Best strategy games for pc free -

Looking for:

Best strategy games for pc free.The Best Strategy Games on PC 

Click here to DOWNLOAD

     

Strategy Games - Play for Free - GameTop.

 

Fortunately, there's now OpenXcom , which takes the game apart and puts it back together again with a new code base designed to run on modern computers. It also means it's free from all the irritating bugs and limitations that played the original, and you can mod it. You can still buy the original if you really want, but OpenXcom is definitely a more enjoyable experience in Of course, the Firaxis remake is even better today, but when you're in the thick of a terror mission, with chrysalids seemingly pouring out of the walls, or in those last hours when you finally seem capable of taking the fight to the aliens, there's still nothing else quite like X-COM.

Not even XCOM. In the beginning, there was Total Annihilation. The year is , the year that Duke Nukem Forever went into production.

Cavedog's RTS went large, weaving enormous sci-fi battles and base-building around a central Commander unit that is the mechanical heart of the player's army. Supreme Commander followed ten years later. Total Annihilation designer Chris Taylor was at the helm for the spiritual successor and decided there was only one way to go.

Initially, it's the scale that impresses. Starting units are soon literally lost in the shadow of enormous spiderbots as orbital lasers chew the battlefield to pieces. Spectacle alone wouldn't make Supreme Commander one of the greatest RTS games ever released, however, and there's plenty of strategic depth behind the blockbuster bot battles. It's a game in which the best players form their own flexible end-goals rather than simply rushing to the top of the ladder.

Yes, there's a drive toward bigger and better units, but the routes to victory are many - some involve amphibious tanks, others involve enormous experimental assault bots and their ghostly residual energy signatures.

Indeed, we recommend playing Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance these days, which is a standalone expansion to the base game.

This adds loads of extra units, an entirely new faction, new maps and a new single-player campaign, and it's a better sequel than the actual sequel. One of the hurdles strategy games often face is finding the challenge and fun in tasks and themes that don't immediately seem attractive or entertaining.

War games and theme park management have certain, obvious appeals, but when taxation and logistics seem to be the order of the day, a game can quickly look a lot like a job. Imperialism 2 is one such game. Although its scope is impressive and the idea of ruling a country and building an empire is potentially exciting, SSI's game focuses on labour and resource management, and is mainly about solving problems of supply and economics.

That it succeeds in making these elements of rule both engaging and relatively accessible is down to the strength of the design. By concentrating on logistics, Imperialism and its sequel become games about the big picture that the smaller details are part of, rather than lists of numbers and complicated spreadsheets. Micromanagement is out and important nation-wide decisions are well and truly in. Some might call Slipways a 4X-lite.

We prefer the term 'grand-strategy-themed puzzle game'. For starters, it's a lot more immediate and moreish than other go forth and conquer space operas, as here you're tasked with creating a prosperous network of interlinking planets, keeping resources flowing to make sure everyone's got the thing they need to thrive.

The catch? The titular slipways can't overlap, so you'll need to be thinking a few steps ahead with every expansion. Trust us, keeping everyone happy - Slipways' version of civic and public order - is no small task. If planets start getting antsy, then you run the risk of getting booted out of office, presumably into the cold coffin of space, ending your run. But here's the thing, most runs last a couple of hours tops - 45 minutes if you're good - making it much easier to dip your toe into if you're too time-starved for yet another pop at Stellaris or Crusader Kings 3.

From archfiends to gods. Wannabe gods. Dominions IV, like Solium Infernum, can be off-putting at first. It has a complicated rule-set that takes a few playthroughs or a determined study of the monstrous manual to understand, and even when a session begins, following the flow of action can be difficult.

That's despite the game being separated into tidy turns, with distinct sets of instructions to put into action. There are cities to build, victory points to secure and armies to move around the randomly generated maps. That tricksy rule-set, along with a combination of graphics that are functional at best and a demanding interface, can make the basics hard to grasp.

