The best grand strategy games are, by definition, sprawling strategic experiences that typically encompass long periods of history, including many intricate layers that players need to contend with. It’s not just about winning that war or setting up this encampment; you’ve got to develop infrastructure, set policy, and manage internal dynamics over the long term. This genre often involves the exploration of the map in order to better understand the resources at your command, as well as the position of your enemies – and your friends.
Lines blur when picking apart the edge cases, but by and large you can count on the best grand strategy games to make the management of your faction the primary part of the experience. They often overlap with other genres within strategy games as a whole, especially 4X games, but a key difference can be in framing. Games like Civilization, for example, typically put the emphasis on managing military resources in particular, with other mechanics in a supporting role.
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