Thread:Shadow at Morning/@comment-25555436-20150729023326/@comment-24891101-20150729030457

Civ II, admittedly a number of years after release.

EUIV goes from 1444 to 1821. It's much more a diplomacy simulator. You've got the entire world to play around in, and many countries have their own mechanics. As in many 4X games, you embody the government of your country, but rate of expansion is limited, and so conquering the world can be a challenge. Perhaps the biggest complaint is the overreliance on monarch points, which are used for many actions and are generated at a fixed rate, depending on your head of state.

Similarly, Crusader Kings 2 goes from 789 to 1451. It's also made by Paradox, and you can import to EUIV. It's a weird hybrid; instead of controlling the government, you control the head of dynasty, and so it can be described as vaguely like The Sims. Here, only Europe, the Mediterranean, some of Asia, and India are included.

Both of these have a number of mods extending the timeline, but there's only so much you can do with the engine. The objective, such as it is, is not to conquer the world or similar things, but to get the highest score. Really, they're alternate history simulators more than anything.