what to do, what to do.

[Masamunemaster]

I have been seeing a lot of games like the Civilization series. Does anyone know of some free games along the lines of them? I thought about finding heroes of might and magic three again, but I have beat that so many times that it is just beating a dead horse. I would love to play Civ 5, but alas I am short on funds.

[Rez09]

https://play.freeciv.org/

I don't know much about the quality of the game, but I ran into it a while ago and it looked interesting.

[Masamunemaster]

Ok, I messed around with that a little bit. I wish there was a way to download it to play offline.

[Spuuky]

Depends on what elements of Civ you're looking for.

Considering that you're a HoMM player, I highly advise that you check out Battle for Wesnoth.

Actually Pike and Mr. Pike should, too.

[Masamunemaster]

I just want something strategy-esque. I want something to have fun for free on a laptop that will hold me over for a while.

[Spuuky]

http://www.wesnoth.org/

[Pike]

Considering that you're a HoMM player, I highly advise that you check out Battle for Wesnoth.

Actually Pike and Mr. Pike should, too.

Way ahead of you.

Wesnoth is great. Masamunemaster, definitely look into that.

As for FreeCiv - it is basically a Civ II clone. It can be easily downloaded from the website: http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

How short on funds are you? Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and the Master of Orion games are usually dirt cheap on GOG and those are among the greatest strategy games of all time.

http://www.gog.com/game/master_of_orion_1_2

http://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah definitely FreeCiv. There's also FreeOrion and obviously Wesnoth. If you want something with a tactical element you may want to try out UFO: Alien Invasion, which I've not played myself yet but hear good things about. Or if you're leaning towards management as well as strategy, get OpenTTD.

And as Pike says, check out GoG for some cheap classics, if your budget will stretch to a few bucks. Also remember sales are commonplace on there.

[Masamunemaster]

I am currently installing Wesnoth, and FreeCiv. I do like games like this so hopefully these will be as great for me as it was for you all.

EDIT: I have played Wesnoth for a bit, started getting interested on the third chapter. After I downloaded FreeCiv and tried playing it, but it kept freezing on me.