Games for development pc. The best turn-based strategies on PC

26.08.2018 Pavel Makarov

One of the first strategies with the development of civilization is Sid Meier's Civilization, released in 1991. The game was developed by MPS Labs and published by MicroProse. The player had to deal with the development of the selected people. As the game progresses, you need to study technology, engage in diplomacy, participate in wars and develop the economy. The setting included the historical period from the primitive system to the near future.

Civilization became the game that founded the genre of turn-based global strategies with elements of economic, political and scientific development. Sid Meier's Civilization was the first to use the concept of a "tech tree". In this article, we invite you to get acquainted with contemporary representatives genre of games in which you need to develop your civilization.

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Release date: 2010
Genre: global turn-based strategy with the development of civilization
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K

The player's task is to lead his civilization to one of the types of victory. Types of victory in Civilization: military, diplomatic, scientific and cultural. Turn-Based Strategy (TBS) develops on a global map consisting of hexes. Part of the hexes is reserved for various resources and improvements. The other part is under the Wonders of the World, city-states or controlled by competitors.

Two major expansions have been released for the game: Gods & Kings and Brave New World, bringing significant innovations to the game mechanics. Numerous additions with new civilizations and game maps have also been released.

A feature of the game is access to a huge number of mods, which can be downloaded through the menu. Fans have created many scenarios, civilizations and maps, the variety of which is able to satisfy the most demanding taste.

Some of the shortcomings can be called the weakness of the AI ​​​​(however, it is common for most strategies), but this pales against the background of the many advantages of this wonderful game. Incredible popularity facts: over 10 million copies sold and a Metacritic rating of 90 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

Release date: 1999
Genre: tactical strategy with medieval kingdom development
Developer: Ensemble Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

This game is a sequel to one of the classic RTS series. She has won numerous awards. 2 million copies were sold in the first quarter of sales. The score on Metacritic was 92/100. The player is available to manage 13 civilizations with their own specifics. In addition, The Conquerors added five more. There are also 5 companies in the game. Civilization passes through four eras, each of which opens up access to new divisions and improvements. The gameplay consists of building cities, collecting resources, creating armies. As a result, it is necessary to defeat opponents by destroying their armies and destroying buildings.

In 2013, the game was re-released in an enhanced HD format with significantly improved graphics. Later, three more DLCs were released in this format with new civilizations, maps, and scenarios.

Forge of Empires

Release date: year 2012
Genre: online strategy with city development
Developer: InnoGames
Publisher: InnoGames

If you're not ready to get so caught up in the weaves of Sid Meier's Civilization, but want to take people from the Stone Age to a sci-fi-like world, then Forge of Empires is a great option for you. There is only one city on your shoulders. The game is available both for PC in the browser and for Android and IOS mobile platforms.

An important part of the gameplay is the interaction with players around the world. Neighboring settlements can make shoots at you, but you are not born with a bast, you can answer!

Cossacks 3

Release date: 2016
Genre: tactical strategy with base development
Developer: GSC Game World
Publisher: GSC Game World

A remake of the 2001 classic RTS. The player can manage 12 countries, with 70 types of military units, 100 technologies and over 140 historical buildings. The gameplay is set in 17th and 18th century Europe, with appropriate units and weapons.

Cossacks 3 — screenshots

The peculiarity of the game is the huge crowds of armies rushing around the map and destroyed by the thousands in brutal fleeting battles. To win, the management of armies must be combined with skillful management - the extraction of key resources and the construction of the necessary buildings.

For our time, the gameplay of Cossacks 3 is somewhat outdated, but it can deliver pleasant minutes to fans of the classics.

Total War: Rome II

Release date: year 2013
Genre: global strategy with the development of ancient civilization
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: SEGA

Total War is one of the most famous PC game series, familiar to every strategy fan. In this genre, only the Civilization series is at its level. Rome II is the eighth game in Total War, and one of the most successful. It combines a strategic mode on the global map, in which macro-management of resources, movements, assignments, with a tactical one, in which battles take place.

The company begins in 272 BC. and is expected to last 300 years. The game has 117 different factions fighting on a huge map in 173 regions covering Asia, Africa and Europe.

The main types of troops are fighting directly on the battlefield ancient world(cavalry, infantry, elephants, etc.) taking into account the historical specifics of different factions (Greek phalanx, Roman legions, etc.). Different types of battles are available (siege, river battles, etc.), in which thousands of units fight.

In addition to the exciting game Rome II offers a lot of material on the history of the ancient world, especially its military part.

Stronghold Kingdoms

Release date: year 2012
Genre: online strategy with the development of the medieval state
Developer: firefly studios
Publisher: firefly studios

What is it like to manage a medieval castle? Stronghold Kingdoms tries to give a simple but honest answer to this - this MMORTS (a genre that combines real-time strategy and multiplayer functionality) gives a simplistic but complete idea of ​​​​how to maintain your fortress with knights and dysentery.

One of the characteristic features of the game is that your successful passage depends not only on defeating computer antagonists, but also on interactions with other real gamers over the network.

Rise of Nations

Release date: 2003
Genre: turn-based strategy with RPG elements and non-linear storyline
Developer: Big Huge Games
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

The game is similar in mechanics to Total War, combining strategic actions on the global map with the direct command of troops in combat mode. Visually, it is much poorer than Total War, and in the field of combat and strategy it is inferior to this classic.

The player takes control of one of 18 nations, which leads to victory through 8 historical eras of development. About 100 different units are available to him, and each faction has its own unique fighters.

In 2014, a re-release of the game was released, with updated graphics and multiplayer.

Europa Universalis IV

Release date: year 2013
Genre: global strategy with the development of civilization in the Renaissance
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Grand strategy from Paradox, one of the leading strategy developers.

The game covers the period from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age.

Gaming takes place taking into account real historical events (geographical discoveries, etc.). The player must skillfully combine trade, diplomacy, colonization and military action to achieve victory.

The game has a strong strategic component, characteristic of Paradox, with a relatively poor military unit. There are no tactical battles, and the game is played only on the global map. In this form, the game is similar to chess.

The "trick" of Europa Universalis IV is that the process depends on random events, both positive and negative, that are generated every year.

Vikings: War of Clans

Release date: 2015
Genre: MMO strategy with the development of the Viking settlement
Developer: Plarium
Publisher: Plarium

If you often watch videos on YouTube, then you have long known that, if strategies from the nineties and early zero are dear to your heart, you should definitely try Vikings: War of Clans. Such intrusive monotonous advertising can turn away any desire to try out the game.

But for some reason, it is played by several times more people than the Vikings ever existed. And all because this is a well-thought-out military strategy in which you equally enjoy both profitable alliances with other players and mindless plunder of their lands.

Release date: year 2012
Genre: global strategy with the development of your own dynasty in the setting of medieval Europe
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Another grand strategy from Paradox, covering the Medieval period from 1066 to 1453.

The peculiarity of the game is that it is a simulator of a dynasty, not a civilization or a state. The player, using wars, marriages and murders, works hard on the global map to achieve the success of his dynasty and eliminate competitors.

14 DLCs have already been released, adding new dynasties, events and expanding the period of the game.

The game is similar in strengths and weaknesses to Europa Universalis IV: a powerful strategic component with advanced AI is combined with a poor military part.

Throne: Kingdom At War

Release date: 2016
Genre: MMO strategy with the development of a medieval kingdom
Developer: Plarium
Publisher: Plarium

The world of Throne: Kingdom At War can be described as an abstract bewitching Middle Ages without the Inquisitions, but with knights. In the game, you create a Hero, and everything depends on him - he improves your possessions and manages your soldiers in battles.

Once upon a time in the fictional kingdom of Amaria, a wise monarch ruled over everything. But his death plunged everything into chaos, and the Hero is one of the fighters for control over his possessions. You can explore new lands and conquer the recalcitrant. Anything until you yourself are overthrown.

Release date: 2010
Genre: global strategy with the development of civilization in the era of modern times
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Development

Another global strategy from Paradox. The game is more focused on assiduous fans. The player needs to spend many hours on political and economic decisions.

The player controls the state, combining its political, diplomatic, economic, military and technological aspects. The period of the game is 1836-1936. The game covers the entire Earth, with over 200 playable countries.

Victoria II is more focused on the development of economic relations. The game has a complex system with more than 50 types of goods and factories, the prices of which are determined by millet and supply. In the area of ​​politics and diplomacy, the player interacts with 8 different types of governments and 7 ideologies. The military component, which is responsible for 20 types of land and naval troops, is less important than in analogues.

Grand Age Medieval

Release date: 2015
Genre: real-time strategy with the development of the economy of the medieval state
Developer: Gaming Minds Studios
Publisher: Kalypso Media Digital

Not quite a successful attempt to cross RTS with TBS. On the global map in real time is the government. The emphasis is on the economy, the battles are of lesser importance. Factions almost do not differ from each other, the battles are very boring, the only highly developed part is trade. To build a strong economy, you need to carefully track the prices of goods, compare alternatives, deal with logistics and trade protection.

Grand Ages Medieval can be called trading strategy, to which "for show" screwed the war and other components.

Medieval II: Total War

Release date: 2006
Genre: global military strategy in the setting of medieval Europe
Developer: CREATIVE ASSEMBLY
Publisher: SEGA

The fourth game in the Total War series, one of the pinnacles of the strategy genre.

The game covers the period of the Middle Ages; 17 fractions are available in the company. In the process, it is necessary not only to fight competitors, but also to take into account global events corresponding to historical periods. For example, the invasions of the Mongols and Timur. Religion plays an important role on the global map. For example, the Pope can excommunicate you from the church and declare a crusade against you. If the population of the recently conquered territories professes a religion different from yours, then there is a high probability of rebellions.

The system of agents responsible for the spread of religions, espionage and other components of victory has also been fully implemented. Decisive battles are best done manually, and not set to auto-calculate, and here you can see that the game engine has been improved in Medieval II. The soldiers received individual content and a variety of combat techniques. This visually distinguishes the battles from the "clone wars" of previous games in the series.

In addition to our article, we suggest watching a detailed video review of other strategies on the PC with the development of civilization, including settings from the primitive period to modern days.

