The Best Strategy Games on PC

[Madmaxneo]

Wow, if that isn't a list of personal favorites I don't know what it is. There are quite a few better ones out there to include some more recent ones. Most of them have been already mentioned.
My favorites are: C&C Generals Zero Hour, Red Alert 2, Total Annihilation, Grey Goo, and Ashes of the Singularity, plus a few more on this list (SC2, Company of Heroes, and WiC). Ashes is debatable because it only has two factions though it is a very beautiful game. The devs remark the game is not designed to cheat but they mention they have programmed the AI with faster production at the higher difficulty levels, which is still cheating. I would honestly prefer the AI be able to see the map and all my units than to have that, but that is just me. Ashes is an extremely beautiful DX12 game and has some great features but still lacks in many areas that have been a part of RTS games for years now.

 

[cartera]

Wow, if that isn't a list of personal favorites I don't know what it is. There are quite a few better ones out there to include some more recent ones. Most of them have been already mentioned.
My favorites are: C&C Generals Zero Hour, Red Alert 2, Total Annihilation, Grey Goo, and Ashes of the Singularity, plus a few more on this list (SC2, Company of Heroes, and WiC). Ashes is debatable because it only has two factions though it is a very beautiful game. The devs remark the game is not designed to cheat but they mention they have programmed the AI with faster production at the higher difficulty levels, which is still cheating. I would honestly prefer the AI be able to see the map and all my units than to have that, but that is just me. Ashes is an extremely beautiful DX12 game and has some great features but still lacks in many areas that have been a part of RTS games for years now.

I agree ashes is a beautiful game but I get the feeling it is incomplete while playing it. I wish the would give SupCom FA a revamp, that would be awesome IMO.

 

[madboyv1]

I agree ashes is a beautiful game but I get the feeling it is incomplete while playing it. I wish the would give SupCom FA a revamp, that would be awesome IMO.

Better optimize thread usage, enable Large LBA by default or rebuild for 64 bit memory addressing... crush current gen processors with a 9 year old game? I like it.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I love those games. Even ashes is similar. Perhaps they aren't included because they rely more on massing and attacking.

At the endgame sure, it often ends up being swarm battles if players leave each other alone for too long, but generally there's a lot of strategy in intelligence gathering, resource disruption, and area denial. All of which is even harder considering the scale of some maps.

I really need to get Ashes or start playing FA again ha ha ha...

I still remember playing that online (via dial up of all things) and making a fake base. The enemy would spend so much time trying to kill it, they would miss the second rear base loaded with tech 3 artillery. So many lols......

 

[cartera]

I still remember playing that online (via dial up of all things) and making a fake base. The enemy would spend so much time trying to kill it, they would miss the second rear base loaded with tech 3 artillery. So many lols......

Or the UEF's Mavor - the crazy experimental artillery that could literally hit anything on any map and had a ridiculous rof.

 

[madboyv1]

Or the UEF's Mavor - the crazy experimental artillery that could literally hit anything on any map and had a ridiculous rof.

I dunno, I preferred the fast hitting Scathis and Salvation, since well, you can build them faster a bit faster and range is usually not an issue anyways. Too bad all T3 Artillery and up take practically forever to build, and rarely would there be the time (or patience) to build them ha ha.

 

[Danny101]

I played on Panzer General off and on for twenty years. Tropico, though not sure how to class it, was enjoyable, and funny too.

 

[rytard]

My fav was Close Combat: Gateway to Caen.
Battling nazis? Heck yeah.
Game was awesome, even factored in morale.

 

[Madmaxneo]

No mention of C&C Generals Zero Hour, Ashes of the Singularity, or Grey Goo. Three of the greats IMHO.

 

[GaryMove]

Civilization VI is great one.

 

[david corner]

Its kind of old, you will not get any new graphics effect but I think Age of empire is the best strategy game ever. period

 

[Burty117]

It's been a while but has there been any new Strategy games recently? Maybe I missed them but I swear there's not been any in a while now...

 

[MaikuTech]

I would say the current civilization series would be the best.

 

[Niner21]

Warhammer 40K. Keeps bringing me back.

 

[jbc029]

Hmm. Agree with Civ 5....

Jagged Alliance 2?

HoMM 3 or 4, at least.

I'm cool with leaving C&C out, for the most part. SC peaked at Brood War.

I'd take Stellaris over any other modern space entry. (Which still leaves room for Homeworld to be there)

 

[SirDigby]

Excuse me but no Dawn of War or LOTR: Battle for Middle EARTH 2?!
NO THEY ARE BILLIONS?!

 

[theruck]

Not even mentioned any chess game

 

[Aus spot]

Space empires iv and v. With capt kewoks mod is the best 4x turn based games I've ever played. Think moo 2 on a bigger scale.

If it worked in win 10 I'd still be playing it.

 

[amghwk]

Sigh.... you call this the list of the "Best Strategy Games on PC"???? The heading should have been "My Favourite Strategy Games on PC".

I initially thought Command H.Q. would have graced the opening. Or even the ground breaking Civilation 1. How about Master of Orion 1 or 2? There are many, many, many others that would have satisfied this title.

 

[loki1944]

Steel Panthers still trumps any of these games.

 

[madboyv1]

I shall repeat my statement that Supreme Commander Forged Alliance should be on this list in some form~

 

[Razzy85]

No Total Annihilation or Command and Conquer....think Luke needs smacked on the head to remind him to not be retarded.

 

[VilioSK]

I'm missing:
UFO: Enemy Unknown (from 1994)
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Theme Hospital
Stronghold: Crusader
King's Bounty

 

[Capaill]

It's been a while but has there been any new Strategy games recently? Maybe I missed them but I swear there's not been any in a while now...

Agreed. I think the age of "proper" strategy games died a decade ago. It was replaced by faster paced online tactical games that can be completed in 10 minutes or less. It feels to me like adult games (using your brain to devise devious long-term strategies and counter-strategies) were replaced by childish games (Kill! Kill! Respawn. Kill!).

The older I get, the more I appreciate the older games. I don't think it's just an age thing though as my young nephew loves playing Supreme Commander FAF and has played all of Warcraft 3 and World In Conflict. I'm planning to introduce him to the remastered Starcraft soon - I loved the campaign in that.

For a modern strategy, I highly recommend They Are Billions. It's easy to die in but you will enjoy restarting and learning new tactics. I tend to play on the lower difficulties to have some chance of making it to the end. It's as good a strategy game as we can hope for these days.

 

[quadibloc]

I was curious about the photo illustrating the article. It took some searching, but I finally found out that it was a still from the 1939 version of the movie Hotel Imperial (it had been also made into a movie some years previous) with Isa Miranda and Ray Milland.