Or perhaps it's that there are no basics. Break through the hard crust, however, and there are rich veins to tap into. The clash of deities isn't a re-skin of monarchs or emperors at war - there are disciples to nurture, totems to worship and all manner of nations that can be subject to the whims of the possibly-tentacled pretenders.

Endless Legend is unspeakably beautiful. Every part of it was made with care and thought, and a commitment to making an often formulaic sub-genre interesting and strange and enticing. Each world asks to be revealed, each faction stokes curiosity. There are the bizarre cultists and their sole, massive city, who fanatically raze anything they conquer after they've learned what they can from it. There's the dour Broken Lords who are haunted suits of armour, unable to use food but able to reproduce with 'dust', the game's mysterious magical currency, which itself is key to why one of our favourite factions, the Roving Clans, are so interesting.

They're nomads obsessed with collecting dust to unlock its true power. They're totally unable to declare war, but they get a cut of every market trade and can hire the best mercenaries. In addition to the expansion and conquest, there are story arcs to follow by sending armies to the right places, which themselves can drive conflict or political wrangling. From the faction-specific units on the turn-based tactical battles to the esoteric faction rules that even, god help us, invite roleplaying, everything about Endless Legend aims to take strategy games somewhere new and better.

From some of the team behind the dungeon crawling Legend of Grimrock games, this turn-based tactics game offers just the right balance between Into The Breach-style solution-finding, and improvisational disaster mitigation along the lines of XCOM. Using a small party of three and later four characters, upgraded between battles in classic RPG style, players must navigate thirty-five extremely well-designed missions, completing core objectives to progress and nailing secondary objectives to gain extra upgrade resources.

With no enforced single sequence to mission order, and with replaying missions to complete secondary objectives being encouraged, it's very rare to feel stuck, despite some pretty challenging situations.

The whole package is wrapped in a lush and surprisingly cheery fantasy dressing, with dialogue that's more endearing than it needs to be, and a merry sense of adventure. It's not the longest game by any means, but the handcrafted nature of each mission, as well as the impressive variety of enemies, puzzles and objectives encountered, mean that things never start to feel stale. Although it's not often regarded as part of the pantheon of strategy games, Rise Of Nations is the closest thing to a real-time take on Civilization that we've seen.

Spanning the history of warfare from catapults and caravels to submarines and stealth bombers, it's a game of territorial control and long-term decision-making that could be mistaken for a simplified war game.

Incorporating resource management, attrition, formations and tactical use of terrain, it's a complex and rewarding game that sold exceptionally well at release but doesn't seem to have fuelled discussion in the way that many of its contemporaries do. As the last original game designed by Civ II creator Brian Reynolds, it stands as a suitable book-end to his career so far, but hopefully not an endpoint.

Following on from the adaption of the Total War formula to the Warhammer fantasy setting, 's Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 proved yet again that not all Games Workshop licences gravitate towards dangerous mediocrity. It pushes a lot of the same buttons as Total War. You build up persistent multi-unit forces on a campaign layer, then position them on a tactical map and shove them into the enemy in a long, grinding bout of micromanaged carnage. The difference is that you're battling with baroque, city-sized starships crewed by millions of lunatics.

Of course, it's nothing like what actual space combat would resemble, being played on a 2D field - it's more like WWI-era battleship combat, embiggened to fit the maximalist aesthetic of Warhammer 40K. Even so, it's got that level of internal consistency that suspends all disbelief. If anything, the strategic game is a little light, but not so much that it feels stripped down, and there's an impressive level of narrative customisation for each of its three playable factions - the obvious humans, the Very Very Hungry Caterpillars a.

However and whatever you choose to play, you're guaranteed one hell of a light show. Galactic Civilizations 2 succeeds by sticking to the basics. That's not to say there's anything basic about the game itself, but there are no unexpected twists. You take control of a space-faring race and you conquer the galaxy, just as the 4X gods intended. Stardock's game succeeds by implementing all of the expected features - diplomacy, economics, planetary management, warfare - in an enjoyably solid fashion.

