I'm a fan of Empire: Total War. I have a long running 'Road to Independence' campaign going. I own almost all of North and South America (I left one Indian Nation alone since they've been good trade partners and never fucked with me), Spain and the surrounding countries and all of the North African coast (taking out the pirates opens up huge trading opportunities with the Indian subcontinent without the routes getting raided). Invading Florida (it's a required territory to own) sparks a huge response from Spain so first thing I did was build 2 big armies and take Spain, then Gibraltar, it caused their colonies to break off so I could gobble them up one at a time without worrying about a huge Spanish response (they sent almost all of their troops to retake Spain and I just hunkered down and let them wear themselves out attacking Madrid while sending 2 armies down to south America for their gold and gems). I'm thinking about sending a few armies to take Russia to see if it does the same with their conquered territories. Britain was a challenge, I needed a strong country in Europe I could trust and trade with, and didn't want to wipe them out. I tried to buy or trade territories to get what I needed, but ended up taking London, then all of North America, then razed the London territory and traded it back for a peace treaty. They still hate me, but they'll trade with me. A few more gifts and they'll be like 'What invasion of London? Would you like some tea?'