I find I enjoy fantasy strategy. I really liked Sword of aragon, and Lords of the Realm. Not the combat. I liked raising sheep and moving food and growing a medieval economy. Settlers was fun too, if somewhat frustrating at times (kinda like the tropico system, you really need to be patient.)
I have more fun in MTW/RTW playing the strategy layer and autocalcing the large battles.
So I guess it’s turn-based economic ancient/medieval simulations I like. Anything obscure I may have missed that resembles this? Now that I think about it, something with a good interface would be great.
HOMM5 has fun battles, but doesn’t have that quality. Crusader kings is interesting, but the interface and lack of feedback makes it annoying - to find a decent bride people even made an offline tool that runs through your possible choices and spits out a match to your specifications.
Oh! There’s Koei games of course! Except they are either Chinese, Japanese, or on a playstation. I don’t enjoy reading text and playing with a stupid gamepad to input numbers.
Well, you do raise cows, and sheep implicitly adjust to your cows so the animal raising mechanics are really for all animals. Plus you can steal sheep.
Oh, and it’s definitely not unHeortly to loot sheep. Man, whatever isn’t nailed down, and bonus points if you come back with something with nails sticking out of it! The victims will hate you of course, but everyone else will think better of you. Besides, what else is a young lad to do in the summer?
Sorry I can’t be more specific, but IIRC there was a game very like what you’re describing recently. Turn based, medieval, emphasis on economy. I think it was described as sort of a turn-based Stronghold. May have been a Digital Jesters title. That’s all I’ve got, sorry!
