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That's where Sid Meier's Civilization 6 comes in. The latest installment in the Civilization franchise provides thousands of hours of possibilities in a game best defined by "just one more turn. Westwood Studios' original game has been remastered for modern hardware in a bundle with its expansion packs. While it might still be a little rustic compared to the more modern titles on this list, it's well worth checking out if you want to see just why this was so defining back in So, maybe you looked at Civilization 6 and thought to yourself "I want a more realistic art style and even more control over the most minute details, including the ability to run my kingdom in an absolutely depraved way.
Forge a royal line then Build a kingdom, an empire, backstab your allies and suffer mental breakdowns, that just barely scratches the surface of what is possible.
This is a daunting title to get into but there's a reason it's so popular. Taking a break from forging lineages, Cold War soldiers, deals with gods or mighty academic arts, maybe you need to just need to build a factory. This logistics simulator of sorts has you trapped on an alien world, needing to build defenses. To get those defenses, you'll need a factory. Not just any factory, a mighty, automated, mass production facility the likes of which Vanderbilt and Carnagie could never have dreamed up.
It's incredibly complicated but even more satisfying. While it was built for console gamepads, Halo Wars 2 works well on PC and is a great diversion away from the usual Halo shooters. It also supports cross-play, so you can play with your friends across Xbox and PC.
Check out our full Halo Wars 2 review. StarCraft 2 unleashes the Terran, Zerg and Protoss forces across three campaigns — Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void — as well as co-op commander missions and the extensive multiplayer.
It's easily one of the most iconic RTS games to date and while the skill ceiling is certainly high, the barrier to entry has never been lower. Stellaris is to galactic conquest what Crusader Kings 3 is to medieval kingdoms and no wonder, since both games are developed by Paradox Interactive. This empire simulator lets you reach out and make your mark amidst the stars in whatever you see fit.
The real treat, though, is the list of factions. The Chaos factions in particular are a monstrous delight, especially the Daemons of Chaos, which not only lets you recruit units from every daemonic faction, you even get a fully customisable leader with limbs that you can mix and match.
It's basically an RPG. There's plenty to keep you occupied, and more on the horizon, with the Immortal Empires mega-campaign that combines all three games into one big brawl on its way.
Crusader Kings 3, the best strategy game of , has usurped its predecessor's spot on the list, unsurprisingly. It's a huge grand strategy RPG, more polished and cohesive than the venerable CK2, and quite a bit easier on the eyes, too.
At first glance it might seem a bit too familiar, but an even greater focus on roleplaying and simulating the lifestyles of medieval nobles, along with a big bag of new and reconsidered features, makes it well worth jumping ship to the latest iteration.
It's only going to get larger and more ambitious as the inevitable DLC piles up, but even in its vanilla form CK3 is a ceaseless storyteller supported by countless complex systems that demand to be mucked around with and tweaked. Getting to grips with it is thankfully considerably easier this time around, thanks to a helpful nested tooltip system and plenty of guidance. And all this soapy dynastic drama just has a brilliant flow to it, carrying you along with it.
You can meander through life without any great plan and still find yourself embroiled in countless intrigues, wars and trysts. Total War: Three Kingdoms opens in new tab , the latest historical entry in the series, takes a few nods from Warhammer, which you'll find elsewhere in this list, giving us a sprawling Chinese civil war that's fuelled by its distinct characters, both off and on the battlefield.
Each is part of a complicated web of relationships that affects everything from diplomacy to performance in battle, and like their Warhammer counterparts they're all superhuman warriors. It feels like a leap for the series in the same way the first Rome did, bringing with it some fundemental changes to how diplomacy, trade and combat works. The fight over China also makes for a compelling campaign, blessed with a kind of dynamism that we've not seen in a Total War before.
Since launch, it's also benefited from some great DLC, including a new format that introduces historical bookmarks that expand on different events from the era. Paradox's long-running, flagship strategy romp is the ultimate grand strategy game, putting you in charge of a nation from the end of the Middle Ages all the way up to the s.