Paradox Interactive continues to create complex worlds in the realm of grand strategy and grand strategy. Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings, created by these developers, impressed the audience and gained a large number of fans around the world. Having applied all their experience, the developers went to the stars, along with their next project - Stellaris, inviting players with them to a grander gaming theater than before.

Stellaris is a highly customizable real-time strategy/grand strategy hybrid. From the very beginning of the game, you can customize your interstellar people, from their appearance and flag, to philosophy and demeanor. Some form of customization is present in many aspects of the game. The manner in which you explore nearby planets and star systems, study the sciences, expand your race's dominions, and interact with other races. Gradually, Stellaris accelerates from a somewhat slow start to a large and all-encompassing race for control of the universe.

The game does not forget its roots. Stellaris borrows socio-political and economic systems from other Paradox games, forcing players to balance between internal struggles and external influences and pressures. Stellaris is great to play solo, but multiplayer is where the game really shines. Playing online, against friends and foes, is a great pastime that stretches into many hours of fun from the game.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is one of the modern offerings in the Warhammer 40K universe, a tactical RTS with spaceships. Abandoning the ground combat of previous games in the Warhammer 40K universe, Battlefleet Gothic turns its attention to the stars to fight a desperate war against galactic enemies.

Acting by the standards of the lore of the Warhammer 40K universe, the journey through the story takes the player under control of a fleet of Imperial warships, the story will push you head-on head-on with familiar opponents: Chaos Indivisible, Orcs and Eldar. Survival in combat depends on the timely use of tactics, relying on the slowdown mechanic known as the Tactical Cogitator. Meanwhile, your task is to wisely spend all the resources on armament and customization of your ships in order to get the maximum performance in your chosen tactics.

In addition to single player, the multiplayer mode will allow you to use many ships of different factions and participate in multiplayer battles. With every victory and defeat in single player and multiplayer, you earn "Fame", which you can spend on upgrades and improvements, and defeats in the campaign affect your progress through the story campaign. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is a bit difficult to learn, but from this game you can get the most interesting and comprehensive Warhammer 40K experience, not to mention that the game as a whole is an outstanding tactical spaceship RTS.

Best Strategy Where Montezuma (Aztec Emperor) Can Fight Gandhi (Indian Philosopher)

Civilization is a turn-based strategy game about human history: you guide a race of people from the stone age to modern times and beyond. This is a global strategy (capture, explore, use and destroy) and the best thing is that you start from scratch and grow to a global power. Or die trying to do it.

The decisions you will face in the game are political, economic, military and even social. You can become a friendly neighbor or an invader. The center of trade and tourism, or the state focused on the industry. Freedom of choice is the best asset of the game - where will you move? What are you going to do? Which path will you take to win? There are now more than 20 factions in the game, and each has a specific play style, but you will always have freedom of action.

Civilzation is a well established series of games. The game has a strong set teaching aids and tooltips to help you make decisions. Combat is better than ever, thanks to Civilzation V's reimagining of the grid system. Having Steam Workshop support means you'll have an endless stream of mods and maps.

This is the game series that coined the term "one more turn and sleep" - this strategy is addictive, it's an addictive and fun game.

Best Total War Strategy

Total War is a game about managing an entire empire in between armed clashes on the way to dominance. Now you are busy with taxes and building baths, and the next moment you are firing cannons and headlong rushing at the enemy.

The game takes place in two different modes: empire management in turn-based strategy mode, and tactical battles in real-time strategy mode. The key to victory is the interaction between the two modes, for example: mount a cavalry charge against the enemy army, knowing that it is commanded by the opponent's king and his assassination will cause the collapse of the empire.

Whenever two armies meet, the game switches to tactical combat mode. You play as a general, a hero - you control your units, draw up battle formations and strategy, and fight your enemy to the last man. The choice is not always the best option - the right terrain and the right tactics, a slight superiority in strength can withstand almost any difficulty, and the most powerful army can be defeated with a good ambush.

Total War: Shogun 2 is by far the best game in the series. If the period covered (16th century feudal Japan) isn't to your liking, try Napoleon: Total War, a game centered on the famous general's campaign. Total War is a deep, tactical and thoughtful game: it can take you a week or so to complete a campaign in Total War.

Buyer's guide: Sega often discounts Total War, and you can get Shogun 2 and its expansions on Steam for less.

Nearly a decade and a half after the game's release, the original Stronghold is still the best game in Firefly's castle builder series. The combination of RTS with creative, strategic building, missions and combat sometimes detracted from the game's trump card - a simple but effective medieval building kit.

The campaign isn't particularly memorable and the combat is slow and can be confusing, but playing the free-building mode is a very addictive experience, like playing Lego or sand-sculpting in childhood sandboxes. Of course, the tide always destroys the fruits of hard work, but watching everything fall apart is part of the fun.

Buyer's guide:Stronghold HD is available in Steam

The best strategy to kill your spouse

Crusader Kings 2 is a bloodthirsty bastard of Grand Strategies. You play as a medieval lord trying to gain more power, influence and territories in historically accurate medieval Europe. The game offers complex game mechanics instead of a pretty picture. You control the economy, the army and the people.

The personality element is what makes Crusader Kings 2 a very compelling game. You are part of a family dynasty, not an abstract nation. You can marry and have children, when you die, your heir will take the reins and everything will start again. In between all of this, you can use intrigue or brute force to increase your holdings, but the key is that you develop a real personal connection with your characters, your avatar. You will mourn his death, you will applaud his every triumph.

As a count or duke, you can stage a coup and rebel against your Lord to increase your power. As a king, it is quite easy to lose the Realm due to an invasion or rebellion. But as long as a member of your dynasty is still alive, you will always have a chance to win everything back. Don't be put off by the apparent difficulty, the more you play, the more you'll learn.

Buyer's guide: Choose to purchase a bundle with most add-on packs, including the latest (Old Gods).

The best strategy for e-sports fans

Starcraft II is a sci-fi strategy game about armored cowboys fighting against xenomorphic aliens and space elves. This is a classic real time strategy where you collect resources, build an army and kill enemies before they kill you, you will need to make quick decisions and click quickly.

Multiplayer is a huge part of Starcraft II. People will become your enemies; they will be able to click the keyboard faster than you and give orders faster than you. You will probably lose a lot of nerve cells, but you will get better gaming entertainment and you will be good enough to compete against players at the level of esports.

The single-player campaign is also quite interesting - Blizzard combined the frantic action with RPG elements, and the story of the exploits of the mercenary Jim Raynor. You will fight in a series of missions, many of them will have unique objectives - for example, try to collect resources on the map periodically filled with lava, defend against waves of zerg during the allotted time period. In between missions, you explore a kind of RPG hub where you can talk to people, research new technologies, and decide which mission to visit next. It's very difficult to implement an interesting story in the real time strategy genre, and many are limited to cutscenes and dialogue in missions, but SCII, by forcing you to interact with the world outside the battlefield, actually makes the game story interactive.

Buyer's guide: Blizzard is one of the few companies that doesn't actually "make" DLC. Starcraft II has one expansion at the time of writing, Heart of the Swarm, with a second expansion (Legacy of the Void) due out at some point in the future. The expansion as a whole brings a few new units and tweaks to the multiplayer, but mainly advances the single player story. In the original game, you played as Terrans. In Hearts of the Swarm, you play as the Zerg. In Legacy of the Void, you will play as Protos.

The best strategy for playing dress-up with your dolls

XCOM was an unexpected hit. turn-based strategy that will require you to repel an alien invasion in a dynamic single-player campaign. It's a remake of the classic X-Com, and as a remake, it's one of the best.

You send teams of up to six soldiers into battle against little gray aliens, robots, insects, and more. Tactically intense firefights across city maps, countryside, aboard alien ships, all supported by easy strategy. The player's base is presented as an ant farm where you will research new technologies, perform autopsies, and request funding from a shady government agency.

In a word, it's fantastic.

The character customization is really cool. You can give your wars names and faces as you play the campaign they grow in your mind, they get backstory and fake accents. It is up to you to live or die for these soldiers, and you feel their every step, feel every plasma bolt that hits them, you feel their pain as your own. When they drop dead, mourn, and a new guy is sent in as a replacement... well, he (or she) won't get a name until he proves himself.

Tactical combat is the essence of the game, and if you've never tested your commanding skills against real people, then XCOM invites you to try them out in multiplayer.

This real-time strategy game set in World War II throws you right into the middle of a fight taking place during the Allied invasion of Northern France. Starting with D-Day, you will make your way through several maps divided into tactical zones. You must establish a base of operations, protect resources, and fight for a just cause.

It's tricky - you have to make sure all the corners are covered and that your front line is safe, because if there are gaps, nothing will stop the enemy from wreaking havoc behind your lines. Infantry can build defenses and/or garrison buildings, and engineers can set traps or lay obstacles. Tanks and other vehicles will provide you with brute force, but they are quite expensive to build en masse. As a commander, you have support abilities that give you an additional advantage.

This game is the highest rated strategy game of all time - the single player campaign reminiscent of the movie Band of Brothers makes the story campaign more than just an online tutorial and the online community itself is well developed. The two factions (or four if you have the add-ons) are well balanced so that you will need more than just maneuvering or simple ranged combat with the enemy. In the nine years since the first release, the modding community has flourished, which means that you can get even more interesting gameplay.

Buyer's guide: Company of Heroes has two expansions - Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valour. Opposing Fronts is the only add-on really worth buying. At the moment, a sequel has already been released, covering the Russian and Eastern fronts.

The best strategy where elephants and sports cars can collide in battle

Age of Empires is a classic real-time strategy series that is easy to learn, charming and can challenge the player if desired. You choose your civilization, create your city and your army, and fight against other civilizations on the map. You advance through various "ages" or tech levels to upgrade your troops and buildings.

This game is half resource management, half tactical combat like Warcraft or Starcraft. You always start the game in your city center and some civilians, but by the end of the match you can grow into a metropolis, with walls, fire towers, and a large army. Age of Empires came out before the beginning of the era multiplayer games on the Internet, so the main component of these games is single-player campaigns and battle with artificial intelligence. Representing a series of specially created maps (with customizable goals), with famous person or a group of people from history. These missions don't have to be historically accurate, but they draw you into the story, and each battle provides a unique scenario for the confrontation.

