14 Games Like Stronghold
Our assembled list of games like Stronghold has other historical real time strategy games that focus on expanding through warfare and careful civilisation management.
Stronghold started in 2001 and has since expanded to a number of titles and spin off games that have seen similar levels of success as the original. Primarily offering real time strategy challenges each game has reinvented the core formula with mechanics that add additional depth and complexity to the core RTS genre gameplay.
A consistent theme across the Stronghold games is the historical setting which often explores a medieval location complete with castles and era accurate units. Across single player and multiplayer players will develop the economic base of their city before going to war with their foes although some games have provided diplomatic approaches.
The games like Stronghold here all feature similar historical settings that let you engage in medieval or similar era warfare in single player and multiplayer modes. Similar to the Stronghold formula each of these has a skew towards a focus on warfare as you conquer the land around your starting location.
Age of Empires III
Marking the third game in the highly successful Age of Empires (AoE) franchise Age of Empires III continues the strategic routes of the series while making several interesting gameplay mechanic designs that provide light RPG elements. While Age of Empires III has not seen the longevity of it’s popular younger brother (Age of Empires II) in the multiplayer scene the title has still been rated positively by the community. In terms of single player campaign Age of Empires III focuses in on th...[Read Review]
Cossacks: European Wars
Cossacks: European Wars is a real time strategy (RTS) game developed for Windows and released in 2001 that explores the European 17th and 18th eras and draws inspiration from the popular strategy titles of the day. With over a dozen nations that bring their own uniqueness the strategy elements of this first game in the Cossacks franchise offers a wealth of tactical options. Expanded with several expansion packs all of these were made available in on collection marketed as the Cossacks Anthology....[Read Review]
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II is set in the LOTR universe and offers a real time strategy experience for Windows and the Xbox 360. A genre rarely explored by film and media franchises this strategy adventure gives players the option to explore both a good and evil campaign as you experience the fantasy game world from both sides of the conflict. With similar core mechanics to the past game in the Battle for Middle-earth series you’ll find a challenge that is compara...[Read Review]
Rise of Nations
Released in 2003 Rise of Nations is one of the most popular and successful real time strategy games of all time with its diverse range of civilisations and solid foundation of RTS mechanics. Being both accessible to newcomers to the genre while offering vast strategic depth Rise of Nations achieved that rare feat that few games have been able to replicate since. This success also led to an expansion pack (Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots) and spin-off game (Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends)...[Read Review]
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes (CoH) is a WW2 real time strategy game released in 2006 and brought to mobile devices in 2020. Serving as the first in the series of strategy games players have a number of historic battles to conquer with realistic locations, units and familiar storylines. For the campaign component of Company of Heroes players will be joining the ranks of the US army Able Company in the later stages of the war in 1944. There is still ample combat to see the United States achieve victory thoug...[Read Review]
Empire Earth
Empire Earth (EE) offers delivers a real time strategy experience and is the first game in the expansive franchise released in 2001. Followed up with a 2002 expansion pack (Art of Conquest) Empire Earth has also subsequently expanded to a number of sequels with similar core gameplay. Like the popular Age of Empires II franchise of the day players start from a basic age of technology and advance through to a nano age with time (or the space age with the expansion). Empire Earth allows players to ...[Read Review]
Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology (or AoM) is a real time strategy game based on the Age of Empires series which offers a mythology based spin off to the otherwise historical RTS franchise. Exploring the legendary myths of some of the greatest civilisations of time such as the Greeks, Norse and Egyptians players will experience similarly robust campaign structures that draw from the legends of this civilisations rather than factual events across more than 30 game scenarios. Further content is available through t...[Read Review]
Age of Empires II
Age of Empires II belongs to the hugely success AoE series of real time strategy games and is arguably the most well known and widely praised from the franchise that continues to be relevant today. Originally launched in 1999 the game saw a revival with a 2013 HD remake and a 2019 definitive edition with a number of expansion packs along the way building on the game content and modernising the graphics. With single player campaigns primarily set around the Middle Ages players have dozens of play...[Read Review]
Empire Earth II
Empire Earth II builds on the popular original and delivers a strong real time strategy experience with plenty of new additions to the epoch based experience that sees you control units from the stone age to the synthetic age. Empire Earth II development was handled by Mad Doc Software who created the expansion pack for the original Empire Earth game so players are in safe hands for this expansion of the series. In Empire Earth II players can complete one of three available campaigns which focus...[Read Review]
The Settlers Online
The Settlers Online (The Settlers Online: Castle Empire) is a free to play browser based strategy game that utilises familiar mechanics from the core Settlers franchise. The result is a mixture of popular modern strategy games and the MMO strategy genre. The Settlers Online offers an accessible challenge which features a familiar gameplay loop of building a sprawling city, raiding bandits, achieving objectives and in time gaining levels that unlock additional content to expand your strategy opti...[Read Review]
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Serving as a spin off title to the popular Rise of Nations title, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real time strategy game that attempts to blend the worlds of fantasy magic and technology together into one. Despite the change in setting the game stays closely to the original Rise of Nations experience although does shed some of the deeper 4X and turn based elements which purists of the original may hold dear. The game is not just a trimmed down version though and instead uses this space fo...[Read Review]
Supreme Commander 2
Supreme Commander 2 is the second game in the Supreme Commander series of real time strategy games that explore modern and futuristic warfare with a focus on vehicle combat. The game takes place in a futuristic setting and is available on Windows, Mac and Xbox 360 with backward compatibility available for Xbox One. Supreme Commander 2 takes you through three different campaigns as you command the United Earth Federation, the Illuminate and the Cybran in battle. Each of these campaigns has their ...[Read Review]
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander is a real time strategy title that was been born out of the success of Total Annihilation, an exceedingly popular 1997 strategy game. Centred around mechanical units known as Armoured Command Units (ACU) it’s a futuristic war like adventure. In this future setting humanity has also reached a point of space travel which makes it possible to jump across the galaxy quickly through an invention known as the quantum gateway. With the ability to travel the stars the United Eart...[Read Review]
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is a stand alone expansion to the original Supreme Commander title, this standalone approach was used in order to alter gameplay features, add additional units and improve performance over the original release. Set in the same futuristic setting where humans have achieved space travel through the use of quantum tunnels, capable of sending ships from one side of the galaxy to the other near instantaneously. This has in turn led to many human colonies across the ...[Read Review]