As head honcho, you determine its political strategy, meddle with its economy, command its armies and craft an empire. Right from the get-go, Europa Universalis 4 opens in new tab lets you start changing history. Maybe England crushes France in the Years War and builds a massive continental empire.
Maybe the Iroquois defeat European colonists, build ships and invade the Old World. It's huge, complex, and through years of expansions has just kept growing. The simulation can sometimes be tough to wrap one's head around, but it's worth diving in and just seeing where alt-history takes you. Few 4X games try to challenge Civ, but Old World opens in new tab already had a leg up thanks designer Soren Johnson's previous relationship with the series.
He was the lead designer on Civ 4, and that legacy is very apparent. But Old World is more than another take on Civ. For one, it's set exclusively in antiquity rather than charting the course of human history, but that change in scope also allows it to focus on people as well as empires.
Instead of playing an immortal ruler, you play one who really lives, getting married, having kids and eventually dying. Then you play their heir. You have courtiers, spouses, children and rivals to worry about, and with this exploration of the human side of empire-building also comes a bounty of events, plots and surprises. You might even find yourself assassinated by a family member. There's more than a hint of Crusader Kings here. You can't have a best strategy games list without a bit of Civ.
Civilization 6 opens in new tab is our game of choice in the series right now, especially now that it's seen a couple of expansions. The biggest change this time around is the district system, which unstacks cities in the way that its predecessor unstacked armies. Cities are now these sprawling things full of specialised areas that force you to really think about the future when you developing tiles.
The expansions added some more novel wrinkles that are very welcome but do stop short of revolutionising the venerable series.
They introduce the concept of Golden Ages and Dark Ages, giving you bonuses and debuffs depending on your civilisation's development across the years, as well as climate change and environmental disasters.
It's a forward-thinking, modern Civ. Sins of a Solar Empire opens in new tab captures some of the scope of a 4X strategy game but makes it work within an RTS framework. This is a game about star-spanning empires that rise, stabilise and fall in the space of an afternoon: and, particularly, about the moment when the vast capital ships of those empires emerge from hyperspace above half-burning worlds.
Diplomacy is an option too, of course, but also: giant spaceships. Play the Rebellion expansion to enlarge said spaceships to ridiculous proportions. Stellaris opens in new tab takes an 'everything and the kicthen sink' approach to the space 4X. It's got a dose of EU4, Paradox's grand strategy game, but applied to a sci-fi game that contains everything from robotic uprisings to aliens living in black holes.
It arguably tries to do to much and lacks the focus of some of the other genre greats, but as a celebration of interstellar sci-fi there are none that come close. It's a liberating sandbox designed to generate a cavalcade of stories as you guide your species and empire through the stars, meddling with their genetic code, enslaving aliens, or consuming the galaxy as a ravenous hive of cunning insects.
Fantasy 4X Endless Legend opens in new tab is proof that you don't need to sacrifice story to make a compelling 4X game. Each of its asymmetrical factions sports all sorts of unique and unusual traits, elevated by story quests featuring some of the best writing in any strategy game.
The Broken Lords, for instance, are vampiric ghosts living in suits of armour, wrestling with their dangerous nature; while the necrophage is a relentless force of nature that just wants to consume, ignoring diplomacy in favour of complete conquest.
Including the expansions, there are 13 factions, each blessed or cursed with their own strange quirks. Faction design doesn't get better than this. Civ in space is a convenient shorthand for Alpha Centauri, but a bit reductive.
Brian Reynolds' ambitious 4X journey took us to a mind-worm-infested world and ditched nation states and empires in favour of ideological factions who were adamant that they could guide humanity to its next evolution. The techs, the conflicts, the characters— it was unlike any of its contemporaries and, with only a few exceptions, nobody has really attempted to replicate it. Not even when Firaxis literally made a Civ in space, which wasn't very good.
