Sim...Village?
March 6, 2012 9:45 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a sim-city esque game, but with a medieval theme. Any ideas?

I'm looking for a game that may well not exist.

I really want to play a building game, but on a smaller more detailed scale.

I've played a whole bunch of Tropico's (though not yet 4)
I liked Stronghold and Settlers.
I've played Dwarf Fortress.

These things are all kinda like what I'm after.

Ideally I'm looking at discreet resource bundles like settlers which can then be processed. Not bothered by any of the militaristic aspects particularly, but I'm not opposed to them.

I know it's a long shot, but does anyone have any suggestions?
posted by Just this guy, y'know to Computers & Internet (15 answers total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 


Caesar 3 & 4 have some military stuff, but generally you can avoid it unless you want to go that route. I really like both games (but liked version 3 best because my old computer was not happy with all the fancy 3D imaging in C4). Great city building game.
posted by elkerette at 9:56 AM on March 6, 2012


It's older, but I loved Castles. Perhaps I remember it overly fondly, but it was all about building your medieval castle and ruling your tiny kingdom.
posted by owls at 9:57 AM on March 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


You may like Edo Town or Venture Town by Kairosoft for iOS, not sure if they've ported it to Android.
posted by dripdripdrop at 9:59 AM on March 6, 2012


The Settlers is pretty good.
posted by Strass at 10:07 AM on March 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Have you played The Sims Medieval? It's definitely not exactly what you're looking for - it's based far more on The Sims than on SimCity - but I think I know exactly what kind of game you are talking about and I found this one scratched that itch surprisingly well.
posted by restless_nomad at 10:24 AM on March 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


CIV CITY: ROME is a port of Caesar 3 with new graphics.

It is EXACTLY Sim City In Ancient Rome.
posted by The Whelk at 11:01 AM on March 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Knights and Merchants.
posted by BeeDo at 11:03 AM on March 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Anno 1404 might be up your alley.

One of the main focusses of the game in the "city building setting" sense centers around construction of medieval wonders, such as Gothic Cathedrals and Arabic Mosques. When the player partakes in these expensive projects, the stages of construction resemble the arcane masonic building plans that were used in the middle ages. For example, in order to complete an imperial cathedral, players must first gather enough wood to build scaffolding before moving on to begin work on the knave and sanctuary of the wonder.
posted by theodolite at 11:06 AM on March 6, 2012


Was beaten to it, but came here to recommend Pharaoh, which I still enjoy after years of playing. I didn't like the expansion as much but it was ok.

Others that don't fit as closely to what you're asking for but are also really fun (for me): age of empires (II is the only one I've played) which is medieval-themed doesn't focus as much on city-building, and master of orion II (better than I and much better than III imo) which is space themed but very much a building sort of game.
posted by randomnity at 11:20 AM on March 6, 2012


I play Pharaoh regularly, about like 15 years later. The mrs likes the ancient China version, Empire I think? The whole Sierra range there is great.
posted by Iteki at 1:06 PM on March 6, 2012


Age Of Emperors is the anicent China city building game and it's absurdly well-balanced and addictive. Still playing it after all these years.
posted by The Whelk at 1:13 PM on March 6, 2012


Best answer: Anno 1404 is referred to in the united states as "dawn of discovery" and I think it's as close to the perfect scratch for your itch is you're going to get. Amazon download is probably cheap. You should definitely try it =D
posted by kavasa at 2:33 PM on March 6, 2012


Response by poster: Thanks everyone.
So many great suggestions.

I've just spent far longer than I intended with Settlers 2.

I'm going to hunt out Anno 1404 and give that a shot next.

I'm quite intrigued by Sims Medieval also. You're right when you say it's not quite the gameplay mechanic I was talking about, but it looks like it might address the idea very well.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2012


You might also check out The Guild, a dynastic business sim set in 15th century urban Europe. You compete against rival merchant families to build vertically integrated chains of farms, public houses, orchards, perfumeries, mines, goldsmithies, churches, graveyards, etc. If you get tired of that, you can duck out of the rat race and build up a network of robbers to prey on your enemies' businesses, or squander your family's fortunes on an attempt to climb the political ladder and crush the town beneath your heel. Somewhat notorious for its poorly explained complexity and bugs, though I understand that the last iteration has fixed the most game-breaking glitches.
posted by Iridic at 8:57 AM on March 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


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