Join the new world

It's been awhile since I last wrote an article. The real world (okay you got me, Skyrim) has been using up much of my time. Because most of my time is spent gaming and such, I decided to make a list of games you may enjoy if you like some of the concepts behind eRepublik. This list does probably miss out a lot of games, but I'm only including ones I've actually played that eRepublik resembles to me.

Civilization Series

Alexis Bonte has said it several times before - the old versions of eRepublik were based largely on Civilization. To sum this game up; it is a turn-based strategy game, and definitely one of the most addicting games ever created. This is probably one of the most popular in my list.



There are many resemblances to eRepublik in this game. For example, the borders that regions have. You need to plan which 'tiles' (or regions on eRepublik) you wish to pass through to reach you destination. Being turn based, there is a lot of strategy involved.

Some things that Civilization has that eRepublik doesn't is things like techs (asked for a lot by the eRepublik community before, although I personally don't think this would be viable for eRepublik) annexing neighbours, the various units and much more. eRepublik probably just stole a tiny amount of the concept behind Civilization.

Without taking a bash at eRepublik, it has evolved to be much more different that it used to be, and the devlopers have (seemingly unintentionally) removed most elements of strategy from the game. This is even more of a reason to try out Civilization.

The most recent Civilization game is Civilization 5. You can probably pick it up for around £15 these days as it was released in 2010. Previous titles can be purchased on Steam for as little as £2.99.

Europa Universalis III

This game is a little more obscure than Civilization. While not as good and not as addicting as the Civilization series, it is often hailed as the most in-depth strategy game ever created. (Although personally I see little to separate the two) It is mostly a real-time strategy game, although I often enjoy it as a turn-based strategy game through use of the pause functionality.



The game can take place (with expansions) from around the year 1400 all the way up to the 1800s. You can colonise the 'new world', explore the world, send merchants to various cities to bring in an income and conquer your enemies. Players can control any country on the map, from huge nations like Spain to any of the many single-region states. There are various historic events, such as the formation of Great Britain and Scandinavia.

This game has much of the things Civilization has, such as a basic tech system, a decent economic simulation, warfare and the ability to conquer other territory. Armies are limited by the available manpower, which is directly related to the population of each region. The player can control almost all aspects of the game, although something I personally found annoying was the micromanagement of some things. (For example, if you own a lot of regions and research a new building, it becomes very hard to go through each region building)

Similarities to eRepublik definitely exist in this game. The strategy is very similar - you can only send units to attack neighbouring regions for example, similar to borders for regions in eRepublik. The prevalence of several annoying bugs (again, not trying to bash at eRepublik but bugs do seem to show themselves at the worst of times) and the economic control. I personally feel that the strategy is the closest related thing. One of the more annoying factors which is very similar to eRepublik, but in eRepublik is more of an interesting factor, is the rebels that rise in conquered or unhappy regions. These are very similar to eRepublik's resistance wars. There is a chance each month for example of a conquered region rebelling. This chance is dependant upon a lot of factors such as religion, the tolerance of the cultures of the alien region and the host region and the player's base rebellion rate. The risk decreases over time until eventually the region becomes a core of the conquering country after 50 years.

This is another game you can probably pick up quite cheap now. Its an oldish game, and I believe the more recent version is Rome or something. (though I never bothered with the newest version) This is definitely a game for fans of real-time (or even turn-based) strategy games.

Victoria 2

This uses the same game engine as Europe Universalis III and resembles many similarities, except this game has a higher focus on economy and politics than warfare. I personally enjoyed this one much more, but most people seem to think its pretty crap, I guess it depends on your interests. I think that if you like everything but the war module of eRepublik you'd love this game.



This has things such as the ability to control most countries, historic events (like the most obvious one, the reign of Queen Victoria) and is playable from early 1800s to early 1900s.

The economy in this game is definitely interesting, and the politics are kind of fun too. For example, absolutist monarchies select their own ruling government, while democratic states hold elections to choose the ruling parties, with an upper house election every year. There are various types of government such as liberal, conservative, nationalist, and after some research socialist and communist become available.

The economy module of older eRepublik definitely resembled something slightly similar to this game, although there are massive differences in the depth of the economic modules; mostly because eRepublik was designed to be simple. Victoria has quite a steep learning curve for newer players.

Again, another cheap game. (For those pirates who sail among us, its probably available over at a certain bay we won't be mentioning here too) I'm not sure if it's available on Steam, but it's definitely available through retail.

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

You're probably wondering at this point if you read the title correctly. While this game of peace definitely doesn't seem like it would be similar, it has more similarities than you'd think. In this game the goal is to farm crops, breed animals and expand your farm; all while following the storyline. This is like the Farmville it's okay to admit that you play (andI suspect that Farmville is even based off this) This one wasn't for PC, just Game Cube and PS2.



Similarities to eRepublik are mostly the principle involved. Growing your own food to become self sufficient, and expanding your land to become more and more successful. If expansion and growth of your empire are your personal goals on eRepublik then this game you should definitely try.

While eRepublik has factories and farms rather than animals and crop seeds, the principle behind it is very similar. You strive for your goal of becoming successful and having the best available to you. (Plus the graphics and stuff are overly cute, eRepublik is just scary)

This game is very old, (yet much more fun than a lot of the crap based off it around today) and if you have a Game Cube still you should definitely try to grab this game while you can.

That's all for now...

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions for games to add, just send me a message with a little passage for that game and I'll post it on here with your name and a link to your newspaper in the title. I hope to release more articles again soon for those very few of you who actually enjoy my writings.