The AI is notable, both for the challenge it offers and the way that it operates. Although it does receive boosts at the highest difficulty levels, there's also a credible attempt to simulate counter-strategies tailored to the player's actions. The Endless Universe release, or Ultimate Edition, is also bundled with the two expansions, one of which adds the ability to destroy solar systems. The strategic portion of the game manages to instil resource gathering and experience grinding with the excitement of exploration and questing, while the tactical battles rarely become rote despite the limitations of an 11x15 hex map.

It's a wonderful example of several simple concepts executed well and locked together in a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. A huge part of the game's success lies in its approach to progression. As is often the case in strategy and RPG games alike, the goal in each scenario is to uncover a map and make all of the numbers go as high as possible.

Build lots of units, level up heroes and gather gold until there's no space left in your coffers. New World Computing ensure that there's always something interesting behind the fog of war, however, and that every step toward victory feels like a tiny fantastic subplot in its own right. Just look at the towns for proof - every building and upgrade feels like an achievement, and part of a beautiful, fantastic tapestry.

If you had to describe Neptune's Pride in a few words, it'd sound like almost any other game of galactic conquest.

Planets and ships can be upgraded, and, as ever, you'll be trying to gather as much science, industry and money as possible. The twist in this particular tale is the speed of the game - or, perhaps, the distances involved. Sending a fleet to explore, invade or intercept takes hours. There's no way to speed up the passage of time so what to do while waiting?

Neptune's Pride is not one of those freemium games that allow you to buy gems why is it always gems? Instead, most of the game takes place in the gaps between orders, as alliances are forged, promises are made and backs are stabbed. Due to the long-form nature of a campaign, Neptune's Pride will live with you, needling at the back of your mind, and you'll find yourself switching strategies in the anxious early hours of the morning, betraying friends and playing into the hands of your enemies.

Most XCOM-alikes end up disappointing, but Warhammer 40, Mechanicus managed to achieve a decent enough treatment of XCOM's turn-based combat sub-genre, while adding enough creative idiosyncrasies to make it thoroughly charming in its own right. You play as a faction of deranged cyborg techno-monks, plundering the depths of an alien tomb in search of ancient technologies, enlightenment, or sometimes just additional fuel for your knackered starship.

Needless to say, the tomb is the resting place of countless miserable metal skeletons yep, it's those necrons again , who want to chase you out with a rolled-up newspaper made from searing green radiation. This is an adventure that captures that 'one more mission' addictiveness, and it's superbly written, too.

The various bickering cyber-clerics behind your expedition are genuinely memorable characters, and you find yourself gripped - and occasionally even laughing - as their story unfolds in between missions.

The game's also dripping with atmosphere, with moody battlefields, light choose-your-own-adventure elements in between fights, and a grimy industrial soundtrack that sounds like what a bunch of Gregorian monks might create if given access to an abandoned factory, a synth setup, and more than a little ketamin.

On the face of things, BattleTech might look like XCOM with giant robots, but those big metal suits aren't just there for show - they're what makes BattleTech so distinctive. A big ol' mech doesn't much care when it loses an arm, for instance - it just keeps on fighting.

Working out how to down these walking tanks both a permanently and b in a way that preserves enough of it to take home and use as parts to build a new one yourself is the key strategy here.

BattleTech is sometimes too slow for its own good though mods and a patch address this , but stick with it and it becomes an incredibly satisfying game of interplanetary iron warfare and robo-collection. Men of War is a real-time tactics game that simulates every aspect of the battlefield, from the components of each vehicle to the individual hats on your soldiers' heads. The hats are not a gimmick. Best Way have built a full scale real-time tactical game that simulates its world down to the smallest details.

If you've ever played an RPG and scowled when a giant rat's inventory reveals that it had a pair of leather trousers and a two-handed sword secured beneath its tail, Men Of War will be enormously pleasing. Ammunition, weaponry and clothing are all persistent objects in the world - if you need an extra clip for your gun, you'll have to find it in the world rather than waiting for a random loot drop.

If you need backup, or replacements for fallen men of war , you'll be able to find them in friendly squads who exist as actual entities on the map rather than as abstract numbers in a sidebar. The credibility of the world isn't window-dressing.

