In addition to this thread we should have one for the freebies out there - abandonware stuff doesn't count.
Games that were commercial, but have since been made available for free do count.
I'll try adding new ones to the original post, but PM or mention me just to be sure.
And if you want some text and image as well, provide it, cause I won't do it for you
0 A.D.
Really nice Age-Of-Empires-but-different strategy game. In development since the dawn of time, but making steady progress. Latest big update was released only a few months ago.
Give it a shot, I find it really fun to play (and the AI surprisingly challenging for a mediocre player like myself).
Especially in the latest version, it has some very interesting mechanics on its own not seen in the AoE games (afaik).
Online play is also possible, but I have no experience there (if someone wants to give it a shot, pm me).
1848
"1848 is a turn based computer strategy game set during the violent era of the Hungarian Independence War of 1848-49. The game plays out on a large hexagonal map."
Was sponsored by the Hungarian Ministry of Education so be prepared to learn something if you play this.
Age of Fear: The Free World
Fantasy tactical combat game. Other entries in the series aren't free but The Free World is a free introduction to the series.
Armored Brigade
(Apparently no longer free)
"Armored Brigade is a real-time tactical wargame, focusing on realism and playability. The game has drawn inspiration from classics such as Steel Panthers, Close Combat and Combat Mission."
Cold war/alternate history WWIII setting. Has this even been released yet?
Armoured Commander 1/2
(Apparently no longer free)
WW2 tactical tank game.
First one was a quite unique roquelike.
Aurora 4X
"The Dwarf Fortress of 4X space games"
Battle For Wesnoth
Also in development since the dawn of time, this one is a true classic of turn based gameplay, with a hint of RPG. Well balanced mechanics, interesting unit-level-up system and many campaigns (with even more user-made ones available).
The game was "finished" a long time ago, but keeps receiving more and more updates regularly.
Recommended!
Also finally on Steam.
Battleships Forever
"Battleships Forever is a freeware tactical Real Time Strategy game that put's you in command of a small fleet of warships in space. Combat and damage mechanics are extremely detailed. Everything is simulated in game if possible."
Real time space combat on a 2D plane.
C-Evo
C-evo is a Civ II inspired freeware that mostly aims at improving the AI from the original. Graphics are nice, since you're not limited to a 256 color palette as the original. Tried it years ago, and it seems it's still being updated by the (sole) developer. Sadly it's not open source so still no hope of resurrecting Civ II (especially after the failed source code petition and the way Freeciv is being developed).
Dingletopia
It's a nice sunny day in Dingletopia and Prince Dingle Dorfen and his wise adviser Forlorn Gumpel are slurping up the gorpulsen and planning their next conquest. Their life of luxury is soon interrupted however when Orcs burst into the lands with rattling sabers.
Small grand strategy game with auto battles, real challenge and weird humour. Very good to kill a couple hours.
Dwarf Fortress
No introduction needed.
Enemy Nations
"Enemy Nations is a real-time strategy game. But not your everyday real-time game. It provides a level of sophisticated economic and military modeling not found in any other real-time game."
An early 2000s RTS released as freeware.
Frank Hunter's American Civil War
If you don't have the game already, it's a strategical-level turn-based game of the whole four-year war. You take the place of the president of the Union or the Confederacy and his top-level generals. What you see is a map of the USA in 1861 with counters representing armies, corps, and divisions. There are no fancy graphics and no fast action. This is a serious simulation, it's quite slow-paced, and it takes a long time to play.
FreeCiv
"Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization."
By 'the history of human civilisation' they mean Sid Meier's Civilization. Obviously.
FreeCol
"FreeCol is a turn-based strategy game based on the old game Colonization, and similar to Civilization. The objective of the game is to create an independent nation."
FreeOrion
"FreeOrion is a free, open source, turn-based space empire and galactic conquest (4X) computer game being designed and built by the FreeOrion project. FreeOrion is inspired by the tradition of the Master of Orion games, but is not a clone or remake of that series or any other game."