Age of Empires 2 spans an abstract time period starting in the Middle Ages and working its way up to early era Renaissance. How do you like: Duke's Celtic raiders with his Persian elephants and medieval pikemen near Japanese fortresses? And those who know cheats can always play with sports cars with machine guns installed.

Buyer's guide: In January 2013, Microsoft released an "HD" version of Age of Empires 2 , Includes the base game and the expansion.

The best hybrid of Wargame (Wargame) and RTS

Wargame game. It will save you from unnecessary worries associated with the construction of bases and will allow you to focus solely on the battles. You command your own customizable army of tanks, infantry, artillery, and even combat helicopters and planes. The battles take place in highly detailed parts of the European countryside, which can be up to 150Km2.

Attention to detail is what drives WarGames, and it's what makes WarGame: AirLand Battle a brilliant game. Your tanks may be marching down the highway or trampling various crops in the fields, your infantry may be crawling through the forests or holding an important crossroads... but tanks need fuel, and weapons need bullets. If you don't support your troops with supplies, with a logistics system, your fireteam will literally get stuck.

For a high-level strategy game, there's a surprising amount of atmosphere. If you bring the camera close to "ground level", the camera will be shaken by artillery shells crashing into the ground. The forests will burn around you, and if things are going really bad for you, retreating, the skeletons of fallen tanks and infantry fighting vehicles remain behind to burn out.

Wargame offers - a brilliant dynamic single-player campaign. You will be able to play as NATO or the Warsaw Pact countries, and you will have to fight for control of Scandinavia using the existing combat units, off-map support... even randomized political events. If you prefer to play with real people, there is a great online community. Also, Wargame has a lot of multiplayer maps in stock, and there is support for battles in 10 vs 10 matches.

Buyer's guide: At the time of writing, the Wargame series consists of three games, the latest being Wargame: Red dragon, with an alternate story set in conflict in Asia

Best Strategy for Ambitious Caribbean Dictator

Tropico is essentially a city builder, but what makes it cool is its charm. You play as a dictator with a Caribbean banana republic theme and it's up to you to guide your island from humble beginnings to greatness.

How you do this is up to you. You can exploit the natural resources of your island and turn it into industrial centre or you can use the natural beauty of the island and try to become a holiday destination for clueless white tourists. Or both. In Tropico, there are many options for where to place a residential complex or a factory, whether to assign pensions or call for military service. You bring immigrants to the island and they all need housing and jobs and you will have to build your economy and services. Throughout the game, your actions are wonderfully reported on the Tropico radio talk show, the host tries to make even the crappiest of your actions positive.

As your island grows, you will be able to start doing business with - America, Russia, or even China and Europe, everyone will want to influence you. They will offer you money and wealth if you only let them build a military base on the island, or let them export their waste to you. If you are not careful, you will have to deal with an uprising or an invasion. Either way, your regime will be overthrown.

Tropico is just a fun game: it's a city builder with a healthy dose of economics, commerce and politics.

Best Space RTS

Sins of a Solar Empire - this global real-time strategy focuses on building a big space empire. You have planets to colonize and develop industry and trade on, but when things get tough there are always groups of ships throwing bullets, lasers and missiles at each other in an endless struggle for dominance.

The game has a lot of things typical of the Sins series: your scouts will rush from planet to planet in search of new worlds to conquer. Your merchant fleets will move goods from place to place, turning the wheels of the economy, and your mighty battle fleets will rush from one crisis to another, because if pirates aren't knocking on your door, some other faction has come to lay claim to your property.

There is no single player campaign in the game: you just play an endless amount of skirmishes against the AI ​​using a wide variety of cards from the set, each with its own quirks and strategies. You can also create your own map using the editor and of course you can start the game online and play against real people.

Buyer's guide: Sins of a Solar Empire has three expansions. Lastly, Rebellion is a standalone expansion that includes all previous updates and features. There is also a DLC for the game called "Forbidden Worlds" which adds new planet types, new vehicles and several heroes.

The best strategy game with atomic weapons

DEFCON is a game about a war that cannot be won - a nuclear war. You are presented on a simple vector map of the world (in the style of the WarGames movie and other classic films), you are given a bunch of military equipment, and the world begins to slowly count down to Armageddon. You must the best way use everything you have to come out on top in the soon-to-be-formed desert world.

Simplicity and abstractness of Defcon is its greatest advantage. You cannot stop all missiles and you cannot win every conflict. Regions will be destroyed, entire fleets will be lost, but... all you see is statistics on the screen. You gain points for killing more people at once, you lose points for every percentage of your original population. The player with the most points at the end will receive the "victory". Congratulations.

Defcon is an interesting game, but what makes it so addictive?! This is that the game is actually a battle of wits, akin to chess. The match will always start with DEFCON 5, and will count down the level of danger in the allotted time. The closer you get to DEFCON 1, the more you are allowed to do, but basically it all comes down to the good placement of your assets - your fleet and submarines, bombers and fighters, missile silos, radars. You and your enemies (up to 6 players or AI can play in the same match) will do the same actions, so you will need to have a premonition and the ability to guess the opponent's next move.

The game lasts no more than 45 minutes by default, although you can adjust this setting. The game is great fun for pure strategists and loads quickly and easily. We highly recommend playing against other players.

Buyer's guide: There are no add-ons or DLC, and the game itself is very cheap.

This space grand strategy will throw at you: space bugs, slaver raids, asteroids, even alien probes... and lo and behold, you accidentally meet another space empire. This is a dangerous universe and Sword of the Stars reflects this wonderfully and also gives the player an exciting and challenging game.

This living universe really works wonders in the early game, where traditionally almost nothing happens in 4X before you encounter other factions. In addition, Sword of the Stars does something you don't often see in this genre of strategy games, it doesn't make all playable factions equal. Of course, everything starts with the same resources and planets, but each race behaves in a unique way - they have their own unique methods of traveling through space. It also binds the technology system to the factions: the game's technology tree is randomized for each new match, and each race has preferences for certain technologies.

Ship customization takes up most of the game, and you will spend some of your time just tweaking different ship designs. Like the Total War series, this game goes into real-time strategy mode when the shooting starts. You can give orders to your fleet, set battle formations, and watch as two groups of ships grind each other into space dust. Nice.

The Soviet Union is invading America and it's up to you to push them back. Gone are the days when you had to build a base and manage resources, you have command points and goals. If your units are destroyed, you can use your command points to call in reinforcements, and you must use your unit's strengths wisely, along with an impressive array of off-map abilities.

The single-player campaign is very cinematic and really pulls you in with the story. I almost wanted to join the Red Army after seeing the result of the Soviets storming West Berlin, and there is one scene in the middle of the game... well, I'll leave it up to you to figure it out for yourself. You basically play as a US Army officer helping to repel an invasion, but the Soviet Assault add-on adds missions from a Russian perspective, and this is critical to the backstory.

The game is a great example of tactical combat, taking advantage of the terrain, micromanaging troops, and it gets even better when you go online to play. Players can fight in matches with up to 16 players, and unlike a solo company, you must choose one of four roles for yourself, this will affect the units and auxiliary abilities available to you. Some roles are likely to be weaker against certain tactics, so you need to make sure you work alongside your teammates.

However, there is still no such problem that would not be solved by carpet bombing.

Buyer's guide: At the game World in Conflict there was only one addition - Soviet Assault. The add-on adds new missions to the story company for the USSR.

Best Large Scale RTS

Supreme Commander was the game that broke the PC, the demands on the processors were so high. This game is about the war of the future real-time strategy robo, it simplifies the management of resources and focuses more on building a beautiful war machine. You start with one indispensable device - the command machine, from which you build factories that produce units, they are necessary in order to wage war on your enemies.

The Player's army can potentially reach 1000 units, on land, at sea and in the air. You must carefully orchestrate a ballet of production, movement and attack, grinding your opponent down while keeping your command unit, as well as your factories and power grids, safe so that they can create more death machines. It's a brilliant and stunning game, and it's not for casual gamers.

Oddly enough, it was one of the few games that officially supported dual monitors, which meant you could have a scalable map on the second screen. This is a godsend that allows you to keep your eyes on the "big picture" of combat and is recommended if you're going to play seriously. There are few games that allow you to play on the same scale as Supreme Commander, and when you go to war on the Internet, that's when the real difficulties begin for you. Games like Starcraft require fast thinking and reaction speed, but they only allow you to manage with a couple of dozen units at most. Supreme Commander requires you to deal with a thousand units. Think about it.

Buyer's guide: There is no DLC for this game, only a standalone pack of the Forged Alliance expansion. It's better to get Forged Alliance, it fixes a lot of problems in the base game and also introduces an additional faction.

Best licensed strategy

If you are a fan of Star Wars, then this game is for you. Empire at War lets you take charge of the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance and fight for galactic dominance. You take command of a mighty fleet and army; even send notable heroes like Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader into battle. You can also build a Death Star.

By far the best element of the game is the tactical space battles. Up to four players can fight on one map (the map can have hazards like asteroids or gas clouds), each player with their own space station, and the goal of the game is to simply knock out your opponent by destroying their bases . Large ships, unlike small ones, have the ability to target, and can shoot down our weapons or shields, and many ships (and heroes) have special skills that can help turn the tide.

In addition to space battles, you can participate in land battles, lead a squadron of hover tanks or AT-AT walkers. This game is similar in mechanics to Total War in that it has a separate campaign interface where you manage an empire and your forces and then boot into the battle screen separately. The only difference is that everything happens in real time, and there are no queues.

It's a pretty big game that will be even better for you if you're a fan of the Star Wars universe.

Buyer's guide: There is no DLC, and only one expansion, called Forged Alliance - adds a third faction, completely different from the two that already exist, and also adds new units, abilities, etc.

A long time ago, when Westwood Studios was masterfully creating real-time strategy games, they wondered "what if there was no Nazi Germany?" The script they designed in the original game red alert in which the Soviet Union becomes all-powerful and freely conquers all of Europe. The original game sets the bar high, featuring two surprisingly diverse sides to the conflict, a dangerous arsenal of weaponry, and a heavy techno/metal soundtrack and story told through live video footage between missions. The second game in the series hits an even higher bar, arguably higher than almost any other Westwood Studios title.

