Have you ever took a gander at the Paradox Interactive library?
I lover the Total War series specifically because of the inclusion of a battle system into the strategic nation building elements of gameplay. Without that... Paradox wins hands down, because the complexity and detail of their strategic elements of gameplay sort of destroys Total War on every level. I mean you almost have to call Total War childish when it comes to the over simplified political and economical elements CA portrays in every one of their games. Which isn't a bad thing, most of the criticism of Paradox has been that they're "too realistic" or not simplistic enough to provide satisfying gameplay but if you really don't like the fighting aspect of TW games you seriously should give some Paradox demos a try.
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