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Best strategy games on GamesNostalgia

Strategy games have a long history; ancient games of intellect like Chess have paved the way for modern masterpieces like Starcraft. Imagine the thrill of outwitting opponents, envisioning every move before it is made, and strategically maneuvering your way to victory. From old titles like Hammurabi to Sid Meier's Civilization, strategy games have transcended time and culture.

The first strategy computer games were primarily based on resource management, like Super Star Trek or Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio. Over the years, many ports of classic games were released, like Risk or The Chessmaster 2000, but many other sub-genres were created. The revolutionary Defender of the Crown was one of the first medieval strategy games, while one of the first historical trading games was Ports of Call in 1987. The god games genre started with Populous in 1989 by Peter Molyneux. The same year Julian Gollop created one of the first squad management games with Laser Squad, a sort of predecessor of the famous UFO: Enemy Unknown.

None of these titles had a success comparable to the historical turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization, released in 1991. This inspired many other games, like Master of Magic, but also Master of Orion in 1993, one of the first 4x strategy games (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate). But there are other space games that became cult, like Star Control II.

Real-time strategy games (RTS) started with Dune II: The Battle For Arrakis in 1992, but after that, we saw many other titles, like WarCraft: Orcs & Humans, Command & Conquer in 1995, not to mention the famous Age of Empires. And let's not forget city building games like Caesar and Pharaoh.

This category has so many essential titles that it's impossible to mention them all. Just browse the list or select one of the sub-genres and choose the preferred titles. Just remember: they create addition!

Sid Meier's Colonization amiga

Sid Meier's Colonization is a strategy game themed on the European colonization of the New World, starting from the Discovery of America in 1492. The player has time until 1850 to reach independence.

Year: 1994 Genre: Strategy

4x aga business simulation historical battle history north america south america strategy turn-based strategy

Starcraft windowsmac-osx

StarCraft is one of the most influential real-time-strategy games ever created and one of the most important video games of all time. It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, and it was initially released in 1998 for Windows.

Year: 1998 Genre: Strategy

aliens freeware real-time rts science fiction strategy

Sid Meier's Civilization II windows

Civilization II, or simply Civ2, is the second chapter of the most famous turn-based strategy video game ever created: Sid Meier's Civilization. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time".

Year: 1996 Genre: Strategy

4x history strategy turn-based strategy

Warcraft II: Tides Of Darkness dos

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is the sequel to the first real-time strategy game created by Blizzard, WarCraft: Orcs & Humans. This second chapter of the fantasy RTS was develop...

Year: 1995 Genre: Strategy

fantasy real-time rts steampunk strategy war

UFO: Enemy Unknown dosamiga

X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe) is a science fiction strategy game developed by Mythos Games and published by MicroProse Software (Geoff Crammond’s former company) and released for Amiga and DOS in 1994.

Year: 1994 Genre: Strategy

aga aliens rpg elements science fiction squad management strategy tactical-rpg turn-based strategy

Dune II: The Battle For Arrakis dosamiga

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is a real-time strategy game created by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games in 1992. The game, also known as Dune II: Battle for Arrak...

Year: 1992 Genre: Strategy

movies real-time rts science fiction strategy war

Sid Meier's Civilization dosamiga

Sid Meier's Civilization is one of the most popular strategy games of all time. It was created by Bruce Shelley and Sid Meier alongside MicroProse. The game was released in September 1991 for MS-DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST.

Year: 1991 Genre: Strategy

4x history management strategy top-down turn-based strategy

The Settlers dosamiga

The Settlers is a medieval city-building simulation game by Blue Byte Software, first released in 1993 for Commodore Amiga and in 1995 for MS-DOS. In America, it was published as Serf City: Life Is Feudal.

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

2 players amiga original game business simulation city building real-time strategy

Command & Conquer: Red Alert dos

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy game created by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin in 1996 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. It was later ported to PlayStation.

Year: 1996 Genre: Strategy

europe real-time rts science fiction strategy war

Advance Wars game-boy-advance

Advance Wars is a tactical turn-based strategy game that was first released on September 10, 2001, for the Game Boy Advance. Developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, the game was designed by Kentaro Nishimura.

Year: 2001 Genre: Strategy

cartoon strategy tactics tank turn-based strategy versus war

Archon: The Light and the Dark amiga

Archon: The Light and the Dark is a 1983 video game developed by Free Fall Associates and published by Electronic Arts. The concept is similar to chess, but with real-time fights between pieces to decide the winner.

Year: 1985 Genre: Strategy

2 players board game chess variants fantasy strategy versus war

Syndicate amiga

Syndicate is a cyberpunk isometric real-time tactical game from Bullfrog Productions created in 1993 and released for DOS and Amiga. It was later ported to Windows, Macintosh, 3DO and other platforms.

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

action strategy cyberpunk dystopia isometric real-time science fiction squad management strategy

Carrier Command atari-stamiga

Carrier Command is a vehicle simulation and a real-time strategy game developed by Realtime Games in 1988 for the Atari ST. Later it was ported to several other platforms, includin...

Year: 1988 Genre: Strategy

3d atari st naval real-time science fiction strategy transport watercraft

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings windows

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a historical real-time strategy game created by Ensemble Studios. It was published by Microsoft in 1999 for Windows and Macintosh. As you can...

Year: 1999 Genre: Strategy

europe historical battle isometric medieval middle east real-time rts strategy