Red Alert 2 followed the idea that the Allies defeated Stalin and his troops, after which they installed their puppet government in the USSR. Unfortunately for the Allies, the Soviets did not take their humiliation very well. They rebuilt their forces and attacked the Americans on all fronts. The game's plot is a bit contrived, but it sets the backdrop for an incredible series of playable campaigns for the Soviets and Allies, complete with plenty of impressive technology for both sides.

If that's not enough, you can go online and invite up to 7 of your buddies into battle. The game allows each player to choose a nation, with their own special units bringing an extra layer of strategy to each skirmish. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 didn't become Westwood Studios' swansong, but it may have been their main work. After Red Alert 2, they'll have other good games, but nothing captures the Westwood spirit quite like their second Soviet/Allied RTS game.

Best grand strategy

The mighty flagship from Paradox Development Studio. The Europa Universalis series has always been strong, impressive, intricate and with a sandbox approach to strategy. But with this confusion came many problems. Bugs, dumb interfaces, and poorly explained mechanics can turn players off before they annex their first nation.

Europa Universalis IV changed all that. The game is still a tough nut to crack and will require a lot of effort from players, but it is by far the most user-friendly game in the series. And while its myriad systems are still bewildering, it's entirely possible to just jump in and carve out a niche in history.

This is a game from the series "what if?". What if, if Italy swept through the Ottoman Empire with a huge mercenary army? What if England and France became best friends and divided Europe, and did not fight each other? What if Scotland ruled the world? What to do, if.

Buyer's guide: Europa Universalis 4 has a lot of DLC and unfortunately they are not all in one pack yet. You can buy them individually on Steam, however. Packs and other support items can be ignored if you wish, but it's still worth picking up Wealth of Nations and Conquest of Paradise.

Best 4X (Global) Strategy

The best game for 4X lovers with goblin fanatics and halfling wizards

Is the desire to resurrect and give the classic series a new life. This is a fantasy grand strategy.

There are a few scripted campaigns to play through, but the meat is in the randomly generated maps and customizable factions. Fundamentalist goblins can fight - with the help of holy war engines - elf industrialists, while armies of dire penguins march through the frozen wastelands. This is all amazingly stupid.

The game makes damn big fights. Multiple units can be linked together to create gigantic armies. Reminiscent of Total War sieges in terms of scope, but with well-thought-out turn-based combat and magic.

While diplomacy and city management are the weak side of the game, Age of Wonders shines during battles. An abundance of magic and special abilities, a diverse roster of units, and battlefields littered with obstacles make every battle a great puzzle.

Buyer's guide: You can buy Age of Wonders 3 on Steam, GOG etc., there is a DLC that expands the building mechanics and introduces the Hobit race.

The best strategy for Warhammer 40k

Dawn Of War is amazing. In many ways, it feels like a very traditional real-time strategy game, with a lot of building, strategy, and resource management. But looking at its predecessors, the game is similar to Company Of Heroes. We see Relic begin experimenting with morale, cover, units, and radically different factions.

Tension is at the heart of the whole game. The whole game is about advancing, capturing and holding territory. And all the time, resources are running out faster and generators are falling into disrepair. But the war machine constantly needs to be fed.

Addons expand the game by introducing more factions with their own unique mechanics. There are the dastardly Eldar, the bloodthirsty Orcs, the numerous Imperial Guards - each faction offers different ways to play the same game. A total of nine factions were added.

Dawn Of War 2 has received a lot of changes, with combat smaller and more focused on tactics over strategy. It's still a great game, but in moving away from the genre's tradition, Dawn Of War has lost some of its magic.

Buyer's guide: The base game and all expansions were collected in Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War Master Collection.

Best sci-fi economic strategy

Anno 2070 has said goodbye to historical setting and Ubisoft's voluptuous economic strategy series is embarking on a post-environmental calamity of the future. The game is still about making money and expanding your influence on the islands, but instead of a medieval or colonial power, the game is floundering with an eco faction and polluting industrialists.

An unpleasant feeling of despair permeates throughout the game. The world is fighting to survive and in the hope of making a profit, the decisions that are made can put the world in an even worse position. And social and ecological problems add a new dimension of complexity.

Technology has a huge impact. The factions aren't limited to their island homes, and can build underwater as well, creating algae farms or dirty oil rigs.

Strategy games occupy a special place in the list of genres. They are not designed for a mass audience, because often they do not have outstanding graphics and hurricane gameplay, and the classic “swoop” passage can unpleasantly surprise the player.

Here you need to think, plan and solve the problem gradually, step by step moving towards victory.

The best military strategies on PC

We present our top of the best military strategies for PC, which have already become classics and should certainly be on the list of those who call themselves a fan of the genre.

Red Alert Series

• Release date: 1996-2009
• Developer: Westwood Studios, EA Los Angeles

The Red Alert series is a separate series of games within the popular Command & Conquer franchise. The action takes place in an alternate reality in which Hitler was defeated by a time machine invented by Einstein. This led to unforeseen consequences in the form of a huge military power USSR, which declared war on the United States and its allies. A little later (in the third part of the series), another side joins the confrontation - the Empire of the Rising Sun.

• Developer: The Creative Assembly
• Release date: 2000-2017

It is difficult to find a more famous series of war games than Total War. Back in 2000, when many of our readers were running under the table on foot, the world saw the first project of the series - Shogun. The player had to face Japan during the period of feudal fragmentation and taking control of one of the Japanese clans to bring him to power over the entire island state.

Total War: Warhammer

But it was Rome: Total War that instilled love for the series, which impressed with its detail, depth of strategic opportunities and exceptional charm. Today, the collection has the ability to fight in any time period. We can try to lead one of the nations of the Ancient World to greatness, lead the invasion of barbarians in the Dark Ages, build a medieval empire, wage wars and discover new lands in the Modern Age, and even plunge into a fantasy world in Total War: Warhammer. The series is worth it to spend hundreds of hours on it and get a lot of fun.

• Developer: Blizzard
• Release date: 2010
• Link: http://eu.battle.net

Fans have been waiting for the second part of it for 12 years. And their hopes were fully justified. We are waiting for a new round of confrontation between the three main races in space: Terran, Zerg and Protoss. People rely on their firepower in the form of flamethrowers, tanks, heavy cruisers. Zerg is a highly developed swarm, where each member of the hive is just a tool for solving a specific problem that faces the main brain. The Protoss are an ancient race on the brink of psionic ascension, yet still dealing with their own internal conflicts.

Starcraft II is based on a very interesting plot, the development of which does not bother to follow from mission to mission. And the tasks themselves are extremely diverse, they have many side tasks, non-trivial solutions. Many people can really call Starcraft II the best military strategy and they will be right in their own way. After all, it was not in vain that immediately after the release, it was included in the eSports Olympiad in Korea.

• Developer: New World Computing, Nival, Black Hole Entertainment
• Release date: 1995-2015

It is impossible to make the top strategic war games and miss the legendary series of Heroes of Might and Magic. Having seen the light in 1995, the game has gone through more than 20 years of history. The most successful is still the third part of the series, despite the outdated graphics to date. The second most popular is the fifth part, created by domestic developers.

We will be told about a fairy-tale world where there are constant wars. Almost all the mythical and legendary creatures that are present in the myths of the peoples of the world fight here: genies and wyverns, gremlins and trolls, demons and orcs. This is a turn-based military strategy, each session in which is unique. Everything depends on the decisions of the player, each campaign can be played with the style inherent only to a particular player. And how interesting it is to play multiplayer, it's hard to even imagine. This is a lot of sleepless nights spent storming fortresses.

• Release date: April 21, 2016
• Developer: Tindalos Interactive
• Link: Steam

A real-time strategy game in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Takes us into space, where we will fight in armadas against enemy fleets. Among the advantages, it is worth immediately highlighting very beautiful graphics. Probably the space landscapes from here are the best in the industry. If you played HomeWorld, you can imagine the gameplay, only with the difference that for some reason, starships obey the laws of physics that apply to Earth. Imagine a navy transported into space. You will receive Battlefleet Gothic: Armada.

Battlefleet: Gothic Armada

As you would expect from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, everything here is epic. If this is the flagship, then it is the largest warship in the galaxy, if there is a battle, then this is the most general battle that decides the fate of the cosmos. Yes, and pathos, so inherent in the setting, there is enough.

In general, all games created in the Warhammer 40,000 universe will be of interest to those who are fond of setting. Others can install and play, suddenly this particular project will appeal to you.

• Release date: October 21, 2016
• Developer: Firaxis Games
• Link: Steam

Probably, there is hardly a gamer who has not heard of Civilization. This is a global strategy in which you choose your people and lead them to world domination through the centuries from the Stone Age to space age. It can be safely called a military strategy, since it is rare for a player to fight for a religious or cultural victory. Basically, all tasks are carried out with red-hot iron and atomic bombing.

Compared with the previous parts, there are several major innovations. First, and most notably, the graphics have become much more cartoony. At first, this seems like an illogical decision, given that with each new Civilization, the game has become more and more realistic. But after playing one or two games, the design of the game starts to like it.

The second global change is the emergence of districts - suburbs that are responsible for specific areas. Now cities can specialize, so you can develop a city that will bring science and culture by building a campus and a theater square there, or you can build a powerful economic and military port by combining a shipyard and a market square.

Finally, the third notable change is the two technology branches. The first are researched at the expense of science points - these are the main inventions. The second - social, are researched at the expense of culture points. It will no longer be possible to win back the barbarians on top of tanks, you will have to delve into the culture.

The principle of combat operations is transferred from the fifth part, where the war is like a classic wargame with a hexagonal layout. Civilization 6 is a great successor to the entire line. Replay value and many hours spent playing are guaranteed.

• Release date: May 9, 2016
• Developer: Paradox Interactive
• Link: Steam

Stellaris is a global military strategy in which the player is instructed to take the reins of power over one of the civilizations that has just entered space, and by any means make it dominant in the galaxy. Usually in games we are offered a limited set of races, but here, thanks to the constructor, you can create hundreds, if not thousands of them.

