Our picks, beyond the numbers
5 games like Sid Meier's Civilization VI we would recommend for different reasons
A Civilization VI campaign is really a long series of small, compounding decisions — where to settle, what to research, who to trust this era — and the whole appeal is watching those early choices shape everything that comes later. We looked for strategy games that reward that same kind of planning, whether they stick close to historical empire-building or take the idea somewhere Civilization VI itself has never gone.
A couple of these come from the designers directly challenging Firaxis's own formula, one is a fantasy reimagining of the 4X structure, and another pushes the whole idea into science fiction. Here's where we'd send a Civilization VI player next.
Humankind
Our first choice for a direct challenge to the formula
Humankind comes from Amplitude Studios and directly challenges Civilization VI's formula with its central idea: instead of committing to one civilization for the entire game, you switch cultures every era, carrying forward bonuses and units from your previous choices as your empire's identity shifts over time.
We'd point a Civilization VI player here first because the fundamentals — hex-based maps, city management, a tech and culture tree to climb — will feel immediately familiar, while the era-switching mechanic gives the whole campaign a different rhythm than sticking with one leader from turn one to the end.
That same mechanic is also the biggest departure: your civilization's units, bonuses and identity change over time rather than staying fixed the way a Civilization VI leader does, so the sense of playing 'as' one culture throughout is deliberately looser here.
Old World
For 4X strategy with a personal, dynastic story
Old World comes from Soren Johnson, Civilization IV's own lead designer, and leans much harder into personal storytelling than Civilization VI does — family succession, courtly intrigue and individual character traits sit on top of a 4X foundation any Civilization VI player will recognize instantly.
We'd recommend it to a Civilization VI player who wants the same empire-building fundamentals but is curious what it feels like when a leader's children, advisors and rivals actually have names, relationships and ambitions of their own, rather than staying abstracted away.
Its turn-based order system and dynastic storytelling push it closer to a character-driven drama than Civilization VI's more impersonal empire management, so expect more narrative texture and a different pace of decision-making turn to turn.
Endless Legend
For 4X empire-building reimagined as fantasy
Endless Legend comes from Amplitude Studios — the same studio behind Humankind — and wraps the familiar 4X structure in a fantasy world built from asymmetric factions that each play by genuinely different rules, rather than every civilization sharing one universal tech tree.
We like it for a Civilization VI player who wants the planning and empire-management satisfaction of the genre but is ready to leave historical leaders behind entirely in favor of factions that feel mechanically distinct from each other from the very first turn.
Its fantasy setting and faction-specific mechanics replace Civilization VI's historical leaders and shared tech tree with something far less symmetrical, so strategies that work for one faction may not transfer to another at all. Go in expecting to relearn the game with each new faction.
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth
For the same studio's take on sci-fi colonization
Made by Firaxis, the same studio behind Civilization VI, Beyond Earth takes the series' familiar systems and transplants them into a science-fiction colonization setting, replacing historical culture and government choices with customizable affinities that shift as your colony adapts to an alien world.
We'd suggest it to a Civilization VI player who trusts Firaxis's own design sensibility and wants that exact strategic backbone applied to a speculative future instead of history, with alien life and an unfamiliar frontier replacing historical leaders and wonders.
Its space-colony setting, native alien threats and affinity-based tech web trade Civilization VI's historical grounding for something more speculative, so the sense of 'playing as' a known civilization through history isn't part of the experience here.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall
For 4X strategy with tactical battles layered on top
Age of Wonders: Planetfall takes the turn-based empire-building Civilization VI players already know and adds a dedicated tactical combat layer, where unit positioning, cover and terrain decide the outcome of a fight on its own battle map, all wrapped in a sci-fi setting full of original alien factions.
We'd choose it for a Civilization VI player who enjoys the strategic-layer planning but wishes combat itself asked for more than an abstracted resolution, and who's open to original sci-fi factions in place of historical leaders and civilizations.
Its tactical combat on dedicated battle maps replaces Civilization VI's more abstracted combat resolution entirely, and the sci-fi factions trade historical leaders and wonders for invented cultures, so there's no connection to real-world history here at all.
