4 – Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer laid the foundation for modern real-time strategy by popularizing fast-paced base-building, resource harvesting, and faction-based warfare for a mass audience. Westwood Studios’ seminal RTS combined accessible mechanics with full-motion video storytelling, giving the genre a distinctive personality and broad appeal that persevered throughout the series’ history, with entries like Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer: Generals taking that personality to absolute new levels. Its emphasis on quick decision-making and aggressive play helped define what RTS games would become throughout the 1990s and beyond, and its impact never truly left, even as RTS started to become slower and more complex. Even in 2026, Command & Conquer remains historically essential, not only for its iconic units and soundtrack, but for establishing the core design principles that countless real-time strategy games still rely on today. You’ll be happy with the Remastered Collection, previously linked above, or with the Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection, which has every game from the franchise. These two usually go on sale for around 5 dollars, which is a complete steal for the amount of games and their quality.
3 – StarCraft 2
That StarCraft 2 would rank amongst the stars was pretty obvious. The question that remained was: how does it compare to the other contenders for the top 3? Well, it was pretty close, but I think you’ll agree with me when you see number 2 and number 1. SC2 refined and perfected competitive real-time strategy, setting an unmatched benchmark for balance, responsiveness, and skill-based gameplay that filled entire stadiums, and I would argue that, alongside Counter-Strike and League of Legends, kickstarted the whole 2010s E-Sports craze. Blizzard’s sequel elevated the genre with razor-sharp unit control, asymmetric factions designed for high-level play, and an esports infrastructure that defined RTS competition for over a decade, with some remnants still holding strong. Were it not for the lack of new content, I think that the SC2 competitive community could thrive as much as the CS2 and League of Legends ones still do. You can actually play SC2 for free, so what are you waiting for? Go play it!
2 – Total War
Either you’re a fan of the historical Total War titles or you prefer the fantasy ones, the series has become synonymous with the strategy genre, and its commercial success and subsequent influence are impossible to ignore. Total War was the first game to truly bind several important components into a single formula that was greater than the sum of its parts: the grand-strategy layer gave the player an emergent narrative reason to play the game’s real-time strategy battles, and in turn, these were made to be spectacles in and of themselves, with thousands of units on-screen. This formula proved so successful that the series has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and it’s showing no signs of stopping any time soon, with its latest fantasy release, Total War: Warhammer 3, being one of the best-selling strategy games of the last two decades. It’s hard to choose a single Total War title to feature in here, but I think the biggest cultural impact had to come with Total War: Rome, which was when the game made the transition to 3D battles, and it was even featured in a History Channel series called Decisive Battles. Remember that?
The best way to play Total War in 2026 is to pick the time and period (or setting, if you’re looking at fantasy) you enjoy the most and get going. There’s plenty of choice, but Shogun 2, Warhammer 3, and Rome 2 are all solid choices.
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