This is a star empire simulator. The player will have to solve all the problems that may be before the ruler. Starting from providing food to the subjects, ending with the control of science and the invention of new engines for ships or the construction of a dome over colonies on planets poorly suitable for life of your race.

And do not forget that you are not the only race in the galaxy and you will have to fight, even if you play a pacifist who is generally against any conflicts. After all, your planets are a tasty piece of cake for some race of militarist bulls.

The whole review is not enough to tell about this game, so you only need to play it. This is truly a masterpiece and the best military strategy of 2016.

• Release Date: August 11, 2017
• Developer: Kite Games
• Link: Steam

The revival of the legendary line, which the domestic gamer knows under the name "Confrontation". It takes us back to the events of the Second World War and poses difficult tasks with the help of tanks and guns to decide the outcome of the conflict. The previous parts received dozens of modifications and unofficial add-ons, which are still being created more than 10 years after the release of official releases.

The novelty offers us three campaigns: For the Axis, the USSR and the Allies. In each mission, you are given a certain number of troops: infantry, tanks, artillery, support. And with this limited supply of military resources, you will need to complete the mission. You can only hope for help in cases laid down by the script.

The scores are twofold. Many swear at cardinal simplifications compared to other parts, while others, on the contrary, call it worthy successor genre.

• Release date: February 21, 2017
• Developer: 343 Industries, Creative Assembly

Continuation of the popular strategy in the world of Halo. It all started with an action game in which you moved into the Master Chief robot and smashed the aliens on the surface of the Ringworld. In 2009, a strategy based on the setting appeared. And now we can see the continuation.

Halo Wars 2 is a classic RTS with base building, resource extraction and rush towards the enemy base. But how beautifully it is done! The graphics in the game are really at the level of the military strategy of 2017. Animation, drawing, effects from explosions and the use of various energy weapons are simply amazing. There are many units to choose from, from small soldiers to huge walking robots.

The only thing that might seem like a setback is some of the gameplay simplifications introduced for the sake of simplifying controls on consoles. Yes, the project was originally developed for X-Box. For amateur consolers it will be a real find in the genre of military strategies.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3

• Release date: April 27, 2017
• Link: Steam

And again we have the Warhammer 40,000 universe before us, but already on earth, and not in space. The game features three races: Space Marines, Orcs and Eldar. And they fight for the possession of a superweapon that can change the balance of power in the galaxy.

Warhammer 40,000
of War III

Before us is the classic Dawn of War with a new storyline and beautiful graphics. The variety of troops has also been added, units cut each other more and more efficiently and beautifully. Compared to the previous game in the series, the number of units that can take part in the battle has expanded. But given that the units are still highly specialized and have many skills and abilities, mass battles will not work. In the best case, it is convenient to manage two or three detachments, inflicting tactically adjusted strikes on enemy positions.

The game turned out great. Fans of the setting are delighted, and all fans of military strategies on PC have already bought the game and spent many hours playing it.

• Release date: 2006-2013
• Developer: Relic Entertainment

Strategy on the theme of World War II with a very beautiful graphic design and an extensive arsenal of tactical options.

You can very finely tune each unit that will participate in the battle. Fighters level up, gaining new abilities, improving their rate of fire, accuracy, and other important abilities.

company of heroes2

The game is not massive, you control a small amount of equipment, so Company of Heroes can be called a tactical strategy.

The game invites us to fight both on the side of the Allies and the Red Army. Several addons have been released for the second part of the project, which expand the possibilities of the game, offering new missions, weapons, units.

Series "Behind Enemy Lines"

• Release date: 2004-2016
• Developer: 1C, Digitalmindsoft, Best Way

A series of tactical military strategies dedicated to the Second World War 1941-1945. You take control of a sabotage group that operates in the German rear. A variety of tasks fall on the shoulders of saboteurs: the destruction of bridges, the elimination of important officers, and much more.

Behind enemy lines

The player has a sniper, a machine gunner, a demoman, and other highly specialized fighters under his command. There will be no massive rush-zergs here, only well-thought-out tactical decisions, and the loss of each fighter is not just a decrease in the combat capability of the squad, but the failure of the mission.

In total, two games in the series have been released, each of them has many add-ons and re-releases. So there is where to roam when getting acquainted with it.

website / XGO

Top best strategies that you can play online or online with friends and random opponents, a description of how to play

Strategy games are games in which you can feel like a king, ruler and even God. They do not differ in the dynamics of the gameplay (as in shooters), but they force the player to reason logically, develop tactics, and make various decisions. Victory in them depends on the user's ability to anticipate the opponent's future actions, coordinate the actions of his army and calculate his forces.

At other times, strategies are not only battles between thousands of troops. Behind the entertainment lies a complex economic system, the development of which will also bring you victory in the game. And sometimes there are no fights at all - some developers release exclusively economic strategies based on some business (or in other areas).

In any case, strategies can keep you at the screen for a long time. In this article, we have presented the TOP of the best PC strategies of all time, in which you will find decent games. They can be played with friends, teaming up against the AI, alone or against other users. For convenience, the strategies are presented in the form of a list that describes their main advantages.

Of course, you can also express your opinion in the comments on the article, and those who do not have time to download strategies on a PC can see a list of the best rated browser-based online strategies that you can start playing right now.

Warcraft III - online

Released: 03.06.2002

Genre: real-time strategy with RPG elements

The essence of the game lies in the uniform construction of the base, pumping heroes and hiring an army. For each game stage and situation, different actions are prioritized, of which there are an inexorable multitude, which in itself led to the incredible success of the game among gamers. It is worth noting that for different races there are different priorities, which creates a kind of abstract balance.

Of course, the game was successful primarily because the history of Warcraft is quite old, and the first game in the series was released back in 1994 on DOS, which allowed it to win crowds of fans at the dawn gaming industry. The whole Warcraft series has a deep and thoughtful history, on which the plot of Warcraft III is based, although it is not important here, it is necessary for the full perception of the game.

For the most part, the game received recognition for a good balance of races and atypical, for those years, gameplay, which marked the beginning of a new era of strategies.

• Balanced system of pumping heroes;
• Balanced system of economy;
• Interesting solo company;
• Balan races;
• Can be played online;
• Graphics are outdated.

Warcraft can be played online on servers: tangle, garena, iCCup.

Heroes of Might and Magic III - online

Released: 28.02.1999

Genre: Turn-based strategy with RPG elements

Although the series of "heroes" is quite old, it has not acquired a noble plot. First of all, in the games of the series, the gameplay and the gaming component are valued, and the plot is completely unimportant.

The gameplay itself boils down to the fact that the player needs to destroy all opponents on the map. Initially, the player in submission has an undeveloped castle and one hero. The castle is gradually pumped through the construction of new buildings, which opens up access to the hiring of new creatures. The hero can be pumped in battle, or by distributing gold from chests to your troops. To win, it is enough to destroy all the enemy heroes and capture all the castles.

In total, there are 9 races in the game (specifically in the third part), including:

• Castle - people;
• Stronghold - elves;
• The tower is the residence of magicians;
• The fortress is a swamp;
• Citadel - barbarians;
• Inferno - demons;
• Necropolis - undead;
• Dungeon - command underground creatures;
• Pairing - command the elements of the elements.

Each race has its own focus, advantages, special skills. For example, a necropolis can raise the dead, infernos can turn their defeated fighters into demons, and so on.

Among the players, only the 3rd and 5th parts of the game are in demand, while the rest either do not live up to the gameplay, or have too good graphics, from which the eyes flow. It's about about the excessive detailing of the 6th and 7th parts of the game, which played a disservice. The fourth part was not to the taste of the players because of the creepy models and textures.

It is the third part of the heroes that is considered the genius of the series, so major tournaments are still held on it and there is a significant gaming community. The problem of the network game in heroes 3 is the duration of the matches, because individual games lasted up to a month of real time.

If you'd like to try your hand at online play, we recommend visiting the heroesworld portal for all the useful information.

• Expanded economy system;
• Developed leveling of heroes;
• Balance of game needs (in pumping, building, hiring creatures, etc.)
• Can be played online
• Balanced combat;
• The presence of an unofficial team that constantly refines the game.

Civilization Series

Released: 1991-2016

Genre: global turn-based strategy

Initially, the game captured the minds of the players with its interesting gameplay, which boils down to balancing the army, economy and development (and later culture) of the nation. The game also has a certain historicity, because all nations actually existed.

To win this game, you need to skillfully create cities, build trade networks between them, make alliances and betray allies, create an army balance that matches your economic development and competently develop technologies.

A simple example: if you only invest in the army, then there may come a time when your soldiers will fight with sticks, and the enemy will already have tanks. You can also invest only in development, but then ordinary barbarians can destroy your civilization, and you will not have time to develop.

It is because of the diversity of the gameplay and the variability of development that many call Civilization the best strategy of all time.

At the moment, a network game with random participants is available on Steam, allowing you to test your strength and skills.

• Unique economy system;
• Unique research system;
• Balance of nations and play styles;
• Advanced multiplayer;
• Expanded political system.

In 2016, the continuation of the legendary line was released, Civilization 6 became the best turn-based strategy of the year on PC.

XCOM Series

Released: 1993-2016

Genre: step-by-step strategy

The famous strategy to protect the earth from the invasion of alien invaders. You are a special detachment of professionals, the only bulwark of humanity in the struggle for survival. Learn the technology of the aliens, take them into service and destroy the enemies!

The gameplay of the game is tied to the tactical and economic component. Tactical includes battles with opponents, sorties to the place of landing or fall of alien ships, development of fighters, choosing the right perks for them, and so on. Economic - development of the base, right choice technology, additional rooms, waste of resources and other things. Also, after the battle, the player receives trophies from the dead, which can then be sold on the black market or used independently in battle.

Many consider XCOM to be one of the best strategy games on PC.