Lords Of Midnight (free on GOG)
"The Lords of Midnight is not simply an adventure game nor simply a war game. It was really a new type that became known as an epic game, for as you play the Lords of Midnight you will be writing a new chapter in the history of the peoples of the Free. You will guide individual characters across the land of Midnight on vital quests but you will also command armies that must endeavour to hold back the foul hordes of Doomdark, the witch king. Yours will be no inevitable victory."
Mechcommander Gold
Mechcommander 2
Battletech RTS (if you couldn't work that out...)
MegaGlest
Fantasy RTS with Blizzard/AoE style resource gathering.
Mysterious Castle
A tactics-roguelike adventure for iOS and web.
"Control a party of adventurers as you make your way through a procedurally generated world filled with dangerous monsters, ancient treasures, and powerful magic. Each world is generated from scratch so you'll never play the same game twice. Classic roguelike gameplay with a tactics twist."
Web version is free.
NetStorm: Islands At War
"NetStorm takes place in the world of Nimbus, a planet whose crust has been sent floating off into the atmosphere by the never-ending battles between the three god-like beings called "The Furies", representing Wind, Rain and Thunder. The people now live on small floating islands, each with its own high priest; their only link to their patron Fury. The islands battle each other in order to capture and sacrifice the priests of their enemies to their own Fury so they may gain knowledge and power."
Fantasy RTS.
Open General / OpenGen
Very active open source Panzer General 2-based engine with a HUGE amount of scenarios and campaigns made by fans that cover many armies and eras, mostly WW1 and WW2, and a multitude of quality of life setting including options for AARs.
Open Imperium Galactica
"Free & open-source reimplementation of Imperium Galactica."
"Imperium Galactica is a single-player game developed by Digital Reality and released in 1997. It has both the combat and resource management elements of a real-time strategy game and the vast research tree and colony-building aspects of traditional turn-based 'space-empire-building' 4X (eXpand, eXploit, eXplore, and eXterminate) games."
ie. a 4X with RTS combat.
OpenRA
Play Red Alert 1, C&C Tiberian Dawn and Dune2000 free of charge!
With a somewhat alive MP community and costant patches!
If you ever want to give it a try or to play MP with half-adequate people, ping Kalin (Nazi Swede) or Dayyālu , and we'll be happy to give you a free ride. SP campaign is only partly implemented, and Dune2000 is merely a skeleton of a game, sadly.
Work on Tiberian Sun and RA2 is proceeding, but who knows.
Medieval Warfare | OpenRA mod | TBD
Fantasy themed mod/TC for OpenRA.
Seems to feature quite different gameplay than the original game.
OpenTTD
"OpenTTD is an open source simulation game based upon the popular Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features."
Panzer General Forever
A straight remake of Panzer General 1 plus Allied General that works fine on modern systems (dunno about W10 though) and mostly just adds interface improvements..
Rise & Fall: Civilizations At War
/about/rise-and-fall-5804ecd25f9b5805c2b8c0d0.jpg)
Rise & Fall Civilizations At War is a real time strategy game originally released in 2006. The game is set during the first millennium BC and and contains a mix of traditional real time strategy game play as well as first and third person shooter game play. The game received mostly positive reviews and after 2 years it was released by Midway Games as ad supported freeware sponsored by the U.S. Air Force.
S.W.I.N.E.
Freeware release of a JoWood RTS from 2001-ish.
HD patch: http://digi.atw.hu/2.3.php?lang=en
Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries
"Seven Kingdoms is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game developed by Trevor Chan of Enlight Software. The game enables players to compete against up to six other kingdoms allowing players to conquer opponents by defeating them in war (with troops or machines), capturing their buildings with spies, or offering opponents money for their kingdom."
A medieval RTS. According to the wikipedia page, includes diplomacy/espionage/economic options quite reminiscent of turn based strategy games.
Simutrans
"Simutrans is a freeware and open-source transportation simulator. Your goal is to establish a successful transport company."
Soil
IndieDB-Link
Soil is a space real time strategy game inspired by Homeworld and others. You have base, you mine asteroids, build ships and send them to their deaths. Ships are made of subsystems and hardpoints, destroying them removes functions of those subsystems and removes turrets. Debris from damaged or destroyed ships can be mined for more resources. Game features unfinished campaign and somewhat working multiplayer (there may be some desyncs, but if it doesn't happen too often games resyncs automatically) Game is primarily made for windows, but most likely runs on linux with WINE (at least it does on Ubuntu).
