The most popular base building games

Age of Empires, published by Microsoft and developed by Ensemble Studios, is one of the most popular historical RTS and started a successful series. The player must guide a civilization from prehistory to the iron age, battling other civilizations, building and gathering resources.

UFO: Enemy Unknown (or X-COM: Ufo Defense) is a sci-fi tactical strategy game created by Julian Gollop set in a not-to-distant future where aliens are invading the Earth. The gameplay switches between tactical combat, where you fight aliens in a turn-based fashion, and strategic micromanagement, where you manage your X-COM base and personnel.

SimTower is an old Windows 3.x (1994) building and business simulation game where the player is tasked with the management of a skyscraper nonetheless. Raise floors, build apartments, shops, offices and try to avoid bankruptcy if you can. SimTower spawned some similar games for mobile devices, most notably the wonderful Tiny Tower, It's surprisingl...

Dehumanizing offices? Check. Depressing environment? Check. No windows in the whole place? Check. Good, I'm ready to exploit my workers and become great entrepreneur. All of this thanks to Free Enterprise, a simulation for Windows by Tsunami Media, published in 1996.

Rampart is an abandoned mix of strategy and shooter game designed by Dave Ralston and John Salwitz, developed by Atari and released by Electronic Arts in 1992 for DOS. Rampart was converted from the original arcade version to a number of platforms, including Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Game Boy, Genesis, Lynx, NES, SEGA Master System, SNES. Rampart is a ...

X-COM: Apocalypse is the third installment of the very popular X-COM franchise. After X-COM: Ufo Defence and Terror From the Deep, fans expected another smash hit. Apocalypse is quite different under many aspects, from gameplay to aesthetics. X-COM Apocalypse was designed by Julian Gollop (the same designer that brought the original X-COM to l...

Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne is a turn-based strategy game developed by Triumph Studios and published by Gathering of Developers. It was released in 2002 as a sequel to the original Age of Wonders. The game is set in a fantasy world where players take on the role of a leader, either as a wizard or a warlord, and compete for control of the...

X-COM: Terror from the Deep is a DOS science fiction tactical strategy game, the sequel of one of the most popular DOS games in history X-COM Ufo Defense. Terror from the Deep was designed by Stephen Gross (the X-COM original being designed by Julian Gollop) and was published by MicroProse Software back in 1995. Terror from the deep doesn't change ...

Dungeon Keeper 3 was a cancelled dungeon management strategy game being developed by Bullfrog that was never released. Dungeon Keeper 3 was cancelled in 2000 and the Dungeon Keeper franchise ended without a third chapter.