Strategy games are today some of the most addictive and time soaking titles for the fans of the industry. What started as an “experiment” in 1972 with a Risk-like game called Invasion, grew into a platform defying genre that’s mainly responsible for the superiority of the PC over its competitors (as well as its endless customization options, better graphics, better prices, better gameplay, bigger “horsepower”, mods of course, and well, you get the picture, there are lots of them).

This list is mainly for war making/lots of killing strategy games so subgenres like city builders and top-down games like MOBAs (which are technically strategy games even thou they’re not considered as such) haven’t made the list. Best War Games PC 

Today the strategy games industry has branched over into many subgenres, like 4X games (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate), Real-time strategy games, Turn-based strategy games and etc, offering everybody their cup of tea. Whichever style fits you, it’s time to honour some of the greats that are still worth a look in 2017.

Steel Division: Normandy 44 (2017)

Let’s start the list with the new kid in the block. Steel Division: Normandy 44 is a Tactical Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, developed by Eugen Systems, the creators of titles like Wargame and R.U.S.E. This new game puts players in command of detailed, historically accurate tanks, troops, and vehicles at the height of World War II.

Players can measure their tactical skills against several opponents in big multiplayer battles or against enemies in a challenging single-player campaign. Steel Division: Normandy 44 allows players to take control over legendary military divisions from six different countries, such as the American 101st Airborne, the German armoured 21st Panzer or the 3rd Canadian Division, during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Hearts of Iron IV (2016)

Shifting away from the harsh battlefields of the second World War, let us explore the political back-stabbing and the decisions making that shaped the war with Hearts of Iron IV. As a sequel to Hearts of Iron III and part of the Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy games focused on World War II, it allows the player to take control of any nation in the world in either 1936 or 1939 and lead them to victory against the major powers at the time: The Axis, the Allies and the Comintern (communist).

The game can be broken down into two “theatres” of gameplay. It’s the political theatre where you manage your country’s economy, military, diplomacy and all the other stuff, and the war theatre where you give orders to your fleets and armies. The game allows you to draw up all the Schlieffen and Barbarossa plans you want, to catch the enemy off-guard and take them out with a savage strike, and that’s the real joy of the game. You feel like a badass general, commanding the armed forces of the entire nation and bringing the world’s great powers to their knees.

The game starts off as a historical scenario that allows you to take any country and steer it along the path you chose to the big showdown of 1939. It’s “National Focuses Tree” gives the player great flexibility to follow the historical path or abandon it completely. You can form the fascist empire of America and turn on your French and British allies, or give up on your European domination dream and become a peace-loving Hitler. The choice is yours to make.

Age of Empires II (1999)

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that lets you take control of a medieval faction and lead it to victory through five extensive campaigns.  It was released in 1999 followed with great critical acclaim and fans praising it as a worthy successor to the first game in the series. The game won multiple awards and is today considered a classic of its type, having had a significant impact on future games in its genre.

Age of Empires II 's gameplay is instantly familiar to practically anyone who has ever played a real-time strategy game before. The fast-paced game has you exploiting natural resources, constructing beautiful wonders and formidable castles, and advancing from the Dark Ages to the much more pleasant-sounding Imperial Age. Along the way, you use all the units, bonuses, and tech trees that are unique for every one of the 18 playable nations to violently crush other players from the map.

Endless Legend (2014)

Endless Legend is a turn-based 4X strategy game, in which players take control of a fantasy faction to establish an empire through exploration, conquest, diplomacy and research. The game is set in the land of Auriga, with the layout of its landmass and ecosystems being randomized per game, represented on a model-like map made up of a hexagonal grid. It might look as a Civ knock-off at first (and it kinda is) but in reality, it takes all the familiar concepts of the genre and it innovates them where it is possible and needed.

The map is populated with a variety of terrain, each made up of biomes within the world which have effects on the player's units. Tiles and their layout are all randomly generated to create a unique playable world with each separate playthrough. You will have to gather resources quickly and build a strong army to withstand all the dark creatures of the world, from The Ardent Mages, who are masochistic wizards that generate magic through self-harm, to the elvish Wild Walkers, the Viking-like Vaulters who are survivors of a crashed spaceship and the noble warriors who call themselves The Broken Lords, who have to eat dust or drain life to survive.

Stronghold Crusader (2002)

Stronghold: Crusader is the stand-alone successor to Stronghold, meaning you don't need the original Stronghold to play it. It takes Stronghold out of Europe and into the Holy Lands, giving it a tighter focus and a more exotic flavour. It was released in September 2002 and received rave reviews from critics and fans alike who praised it for the graphics and the tighter gameplay it offered.

