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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!

Railroad Tycoon II windows

Railroad Tycoon II is a railroad simulation and strategy game developed by PopTop Software and released for Windows in 1998. As you can imagine, the game is a management game focused on building and operating a railroad empire.

Year: 1998 Genre: Simulation

business simulation north america simulation strategy trading train transport

Romance of the Three Kingdoms msxdos

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by KOEI is a foundational title in the world of historical strategy games. First released in Japan in 1985 for the PC-88, it was one of the earliest a...

Year: 1986 Genre: Strategy

china historical battle resource management strategy turn-based strategy

Sid Meier's Gettysburg! windows

Sid Meier's Gettysburg! is a wargame released in 1997 for Windows by Firaxis Games. Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs founded the studio after they departed from MicroProse. It marked a si...

Year: 1997 Genre: Strategy

historical battle military north america strategy tactics war

Eastern Front atari-8-bit

Chris Crawford’s Eastern Front (1941) is a wargame released in 1981 for the Atari 8-bit family. It is widely recognized as one of the earliest examples of a truly sophisticated computer wargame for home systems.

Year: 1981 Genre: Strategy

atari 8-bit europe historical battle map-based historical simulation strategy turn-based strategy war wargame

Earth 2140 dos

Earth 2140 is a real-time strategy game released in 1997 for MS-DOS and later Windows. It was developed by Polish studio Reality Pump (then known as TopWare’s in-house team "Trans Fiction").

Year: 1997 Genre: Strategy

dystopia real-time rts science fiction strategy

The Settlers III windows

The Settlers III is the third chapter of the famous real-time/city-building strategy game by Blue Byte. It was released in 1998 for Windows. This third chapter stands as one of th...

Year: 1998 Genre: Strategy

ancient egypt business simulation city building classical antiquity isometric real-time rts strategy

Warrior of Rome II genesis

Warrior of Rome II is a real-time strategy game developed by Micronet and released in 1992 for the SEGA Genesis. It is the direct sequel to Warrior of Rome, released a year earli...

Year: 1992 Genre: Strategy

classical antiquity europe isometric real-time strategy tactics

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

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

Battle Chess amiga

Battle Chess is a chess game created by Interplay initially for the Amiga and published in 1988. It was so successful that it had been ported to most platforms available, including...

Year: 1988 Genre: Strategy

3d amiga cd32 amiga original game board game chess multiplayer strategy

North & South amiga

North & South is an action/strategy game based on the comic books "The Blue Jackets", released in 1989 for Amiga and Atari ST. It was ported later for DOS, ZX Spectrum and other platforms.

Year: 1989 Genre: Strategy

2 players american civil war comics historical battle history strategy war wargame

Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire windows

Sid Meier’s Alien Crossfire, released in 1999 as an expansion to Alpha Centauri, is a turn-based strategy game developed by Firaxis Games. While it carries Sid Meier's name, the ...

Year: 1999 Genre: Strategy

4x city building hotseat isometric science fiction strategy turn-based strategy

Powermonger amiga

Powermonger is a real-time strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1990. First released on the Amiga and Atari ST, it eventually made its way to DOS in 1992.

Year: 1990 Genre: Strategy

fantasy isometric real-time strategy

Special Forces amiga

Special Forces is a tactical action game with stealth elements created by MicroProse and released in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. It's the sequel of Airborne Ranger, an 8-bit game released five years earlier.

Year: 1992 Genre: Strategy

action strategy military multi-directional squad management stealth strategy top-down