Summary

Strategy games have always been popular, and date back to the very earliest days of gaming. They come in different flavors, from4X strategy gamesthat can take days or even weeks for a campaign to complete, to simpler real-time strategy games that can be played in short sessions.

When it comes tomultiplayer in strategy games, the best of them tend to provide a modified gaming experience over and above that which is available in the single-player experience. Some of these games helped to defiance the genre. Others were and still are the backbone of competitive esports tournaments and professional gaming.

Total War: Shogun 2is a game that combines aspects of turn-basedgrand strategygameplay, with real-time strategy battles. A combination that the franchise has repeatedly leveraged with great success. Bringing this gameplay to a multiplayer environment must have been quite a challenge.

Total War: Shogun 2makes this list for being a game that manages to seamlessly combine multiplayer strategic gameplay on the main map, with multiplayer real-time battles on the tactical map. A multiplayer game can take many hours, especially with more than 2 players.

Fight The Cold War

Wargame: Red Dragon

The new reference in RTS at its best!The Wargame series returns to duty, larger, richer and more spectacular than ever before. In Wargame Red Dragon, you are engaged in a large-scale conflict where Western forces clash against the Communist bloc.1991: the two blocs confront each other in a new theater of war, Asia, joined by various other countries: Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.You command the military resources of all17 nationsinvolved, assembling your fighting force from a phenomenal selection of1,450 units that have been meticulously reproduced from their source! Command tanks, planes, helicopters,new warshipsand amphibious units in intense battles of unequaled tactical depth. Master the relief of varied, ultra realistic battlefields, dominate the new maritime areas and rewrite history in a conflict that has been directed and designed in stunning detail by development studio Eugen Systems.Wargame Red Dragon is thrilling in single-player mode with itsnew dynamic campaign system, and also offers anextensive multiplayermode whereup to 20 playerscan compete against each other simultaneously.

Wargame: Red Dragonis a real-time tactical warfare game. It is set in the era of theCold War. Players do battle on one of the many included maps, based on real-world geographical regions. Most of the available units are historically accurate to some extent.

The game leans heavily on actual warfare tactics of the era, which leveraged the strengths and weaknesses of each type of unit. Players need to understand the required military strategy to defeat other players in multiplayer mode, as concepts such as flanking and other position-based attacks come into play in this excellent multiplayer military strategy game.

Four Factions Fight for Supremacy

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

ONLY THE RUTHLESS SURVIVEFrom the creators of the #1-selling action/strategy game of all time comes a new generation of chaos. Cunning, sinister, and seemingly unstoppable, the demonic Burning Legion prepare to launch their long awaited assault on the mortal world. Survival is a matter of strategy, as the Reign of Chaos begins…

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaosis a classic Western RTS game in every sense. Leveraging established fantasy tropes such as the races of Men, Elves, Undead, and Orcs. It follows the old-school RTS gameplay of gathering resources, building a defensive base, and training various units to create an invading army,

The game makes this list simply because it offers some pure, classic RTS multiplayer gameplay in the same vein asStarCraftandCommand & Conquer. Skirmish battles were fast, furious, and finished quite quickly. Put simply, it was fun and not too complicated.

As real-time strategy games go,StarCraft 2is a big hitter. One of the first games to be used as the basis for big bucksesports tournaments, and still popular today. A game that is both simple to learn and complex to master.

Why didStarCraft 2make this list and the originalStarCraftdidn’t? Simply becauseStarCraft 2offers a much more refined multiplayer experience.StarCraft 2harks back to a time when developers wrote netcode for modem play and all of the downsides of this.StarCraft 2is much more modern and plays extremely well in multiplayer mode.

As a single-player game,Age of Empires 2has much to offer, with its exquisitely crafted setting that focuses on historical civilizations. It incorporates research, resource management, and different ways to win the campaign. But how does this complexity translate to the multiplayer experience?

The developers did a fantastic job of incorporating multiplayer intoAge of Empires 2. They kept the complexity of offline play and managed to add a layer of strategic complexity beyond the normal skirmish style of gameplay that other strategy games offer. No two matches are the same, as players battle to take control of the game map.

2Command & Conquer: Generals

Frantic RTS Combat

TheCommand & Conquerfranchise did much to define the RTS genre. However, the choice of Command & Conquer: Generalsfor this list might, at first, seem a little strange. The single-player experience in this game was criticized, mostly because it moved away from tried and tested mechanics.

However, those very same changes that were criticized are what make it such a great multiplayer game.Command & Conquer: Generalsis much faster-paced than previous games in the franchise, and also requires the player to capture certain areas of the map and defend them. Overall, it is a fun, action-packed game with even just 2 players. With 4 or more players it is pure chaos.

Wield Devine Powers

Age of Mythology

HISTORY MADE LARGER THAN LIFE9 LEGENDARY CIVILIZATIONSSTRATEGIC DEPTHEPIC CAMPAIGN3D ENGINEREDESIGNED INTERFACE

Age Of Mythologyis well worth the top spot on this list. Featuring almost grand strategy-style gameplay elements such asresource managementand base building, it still manages to pull off some frenetic real-time combat.

During multiplayer matches, players have access to all of the tools and abilities from the single-player experience. This includes all of the mythical units, and more importantly, any god powers they manage to unlock. This results in a real-time strategy game that is much deeper than simply building a defensive base and then throwing a never-ending stream of units at enemy players. Put simply, multiplayer inAge Of Mythologyrequires strategic thinking and carefully made decisions.