• An interesting leveling system for fighters;
• Various game cards;
• Many battle strategies;
• An interesting system of research, base pumping;
• Extraordinary endings.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Released: 1996-2008

Genre: real time strategy

The so-called "cranberry" strategy. For reference, cranberries are considered an unrealistic presentation of the inhabitants and ideology of the USSR, including its territory after the collapse. The game is built on this non-existent ideology. The action takes place in a parallel universe where there was no World War II, so all nations, including the USSR, were able to develop and become incredibly strong.

Later, a time machine was invented, allowing you to change the course of history. So, for example, the third part of the game takes place when the Russians decide to kill Albert Einstein in the past. Sending to the past was successful, the USSR captured almost all of Europe, but the war did not end - it was only the beginning.

The gameplay is standard for games of this genre, namely, you need to develop your base, hire soldiers, equipment for the complete destruction of opponents on the map.

• Fascinating plot;
• balance of nations;
• Unique combat units;

Space Rangers

Released: 23.12.2002

Genre:"epic game" with elements of RPG, turn-based strategy, arcade, text quest.

A game about war in intergalactic space between intelligent races. Almost all races can be played by the player, except for Kleesans and Dominators - hostile semi-sentient races that receive orders from the main ships that control their behavior. The whole plot of the game tells about the war of the peaceful races of the commonwealth against the above invaders.

The main advantage of the game is the gameplay. As you may have noticed, the game does not have a dedicated genre, since it is absolutely difficult to attribute it to any genre. But often the game is singled out as the best strategy, because most of the time players spend driving their spaceship in separate systems. There are also arcade elements in the game, namely, in flights between systems, you can stumble upon hostile nodes, where the game turns into a real-time battle.

RPG elements are manifested in pumping your captain's skills, playing the role of a good ranger or an evil smuggler pirate. Elements of a text quest appear in some tasks that NPCs give to the player, or, for example, during visits to prison institutions, where the player balances between getting free as soon as possible and not dying at the hands of fellow inmates. IN latest versions games also exist robot fights on planets driven in real time strategy mode.

As you can see, the potential of the game is incredibly high, and it can rightfully be called one of the best RPGs of all time, not only due to the unique gameplay, but also nice graphics, random generation of maps, planets, tasks and other things, which allows you to start the game again and again .

• A unique game world that is randomly generated in each new game;
• Developed system of playing role;
• Good mix of many genres;
• Fascinating text tasks;
• Nice graphics.

Stronghold: Crusader

Released: 2002-2014

Genre: real time strategy

A classic strategy game in which you act as the ruler of a small town. Your task is to equally develop military and economic power. In gaming companies, you can play both the role of the cruel Arab ruler Saladin and the role of King of England Richard the Lionheart.

The gameplay, as mentioned earlier, lies in the equal development of the army and the economy. Due to the unusual gameplay, the game received recognition. Among the features of the game stand out, such as:

• Your servants need to build personal houses, causing the maximum number of army;
• It is necessary to develop the food industry, because your entire military machine may die simply because of hunger. It also creates the possibility of a long siege of castles, forcing the enemy to rot from hunger;
• Almost all fighters cannot be hired just like that - for them it is necessary to create weapons, armor, and for this it is necessary to collect resources.

If you play against the computer, you will notice that it creates monotonous castles, which, however, are not so easy to break through if the enemy is one of the strongest. Still, this is one of the downsides, which can quickly discourage the desire to play. The main potential of the game is revealed on multiplayer maps that can be played online using hamachi or tangle. It is also worth noting that the unequivocal minus is the binding of the player to the starting point - it is impossible to build buildings near the enemy's castle.

• Unique production and economic system;
• Advanced building options;
• Not a bad company;
• You can play online with friends.

King's bounty

Released: 2008-2014

Genre: role-playing strategy in real time with turn-based battles

The unusual combination of the genre makes the game interesting enough for beginners, and the beautiful graphics without excessive detail are pleasing to the eye. It is worth noting that in the latter parts of the game there is an option to turn on the 3D game mode, which must be played with the appropriate glasses.

The player can choose between three classes: warrior, paladin and mage. Each of them fights in their own way. For example, a warrior has an increased number of creatures, a mage attacks opponents with spells, and a paladin is something in between.

The game takes place in a fictional fantasy world inhabited by fairly canonical magical creatures such as vampires, demons, elves. The player acts as a treasure hunter, on whose shoulders lies the fate of saving the world. To begin with, he has to become a great hero, recruit an army of mystical creatures in order to fight evil henchmen.

The gameplay looks something like this: you walk around the world map in real time, and when you stumble upon enemy units, a turn-based battle mode starts, where the hero can use a book of magic, spirits. Looks like a classic turn-based battle. When you walk around the map, you can communicate with the characters that inhabit the world, complete tasks for them, receive rewards, hire troops, buy items, and so on.

• Interesting character leveling system;
• Many artifacts and unique creatures;
• Interesting combat system;
• Not boring quests;
• Nice cartoon graphics;
• Many games in the series are made in the same style.

StarCraft II - online

Released: 26.06.2010

Genre: real time strategy

No less exciting game from the creators of Warcraft - Blizzard. The plot of the game tells about the battle of three space races: zerg, protoss and terrans. Unlike Warcraft, the game came out more dynamic and there are no heroes in it, which completely changes the priorities in battles.

StarCraft also has a rich storyline, however it is presented to the players during story cutscenes, making you an observer rather than a maker of the story.

Each playable race has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, protos units have a lot of additional abilities that need to be used at the right time, otherwise the army will be quite weak. Considering that the game itself is very fast, to be successful in the game you need to have the skills of fast playing and thinking.

StarCraft can rightly be called the best PC strategy game of all time.

The game can be played online through the Blizzard Game Downloader.

• Race balance;
• Balanced economy;
• Fast paced game;
• Can be played online;
• Regular tournaments from official developers.

Warhammer 40.000 series

Released: 1999 - 2009

Genre: real time strategy

Warhammer is a fairly popular game not only in computer form, but also in card form. The history of the game appeared long before the development of the computer sphere (in 1983) in America, which led to the success of the series.

The history of the world tells of bloody wars for control of the galaxy, grandiose betrayals and ascensions, and more. Games in this series are not tied only to the strategy genre, because there are both CCG and action offshoots.

The most famous for the wide inhabitants of the game series: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, tells about the war for the control of one selected planet between the game races. The player chooses one of the sides in the war, which has unique units and battle tactics. In the future, your task will be to seize control of the entire planet. Some games in the series divide the gameplay into two stages: global turn-based control and real-time strategy. The first mode is just the choice of the point of attack, and the second is the actual battle. In battle, you need to rebuild your base, capture key points that bring one of the two resources - influence, strengthen them and attack enemy bases. It is worth noting that the main task of the game is to destroy all enemy buildings.

Almost all Wahe strategies can be played through Hamachi.

• Deep history;
• Race balance;
• Each race has its own, unique features;
• An interesting system for improving units;
• Interesting company.

Company of Heroes

Released: 2006-2009

Genre: real time strategy

The game's plot follows films such as Saving Private Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, and the television series Band of Brothers. Actions take place during the Great Patriotic War.

The gameplay is a classic RTS with wargame elements. Many note that the game resembles the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series due to the fact that the player can independently choose the weapons with which his platoons will fight. Also, the troops have a scale of combat morale, which affects the effectiveness of the soldiers. For example, if a platoon comes under machine gun fire, then its morale drops sharply, which reduces the speed of firing and running. In addition, upon the death of a member of the squad who held any weapon, it does not disappear, but remains lying on the ground, where it can be picked up. The next feature of the game is the squad ranking system, which with each increased level of fighters allows you to improve their characteristics, which creates a kind of convention that the squads are not just meat.

The elements of the wargame are also the fact that the player himself can install defensive structures that increase the effectiveness of the fighters. All ditches, sandbags, etc. can be occupied by your fighters to increase their effectiveness. Since the game can maintain a small limit, and the speed of combat is quite low, the result is an entertaining combat simulator. Of course, this game is not singled out as the absolutely best strategy, but it deserves to be at least a nominee.

• Interesting game missions;
• Unusual gameplay;
• It creates a feeling of real battles;

Series Cossacks

Released: 2001-2016

Genre: economic strategy

The game stands out for its gameplay, which is based on the balance of economic and military power. The correct construction of the economy has a key role in the game, because even if you skillfully use military forces, skillfully withdraw them, divide them into groups, opening the horizon for a volley of cannons, then sooner or later, with a weak economy, you will lose to a player who is more rested on economic component. Firstly, a player with a strong economy can simply spam units - he does not need to think about their safety, because there are always resources. Secondly, the ability of ranged units to attack is tied to the availability of resources such as coal and iron. If there is no coal or iron, the fighters cannot shoot. Also, food plays an important role, which is a constantly consumed resource. Therefore, if your population is growing, then the food infrastructure should grow accordingly.

The game also stands out in that each player can hire great amount troops, which allows you to apply diverse game strategies. Among the types of troops you can find: cavalry, melee units, ranged units, artillery. In addition, the game has a technical development that allows you to hire stronger and more technologically advanced troops.

Many players are betting that the third part of the series will be the best strategy of 2016!

• The dependence of military power on the economy;
• Many battle strategies;
• The need to balance the economy and military power.

Anno 1404

Released: 2009-2010

Genre: economic strategy

The plot is tied to a parallel reality, which, however, repeats real historical prototypes, such as the Crusades, the dawn of early forms of capitalism, and so on.

The gameplay is tied to economic warfare and the development of colonies and settlements. You, as an effective ruler, need to correctly calculate the distribution of resources for the development of cities, conduct diplomatic relations. The combat component of the game is divided into sea and land battles, however, the ability to wage war is not immediately open, but subsequently acts as one of the elements that help to defeat opponents.

All states are divided into two types: European and Eastern. European country cannot fully develop without spices and quartz, produced only in the east, which by itself determines the need for active trade, which is also one of the main ways to earn gold. One of the key tasks in urban planning is the construction of large cultural elements, such as cathedrals or mosques.

• Developed economy;
• Interesting urban development process;
• Advanced diplomacy system.

Total War series

Released: 2000-2015

Genre: global strategy

Some semblance of a historical strategy. Actions take place on the global map of the world in different periods of time - it all depends on the part of the game. The player can choose any of the presented countries and subsequently capture the entire map, depending on the established victory conditions.

