Summary
Of the many pleasures strategy games offer,kingdom buildingis one of the best. There’s nothing quite like taking a first humble step in a overbearing world and constructing a mighty empire out of nothing. Though each campaign can take some time, the satisfaction of a successfully built kingdom that can stand on its own two feet is hard to beat.
Luckily, there are quite a fewstrategy games that offer kingdom-buildinggoodness, most of which rank as some of thebest stategy games ever made. While the scale may vary from building cities to world-spanning imperial empires, all offer the fundamental thrill of starting from humble beginnings and rising to become the apex predator.
Set in a dynamic fantasy world that is constantly shifting,Age of Wonders 4offers an individual experience for would-be kingdom builders with a whollyunique and brilliant magic system.Age of Wonders 4allows players to design their own individual fantasy race and kit out their aesthetics however they like to pursue world domination.
However, the really cool part about this game is that the mighty kingdom players build can return in later games as rival NPC forces. Soon enough,Age of Wonders 4players could be in competition with the many mighty kingdoms they’ve built, creating a uniquely satisfying narrative that few other strategy games can offer.
TheAge of Empiresseries is legendary, andAge of Empires 4is no different. As the prototypical example of a history-based real-time strategy game,Age of Empires 4tests a player’s ability to make quick and efficient decisions, or else they will face being left behind by the ascendant empires elsewhere on the map.
For history nerds, it’s a great time withlots of learning to be had. It’s extremely fun to play as the world-spanning factions, from the Saracens to the Japanese, resulting in an ahistorical and delightful mash-up of combat styles and kingdom constructions to determine who belongs at the top of the dog pile. The only way to keep up is to build a kingdom that can survive.
Where most kingdom builder games take place in a fantasy or Medieval setting,Anno 1800is unique for taking place in the Victorian period essentializingtrade and commerce. Focusing on the industrial revolution and the mighty technological leaps involved,Anno 1800asks its players to build an island-spanning empire that must be created to produce mighty fleets to secure economic and militaristic domination.
This sense of kingdom building grows ever grander, however, asAnno 1800allows the player’s kingdom to expand far beyond the original continent, spreading to the polar ice-caps, the sunny Caribbean, and the wild plains of Africa. It’s a constant battle to stay ahead of the competitors, but it’s a war well worth waging.
Fans of theWarhammeruniverse have never been served better thanTotal War: Warhammer 3. Serving as the culmination of the previous two games,Total War: Warhammer 3offers a mind-boggling amount of mechanical and aesthetic choice when it comes to building a faction across a massive war-torn world.
Whether one wants to embody the chaotic evil of the Skaven or the noble and fearsome warriors of Kislev, players have near infinite choice about the way they wish to build, exploit, or turbocharge their empire.
Spanning from the 15th century all the way through to the 19th Century, the historical scale ofkingdom building through multiple generationsis truly astonishing, and it makes the satisfaction of building a competitive kingdom all the sweeter. Though its complexity is fierce,Europa Universalis 4is the premier history-based strategy game.
Whether players want to take the reins of mighty nations like England or France or attempt to forge an independent path and resist colonizers in the yet untouched Americas,Europa Universalis 4offers any intrepid kingdom builder the choice to forge their own path.
While most kingdom builder strategy games take a wide continent-scale perspective,Banishedinstead wonders what a kingdom builder strategy game might look like as ahistorical city builder. Starting with just a few villagers in the wilderness looking to build a place of their own,Banisheddeals in the microscale of how settlements come to be and the trials and tribulations that come with them.
However, the deep involvement the player has in making each and every choice results in incredible satisfaction when their scrappy village that can barely support a couple of people grows into a thriving mini-metropolis that becomes a fearsome power to any would-be threats.
Civilization 6doesn’t need much of an introduction, as it’s the prototypical example of a game aboutbuilding an empire from scratch. However, in case one is new to the realm of strategy games,Civlization 6is considered to be the single-best entry in the grand strategy department due to its incredible historical scale, its tightly-tuned mechanical precision, its engaging decision trees, and incredibly fun multiplayer madness.
Whether players want to create a kingdom forged by flourishing trade or through the annexation of one’s enemy cities,Civilization 6offers the scope to build a kingdom however the player would like. However, players should note that not many kingdoms can withstand the apocalyptic power of a nuclear bomb in the end-game.
Crusader Kings 3somehow renders the intricate politics, warfare, economics, and diplomacy of the Medieval Age in astonishing detail, focusing on the individuals who construct empires and how fragile they are when competing egos bump into each other. Whether the player wants to focus on cunning assassinations to ascend the political ladder or do it the old-fashioned way with sword and shield, there’s always abeginning ruler that makes the chosen playstyle a lot of fun.
Stretching from the emerald Isle of Ireland all the way to the farthest Eastern reaches of the Mongolian Empire,Crusader Kings 3is the ultimate sandbox for forging empires in the dust of others, starting from the lowliest duchy and rising to the very heights of divine power.