All of that simulation serves a greater purpose, allowing for desperate vehicle captures, as a seemingly doomed squad realises that they might be able to commandeer the Panzer they took out moments ago, patch it up and continue to fight the good fight. For five seconds at a time, Frozen Synapse allows you to feel like a tactical genius.

You provide orders for your team of soldiers and then watch as enemies waltz right into your line of fire, or find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, right on the killing floor.

The next five seconds might flip everything around though, leaving you feeling like a dolt. The beauty of Mode 7's clean and colourful game is that it plays on confidence and intuition rather than detailed analysis.

Each 1v1 round of battle takes place on a randomised map, both participants draw up their orders and then execute simultaneously. Maybe you'll have to take on the aggressive role, knowing that this particular enemy commander prefers to set up an ambush and wait.

In a few short minutes, you'll perform flanking manoeuvres, lay down covering fire, attempt to breach and clear a room, and watch in horror as everything goes wrong again. But when a plan comes together? You're a genius again, for at least five seconds more.

Imperator's launch was met with a seriously mixed reaction from devotees of Paradox Development Studio's grand strategy games, but we personally felt it stood toe to toe with the strongest of its stablemates. With its window of play opening in BC, the game follows the formula set by 's Europa Universalis: you're presented with a map of the world, on which you can examine every discrete political entity that existed at the time, before choosing one to pilot onwards through time.

It's a great moment in history to choose, with Rome poised between early collapse and expansion into a continent-eating juggernaut, Carthage lurking in the wings, and everything to play for in the chaotic fallout of Alexander's empire. Rome itself is a beautiful headache to play, with internal politics and infrastructure growing harder and harder to manage as the legions seize more territory: it's a game that's less about building an empire, and more about holding it together.

For those who weren't happy with Imperator at launch, it's already undergone several transformative and free patches to address player criticism, and the reaction from fans seems to be encouraging. If you've not dipped into it so far, now's a good time. It's incredible to think that nobody has taken Jagged Alliance 2 on face to face and come out on top. There are other games with a strategic layer and turn-based tactical combat, sure, and there are plenty of games that treat mercenaries, guns and ammo in an almost fetishistic fashion - but is Jagged Alliance 2 still the best of its kind?

Doubts creep in every once in a while and, inevitably, that leads to a swift re-installation and several days lost in the war for Arulco.

Jagged Alliance 2 is still in a class of its own and despite the years spent in its company, it's hard to articulate the reasons why it has endured. The satisfaction of gaining territory in the slow creep across the map is one reason, and the tension of the tactical combat is another. Even the inventory management feels just right, making every squad the equivalent of an RPG's party of adventurers. But it's the character of the squad members that seals the deal.

Each has enough personality to hang a hundred stories on - remember the time Fox bandaged Grunty's wounds in the thick of a firefight a turn before he bled out, or the time Sparky made an uncharacteristically good shot and saved an entire squad's bacon?

If you don't, go play Jagged Alliance 2 and make some memories. It's glorious. To EA's enormous credit, the Remastered Collection does those old games proud, rendering ridiculous FMV in modern resolutions, turning pixelated sprite art crisp, applying UI improvements from later games back to the original, as well as rebuilding the multiplayer, adding a map editor, and more.

Back then, games were made like intricate and asymmetrical chess matches with extra steps — after all, that's what the tech permitted at the time. Today, the strategy genre is way past its apogee, with more casual games and genres entering the market. That doesn't mean they're outdated and dull, however.

One only needs to take a good look at some of Steam's offerings for free strategy games to get an idea of how the genre evolved. These free titles have kept the flame going and also brought some much-needed innovations. Updated February 5, , by Sid Natividad : Sometimes a more elaborate and asymmetrical chess match is what some gamers need to break the monotony of action and adventure games.

Strategy games provide that opportunity. Like every good strategist would say: why spend resources for something more expensive when something free offers the same experience? Thankfully, there are plenty of free strategy games on Steam. Since that's the most PC-friendly platform and strategy games are usually best played on PC, it's a match made in heaven.

