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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!

War Planets: Age of Chaos dos

War Planets: Age of Chaos is a sci-fi real-time strategy game set in the War Planets universe created by the toy company Trendmasters. The game, created by Trendmasters itself, was...

Year: 1997 Genre: Strategy

aliens licensed 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

Zeppelin: Giants of the Sky dos

Zeppelin: Giants of the Sky is a business simulation/strategy game developed by Ikarion and published by Microprose in 1995 for Amiga and MS-DOS. that puts you in charge of a Zeppelin company in 1900.

Year: 1995 Genre: Strategy

aviation belle époque business simulation history interwar management strategy

Utopia: The Creation of a Nation dosamiga

Utopia the Creation of a Nation is a strategy game. It was published by Gremlin Graphics, and developed by Celestial Software. It was released in 1991. The game was released for MS DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, and later the Nintendo NES.

Year: 1991 Genre: Strategy

business simulation management real-time science fiction sim city strategy

Warlords dosamiga

Warlords is a fantasy strategy/rpg series created by Steve Fawkner. The first game in the series was published in 1990 by SSG for Amiga and MS-DOS. It featured eight different clan...

Year: 1990 Genre: Strategy

fantasy hotseat map-based historical multiplayer rpg elements strategy turn-based strategy wargame

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

Wing Commander: Armada dos

Wing Commander: Armada is a turn-based 3d strategy game set in the universe of Wing Commander. It was created by Origin Systems and released in 1994 for PC MS-DOS. It's the first Wing Commander game to feature a multiplayer mode.

Year: 1994 Genre: Strategy

science fiction space flight strategy turn-based strategy

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

Star Control dosamiga

Star Control is an action/strategy game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade in 1990 for Amiga and MS-DOS. It is the first installment of the Star Control series tha...

Year: 1990 Genre: Strategy

2 players science fiction space exploration space flight space sim strategy

Genesia dosamiga

Genesia (the US version was called Ultimate Domain) is a strategy game developed and published by Microids for the Amiga in 1993. The game was later picked up by Software Toolworks and ported out to the IBM PC.

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

amiga original game amos business simulation fantasy hotseat isometric management multiplayer strategy

Warlords II dos

Warlords II is the successor to the original Warlords, and it was developed and published by Strategic Studies Group in 1993 for DOS. It later made its way onto Mac and then eventually Windows Mobile.

Year: 1993 Genre: Strategy

fantasy rpg elements strategy turn-based strategy wargame

X-COM: Apocalypse dos

X-COM Apocalypse is the third entry into the X-COM series, developed by Mythos Games and published by MicroProse for DOS and Windows in 1997. Apocalypse utilizes the same Cityscape...

Year: 1997 Genre: Strategy

aliens real-time science fiction squad management strategy tactical-rpg turn-based strategy

Syndicate: American Revolt dosamiga

Syndicate: American Revolt is an expansion of the original action strategy game created by Bullfrog. It was released in 1993 for MS-DOS and one year later for the Amiga. The data d...

Year: 1994 Genre: Strategy

action strategy cyberpunk dystopia real-time science fiction squad management 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

science fiction squad management strategy tactical-rpg turn-based strategy war