The 4X games I spend most time with were probably Galactic Civilizations 2 and Civilization 3 Complete. I like that in GalCiv 2 the diplomacy was not just and illusion, but you really could be friends with AI. All faction played differently and the AI was really good. They destroyed AI and the last expansion. Some people complained about rock paper scissors approach, but I somehow went with it.

As of Civilization 3 I really enjoyed it. Diplomacy was better than in last games. Of course it was still about last man standing. The factions had special units and played a little differently. It always felt good and a little different depending on map and faction.

Many years ago I played Master of Orion 2. Not really regularly since I did not have that much time, bit it was probably the first 4X I played and I loved it. Faction did have really cool traits and I enjoyed the battles.

In Civilization 1 I played only a couple of games. I really liked Civilization 2, but I hated that AI always attacked you no matter what you did. My favorite units in Civilization 2 were marines.

I really liked Master of Magic and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, but somehow I never could get a lot into them, It was only recently that I started playing them more. It was probably because I could not get Alpha Centauri before. I remember when I played the demo version. I also had Call to Power and I preferred that one, since Alpha Centauri looked somehow bland, But when I started playing SMAC - the whole night went out. It had such a great atmosphere.

Call to Power 2 was really disappointing. It was first 4X game I buyed. It could be really good, but the AI did basically nothing. With Apolyton patch it was a lot better, but it crashed the game. Anyway after CtP2 I bought Civilization II: Test of Time. It is actually a funny story. I always wanted to play Civilization but never did before so I downloaded Civilization 1 and played it whole night. I decided I will buy Civilization game. I went to shop and the had Call to power 2 on sale so I bought it. After that I got Civilization II: Test of Time.

Anyway I also liked Sins of Solar Empire, but it did not felt like real 4X, more like just RTS. so I did not really played it a lot. Endless Legend looked really good, but it is crap because AI did nothing. Civilization 5 - I could not get it fullscren, and in windows it does not capture a mouse.

In a year 2000 I played some Imperium Galactica 2. It had great videos and graphics were really nice 3D. I really enjoyed, but stopped playing since I did not liked that you could not felt the importance of ships. It was hundreds (or thousands?) ships against hundreds of enemy. I went back to Master of Orion 2.

Age of Wonders looked really good. When I played demo of first one it was nice, and graphics - despite not being great had some unique atmosphere. The second one is like a better game, and the graphics are even more unique, but don't have this harsh feeling as first one. Somehow I could not get into that game even though I really wanted.

Age of Wonders 3 was crap. I could not see units because they did not even have option to change brightness. And I have problem with distinguishing some red from black, and it was a lot of red in that game. Units were small and look identical. It look like Warhammer on trailers, but in reality it turned to become crap. I think AI had also some problems.

I played Elemental: Fallen Enchantress but it was crap. The fonts were too small. Somehow you could change it with hack but it was like there were going out of menus. Same shit as with Galactic Civilizations 3. It feels like they used same interface as in 2, got into 3 game without scaling, You have to look at small menu from lower resolution on a 1920x1080 screen, And fucking small font. Despite that, it felt like a poor man GalCiv 2 but selled for bigger price.

I played also a couple of other known in small circles 4X games that are praised, but they had shitty interface or too much micro management, or both,

I liked Civilization 4, but never really got into it. Maybe too small maps comparing to Civ3? I tried some mods recently but it felt bland since I was actually playing Europa Universalis 4 at that time. And when Civ 4 was out I stopped playing it since it was unplayable on my PC due to memory leaks this game had when it went out.

OK. TLDR (yes I know it is a fucking wall of text): Best for me are Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, Master of Orion 2, Master of Magic. First two I played the most.

I grew up on Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri and both are fantastic.

Have you tried Imperialism or Imperialism 2? You might like them. They're a bit overlooked, though I haven't played them in over a decade.

Yes I played them. I played a lot demo version of first one when it came out. Unfortunately years later I could get into them somehow, but these are really good games with good atmosphere. They are more economic though than warfare.

I'd probably say MoO2. But I also have strong nostalgia for Deadlock, which I always love going back to.

Admittedly I haven't played the very first Civilizations, but Civilization 4 is the best 4X game I have played. So much depth as well, and many ways to play the game.

Own Alpha Centauri but haven't really played it, but it's on the to-do list ;) Everybody keep saying it's great, and since I love Civ 4, Alpha Centauri should be up my alley too.

Civ IV with expansions I have hundreds of hours in. No other 4X comes close.

These days I play Civ V with expansions. It is good. Don't believe the haters. I don't love it as much as IV, but to win takes thinking...

I'd like to get into Endless Legend next... when I can afford it.

Age of Wonders series for me.
Actually I like the third game and I still have fun playing it.

Civ IV for me, and on the fantasy front specifically, Disciples 2.

For me, MoO 2 still has yet to be beat even with is comically simplistic diplomacy system.

I guess I really should give my copy of GalCiv 2 a good try. The problem for me these days is whenever booting up new games like it the whole prospect of having to spend a significant amount of time to learn new systems can become a bit daunting. I'm getting old in my relatively young age. *le sigh* While the games ain't bad, they're not exactly 4X. They're much closer to the HoMM formula of games.

That's one of my personal favourites, actually. The sheer number of customization options for automation lets you tweak it to suit your personal play style, so you can micromanage the things you like to micromanage, and automate the rest. I've never seen that in any other game.

Another one chipping in for Imperium Galactica 2. What I loved the most were the little quests you had during the campaign, and the spying was pretty great as well.

That's been fixed in the latest update (a.k.a. Community Update). The AI is now significantly better.

However, the Community Update also made some very big changes to the gameplay, balance, and race design. Not everybody likes those changes (including myself), but you can "fix" them by using my mod, Autumn Twilight.


Well, you can probably already guess that GalCiv 2 is high up on my list of best 4X. Though SMAC (and to some degree SMAX) top it. Master of Magic, Age of Wonders 3, and Master of Orion 1 are also high up on my list.