Star Ruler 2
"Star Ruler 2 is a massive scale 4X/RTS set in space. Explore dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of systems in a galaxy of your choosing, expand across its planets, exploit the resources you find, and ultimately exterminate any who stand in your way. The fate of your empire depends on your ability to master the economy, field a military, influence galactic politics, and learn what you can about the universe."
Ready to play version (compiled+music): https://github.com/Megalex42/StarRuler2-Source/releases
Steel Panthers 1
Steel Panthers 1 (another edition)
Steel Panthers 2
Both Steel Panther games have commercial versions too, but freebie versions are good enough.
Tanks of Freedom
At a guess, I'd say the devs really, really like Advance Wars.
Titans of Steel: Warring Suns (dl link)
Titans of Steel: Warring Suns is a tactical mech command game that sadly hasn't gotten much attention.
It was made into freeware in 2008.
TripleA
Large scale turn based strategy game using the Axis & Allies boardgame rules.
UFO:AI
Reimplementation of X-Com/UFO Enemy Unknown but in a 3D engine.
Unknown Horizons
Open source and quite functional Anno 1404 type game.
Vantage Master Online
Despite it's name, it's not an online game.
Appears to be a sort of Magic the Gathering type wizard duelling game, but on a map.
War Winds
The Ancient, alien world of Yavain teeters on the brink of anarchy as the winds of change threaten to blow civilisation asunder! For centuries, four diverse races have tolerated a precarious balance of power. But the time has come for change. A new order is in the wind - AND IT WILL BE BORN OF BLOOD AND FIRE! War Wind allows you to view this epic struggle through the eyes of four unique races, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and distinctive A.I.
Warzone 2100
A fairly simple RTS that derives most of it's depth from a very, very long tech tree and by allowing you to design your own units. The skirmish mode bot is quite ruthless.
Widelands
"Widelands is a free, open source real-time strategy game with singleplayer campaigns and a multiplayer mode. The game was inspired by Settlers II™ (© Bluebyte) but has significantly more variety and depth to it."
WWII Squad Level Land Battles ssp
A Wargame for Grognards, its a little bit complicated for the average user. it is chits representing the units . the combat is decided by dice rolls and modifiers. It is 2D topdown. with a fantastic A.I.
Wyrmsun
Warcraft II with some Age of Empires elements added. Dev seems to be focussed on providing lots of content for the singleplayer game.
Zero-K
Open source RTS game similar to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander.
It's also available on Steam.
Assorted Links:
SOVL
SOVL is a ruleset for playing fantasy wargames. It can be played with miniatures on a table or digitally on Steam.
SpringRTS
Open source cross-platform RTS engine and links to games made with it.
OSGameClones
List of open source remakes of various games.
Games that were commercial, but have since been made available for free do count.
I'll try adding new ones to the original post, but PM or mention me just to be sure.
And if you want some text and image as well, provide it, cause I won't do it for you
0 A.D.
Give it a shot, I find it really fun to play (and the AI surprisingly challenging for a mediocre player like myself).
Especially in the latest version, it has some very interesting mechanics on its own not seen in the AoE games (afaik).
Online play is also possible, but I have no experience there (if someone wants to give it a shot, pm me).
1848
"1848 is a turn based computer strategy game set during the violent era of the Hungarian Independence War of 1848-49. The game plays out on a large hexagonal map."
Was sponsored by the Hungarian Ministry of Education so be prepared to learn something if you play this.
Age of Fear: The Free World
Armored Brigade
(Apparently no longer free)
"Armored Brigade is a real-time tactical wargame, focusing on realism and playability. The game has drawn inspiration from classics such as Steel Panthers, Close Combat and Combat Mission."
Cold war/alternate history WWIII setting. Has this even been released yet?
Armoured Commander 1/2
(Apparently no longer free)
WW2 tactical tank game.
First one was a quite unique roquelike.
Aurora 4X
"The Dwarf Fortress of 4X space games"
Battle For Wesnoth
The game was "finished" a long time ago, but keeps receiving more and more updates regularly.
