Games Like Hearts of Iron IV (2026)

Shared: Grand Strategy, Total Conversion Mods

Over a decade old and still the benchmark for grand-strategy depth, EU4 rewards patience with hundreds of hours of alternate-history sandboxing, but the DLC catalog demands a plan before you open your wallet.

Shared: Total Conversion Mods

Crusader Kings meets Total War in a single sandbox, but the first 10 hours will humble you before the next 200 consume you whole.

Shared: Grand Strategy

Put 50 hours in before you see the cracks, and 500 before you stop caring about them. Stellaris is the deepest space grand strategy on PC, but the DLC wall and a shaky 4.0 patch make the entry point complicated right now.

Shared: Total Conversion Mods

Few strategy games turn assassination, succession law, and a poorly-timed marriage into a 300-hour personal saga. CK3 does exactly that, and it is still the deepest medieval power-fantasy on PC.

Shared: Tech Tree

Factory automation scaled to a solar system: if a 100-hour belt-routing puzzle sounds like a holiday, Dyson Sphere Program is the most ambitious entry in the genre that Factorio started.