Monarchy

Political games?

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Hello,

 

I'm in the middle of a very neat Crusader Kings 2 playthrough (by which I mean Oh god mongols everywhere) and I'm a bit disappointed in the politicking/scheming in the game. Sure, there are wonderful backstabbing possibilities, destabilizing a realm by killing the right person is very satisfying, but overall I find the game too shallow in terms of political goals and alliances you can create. Are there games out there that focus more on the political side of things, the backroom dealmaking and -breaking, with maybe a slice of lobbying to get your agenda implemented? Alternatively, are there empire management games that focus less on external expansion and more on internal nationbuilding?

 

 

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The only types of games I can think of that fit what you're looking for are multiplayer games, and mostly tabletop. In video games, Neptune's Pride is what you want. For board games, there are alliance-building wargames like Diplomacy and A Game of Thrones, trading and negotiation games like Bohnanza, Genoa and I'm the Boss! and hidden role/traitor games like The Resistance, One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Battlestart Galactica.

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On the multiplayer side there Neptunes pride, as mentioned above.

Although that actually is a game I literally need months to recover from a game of (but have a 100% win record :D ) or theres the hellish charms of Solium Infernum which I ahve sadly not played but which has a great deal of good things written about it.

All of tberton's Boardgame recommendations are pretty solid.

On the more prosaic side of politics theres the single player charms of The Political Machine, or the Democracy series (both of which I find rather dry).

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I would be into that.

 

 

Done, I have spontaneously created a game. We need 7 players in total. I've set a healthy 3 day time limit for move orders, 2 days for retreat and build phases. 

 

If anybody would like to play, PM me for details. 

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I think we tried to get Diplomacy going awhile ago, but I'd be in.

 

I tried Democracy 3 out last weekend for a half hour... eh, not my cup of tea. It seemed like it would possibly be deep, but I just don't think I liked the interactions or presentation of it, for a UI game it was really messy and a bit confusing.

 

It did remind me of a more AI driven Nations States. While Nation States never ended up being a "game" the concept and ideas in it were neat and would be a good spring board into something that was a better version of Democracy.

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I'm in for diplomacy. It was not a popular choice when I tried before though.

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The COIN series, by GMT Games, gives a pretty good look at the internal politics of an unstable nation(Cuba, Columbia, Vietnam, Afghanistan). 

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I'm in the middle of a very neat Crusader Kings 2 playthrough (by which I mean Oh god mongols everywhere) and I'm a bit disappointed in the politicking/scheming in the game. Sure, there are wonderful backstabbing possibilities, destabilizing a realm by killing the right person is very satisfying, but overall I find the game too shallow in terms of political goals and alliances you can create. Are there games out there that focus more on the political side of things, the backroom dealmaking and -breaking, with maybe a slice of lobbying to get your agenda implemented? Alternatively, are there empire management games that focus less on external expansion and more on internal nationbuilding?

 

It lacks the personalized element of Crusader Kings 2, but if you can learn the systems, Victoria 2 is as internal a strategy game as they come. Managing one's economy to encourage growth and allowing sociopolitical change without outright rebellion are the primary challenges in the game.

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If anyone is still reading this, there is a diplomacy game forming on the GWJ forums. We need 1-2 more players if anyone is interested. Drop me a pm.

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It is a long shot, but you can take a look at King of Dragon's Pass.

 

for scheming on a much smaller scale, there is an IF game called Varicella by Adam Cadre that might hit some kind of nerve.

 

And there is a political simulator whose name escapes me, but i think its more focused on elections and such.

 

but yea, most of these kinds of games are boardgames because well, computers kind of suck at diplomacy

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I should really play another game of Subterfuge on my iPhone. That was a very fun, tense week.

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A very nice game where you play politics is http://virtonomics.com/

 

This is online turn-based strategy. What can you do there:

Became a Mayor

Became a Governor

Became a president

Create a political party with 8+ different platform

Go to election | vote

Change: taxes, dues, tariffs, rent, launch projects and some other stuff

Control budget

Take some money from budget to your pocket :-)

 

Game is kinda hard at first tho, you can read this topic there which might help with game politics

http://virtonomics.com/mary/forum/forum_new/13/topic/104945/view

 

Good luck! =) 

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Is it weird that I'm more interested in trying out the Canada simulator than the US one?

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Hi, sorry to barge in unannounced but we made a political game and it's 40% off for the next couple of hours. A short description :

 

Political Animals is an election simulation game set within a fictional world populated by corrupt crocodiles and meritocratic mice. In a political contest where corruption is always around the corner, find out just how incorruptible you really are. "

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I think you need to play multiplayer online game Electoral.io https://electoral.io/. It is available both for web and mobile platforms entirely for free! It is a political game dedicated to the presidential election in 2016, where you need to collect money and votes for the win of your candidate. On the game start, you need to choose a party - Republicans or Democrats and play for Trump or Clinton. Also, it is important to run away from opponents that want to absorb you. I hope you will like this game!

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Several years ago I got about 50% through the development of a fantasy geopolitics simulator. Started back up in late 2021 and expecting to have at least an early access if not full release by the end of 2022.

 

https://axiomsofdominion.substack.com/

 

If you read my blog, more of a high level ideas blog than a dev blog, although many of the things described are all done except for some AI fiddling, you can see that my primary focus is on DIP mechanics Diplomacy(foreign affairs), Intrigue(shadowy affairs), and Politics(domestic affairs). I'd recommend the earliest 4 posts to read. Of course I also focused heavily on magic for the fantasy aspect. Which is more of the subject of the three most recent posts. I'm writing another politics post today about allies and secrets/desires.

 

I've been heavily disappointed by CK3 but they did implement several features I designed in 2014-2015, probably convergent evolution rather than copying, like Secrets, unique vassal relations, and so forth. Not enough to save their boring Intrigue systems but better than nothing.

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