Ancient War vs Europa Universalis
Ancient War
Ancient War is a brand-new MMO RPG/strategy game that you can play for free directly on Facebook. In this game, you will need to choose one of 3 factions to join, namely Thebes, Athens or Sparta, before setting off to develop your city-state, recruit legendary heroes and their associated battalions, and take on your enemies.The gameplay here is pretty generic in many ways, but there are a couple features that stand out although they are not entirely unique. One such feature is the world map. Unlike many other games within the same genre, the world map feels a lot more real and alive as you can see the boundaries of each faction being drawn and re-drawn as players of the same faction work together to conquer other faction's city-states.
Another feature is the faction hierarchy. Each faction is governed by the players themselves and only the strongest players will be able to climb the ranks and assume one of the 4 important positions in the hierarchy. If you are the best of the lot, you can even be appointed King.
Ancient War isn't exactly a refreshingly unique browser MMO game, but it is not your run-of-the-mill game either. The gameplay is quite decent and the epic Greek-theme that it has may appeal to you as well.
Europa Universalis
Europa Universalis is a historical real-time grand strategy game that includes all aspects of world history in the Early Modern Europe era, a period of time between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Due to the game's meticulous need to be accurate in its historical accounts (period monarchs, known military leaders, and technological advancements), the game can, in some way, be doubled as an educational game since you can learn quite a lot simply by playing it.That said, the gameplay in Europa Universalis is just incredible for its time. The game is played on a huge world map that is divided into around 1,500 provinces where you can literally govern your nation the way you like. You can get involved in your nation's colonization efforts, explore new lands, trade with neighboring countries, wage war when they renegade on that very trade deal, spread the religion you've adopted far and wide, and of course, navigate the tricky political waters of diplomacy.
Not to mention, instead of using a turn-based format, the game has opted for a pauseable real-time format, so you can pause the game, issues orders and plan out strategies, before unpausing the game and let the world events play out. There are even tons of historically-based missions and events which may affect the world based on your actions and decisions.
When it comes to grand strategy games, there are only a handful that truly embodies the genre, and obviously, Europa Universalis is one of them. However, being the original game in the franchise, the graphics might be a bit worn for wear, but if you don't really mind, you can definitely pick this game up from GoG.com.