Genre fans will certainly find some of the best free strategy games on Steam, so even more have been added to the list. Conflict of Nations: World War 3 is a grand strategy title set in a modern world where all-out war is as easy as bombing the colored territory.

It plays out similarly to games like Civilization, or the campaign mode in Total War. It also helps players familiarize themselves with geography, since the game takes place on a fictional modern version of Earth.

That means that players who want to take control of a certain country to wage a war over something could fulfill their war nerd fantasies.

Those who get tired of playing with the AI can also opt for multiplayer where they can duke it out mentally with other human players. It's poker, so it's automatically included here, as poker is one of the most strategic and mentally taxing games out there. The free price tag is justified by the multiplayer focus, as Governor of Poker 3 is all about outsmarting and out-bluffing other players online.

It also doesn't just feature one poker game but several variants, most of which are viable for multiplayer intensity. Do be warned that some chief complaints about the game are the relentless advertisements and aggressive monetization schemes, but that's to be expected in a free game. Crusader Kings 2 is one of the most solid and most intricate grand strategy games out there. As the title implies, it's a medieval history and war simulation set in the European theater. Players can pick their European country and manage them through wide variations of victory from diplomacy to war.

One of the most celebrated aspects of Crusader Kings 2 is its deep and thoughtful political systems, where the AI feels more organic and humanlike compared to other grand strategy games. Moreover, players can micromanage every aspect of their kingdom down to chromosome sharing in the family tree. Fallout Shelter is a cute little spinoff game from the Fallout franchise and unlike the main games, it's less dark as the animation and the art style appear to be the third and fourth game's propaganda visuals.

There's also a huge difference in gameplay as Fallout Shelter is a management sim that doubles as a strategy game. We have traveled through consoles and mobile devices, and now we have to pay respect to his majesty THE PC. Every platform has its good and bad sides but PCs are the most reliable source for playing war games.

You have to learn new technologies and fight in real time. Strategize your battles using the different soldier types. European troops can make the phalanx while Chinese troops can build a smoke screen to protect from arrows.

Construct fortifications and adopt diverse strategies to win. Another strategy game, squad-based with a strong focus on tactics. This game is about medieval European history, so it brings to life four nations and their conflicts. It combines resource management with base building and vast battles. Four playable nations in an extensive single-player campaign inspired by historical events. Intense multiplayer battles. Outstanding visual fidelity powered by Unreal engine 4. Call of War is set in WW2.

It is an MMO strategy game in which you can conquer provinces, forge alliances and build up your economy. In this game, you can have up to real opponents per map. With many different maps and scenarios. Regular updates with new content. Foxhole is a massively multiplayer game where you will work with hundreds of players to shape the outcome of a persistent online war.

This is the ultimate war game of cooperative strategy and tactics. Every action you initiate can cause a powerful and lasting effect across a vast world in a constant state of war. This game is a sandbox in which every player influences the outcome. Every soldier is one player, and players are the content. You influence the story of the game. Squad wants to bridge the gap between military shooters and arcade shooters. Prepare for large scale squad-based combat combined with base building.

This is a visceral gaming experience with split-second decision-making in realistic world-scale firefights. Teamwork and communication are extremely important if you want to take out the enemy. You can accompany your friends to many war locations that are constantly changing and evolving.

Join millions of players in naval, land or sky combat and choose from thousands of vehicles. Game modes are divided into three based on support to the player and type of maps and missions played.

Players can be in ground forces or may choose to operate planes only in air fights. They can also control ships and naval forces in sea battles. Arma 3 is a massive military sandbox game with over 20 vehicles and 40 weapons.

Authentic, diverse, open world, Arma sends you to war. Defeat your enemy on a richly detailed battlefield spanning over km2 of Mediterranean Island terrain. Altis and Stratis are two islands that host the war. With a massive arsenal at your disposal, Arma 3 moves you into the world of tactical opportunity. You are Ben Kerry who must Survive, adapt and win. The game is also very moddable with an active modding community.