5punk

OK, slightly odd request. My bro has been a Civ fanatic since Microprose first published Civilisation in 1991. He's bought every iteration of the game, often mutiple times since he often has to destroy the CD just to break the addiction for a while. He never plays anything else, at all.

I'd really like to show him that there's fun to be had playing other titles, but it's hard to find anything that will appeal to a (admittedly fairly average) Civ player. RTS's will likely bore him due to lacking strategic depth, most MMO's simply won't suit his style, and I can't think of a 4X game that is any better than Civ.

The best I can come up with is Sins of a Solar Empire or possibly Rome / Empire Total War, to ease him into other games without breaking the Civ 4X style familiarity.

Oh, one caveat: he's got to be able to play one handed. His arm's in a sling for the next 6 weeks.

GalCiv? There's another similar one too. I did once play (and enjoy) a weird fantasy Civ-alike, possibly a Heroes of Might and Magic. It had an underworld you could drop through to with a parallel map.

If it's soase then he'll maybe get near the end of a game in those six weeks.

total war series is good, it offers levels of strategy and gets nicely addictive. Less bloody boring.

A mmong? They're all one handable.

dow 2 might well be too strategy light but it has a teeny bit of beard with the characters and offers strategy in terms of unit placement.

Does he beard? Neverwinter nights and add ons are horribly addictive after an initial what the piss.

The popcap back catalogue? Tower defence? Audiosurf?

Old school? Sid Meier's alpha centurai!

Beeef! He can sit on a hill and shoot things with one hand!

Dog Pants wrote:GalCiv? There's another similar one too. I did once play (and enjoy) a weird fantasy Civ-alike, possibly a Heroes of Might and Magic. It had an underworld you could drop through to with a parallel map.

Definitely Galactic Civilizations 2 with the expansion packs, it's great fun.

And the game you're talking about was indeed a HoMM, in fact the fourth, which is the second best in the series (the best being the third), and those might appeal to a Civ player as well.

Although in fact my suggestion is hook him up with Gemcraft Chapter Zero, it should keep him occupied for a very long time.

Tower Defence is a good call from Pete. At first you think it's a laughably simple strategy game, just make moar killin towars for killin, then it's like 'What the piss, how did I fail that?'. Includes Plants v. Zombahs.

Once the seed is planted that simple-looking games don't necessarily lack strategy, the big RTS boys from MechCommander thru *Craft, CnC, DoW and TW can take root, with maybe a bit of Caesar/1701 to show it's not all about the killin.

My transition from turn-based to real-time strategy was most largely hampered by annoying, crap, unfair games and my dislike of the micromanagement neccessary in some of them. Stick to the greats and it'll be be smooth sailing. I hate Civ now, bores my bum off.