Recommended!
Also finally on Steam.
Battleships Forever
"Battleships Forever is a freeware tactical Real Time Strategy game that put's you in command of a small fleet of warships in space. Combat and damage mechanics are extremely detailed. Everything is simulated in game if possible."
Real time space combat on a 2D plane.
C-Evo
Dingletopia
It's a nice sunny day in Dingletopia and Prince Dingle Dorfen and his wise adviser Forlorn Gumpel are slurping up the gorpulsen and planning their next conquest. Their life of luxury is soon interrupted however when Orcs burst into the lands with rattling sabers.
Small grand strategy game with auto battles, real challenge and weird humour. Very good to kill a couple hours.
Dwarf Fortress
No introduction needed.
Enemy Nations
"Enemy Nations is a real-time strategy game. But not your everyday real-time game. It provides a level of sophisticated economic and military modeling not found in any other real-time game."
An early 2000s RTS released as freeware.
Frank Hunter's American Civil War
If you don't have the game already, it's a strategical-level turn-based game of the whole four-year war. You take the place of the president of the Union or the Confederacy and his top-level generals. What you see is a map of the USA in 1861 with counters representing armies, corps, and divisions. There are no fancy graphics and no fast action. This is a serious simulation, it's quite slow-paced, and it takes a long time to play.
FreeCiv
"Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization."
By 'the history of human civilisation' they mean Sid Meier's Civilization. Obviously.
FreeCol
"FreeCol is a turn-based strategy game based on the old game Colonization, and similar to Civilization. The objective of the game is to create an independent nation."
FreeOrion
"FreeOrion is a free, open source, turn-based space empire and galactic conquest (4X) computer game being designed and built by the FreeOrion project. FreeOrion is inspired by the tradition of the Master of Orion games, but is not a clone or remake of that series or any other game."
Lords Of Midnight (free on GOG)
"The Lords of Midnight is not simply an adventure game nor simply a war game. It was really a new type that became known as an epic game, for as you play the Lords of Midnight you will be writing a new chapter in the history of the peoples of the Free. You will guide individual characters across the land of Midnight on vital quests but you will also command armies that must endeavour to hold back the foul hordes of Doomdark, the witch king. Yours will be no inevitable victory."
Mechcommander Gold
Mechcommander 2
Battletech RTS (if you couldn't work that out...)
MegaGlest
Fantasy RTS with Blizzard/AoE style resource gathering.
Mysterious Castle
A tactics-roguelike adventure for iOS and web.
"Control a party of adventurers as you make your way through a procedurally generated world filled with dangerous monsters, ancient treasures, and powerful magic. Each world is generated from scratch so you'll never play the same game twice. Classic roguelike gameplay with a tactics twist."
Web version is free.
NetStorm: Islands At War
"NetStorm takes place in the world of Nimbus, a planet whose crust has been sent floating off into the atmosphere by the never-ending battles between the three god-like beings called "The Furies", representing Wind, Rain and Thunder. The people now live on small floating islands, each with its own high priest; their only link to their patron Fury. The islands battle each other in order to capture and sacrifice the priests of their enemies to their own Fury so they may gain knowledge and power."
Fantasy RTS.
Open General / OpenGen
Very active open source Panzer General 2-based engine with a HUGE amount of scenarios and campaigns made by fans that cover many armies and eras, mostly WW1 and WW2, and a multitude of quality of life setting including options for AARs.
Open Imperium Galactica
"Free & open-source reimplementation of Imperium Galactica."
"Imperium Galactica is a single-player game developed by Digital Reality and released in 1997. It has both the combat and resource management elements of a real-time strategy game and the vast research tree and colony-building aspects of traditional turn-based 'space-empire-building' 4X (eXpand, eXploit, eXplore, and eXterminate) games."
ie. a 4X with RTS combat.
OpenRA
With a somewhat alive MP community and costant patches!
If you ever want to give it a try or to play MP with half-adequate people, ping Kalin (Nazi Swede) or Dayyālu , and we'll be happy to give you a free ride. SP campaign is only partly implemented, and Dune2000 is merely a skeleton of a game, sadly.
