hobblygobbly
Member
Endless Space is a 4x from start to finish, Stellaris is a 4x in the early game for expansion specifically but evolves into a grand strategy from mid to late game. Probably the closest game at that point to compare is their Europa Universalis series. Grand strategies are fundamentally different from 4x like Civilization or Endless Space. You deal with more aspects on a grander scale, you plan for policies that will last and shape your empire/government for a long time, you play at ultimately a different level of strategy just like a Civilization game is played at a different level of strategy than a RTS.
For example Paradox's historical grand strategies, you can't just declare war, you need a casus belli for war (a justification for war), such as rights to land that you don't control, etc (and you can use other aspects for creating faux "justifications" like fabricating lies in Crusader Kings 2). While Stellaris doesn't have a casus belli (wouldn't make sense, not a historical simulation and this isn't on Earth), it still does have a "War Goal" system. These are your goals for the war that must be declared, since it's important for diplomacy/peace negotiation regarding the war.
Where games like Endless Space and Civilization is simply about extermination/conquest in terms of war, in grand strategies you use wars strategically since you can utilise treaties and peace negotiation for specific strategic outcomes, you use it for vassalisation, subjugation, treaties, etc, it's not always about extermination/conquest, which 4x games usually only allow. For example, just because you occupy an enemy's planet doesn't make it yours, it needs to be fully "yours" through the negotiation process for ending the war. There is no such thing as simply capturing/bombarding a planet and it automatically being yours. It's simply that the game's strategy is modeled on a different level (I don't mean this in the way that Civ/Endless Space are bad games, not at all, just that they have fundamental design differences like a RTS does to Civilization).
Also, you don't specifically "control" each and every planet/sector like 4x games do, grand strategies introduce things such as vassals/governors, characters that you have to run them, and this opens up a different level of where you now must engage with. The people that live in these areas, over time can also change from ideologies/identities of your main empire and you must deal with conflicts that arise. The game is not like other 4x where your empire is only one race, you incorporate other races into it, they have their own identities/ideologies, and those can change and influence others. This also enables factions to form as well if they become unhappy/incompatible with the empire and they can essentially cause civil war when they want to be independent. AFAIK, sector governors/vassals can't demand independence directly from you but from what I remember a dev saying, that's something that'll come with an expansion since it needs its own set of mechanics.
Also, the games are in real time, but basically in the background each day is a "turn", you can pause though.
Hopefully that gives a better indication, you can try read up on Europa Universalis: IV as well, I find it quite difficult to explain the grand strategy genre. There is an archive of all the dev diaries up to this point (32) if you want to read more about the game: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-developer-diary-archive.882950/
