Fate of the World (http://fateoftheworld.net/ http://fateoftheworld.net/) is an interesting indie strategy game. You play as a world organization and your goal

Fate of the World (http://fateoftheworld.net/ http://fateoftheworld.net/) is an interesting indie strategy game. You play as a world organization and your goal in the main scenario is to prevent global warming. The problem is, as interesting as the theme is, the base game had serious issues with balance and simply understanding cause and effect, so it was difficult and not always fun (kind of like trying to solve global warming in real life! :)) I still suggest that everyone looking for an interesting take on 4x strategy games check it out. In general board games tend to have much more varied themes and goals than video games, and often have limited direct conflict between players or none at all. Paradox Games (www.paradoxplaza.com) are supposed to be historically accurate, if your main concern is realism. In practice they don't always achieve this goal but they do a better job at it than Civ.