Yeah I've read theories that the Strategy community was very sizeable in the 90s/early 2000s, but the community didn't really grow much beyond that while the rest of the industry shot past it like a rocket lol. So while the community never left, it just pales in comparison to the rest of the games industry. Became a "dad" genre, which ironically is how I got into Strategy games

I definitely remember as a kid, Real-Time Strategy was always one of the biggest genres in gaming. Whether it was Age of Empires, StarCraft, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Homeworld, Total Annihilation, Rise of Nations, Empire Earth, or even a Star Wars game called Galactic Battlegrounds, there were so many major RTS releases that would make headlines and are still recognizable names to this day. Hell, StarCraft literally became the sport of South Korea for well over a decade lol. 

But there's definitely other sub genres that take a ludicrous amount of time like you mentioned. If you're playing Civilization, pretty much any Paradox Interactive game, then you're going to be spending hours upon hours on a single game, and that's if you're well acquainted on how the game plays.

So there certainly will be certain sub-genres that will forever remain niche, but it is nice knowing that the genre still thrives in many ways, albeit primarily through certain franchises lol. Civilization VII is getting a full reveal next month and it will be on consoles day one, so I'm willing to bet it will bring down the skill ceiling to where it's as approachable as possible.

Unicorn Overlord is currently my GOTY, so I highly recommend!

Yep. I still play Starcraft and Age of empires 3 from time to time and they are still fun. Civ 7 hitting consoles day one is a bad sign if ya ask me, they'll focus on the wrong things but hell, I wouldn't mind if they managed to make it more accessible in QoL and visual features but keeping the complexity and yeah, looking forward to Univorn Overlord when I can get around to it, Got a 7 hour demo installed so I'll definitely not be wasting my money if I don't gel with it. 

I still play: StarCraft: Brood Wars, StarCraft 2, Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Command and Conquer Red Alert 2, Dark Reign 1 and 2, Battlezone 2, Sacrifice and Dungeon Keeper, Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, Homeworld 2 remastered and a few others.

I absolutely loved Company of Heroes, but the sequels didn't live up to that same high for me sadly.

What I really want is a remaster of Black and White... Or just a Black and White 3, but with lionhead gone and EA as one of the worst tech companies imaginable, that is a pipe dream.

Same! Age of Mythology is probably my favorite Age game, but as far as mainline games go, AoE 3 is my favorite. Which is a pretty unpopular opinion lol. But StarCraft holds up beautifully! I would be playing Warcraft 3 religiously, my favorite game of all time, if Blizzard hadn't royally fucked up the remake! I still have my original boxed copy but it's pretty worthless since the license key was used 2 decades ago

Oooof. That is a huge concern for me with Civ 7. I wasn't a huge fan of Civ 6. The graphics and presentation were definitely made with mobile in mind. Gameplay was fun enough, but it was so obviously streamlined for mass market appeal. Holding out final judgement for the full reveal. I wish Sid Meier would make an Alpha Centauri 2, but I honestly don't know what level of development he does anymore these days.

Truly a man of refined taste! Have you tried the latest entry of Master of Orion, Conquer the Stars? I've been thinking about picking it up, but I've heard meh things about it. Endless Space 2 was my space 4X fix for quite a while till I heard about some community patches that modernizes Alpha Centauri, so I'll be trying that out here soon. 

But the StarCraft series, Warcraft 3 from time to time despite the remake being a disappointment, Age of Empires 2, 3, and soon Mythology: Retold, Rise of Nations, Empire Earth, and C&C Remastered Collection I still bust out with at least once or twice a month.

I actually haven't played Company of Heroes before. I was hoping to play 3, but when I saw how disappointing it was that I pulled back.

Yes! Exactly. Warcraft 3 was so good but they ruined it, they forced the upgraded game and like all I wanted to do was play the same game I had when there was hype aroubd it. I haven't checked since though, maybe they allow the older vversion now. I think the two main series I'd wanna see come back is a new Black and white and some version of Spore, they'd really have to alter the latter though cause it had so many issues but what a great concept and man, I miss those old dungeon keeper games, some studio done a spiritual successor but it wasn't nearly as good, those were bad ass. 

Come to think of it, I haven't booted up my laptop in a month and all this talk of RTSs has made me hungry. Is there anything new that would run on hardware equivalent or slightly lesser than the base PS4? Or anything new that is good on PS4 itself. I seen something called Stranding Alien: Dawn on PS+ Catalogue and another called Grand ages: Evil. Any experience? 

The most recent RTS release was Homeworld 3 was unfortunately a letdown in many ways and so was the previous major release in Company of Heroes 3. But upcoming RTS is Stormgate that I was mentioning. It will be FTP and launches on August 13th in Early Access. Then on September 4th, Age of Mythology: Retold will be releasing! I played the beta for Mythology and oh man........it's absolutely gorgeous! By far going to be the best looking game in the series as the developers spared no expense on this! Neither looks like it's going to be overly demanding either. 

There's also Tempest Rising (which has similarities to Command & Conquer) that will be releasing in the near future. No release date yet, but last week they uploaded a new demo on the games Steam page and it looks insanely promising as well that you should check out.

I'm honestly not too familiar with RTS games that are available on PS4. Really the only ones that come to mind are 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and GrimGrimoire OnceMore by Vanillaware. Same developers who made Unicorn Overlord.

I like this thread! Thanks.

I usually would harp on the benefits of turn-based in deeper systems, but I feel if we talk about strategy the OP really misses out on a subgenre that I recently very much enjoyed, and which is real time (although that might not matter as much): colony sims.

Dwarf Fortress is the granddaddy of colony sims and is probably the most complex game ever made. And it is for free, even though now a Steam version exists with some tileset graphics (the original has text) which costs a little because the creators had a health scare and decided they need some security. I think that price for the Steam version is fair as well. But this game has so many deeply integrated systems, that you can play endless. Or at least until the fortress is so big, has so many cats or socks to simulate, that even the most advanced computer goes into slowdown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAhHkJQ3KgY

A lot of games are inspired by Dwarf Fortress and while usually simpler they often bring interesting new ideas to the mix: Odd Realm, Rimworld, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, Against the Storm and so on. I am kinda addicted to that sub-genre, because just stripping out elements to simplify dwarf fortress leads to very different takes on what people deem important and then you also can add completely different ideas. So while Rise to Ruins and Rimworld are both descended from Dwarf Fortress they are actually playing very differently although I also can see all the similar elements. This subgenre is so inspiring and so wild currently, I very much enjoy it.