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Best strategy games

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 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

2d 4x history management strategy top-down turn-based

Master of Magic dos

Master of Magic is a fantasy turn-based strategy game created by Simtex and published by MicroProse in 1994 for MS-DOS. In this turn-based 4X strategy game, which some defined the ...

Year: 1994 Genre: Strategy

2d 4x fantasy strategy turn-based

Railroad Tycoon Deluxe dos

Railroad Tycoon Deluxe is an updated version of Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, published by Microprose in 1993, three years after the original game. While the original game was rel...

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

business simulation freeware management real-time simulation strategy train

Stronghold dos

Stronghold is a real-time strategy game developed by Stormfront Studios and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. in 1993. This game is set in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy univ...

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

business simulation city building fantasy management real-time strategy

Dune II: The Battle For Arrakis amigados

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

Pirates! Gold dosamigagenesis

Pirates! Gold is an action-strategy game developed by MPS Labs and published by MicroProse in 1993 for DOS and Sega Genesis, with an Amiga CD32 version following in 1994. It is a f...

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

action strategy amiga cd32 caribbean history naval open world pirates real-time strategy

X-COM: Terror from the Deep dos

X-COM: Terror from the Deep is a turn-based strategy game developed and published by MicroProse in 1995 for the PC. It is the sequel to UFO: Enemy Unknown. This follow-up to the ...

Year: 1995 Genre: Strategy

procedurally generated science fiction squad management strategy turn-based tactics war

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares dos

Master of Orion II: Battle At Antares, the sequel to Master of Orion, is a turn-based 4x space empire game designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd. The popular strategy game was developed by Simtex.

Year: 1996 Genre: Strategy

4x management science fiction space strategy turn-based

The Settlers amigados

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 dos

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in 1995 for MS-DOS. It was later released for Windows 95 and also came to several consoles.

Year: 1995 Genre: Strategy

europe freeware real-time rts science fiction strategy war

Age of Mythology windows

Age of Mythology is a real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, released in November 2002 for Windows. It is the third major game in the Age...

Year: 2002 Genre: Strategy

3d classical antiquity mythology rts strategy

Total Annihilation windows

Total Annihilation is a real-time strategy game developed by Cavedog Entertainment and published by Humongous Entertainment, released on September 27, 1997, for Windows. It was des...

Year: 1997 Genre: Strategy

real-time rts science fiction strategy war

Archon: The Light and the Dark amigacommodore-64atari-8-bit

Archon: The Light and the Dark is a strategic game developed by Free Fall Associates and originally released for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1983. Created by Paul Reiche III and...

Year: 1983 Genre: Strategy

2 players action strategy atari 8-bit original board game chess variants fantasy strategy versus war

Caesar II dos

Caesar II is a city building strategy game developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra On-Line in 1995 for DOS and Windows. It was released for Mac in 1996. Starting in ...

Year: 1995 Genre: Strategy

business simulation city building classical antiquity europe history management middle east real-time strategy