But not for the plot and the historical component, this game is distinguished as the best strategy on the PC, but for the gameplay. It is built on the turn-based movement of armies, development and capture of cities various countries. The battles take place in real time, where the player acts as a commander, places his troops on the map and directs the battle itself. There is also a politics mode where the player makes alliances, declares wars, exchanges resources, and so on.

• Interesting system of politics;
• Interesting intra-game battles in real time;
• Developed system of internal events ( crusades, jihads, etc.);
• An advanced system for improving cities, depending on their location.

Disciples

Released: 1999-2010

Genre: turn-based strategy with RPG elements

The action of the game takes place in the cruel fantasy world of Nevendaar, where dark forces are craving to wake up every now and then. Companies for all nations are available to the player for passing. It turns out that the player himself weaves the whole story. In total, five nations are available in the game, including:

• Hordes of the undead - servants of the ancient goddess of death Mortis;
• Empire - a race of people under the auspices of the supreme angels;
• The Legions of the Damned are Bethrezen's demonic minions;
• Elven Alliance - a united army of elves led by Queen Ellumiel;
• The mountain clans are a harsh undermountain people ruled by a high king.

The gameplay is classic strategy. The player's task is to intelligently scout the territory, pump the army. Oh yes, unlike other strategies, here you can only hire lower-level minions, who later need to be upgraded, gaining experience in battle. In general, the combat system in Disciples is unique, which has led to the success of the game. Initially, the player starts with one capital and one hero. The capital is a unique city guarded by a very strong creature, so it is almost impossible to break through the capital from the very beginning. The war is fought for the sources of magic - one of the resources and separate outposts that allow you to hire troops away from the capital.

• Unique system for pumping creatures;
• The races are not alike;
• Race balance;
• An interesting system of applying magic;

Age of Empires series

Released: 1997-2007

Genre: real time strategy

A fairly old game that can also claim to be the best strategy game on PC of all time. The main advantage of this game is custom tournaments with large prize pools, reaching up to 100 thousand dollars. The reason for such amounts for such an old game is its fans from wealthy countries who can afford to spend such amounts on organizing tournaments.

The very same gameplay of the game comes down to a balance between technology, economy and the army. Each nation in battle can move between 5 eras:

• Age of Research;
• The era of colonization;
• The era of fortresses;
• Industrial Age;
• Age of Empire.

Each era opens up new research, types of troops and buildings. If you switch between eras early without spending money on the army, then most likely you will be crushed by “homeless people”, and if you focus only on hiring troops, then most likely the enemy will crush you with a more high-tech limit.

Many players argue that in order to play AOE effectively, you just need to be able to move your troops away from volleys of siege guns and archers, which leads to low losses of the army and increased economic development, by reducing the consumption of resources to maintain the combat limit.

Play AOE online with friends or random players via Steam, Tanggle or Hamachi.

• The need for skillful balancing of all game aspects (economy, troops, research, construction);
• Balance of all races (in the latest version);
• Tournaments with a large prize fund;
• Average game speed.

Age of Mythology

Released: 01.12.2002

Genre: Real time strategy

The age of mythology is somewhat similar to the game described above, but still has other roots and features that allow you to build a more interesting game.

A key feature of the game is the replacement of eras with the worship of gods, granting special powers and new mythical creatures with special characteristics and skills, such as fiery or poisonous breathing, freezing a key unit, and so on.

Unlike AOE, where the player has only a human and siege limit, AOM also has a mythical limit, consisting of mythical creatures such as giants, dryads, rocs and others. AOM does not have such significant prize pools as AOE, but it also has its own community, among which relatively regular tournaments are held.

You can play AOM online through Steam, Tanggle or Hamachi.

• It is necessary to correctly balance all game aspects (economy, troops, research, construction);
• Balance of all races and deities;
• Can be played online;
• Average game speed.

Settlers 7

Released: 23.03.2010

Genre: RTS, city builder

Simulator of building cities, which subsequently create a vast kingdom. The main task of the game is to correctly place buildings, create transport links between them. The player can develop his kingdom in three areas, including:

• military production;
• Scientific approach;
• Trading perspective.

Each development path will eventually lead the player to victory. For example, if you choose the military path, then the focus of your development will be the army, which will subsequently try to crush the enemies. The scientific path will help you defeat your opponents with technology, while the trade path will help you capture the best trade routes on the entire map, which will give you an edge over your opponents. Each of the development paths includes unique units.

Critics highlight good artificial intelligence but weak storyline.

• Good artificial intelligence;
• Expanded city building capability;
• Equality of development paths (economy, military development and technology).

Strategy is a vital part of PC culture. Whether you're into action-packed real-time combat or mind-bending turn-based simulations, great strategy games immerse you in unique, massive scenarios that let you rule empires, control space-exploring races, and command a cavalry charge against enemy armies.

We present you our selection of the best strategies for PC. Whether you like real-time battles or turn-based battles, strategies allow you to become a participant in large-scale events, manage empires, control powerful races and fearlessly fight against thousands of armies. This is why we love them. But some we love more than others.

As in the case of a selection of the best first-person shooters, we tried to make the list as diverse as possible and collect the most worthy representatives of the genre, which are still able to take your breath away. The article will certainly be updated as new excellent strategies are released.

Do you agree with our choice? Do you want to add to this list? Share your suggestions in the comments.

Dropped off the main list

The game exploits the lack of options very cleverly, often putting the player in front of difficult choices. You can only scan six points at a time, while the game regularly throws up opportunities for battle. You need to look for new recruits; engineers must build new communication centers to establish contacts with new territories; Need resources to upgrade weapons and armor. You can't get everything at once. You may have to be content with something from this list. Back in 1989, Sid Meier described the game as "a series of interesting decisions," and XCOM 2 is by far the most accurate expression of those words ever to come out of the hands of Firaxis.

Red Alert is perhaps the least related strategy on our list. To win in absolutely any battle, it is enough to be the first to build a technical center and send 25 mammoths to the enemy base, or simply send a chinook, stuffed to capacity with simple Tanyusha girls, right behind enemy lines. In a sense, the lack of balance was one of the reasons for the huge popularity of this title. Even now, the chaos that is happening in the battles there on land, sea and in the air remains attractive. In addition, the game was made free.

By simplifying the XCOM formula, Firaxis took a shortcut to the things that have always been the essence of the series. At its core, this is squad action, a game in which you take care of your favorite and unique squad with all your might. And it doesn't matter if you move fighters into bulky combat vehicles, or give them the names of your friends (or both), Enemy Within outperforms other strategies because of the need to take your decisions very seriously.

For this iteration of Sid Meier's game of world domination, Firaxis has built a new engine from the ground up. It was the first game in the series to feature 3D effects and featured the inimitable voice of legend Leonard Nimoy. In a wide list of innovations and improvements, a smarter, more aggressive AI was a separate line. It is worth noting that it was from this part that the modding of the game became easier, resulting in the appearance of several excellent add-ons created by the players. Civilization fans can argue for hours about which installment is the best in the series, but my favorite is the four.

The feature of FS is that both opposing sides make their moves at the same time. You have to not only plan the movement of your squad of cybersoldiers, but also anticipate the actions of the enemy. Before confirming the move, the game allows you to look at the actions being performed so that the player can avoid the very obvious ones. In one of my best games, I deliberately sent a soldier into enemy fire to distract the enemy while the rest of my fighters came in from the flank. Explore move previews to act with impeccable accuracy and avoid losses.

Described as a mix of board game and XCOM design, BattleTech is a deep and well thought out turn-based strategy game with an impressive campaign system. You manage a group of mercenaries, wisely allocate available funds and upgrade your collection of combat suits and robots.

In battles, it is necessary to aim at specific parts of the enemy robots, taking into account the strength of their armor, the rate of fire, the angle at which the fire is fired, and the characteristics of the environment. At first, all this is difficult to understand, since the game is not particularly friendly to beginners, but if you like strategy rich in details or are already familiar with this universe, then BattleTech will definitely appeal to you.

Set in the Viking Age, Northgard is a real-time strategy game that borrows a lot from titles like Settlers and Age of Empires, and also invites us to immerse ourselves in a unique expansion system that allows you to gradually increase the area of ​​territories under your control.

The weather also plays an important role in the gameplay. You need to prepare especially carefully for winter, but if you choose the appropriate branch in the technology development tree, then the winter on your lands will be warmer than on enemy territories, which will give you a strategic advantage. The frankly boring story is compensated by the excellent design of the story missions and incredibly exciting battles in the battle mode.

Almost perfect tactical action with robots and chic design from the creators of FTL. In Into the Breach you have to fight off waves of Vek monsters on maps divided into 64 sectors, where various fortresses and story-important objects are located. Of course, the easiest way to get rid of the Vek monsters is to wipe them out with your robots and air attacks, but this will require you to think strategically and keep enemies away from your buildings.

Civilian buildings provide you with electricity, which serves as a kind of health bar here. Whenever an enemy attacks such a building, you are one step closer to defeat. Once you run out of electricity, your team will travel back in time and try to save the world again. This is a fairly complex, compact and dynamic adventure. As you unlock new types of robots and upgrades for them, you will gradually learn new ways to fight a merciless enemy.

The first Total War: Warhammer showed that Games Workshop's fantasy universe is perfect for the massive battles and amazing battlefield detail that Creative Assembly is known for. In the second part, a lot of improvements awaited us - in the interface, the appearance and skills of the heroes, as well as the armies of various factions.

The four factions featured (skaven, high elves, dark elves and lizardfolk) are strikingly different from each other, and when creating them, the authors thoroughly studied the background of the rich Warhammer universe. If you have long wanted to get acquainted with the world of Warhammer, but did not know where to start, then this game is perfect for you. And if you already have a great original, then you will find one large-scale campaign, the action of which takes place on a single giant map.

The War of the Chosen add-on brings a number of minor details to the game, as well as rather interesting elements such as colorful, chatty enemies that appear randomly as you progress through the main campaign, each of which has strengths and weaknesses. You will also find new types of enemy soldiers, thousands of cosmetic changes, zombie-like enemies that inhabit abandoned cities, the ability to create propaganda posters and much more.

