picks.
The Total War franchise is one of the biggest strategy series in the medium, but there are plenty of other games with similar gameplay styles, historical settings, mechanics, and vibes worth seeking out.
From legendary franchises like Civilisation to Age of Empires, there is something for everyone – so check out our picks for the best strategy games like Total War: PHARAOH as of 2023.
How we chose the best games like Total War: PHARAOH
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Image via Creative Assembly
To choose the best games like Total War: PHARAOH, we stuck exclusively to the genres of strategy and tactics, highlighting those titles that can easily take up hours of your time.
It’s worth noting that these are very vague genre classifications, and there are so many different experiences that can fit into them, but with that in mind, we tried to focus on mostly historical games.
While we made Total War: PHARAOH the basis of this list as the newest entry, it also works for fans of any of the TW games, so there should be something perfect for you in the list below.
Strategy games like Total War: PHARAOH
Crusader Kings 3
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Image via Paradox
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
- Release date: September 2020
- Key features:
- Role-play in a number of ways
- Gameplay changes depending on the area of the world
- Tonnes of narrative freedom
- Create a new religion to divorce your partner
Crusader Kings 3 remains one of the most unique strategy games in the medium, combining grand strategy sensibilities, with the mechanics of an RPG to create a dynasty simulator where you’ll experience hundreds of years of history in the Middle Ages and the story of your family through it all.
You start by picking a character, whether they be a lowly baron with a small holding, or an emperor ruling over millions, and upon their death, you’ll begin playing their direct heir. Now, it’s a case of rinse and repeat until the game ends in 1453.
During your many lives, you can roleplay as your character and set your own goals for your family or land. Want to unite Ireland? Go for it. Looking to take revenge on the house who murdered your first character? Play the long con and butcher them in a ‘red wedding’. Don’t like your current heir? Plot to kill them, so your other child becomes heir.
There’s a lot to do in the game, and with so much mechanical and narrative freedom to play your own way, you can easily get lost for hundreds of hours.
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Europa Universalis 4
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Image via Firaxis
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: August 2013
- Key features:
- Freedom to build your nation
- Create your own goals and victory conditions
- Detailed wars
- Guilt-free colonialism!
From the same developer as Crusader Kings 3, Europa Universalis 4 looks almost the same from a quick glance but has very different priorities in terms of how it plays (and what it simulates.)
Instead of controlling a single character, you control a nation during the Late Middle Ages into the Early Modern period, focusing on trade, administration, diplomacy, colonisation, and war.
It’s much closer to a map painting experience, similar to the campaign map layer of Total War games, and the goals you want to achieve are solely down to you as there is no strict winning condition. If you want to rule the world with military might, that’s a valid playstyle, but so is colonising valuable land and becoming a rich trader.
Age of Empires 4
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Image via Relic Entertainment
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release date: October 2021
- Key features:
- Satisfying RTS gameplay
- Five different campaigns to play through
- Each faction feels unique
- War elephants
The new game on this list, Age of Empires 4 is a historical real-time strategy that is set between the Early Middle Ages and Renaissance, depending on your chosen civilisation.
Age of Empires is all about warfare and defeating your enemy through bigger numbers and better technology. The main way to play involves the game’s campaigns, typically throwing you into a conquest against another civilisation, but there are also skirmish matches if you want to enjoy a one-off game.
Games involve building up your base by constructing buildings and gathering resources. With these, you can build newer and stronger units to get an advantage in warfare. After a while, you’ll build a Landmark which takes you into a new age, which gives you bonuses and extra capabilities. Once you wipe out your enemies, you win the game.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
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Image via Mimimi Productions
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
- Release date: December 2016
- Key features:
- Unique team of characters with different abilities
- Reactive stealth gameplay
- Feudal Japanese setting
- Tempt samurai with bottles of sake
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a little different to the other games on this list, with it belonging to the real-time tactics stealth genre and featuring a feudal Japanese setting.
Throughout the game, you’ll control a small team of stealth experts, taking part in various espionage, sabotage, and assassination missions as you try to take down a mysterious warlord called Kage-sama.
There is a focused story in the game and less intrinsic replay value than the other games on this list, but the core of the game is designed so well that you’ll enjoy every second.
What is the best game like Total War: PHARAOH?
Civilization 6
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Image via Firaxis
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Switch, iOS, and Android
- Release date: October 2016
- Key features:
- Tonnes of civilisations to play as
- Win however you want
- Easy to learn
- Fear the wrath of Gandhi
It may not be much of a surprise to see this entry at the top of our list, with the Civilization series having been going strong for over 30 years now. Civ 6 is the most recent entry, and makes for a perfect introduction to the popular 4X subgenre of strategy games.
It’s a turn-based strategy game that sees you build a civilisation up through pre-history all the way into the near future. Throughout, you’ll research technologies, construct new buildings, create wonders to show off your prowess, and of course, war with other civilisations over land and resources.
The 4X tag comes from the four main routes to victory: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. There are plenty of ways to win games based on your chosen playstyle, and with so many civilisations to choose from, you’ll find yourself replaying over and over with a new strategy and ultimate goal.
That’s all for our picks of the best games like Total War: PHARAOH to play in 2023, and now you know five titles we believe are some of the best in the strategy and tactics genres.
Check out our lists homepage to learn about other alternatives to your favourite games. Alternatively, check out the best dragon games to play in 2023.
Categories: Gaming
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
