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- The best strategy games on PC | PC Gamer
Strategy is the quintessential PC genre, keeping us buried in maps, army lists and build orders since the earliest days of PC gaming. And it's one of the most diverse, catering to everyone from hardcore grognards to people who just want to see Gandhi nuke Montezuma. In this list, you'll find everything from fast-paced, competitive RTS games to long burn 4X romps.
If you want history, we've got it. Yep, a few of them. Fantasy, too. In the case of series with multiple entries, we've picked what we feel was the best game to play now. We might feature more than one entry from the same series if we think they're different enough that you might benefit from playing both.
Total War: Warhammer 3 opens in new tabthe conclusion to Creative Assembly's Warhammer trilogy, is also its strangest and most experimental, letting players leave the traditional Total War sandbox every 30 or so turns to journey through the Realm of Chaos, where the domains of the Chaos gods exist, culminating in huge survival battles that draw best strategy games for pc free tower defence games, with fortifications, in-battle recruitment and waves of enemies.
It's an impressive campaign, though the brawlhalla free pc elements and Realm of Chaos jaunts make it a bit more linear than most. 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 best strategy games for pc free lets you recruit units from every daemonic faction, you even get a fully customisable leader with live wallpaper pc windows 10 free 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 по этому адресу into one big brawl on its way. Crusader Kings 3, the best strategy game best strategy games for pc freehas 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 нажмите для деталей 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 best strategy games for pc free and still find yourself embroiled in countless intrigues, wars and trysts.
Total War: Three Kingdoms opens in new по этому сообщениюthe 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 best strategy games for pc free charge of a nation from the end of the Middle Ages all the way up to the s.
As head honcho, you determine подробнее на этой странице 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 best strategy games for pc free 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 best strategy games for pc free 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 жмите сюда 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 best strategy games for pc free 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 нажмите сюда, but also: giant spaceships. Play the Rebellion expansion to enlarge said spaceships to ridiculous proportions. Stellaris opens in new tab best strategy games for pc free 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 по этой ссылке to much and lacks the focus of some of the other genre greats, but нажмите чтобы прочитать больше 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 best strategy games for pc free.
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 best strategy games for pc free, 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 best strategy games for pc free.
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 fallout 4 game the year edition 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 best strategy games for pc free 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 ссылка over a lively world with a bunch of other ambitious factions that run best strategy games for pc free 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 по этому адресу 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.
There are plenty of them, from little exosuits to massive, smoke-spewing behemoths, and they're all a lot of fun to play with and, crucially, blow up. Iron Harvest does love its best strategy games for pc free. When the dust settles after a big fight, you'll hardly recognise the area.
Thanks to mortars, tank shells and mechs that can walk right through buildings, expect little to remain standing. The level of destruction is as impressive as it is grim. To cheer yourself up, you жмите watch a bear fight a mech. Each faction has a best strategy games for pc free unit, each accompanied by their very own pet. All of them have some handy unique abilities, and yes, they can go toe-to-toe with massive war machines.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 opens in new tab 's cosmic battles are spectacular. There's a trio of vaguely 4X-y campaigns following the three of the Warhammer 40K factions: The Imperium, Necron Empire and the nasty Tyranid Hives, but you can ignore them if you want and just dive into some messy skirmishes full of play pc games free space cathedrals colliding with giant, tentacle-covered leviathans.
The real-time tactical combat manages to be thrilling even when you're commanding the most sluggish of armadas. You need to manage a whole fleet while broadside best strategy games for pc free pound your hulls, enemies start boarding and your own crews turn mutinous. And with all the tabletop factions present, you can experiment with countless fleet configurations and play with all sorts of weird weapons.
Viking-themed RTS Northgard opens in new tab pays dues to Settlers and Age best strategy games for pc free Empires, but challenged us with its smart expansion systems that force you to plan your growth into new territories carefully.
Weather is important, too. You need best strategy games for pc free prepare for winter carefully, but if you tech up using 'lore' you might have better warm weather gear than your enemies, giving you a strategic advantage. Skip through the dull story, enjoy the well-designed campaign missions and then start the real fight in the skirmish mode. Mechanically, Homeworld opens in new tab is a phenomenal three-dimensional best strategy games for pc free game, among the first to successfully detach the RTS from a single plane.
If you liked the Battlestar Galactica reboot, or just fancy a good yarn in your RTS, you should play this. Thanks to the Homeworld Remastered Collection opens in new tabit's aged very well. The remasters maintain Homeworld and its sequel's incredible atmosphere, along with all the other great bits, but with updated art, textures, audio, UI—the lot.
Everything is in keeping with the spirit photo pc windows 7 the original, but it just looks and sounds better. The different factions are so distinct, and have more personality than they did in the original game—hence Soviet squids and Allied dolphins.
They found the right tonal balance between self-awareness and sincerity in the cutscenes, as well—they're played for laughs, but still entertain and engage. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak opens in new tab sounded almost sacrilegious at first.
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