As a result, every campaign in War of the Chosen is a little oversaturated, but all the changes are so well executed that no XCOM 2 fan should pass by.

At first glance, the name of the game sounds simply blasphemous. More than a decade after the release of the last Homeworld, they decided to turn the game they remembered for its spaceships and movement in three-dimensional space into another ground-based tank strategy? Is it still a prequel? Nevertheless, despite all the fears that have arisen, Desert of Kharak turned out to be successful in all respects.

It's not only a marvelous RTS that sets itself apart from the rest of the genre's contemporaries, but also a great Homeworld representative that reimagined the series and clearly captured its magic.

The best game in the series so far, with so many different details that it seems like it immediately came out with a couple of add-ons. The system of areas allows you to build huge cities and motivates you to think through your actions a few steps ahead. The amazing design of the game deserves special praise - yes, you get used to the local cartoon style right away, but over time it becomes clear that this decision benefited the project.

It is very interesting to see what new additions will bring to this already rich game, which is the undisputed peak of the entire legendary series.

"Hopefully future patches and additions will fill in the gaps," wrote one of the journalists in his on the day of its release. While Paradox's sci-fi project still has room to grow, high level updates and their regular release definitely benefit the game.

For example, with the Utopia expansion, the internal political system of the game has undergone significant changes (not to mention a hundred other small innovations), which gave us another hundred hours of gameplay. In addition, it is now possible to build Dyson spheres around stars in order to pump energy out of them, dooming nearby planets to icing. A cruel but mesmerizing sight.

Endless Legend was one of the unexpected breakthroughs last year. Following on from Amplitude's Endless Space, EL's fantasy 4X strategy was very good, but still didn't fully realize the potential of the developers. Its release went unnoticed thanks to the entry into the market of big-budget Civilization:, but EL has rightfully become the best game in the genre since the fourth Civilization.

It is deeper and more diverse, it has amazing asymmetric factions, sub-races, heroes, quests and more, more. And she looks, besides, just great.

As much a social experiment as it is a strategy game, Neptune's Pride pits people against each other in the battle for a star system. The rules are simple: develop your systems, build ships and send them to conquer new systems. The war unfolds slowly, a week or so, and requires attention, which can slightly spoil your real life.

Simple yet elegant mechanics condone making and breaking alliances, which can lead to insidious assaults from yesterday's friends on your systems. Naturally, at three o'clock in the morning, while you are watching the second dream. An accessible game that produces tons of amazing drama.

I still love the first two Red Alerts, as there are almost no bad titles in Westwood's C&C series, but everything is perfect in this part: here are the most interesting campaigns, the best units, great maps and, of course, great cutscenes.

The factions differ from each other in all respects and have much more uniqueness than it was in the original game - take, for example, the Soviet octopuses and dolphins that are on the side of the allies. Here, the authors found the perfect balance between self-irony and sincerity in cutscenes, and therefore the game was both captivating and evoked a smile at the right moments.

What, alas, cannot be said about the natural disaster in the face of Red Alert 3 from EA.

If you've ever dreamed of conquering space at the head of an armada of customizable colossus starships, this strategy is for you. It has smart, creative AI, and one complete game can take weeks.

You will have to monitor the economy, technology, diplomacy, culture, build up military power, forge alliances, fight wars and dominate other peoples of the galaxy. Reminiscent of the games in the Civilization series, but only on a larger scale and, in places, much deeper.

In terms of its mechanics, Homeworld is a phenomenal strategy game with a fully 3D game space. She was among the first representatives of the zharn, who pulled it out from one single plane.

What's more, the game boasts great atmosphere and sound design, from Adagio for strings in opening missions to heart-pounding drum rolls in multiplayer battles. If you like the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, be sure to play Howmeworld.

With the scale of battles in Supreme Commander, only Total War can compete. Here you give an order to a specific engineer, then turn the mouse wheel - and you watch the battlefield from a bird's eye view. And a couple of seconds later you are already looking at the face of another soldier, a few kilometers from the first. Even my head is spinning.

The clash of armies, composed of hundreds of mechs in slender columns, rewards the player with the most delightful firefight the CPU can handle. SupCom is one of the very few RTS that combines sea, land and air vehicles in one battle. And even more - with artillery, tactical nuclear weapons and experimental robots of titanic proportions.

In addition to being the successor to the best competitive strategy game of the past decade, SC2 has also earned credit for reimagining the traditional RTS campaign structure. good example similar is Heart of the Swarm, but it was the “human” Wings of Liberty that laid the foundation: an intricate adventure that brings a mixture of working formulas to the table with each new mission.

From a zombie defense scenario to a planet flooded with lava every few minutes, SC2 forces the player to re-learn all of their core elements.

Not the most obvious contender for this list, Tooth and Tail attracted us with its simple take on RTS (and the game was clearly created for controllers), which retained all the ingredients of a great strategy. The game is even closer in spirit to Pikmin than Halo Wars - the units here gather around your character and follow the simplest orders, and the creation of units occurs automatically, based on the population limit and available resources.

The battles last no more than 10 minutes, and the action takes place against the backdrop of a well-written political conflict between factions of anthropomorphic animals.

The game that today is remembered as the founder of , Warcraft III is primarily an inventive and ambitious strategy game that introduced many players to cinematic fantasy.

Here, for the first time, RPG elements were introduced in the form of heroes and neutral units, which was not seen before in any strategy, and the large-scale campaign told an amazing story that completely captivated the player thanks to flawless execution. As a bonus, funny phrases were attached from the units that reacted to the call.

The series' transition to full 3D marked the crossing of a milestone, beyond which gradually accumulating problems led to instability at the release of Empire and long-term AI issues that plagued players in later games in the series.

The original Rome presented us with the simple but exciting face of ancient warfare, and did it in a masterful way. A magnificent excursion into one of the most curious eras military history interesting to this day.

It was a big temptation to put the first Dawn of War on this list, but it was decided to stick with its experimental sequel, which replaced large squads with a handful of the coolest space thugs with sets of killer abilities.

To deal with the Ork hordes, you have to control these genetically modified commandos, coordinating their actions with the attacks of Stormtroopers, accurate fire of the Scouts and covering squads heavy weapons. And the co-op mode Last Stand was great too.

SSE uses some tricks of the 4X strategy, but makes them work in the RTS wrapper. This is a game about star empires that grow and prosper and fade in the distant space of the distant future. Well, and about how the huge starships of these empires go out of hyperspace to the flaming worlds.

Diplomacy is also available, but these are huge starships! Play the Rebellion expansion and watch these very ships grow to truly incredible sizes.

CKII is a political strategy. It is not only about how the player leads his troops into battle, but also about the wedding of his imbecile niece. Each character has a value, each has its own goals and desires. Yes, it's difficult (blame it on the feudal system), but you can get your own personal drama, right here and now.

The situation often drives the player into a corner, into hopeless situations, forcing them to do terrible things for the sake of power. Once I had to execute a newborn baby so that his older and more intelligent sister could rule. The Middle Ages was still a time.

The ominous blue world map at DEFCON was the perfect setting for a creepy story about the beginning of nuclear war. First, you prepare for Armageddon by stocking up warehouses, placing launch silos, nuclear submarines, and setting up missile defense. This organizational stage of the game is interesting in itself for its strategic component, but the real cool DEFCON becomes when the missiles are sent into the sky.

Blurring spots of explosions, counting casualties as city after city is reduced to radioactive ashes. When the dust settles, few people will care about a formal victory. Multiplayer, where a real nightmare is happening, is simply amazing.

Some games try to distance themselves from the emotional side of the war that ended just recently. But not Company of Heroes. It's tense, complex, and brutal.

Of course, the game uses purely Hollywood tricks (mud sultans of artillery bombardment migrated here straight from Saving Private Ryan), but the result is the most intense strategy in the world, perfectly capturing the tactical imbalance of World War II.

A deep strategic component and a transparent turn-based combat system made Xenonauts a model among game reboots. If you're an old fan of the X-COM series, forget about your ancient discs and 20-year-old fossil graphics. The best way remember the glorious days - turn on the "Xenonauts". If you are not familiar with X-COM, this game will give you a chance to enjoy the origins of the series with improved mechanics and details.

After Rome, the series quickly went to a dead end, dragging a pile of problems. But Shogun 2 still managed to be the kind of game fans wanted to see Total War again. A chic setting, polished mechanics and the honor of your leader, balancing between Buddhism and Christianity. The real difference between the clans (the Chosokabe archers are the best!), and some particularly fun special units like the ninja kisho bombers.

Shogun 2 also offered such a cool thing as a two-player co-op campaign - a great (albeit slow) way to conquer the continent. The follow-up to TWS2, Rome 2 was hugely ambitious, but never achieved the balance and mechanics polished that Creative Assembly did with Shogun 2. The second expansion, Fall of the Samurai, offered players a fantastic mid 19th century. Guns, swords, ninjas - there is everything your heart desires.

In 2012, strategy expert Tim Stone described the game as a "fresh and friendly" wargame, praising the impressive AI. To defeat computer generals, you will have to use the advantages of the battlefield to the fullest and diversify tactics.

A simple and accessible interface lowers the entry threshold, usually high in wargames. And by studying the intricacies of the system, you will discover the incredible depths of mechanics.

Age of Empires gave us the opportunity to live centuries of progress in half-hour gaming sessions, but RoN went further, cleverly introducing elements of turn-based strategy games like Civilization. Instead of directly leading your troops into battle, you expand the state by building new cities.

When the borders of countries collide, a technological race begins between the peoples, a war for influence, punctuated by missile strikes and throwing spears. How can you ever get tired of the process of crushing archers and knights with tanks and stealth bombers?

The list could not do without this game, even taking into account the fact that Rise of Nations developed all the ideas laid down here to the maximum. Age of Empires II still looks good on PC today thanks to the HD re-release, for which expansions are still being released. The latest was Rise of the Rajas, released at the end of 2016. Not bad for a game that's almost 20 years old.

Create huge armies, upgrade them, collect resources and enjoy exciting campaigns in this RTS. And if you get tired of the proposed campaigns, then you can always download amateur add-ons or even create your own scenarios. We look forward to the release of the fourth part of the game.