Alpha Centauri is as fascinating and weird now as it was back in '99, when we were first getting our taste of nerve stapling naughty drones and getting into yet another war with Sister Miriam. More than 20 years later, some of us are still holding out hope for Alpha Centauri 2 opens in new tab. Pick an Age of Wonders and you really can't go wrong. If sci-fi isn't your thing, absolutely give Age of Wonders 3 a try, but it's Age of Wonders: Planetfall opens in new tab that's got us all hot and bothered at the moment.
Set in a galaxy that's waking up after a long period of decline, you've got to squabble over a lively world with a bunch of other ambitious factions that run the gamut from dinosaur-riding Amazons to psychic bugs. The methodical empire building is a big improvement over its fantastical predecessors, benefiting from big changes to its structure and pace, but just as engaging are the turn-based tactical battles between highly customisable units.
Stick lasers on giant lizards, give everyone jetpacks, and nurture your heroes like they're RPG protagonists—there's so much fiddling to do, and it's all great. Set in an alternate 's Europe, factions duke it out with squishy soldiers, tanks and, the headline attraction, clunky steampunk mechs. Graphically it may not be as impressive as some of the earlier entries on the list, though the use of color and historically-inspired art direction helps its case, Field of Glory 2: Medieval makes up for it with its authentic and deep tactical gameplay that pits feudal European and nomadic armies against each other.
Planet Zoo is the culmination of decades of park and tycoon games, only this time focusing on creating an effectively operating zoo that will attract curious customers from across the globe. Just like Cities: Skylines, Planet Zoo offers unprecedented flexibility and variety in its tools for how you can build and shape your zoo to best accommodate the numerous animals from across the globe, while also entertaining the constant flow of visitors and guests to marvel at what Earth has to offer.
For people who are into managerial work and care to ensure everyone and every living creature are taken care of, Planet Zoo is definitely for you. Paradox has made a name for itself by creating high quality and innovative grand strategy games, due to the real-time approach to such large-scale games.
Most truly good strategy games do have a long shelf-life and are well regarded by the public, but unfortunately there are a number of excellent underrated strategy games that seem to just fall into a black hole and never garner the attention they deserve. In fact, quite the opposite. The Homeworld series had its start as a space-faring alternative to classic RTS juggernauts, such as Age of Empires, Deserts of Kharak grounds the action on the titular planet with some really cool mechanics, like the presence of massive sandcrawler carriers that act as mobile bases and production centers.
Deserts of Kharak also does a lot with terrain, including sand dunes, ruins, and cliffs, leading to the game having some of the best cat-and-mouse maneuver warfare of any strategy game. Though the classic RTS subset takes up most of the limelight when looking at real-time strategy games broadly, industrial warfare games are a compelling alternative and deserve acknowledgement, especially when you have games like Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance kicking around. Where classic RTS games rely a bit more on micromanagement to beef up their gameplay, especially in combat, Supreme Commander focuses more on the cerebral macro-management where economic decisions and large-scale maneuvers take precedence over the exact positioning of units.
Forged Alliance also includes a compelling sci-fi space opera story following characters from each of the main factions, participating in battles with unprecedented scale for the time across land, air, and sea. Despite its technical age, Forged Alliance remains one of the best strategy games of all time. Of all the classic RTSs, Age of Empires 2 has it all: base-building, resource and economic management, and micro intensive unit command. Essentially a next generation of the previously mentioned Plants vs Zombies, They Are Billions almost single handedly kicked off the popularity of the survival strategy genre subset.
Numantian Games went above and beyond to make their seminal game truly special by adding a narrative campaign to provide some extra context to your zombie-busting efforts, a feature few similar strategy games have even tried to replicate.
Simulation war games have always had trouble getting off the ground with a mass audience, often due to poor UI and unfairly challenging control schemes, but Ultimate General: Civil War is one of the best games of this subset to tackle these issues head-on. Along with a clean and informative visual style, Civil War simplifies command-and-control down to drawing lines to minimize frustrations navigating the map and instead focuses on what matters most — the strategic and tactical decision-making.