Work on Tiberian Sun and RA2 is proceeding, but who knows.
Medieval Warfare | OpenRA mod | TBD
Seems to feature quite different gameplay than the original game.
OpenTTD
"OpenTTD is an open source simulation game based upon the popular Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features."
Panzer General Forever
A straight remake of Panzer General 1 plus Allied General that works fine on modern systems (dunno about W10 though) and mostly just adds interface improvements..
Rise & Fall: Civilizations At War
S.W.I.N.E.
Freeware release of a JoWood RTS from 2001-ish.
HD patch: http://digi.atw.hu/2.3.php?lang=en
Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries
"Seven Kingdoms is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game developed by Trevor Chan of Enlight Software. The game enables players to compete against up to six other kingdoms allowing players to conquer opponents by defeating them in war (with troops or machines), capturing their buildings with spies, or offering opponents money for their kingdom."
A medieval RTS. According to the wikipedia page, includes diplomacy/espionage/economic options quite reminiscent of turn based strategy games.
Simutrans
"Simutrans is a freeware and open-source transportation simulator. Your goal is to establish a successful transport company."
Soil
IndieDB-Link
Soil is a space real time strategy game inspired by Homeworld and others. You have base, you mine asteroids, build ships and send them to their deaths. Ships are made of subsystems and hardpoints, destroying them removes functions of those subsystems and removes turrets. Debris from damaged or destroyed ships can be mined for more resources. Game features unfinished campaign and somewhat working multiplayer (there may be some desyncs, but if it doesn't happen too often games resyncs automatically) Game is primarily made for windows, but most likely runs on linux with WINE (at least it does on Ubuntu).
Star Ruler 2
"Star Ruler 2 is a massive scale 4X/RTS set in space. Explore dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of systems in a galaxy of your choosing, expand across its planets, exploit the resources you find, and ultimately exterminate any who stand in your way. The fate of your empire depends on your ability to master the economy, field a military, influence galactic politics, and learn what you can about the universe."
Ready to play version (compiled+music): https://github.com/Megalex42/StarRuler2-Source/releases
Steel Panthers 1
Steel Panthers 1 (another edition)
Both Steel Panther games have commercial versions too, but freebie versions are good enough.
Tanks of Freedom
At a guess, I'd say the devs really, really like Advance Wars.
Titans of Steel: Warring Suns (dl link)
It was made into freeware in 2008.
TripleA
Large scale turn based strategy game using the Axis & Allies boardgame rules.
UFO:AI
Reimplementation of X-Com/UFO Enemy Unknown but in a 3D engine.
Unknown Horizons
Vantage Master Online
Despite it's name, it's not an online game.
Appears to be a sort of Magic the Gathering type wizard duelling game, but on a map.
War Winds
The Ancient, alien world of Yavain teeters on the brink of anarchy as the winds of change threaten to blow civilisation asunder! For centuries, four diverse races have tolerated a precarious balance of power. But the time has come for change. A new order is in the wind - AND IT WILL BE BORN OF BLOOD AND FIRE! War Wind allows you to view this epic struggle through the eyes of four unique races, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and distinctive A.I.
Warzone 2100
A fairly simple RTS that derives most of it's depth from a very, very long tech tree and by allowing you to design your own units. The skirmish mode bot is quite ruthless.
Widelands
"Widelands is a free, open source real-time strategy game with singleplayer campaigns and a multiplayer mode. The game was inspired by Settlers II™ (© Bluebyte) but has significantly more variety and depth to it."
WWII Squad Level Land Battles ssp
A Wargame for Grognards, its a little bit complicated for the average user. it is chits representing the units . the combat is decided by dice rolls and modifiers. It is 2D topdown. with a fantastic A.I.
Wyrmsun
Warcraft II with some Age of Empires elements added. Dev seems to be focussed on providing lots of content for the singleplayer game.
Zero-K
Open source RTS game similar to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander.
It's also available on Steam.
Assorted Links:
SOVL
SOVL is a ruleset for playing fantasy wargames. It can be played with miniatures on a table or digitally on Steam.
SpringRTS
Open source cross-platform RTS engine and links to games made with it.
OSGameClones
List of open source remakes of various games.
Last edited:
