Looking for a strategy game recommendation

Hey all! So I've been in love with the Total War series for the longest time, but I'm also relatively interested in more modern day combat.

Since I realize the chances of Total War creating a modern strategy game are highly, highly slim, I'm wondering what you all think is the best modern strategy game around for the PC.

I'd prefer something that's very open ended: you know, kind of like total war where you can play with a lot of various factions and aren't bogged down by a ton of missions, meaning you can take over almost whatever you want.

But I would also hope that the game's in-battle graphics have enough "WOW" factor, like seeing a 4000 person army in Rome or Medieval 2.

I don't really care about realism in battles: I don't know enough about real life combat to care whether something is 100% realistic, but I guess I am just wondering if there is a modern-day themed strategy game out there that is as similar to the Total War series as possible?

Thanks a bunch!!!@

No other games are really like TW, so you're probably going to have to sacrifice something.

Heard some great things about RUSE, especially the multiplayer. TW-series is one of a kind sadly. Sacrifice comes closest battle-wise and it's fantasy themed.

Are you talking about that Sacrifice? I don't think it's similar to TW in any way *shrugs*.

As for R.U.S.E, even though it supposedly offer large scale battles that are somewhat similar to TW, there's no campaign map business. The campaign is here again similar to any traditional campaign (as in, you go through a couple of missions with a scaling difficulty). It's still the closest to TW in a modern setting, battle-wise. For the grand campaign aspect, I can only think of the Heart of Iron games.

Only thing I can think when it comes to the frontline formation and support type of gameplay, you also really need to use the terrain with your short-ranged and artillery, airborne units are kinda your cavaly. And it's cool as can be of course, still has the wowowow factor in spades.

TBH though I don't really care as much about the battles as I do the campaign map.

The battles don't need to be exceedingly tough or super realistic--I mean I can barely survive on Medium/Medium on Rome Total War and generally get annihilated on M/M in M2TW, so just as long as they LOOK cool and have that "wow factor" VISUALLY, with a great open-ended campaign, that'd be great, haha! :P

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TBH though I don't really care as much about the battles as I do the campaign map.

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EU3. Or maybe HoI if you really want a more modern setting.