I love most Paradox titles, aka Euro Univ 3, etc- Also check out Empire: Total war, total war's in general if your machine is ok.  And some fund trading games, like Patrician, and the newer East India Company.

EDIT - and apparently this: https://forums.elementalgame.com/370273

Guys,

Some interesting games there and thanks for your thoughts.

I played the original TW and TWII - I wasn't that fussed with the TBS part of the game and sucked at the tactics of the combat. I heard Empire TW was a bit of a let down compared to the others.

The problem is there are too many good strategy games atm, and I hate not giving a good game a proper go. So I want to spend my time on the one I choose.

Must admit I am swaying to EU III due to it's RISK nature and there seems to be a solid community.

But then again AI War sounds interesting and not worrid about th 2D aspect. I also like to support the indy game makers.

I have also never been involved in modding and only played the vanilla versions of games. And I know I am missing out. Maybe whilst I spend my time deciding on the next game I should try out some of the Sins mods to breath some life into the game.

Thanks again and keep your ideas coming. It might help me decide

EUIII is a very good grand strategy game. IMO, it is more like a sim. And yes, it does have an active community. But I must warn you - it is not for everyone. It is tough, it has lots of details in which you have to delve to understand properly, it has pages upon pages of spread-sheets, it is VERY time consuming. If you can manage all that, and still find it to be fun, it is one of the most addictive games IMO. It will suck your time away and you will wonder where it all went as you plot your world conquest. Or just try to consolidate your nation. It is a totally sandbox game BTW. The only objectives are the ones that you set for yourself

I don't mind the learning curve or the time it takes to understand if I know it will be worth it. If it is one of those games where I can run through the tactics or get my head round why x works with y when I am sitting on the toilet (come on who doesn't do that ) then it maybe the one for me.

SnallTrippin - am surprised you mentioned AI WAR has more of a  learning curve than EU III. That sounds brutal. Is it because you can set yor own goals in EU III?

AI war is .... strange ....

armada 2526 is good for old farts.

Then it must be for me then

Having slept on this momentous decision I will be definately be downloading EU III, but I will also buy space Armada 2526 in the new year. That should keep me quiet fo 2010.

Thanks drakonfire. For some reason I never came across this game. I have downloaded a demo, but a couple of things make me less excited to that of EU III or some of the others:

It is now 3 years old and it is a fantasy game.

I prefer space or something that relates to real life. Doesn't put me off totally but in light of newer games I think I will not have the time to give this game justice. It has a 300 page manual and from what I have read you need to read and understand all 300 pages - gulp.

If I had come across this game in 2006/07 I am sure I would have lapped it up.

I suggest EU3. It's the most polished grand-strategy title by paradox and the community is really active. EU3 is the perfect access to other paradox titles like EU:Rome, Hearts of Iron 3 or the upcoming Victoria 2. Furthermore will EU3 get its third expansion on december 15th. It's called Heir to the Throne and will bring the game to a perfect level.

Btw: Paradox supports their games for a very long time (same as Stardock and Ironclad with SoaSE and hopefully later with Elemental, too).

Yeah, Paradox is really great with their games and the support and even how they sell them.  I haven't played a game of theirs yet that I didn't find great to play, apart from Hearts of Iron series which for me is an overkill.

Grand strategy, well, that is way too broad.  Here are a few games:

Making History Gold.  It is a WW2 strategy game, you control any country you want.  It is turn based, but it does not rely on history as much as other games.  It is historically themed, but if you demand historic accuracy it is not for you.  I find it a great game.

WW2:Time of Wrath.  It is more like an operational level wargame, but I guess you could say it is a grand strategy game.  You deal with the european theatre (plus north africa) during the (guess) WW2.  You command divisions, corps, fleets and try to beat the crap out of the enemy.  Perhaps my current favourite game of its type.

Star Trek Birth of the Federation.  A 4X game in space based on the Star Trek world (TNG and a touch of DS9).  You take control of the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Ferengi e empire? Cardassian Union, and try to win.  There are minor races as well.  There are some problems with it, the game might be hard to find now days, you NEED to patch it with the 1.02 patch or just give up, the GUI you will either love or hate (I love).  The battles are exactly like how I want battles to be in these games.  You give orders to each ship or group of ships, then you press play and they execute your orders (and so does the enemy).  Then the game pauses at the end of this phase, and you repeat.  The strategic map (aka galaxy map) is more or less what you would expect from 4X games, on a 2D plane.  The HUGE map is at best average compared to other games, but it is good enough.  If you play at very hard then the game will be excellent, if you play at the hardest level then the game is almost impossible.  There are easier levels too.  Oh, there are also the Borg...thankfully you can disable them if you so wish.

For the ancient world, you can try Europa Universalis Rome and its expansion pack. 

There are seriously too many games, so I could give more suggestions if you asked for a specific type of game and theme.

Yeah, someone mentioned Dominions, goooood group of games there. I  should buy 3 some time.  Also, I sai AI Wars has a steeper learning curve cause it's not quite as streamlined and it's sort of weird.\

EDIT - If you do get EU3 make SURE you get ALL of them up to In Nominee or whatever AND once you've played for a while get the Magna Mundi mod.  (Spelling could be off).

Try Crusader Kings (Also Paradox) - it has one or two expansions as well.  Good stuff, though the largest resolution is tiny.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-CKDV/crusader-kings-complete-bundle

Best I can do is BEFORE that...ANOTHER Paradox game...heh...

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-ROME/europa-universalis-rome

Yeah, I'm not aware of a really GOOD dark ages one.

Well, there aren't many strategy games for the era as you know. 

Close to it, but not set in the dark ages, is http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-PDX02/knights-of-honor  It's a good game.

I don't remember exactly when it is set, but Feudal Lords was good, but we are talking about 1990 game now.

If you don't want to go to fantasy settings, I can't think of any Dark Ages games.