The gameplay is similar to the original Stronghold, the major difference being that the game is set in the Middle East. As a consequence, farms can only be built on oasis grass, which leads to rivalry among players for limited farmland and resources. This provides non-stop action for you as it is vital and hard to protect against enemies for the precious farmlands you possess.

Age of Mythology: Extended Edition (2014)

Continuing with the RTS subgenre, let us gaze upon the awesomeness that is Age of Mythology, a spin-off fit for the gods. The game was originally released on October 30, 2002 in North America and a week later in Europe and it was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units. It was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards for Computer Game of the Year and strategy computer game of the year.

Like many other real-time strategy games, Age of Mythology is based on defeating enemy units and towns, building your own units and towns and turning your villagers into heroes through money and resources. Players advance their faction through four "Ages" which act as the technology mechanic of the game. The game starts in the Archaic Age and then, the player may upgrade to the Classical Age, the Heroic Age, and finally, the Mythic Age with each upgrade to a higher Age unlocking new units and technologies for the player, which strengthens their settlement.

The Banner Saga 2 (2016)

The Banner Saga 2 is a tactical role-playing game where the player controls and is able to build up a party of colourful characters with complementing abilities. It is the sequel to the much-loved surprise of 2013, The Banner Saga, and the second game in a planned trilogy of games. A kickstarter for the third and final game in the series concluded on March 7, 2017, with 8,086 backers raising $416,986 of its $200,000 goal.

Travel to the icy northern lands of a medieval and Viking inspired culture where the helmets don’t have horns, but some creatures’ foreheads do (which is a nice compromise between creative license and historical accuracy, I guess). The first part of the trilogy details the opening act of what starts like the Third Great War, fought between the invading Dredge and the unsteady alliance of Humans and Varl, while this game picks up soon after the ending of the first part, with Dredge population that moves south-west en masse, fleeing westward to seek the protection of the Walls of Arberrang. The main protagonist/POV character of the second part of The Banner Saga is either Rook or his daughter, Alette, depending on the choices made in the first game.

King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame (2009)

King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame is a real-time tactics and role-playing game that lets you take control of The Kingdom of Camelot and its knights of the round table, and lead them to battles against foreign threats. It seeks to blend elements of the real-time tactics, role-playing, and grand strategy genres into one. It truly is a hidden gem of the genre that only looks like a Total War rip-off, but that is so much more (even though with the release of Total War: WARHAMMER you can say the debt has been paid since the developers seem to copy each other).

The story revolves around the man himself, King Arthur of Camelot who commands his knights and armies to expand his kingdom and protect it from the dangers across the border. It is explained that Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, failed to draw the sword Excalibur from the stone. Arthur, years later, pulls the sword from the stone, unleashing ancient, evil forces upon Britannia.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (2004)

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a real-time strategy game where you battle the forces of Mordor with the combined strength of the Human and Elves Alliance and like everything that carries the LotR name, it has a lot going for it. This is a big game packed with beautiful graphics and two huge campaigns. And while it doesn't reach the same epic scale as Peter Jackson's movies, it's still an amazing and well-made RTS game that captures the essence of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginary world.

The good and evil forces of Middle-earth each have a campaign and they take place on an animated map of western Middle-earth, where each battle represents the defence/sacking of a territory. Armies and characters move on the map, and moving the cursor over them shows snippets of the movies (whereas battle cutscenes use the game engine). The game is a real-time strategy game which means warring factions gather resources, then use them to construct military bases and armies on-site. Its fast-paced nature guarantee plenty of action and its “units operating in groups” design guarantee many big, awesome battles.

World in Conflict (2007)

World in Conflict is a 2007 RTS game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment that hands you the command of many different US and NATO battalions to combat the Red Army. The game is set in 1989 during the social, political, and economic collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the title postulates an alternate history scenario where the Soviet Union pursued a course of war to remain in power

The single-player campaign puts the player in the role of Lieutenant Parker, a faceless, talkless United States Army officer in charge of a company. He, under the command of the fearless Colonel Sawyer and with the help of the totally inept, but good-hearted Captain Bannon, have to clear the soviet forces that have landed in Seattle and secure the American homeland. During the campaign, there are also flashbacks that take you back to NATO operations in France and Finland and also Russia itself where you complete special tasks.

Age of Empires III (2005)

Ensemble Studios makes a return into our list with another instalment in the series, the 2005 smash hit Age of Empires III. As well as receiving favourable reviews, it has garnered awards, including GameSpy's "Best RTS game of 2005", and was one of the best-selling games of 2005. The game numbers today over 2.5 million copies sold. Best War Games

The age of discovery is finally here and with it come a few surprises. The colonial setting of Age of Empires III focuses on hypothetical conflicts between European powers vying for control over the New World and its riches. The campaign follows the fictional Black family in a series of three "Acts", which divide the story arc into three generations.