Most strategy games are designed for fighting - for online short games.
How about management games like Sim City (suggested above) or the various "Tycoon" games - or something daft like Evil Genius.

Europa Universalis or Victoria might scratch your itch, by Paradox.

Victoria is definitely more about running an economy than running a war machine.

Capitalism 2 for an economic empire...

I play Europa 1400 some times but I'm not sure if anyone else likes that at all.

Most empires have lots of fighting.

You could try Corporate Machine.

I like business games, what can I say?

I tried Corporate Machine but it was very difficult always bankrupt..
Europa Universalis I liked this one but it was very difficult too perhaps because I was trying some impossible scenarios..   
Knights of Honor is similar and looks much better.
I dont know Victoria or Europa 1400 I will have a look.

Have to say that some of my fav games were Caesar and Zeus Master of Olympus..
Nice graphics creating a city and also have many different missions like killing a monster or defend your city from enemy armies.
Perhaps I will try Zeus again.  

I had a look at Europa 1400.. very interesting..   

lol very cheap indeed and since I use euros and not dollars I can find many good stuff to buy and download very cheap.
Knights of Honor its definetely a conquer game but lots of diplomacy and its the key if you want to play and win e.g. marry the princess with prince with another kingdom and your relationship get a boost. Very interesting and very different aspect of strategy game.
I think I played Imperialism years ago but I dont remember it now.

What about Crusader Kings?

The best strategy game of last year in my opinion was Armageddon Empires. It is about conflict though (with extermination of the enemy being the only VC).

Hey Arty, I know you came to JU for political funstuffs, but have you ever played Galactic Civilizations II, the game made by our gracious host, Draginol? Freakin' brilliant game, especially if you liked MOO2. The "Mega events" in GalCivII: Dark Avatar are huge, game-changing, and awesome fun.

You should totally give it a shot. You won't be disappointed in the least.

Yup, I do indeed have both Galcivs. The AI on Galciv 2 routinely kicks my but on harder difficulty levels Looking forward to twilight and sins as well.



Ahh yes, MOO3.... I have mixed feelings on this one. I agree with you, conceptually, yes, there are a lot of options in MOO3... however the failure wasn't in the core of the game, but the delivery of the concepts. I was so excited for MOO3 to come out, even pre-ordered a copy before release, expecting that it was going to be on the same level of awesomeness of MOO2 only a gajillion times better. For a starving college student at the time that was a big expense too!

So I finally get the game and load it up, to find that instead of the fun of space exploration and grand strategy, we had.....

Master Of the Office! A grand strategy game of bureaucracy!

I found the game turned you from an intergalactic overlord into more of a manager-bureaucrat. Even clicking on the tabs made a sound like you were opening and closing filing cabinets *cold shudder* And, although a lot of folks complained about the micro-management in MOO2 that became tedious when you had a large empire, I kinda liked being able to get my hands into all the little gears of my empire to tweak things. In MOO3 it was more like you set policy and then sat back to watch it happen

Well, maybe i am a madman...but i am proud to be one

Seriously, MOO3 works well once patched and with some mods. It's cleary not for everyone but if someone enjoys Victoria from Paradox, i don't see why that person would not like MOO3 as well. Is there a lot of management? yes there is...and it's one aspect i like very much. Is it a space strategy game? yes very much as well...in my current game i have tought decisions to make on which solar system i should defend and which one i should sacrifice...if you're patient, you may discover a game with almost no limits...

Cheers

forum problems...
I posted the first message and it was lost I posted this one and both are shown now..

Allow me to add that.. MOO3 was a crap! A very complex and boring management game. But hey not a game this was torture.. after sometime you have many colonies and you have to manage all of them one by one giving orders for the next building and thats what you are doing for the most time in this game.
All the magic of MOO2 was gone.
Colony management problem has GC2 also.. especially in big maps.
MOO2 is the best space strategy game even today no other game can beat it. GC2 is very good and interesting game but it lacks the magic of MOO2 the atmoshpere.. the music, the mystery, the cinematics and graphics.. when you had a barren or toxic planet you could see the enviroment changing from phase to phase durring terraforming.
And of course you could blow up entire planets and see the impressive cinematic.. and so many other great stuff you have to experience and not read about them.