Civil War lacks a multiplayer mode, but the game more than makes up for it with a deep persistent campaign system for both the USA and CSA, deep customization, and truly epic sprawling battles reflective of a critical point in history.
Company of Heroes stands out with its excellent micro-intensive tactical squad combat that only gets better based on the solid faction variety and great design with distinct playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses. Sometimes style is everything in a captivating strategy game and Darkest Dungeon has plenty of it all thanks to the incredible Lovecraftian-inspired art direction and setting.
Along with its aesthetics that are worth the asking price alone, Red Hook Studios included character psychology as a critical battle mechanic that affects the performance of your dungeon-crawling parties, which adds dynamism and an added layer of humanity to an otherwise dehumanizing world. Rimworld balks at this situation and writes emergent storytelling straight into its gameplay DNA, at the same time nicely pairing it with sandbox style management tools and mechanics for leading a sci-fi colony.
This exact unpredictability and creativity, as well as near endless freedom to take your blooming sci-fi colony in any direction makes Rimworld one of the best strategy games out there. The game sports an absolutely incredible campaign mode that looks at important engagements of Operation Bagration that are reminiscent of the complexity of simulation wargame style operations, yet not overwhelming to the point of confusing frustration. Stellaris can at times come across a bit soulless and too number-focused, but the sheer amount of options available to players to try different empires and approaches easily makes up for any minor missteps and is absolutely worth your time.
Slay the Spire immediately wins the player over with its great art direction and sense of humor that engrosses you in its world and keeps you locked in for the awesome deck-building. There are so many combinations and possible playthrough paths that it dizzies the mind and invites you to keep coming back to challenge yourself over and over again.
On a greater level, This War of Mine subverts the expectations of simulation wargames, which gives that extra spice to make it one of the most interesting, vital, and compelling pieces of strategy gaming media to have graced the planet.
Unity of Command 2 sees the players taking command of the Western Allies during their military efforts in WWII covering theaters, such as Africa, Italy, and Western Europe, through an in-depth headquarters progression system that was absent from the original. The game still maintains its hardcore simulation wargame roots, but the developers do an excellent job of simplifying and explaining concepts to the point that this is one of the most accessible historical wargames currently available.
Unity of Command 2 is also a challenging game due to its more puzzle-like scenario mission design that makes effective and thorough decision-making all the more vital — a hallmark of the best strategy games of all time.
FTL is the quintessential space adventure roguelike game where you must outrun an unstoppable wave of enemy ships, all while upgrading your own, recruiting crew members, and surviving just a little longer to reach the final battle. The premise is simple, but the gameplay is deeply addicting with plentiful potential for exciting emergent storytelling as you meet all sorts of alien creatures and challenging ship encounters.
The biggest critique of Paradox-style grand strategy games is their potential to turn into soulless spreadsheet gaming, but Crusader Kings 3 is the best effort yet to minimize that soullessness with a deep layer of fascinating gameplay features. The heart and soul of Crusader Kings 3 is undoubtedly everything related to characters, their relationships, and their impact on the land, military, economy, as well as the stories told through endless rivals, friends, and acquaintances.
Crusader Kings 3 is truly a medieval strategy game in the best sense of the word. All in all the Wargame series, to an extent, represents the future of real-time strategy gaming. One of the longest-running 4X strategy games series continues to retain its notable high status with its latest sixth main line installment with Civilization 6. Civilization is truly the gold standard of 4X strategy games design that takes an exciting premise of playing through the life of an entire civilization throughout history and turns it into an addictive and expansive strategy epic.
Civilization is a hallmark of the strategy genre and gaming in general. Players will need to take command of a group of resistance fighters to wrest control of the Earth from the victorious and cunning aliens through a lengthy campaign filled with tear-your-hair-out moments and incredibly epic victories.
What makes the final two entries the best strategy games of all time is that they bring together the cold and calculating elements of decision-making with an emotional core of storytelling and narrative focusing on characters.
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