+1 for stardock strategy games and an owner of Galactic Civilizations also. I think I've bought nearly all of their history games on steam. Victoria 2 is great

+1 for stardock strategy games and an owner of Galactic Civilizations also. I think I've bought nearly all of their history games on steam. Victoria 2 is great if you want a unique military/economic strategy game that focuses on 1840 to 1920. When I get bored of playing one of the larger players in imperialism, I delve into the "what ifs" and play as a more minor 19th century power like Italy, The Ottomans or China. Arguably, I had more fun bringing Japan into the industrial era than I did colonizing Africa with the UK. Also, uniting Germany is also quite fun. Plenty of great user mods out for it as well. If you have an interest in 1920 to 1950, hearts of iron 3 is great. You can even import your end game from Victoria to it and continue playing an alternative reality 20th century. Galactic Civ is turn based while Victoria and Hearts of Iron are continuous time, where you can speed up or slow down (or pause) time. It's a little weird at first if you're used to turn based, but the game flows much better as there aren't 5 minute pauses in gameplay unlike civ5.