hat are some good strategy alternatives with decent UI? I've tried Crusader kings and can't get into it because it looks so bad
Yeah CK gets really fun when you play it like the ruler would. When I first started I'd try to min/max everything or make every ruler play the same way. But it's a lot more fun to just roleplay according to your rulers traits and stats.
The stress system in CK3 has changed the way I look at the game, and at CK2 by proxy. I love how it gets you into the headspace of the kind of character you have
Depends, CIv VI and Tropico are very different games.
You looking for like a city management simulator type game, or a 4x game? Grand strategy or RTS?
Similar to Civ VI there's a cornucopia of 4x games out there. Endless Space I-II/Endless Legend, Galactic Civilization I-III, Age of Wonders I-II & Planetfall, Fallen Enchnatress: Legendary Heroes, Warhammer 40k: Gladius, Master of Orion, Sins of a Solar Empire, Shadow Empire, etc. (leaving most paradox games off the list because if you didn't like CKIII you probably won't like the UI of any of their games.)
There's also a ton of city-sims like Tropico: Port Royal, Banished, Surviving Mars, Aven Colony, Various flavors of Anno (2205, 1800, 2070, 1701, etc.), Caesar (excellent classic if you can even find a copy these days lol), Northgard (to a lesser extent of similarities), Cities: Skylines, Sim City, Stronghold III, Dawn of Man, FrostPunk, Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic, and while it's more an RPG w/ city management features my personal favorite Kenshi. Also I just started playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker on another user's recommendation and I'm loving it as another RPG w/ city-builder characteristics.
Caesar
I think Caesar is available on GOG.
As are Pharaoh/Cleopatra, Zeus/Poseidon, and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom - all of which are excellent
https://www.gog.com/game/caesar_ii
There it is, and check further down the page for the rest.
@RepublicansAreVermin, I'd recommend you check these out if you're into Tropico. They're older, but they hold up pretty well
dude that looks good but it's super old....
Actually it reminds me if a mini-strategy/AoE type game I played in the mid-2000s called Rome: Total War. Always caused my PC fan to make a lot of noise.
The Anno series is great, but all the micromanaging gives me high-octane Tetris effect, so I avoid it or else I'll just spend an entire afternoon/evening trying to optimize my farm layouts.
Yeah Aven is similiar this way. I think I restarted the opening mission 6 or 7 times because I was fucking up people's commutes w/ pathing.
also it has a humble bundle right now! https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stellaris-discovery-bundle
Oxygen Not Included - it's a colony simulation so "strategy" might be a bit of a push. But I love the UI.
Both Civ and tropico, to me, are games where you are always looking to accomplish the next big thing. (E.g., the "just one more turn" meme). Just got to get my wonder finished and I'll be set. Just got to finish setting up my rum distilleries and that shit will be making money. Etc.
Oxygen Not Included is one of my favorite games that instills that same feeling.
If you're not into their CK3/EU4/HOI4/Stellaris map-staring staring simulators, Paradox makes Surviving Mars which is much more of a Tropico style game. As the name implies, you are colonizing Mars starting with nothing but a few rovers. If you're interested, the base game plus the important DLC were just on sale so there's plenty of cheap keys on sites like greenmangaming (which is the only one I trust). You can also go for the first colony addition which comes with everything, but for me at least the important DLC are Project Laika and Green Planet. Space Race is a major expansion that is still worth getting for most people, but I like the feeling of being completely alone rather than competing with other countries.
Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic is a really good city builder game. However, it is a little janky and doesn't hold your hand through anything.
Suzerain, Ostalgie: Berlin Wall, China Mao’s Legacy, CK3 is a bit better for beginners than CK2, HOI4 (with Kaiserreich), Total War 3K, Cities Skylines, Citystate, Democracy 4, Political Process, Plutocracy, Particracy, Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic
Are those games from Kremlingames fun to play as a commie?
Yeah I suggest trying Alpha Centauri and the Endless series (e.g. Endless Legends)
If you're talking about 4X games, then Endless Space 2 is a pretty good one. Really clean UI and lots of fun. Very "just one more turn..." though, so be warned. If you want a Grand Strategy Game (GSG) then either Stellaris or Hearts of Iron 4 are probably the easiest to get into. They're relatively modern, so their UIs may be more bearable than the other GSGs.
Per Ardua is a mars colonisation game that functions more or less as a "settler-like" (The settlers series, especially 2-3 are also great) and is amazing.
You might want to have a look at Frostpunk. It's a citybuilder but focused more heavily on just pure survival rather than building cool monuments etc. Pretty brutal but really great. The Last Autumn DLC is also very recommended, and you can go down the path of establishing trade unions and workers councils and peoples' militias etc which is pretty cool
Endless Space 2 is cool, probably the only 4x game that does diplomacy in a way that works and where all of the victory conditions feel like they're equally competitive. The alien races are suitably diverse too, with only 2 human factions and everyone else ranging from samurai ostriches to sentient rocks. The sci fi aspects are also good - terraform or destroy planets, build massive capital ships that can convert into orbital stations, advance to a post-singularity consciousness and leave your bodies behind, etc. I've lost tons of hours to this game both in vanilla and with mods, 9/10.
