5 – Stronghold 4
- Developer: Firefly Studios
- Publisher: Firefly Studios
- Release Date: 2026
- Steam Page
Look, as a massive fan of Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusader, I’m always excited for a new Stronghold game, but the fact of the matter is that Stronghold has always struggled when moving away from its more traditional roots, with Stronghold 2 and 3 failing to deliver anything worth noting. Stronghold: Warlords also didn’t do the series any favors by being essentially a generic RTS that just so happens to feature castle-building. Looking at Stronghold 4-and this might just be my wishful thinking- I have hopes that by staying somewhat true to its roots while improving the graphics, this one might hit the bullseye and propel the series forward. There’s a demo available for it, which I haven’t been able to play yet, but the community seems to enjoy it quite a lot. You know what? I’m going to play it now! You can keep on reading!
4 – Dust Front RTS
- Developer: rtsDimon
- Publisher: rtsDimon
- Release Date: To be announced
- Steam Page
I’ll call it right now: if Dust Front RTS hits its marks, it is going to firmly lock down a top-three spot on my list of the best games of 2026 or 2027 (the latter seems a lot more likely at this stage). During the Steam Next Fest, we were finally able to give Dust Front RTS the all-clear! The game is no longer just a proof of concept, with very interesting gameplay videos and screenshots. Gamers have tried it, loved it, and wishlisted it, and the game became one of the RTS sensations of 2026. Now, it’s only a matter of time until we see the full thing put together and released. I have played it and enjoyed it quite a lot.
3 – ZeroSpace
- Developer: Starlance Studios, Ironward
- Publisher: Starlance Studios, Gamersky Games
- Release Date: 20 July, 2026
- Steam Page
Here’s a recent entry in these sorts of lists, and it was all because of the amazing impression it left me when I played ZeroSpace in the Steam Next Fest. ZeroSpace strikes a rare, perfect balance by offering a hardcore multiplayer arena alongside an engrossing single-player campaign. Players take the helm of the Protectorate, a heavily armed galactic military force tasked with defending humanity against aliens. While the game is also set to feature multiplayer, I’m all into this one because of its promising single-player campaign with 15 main story missions and 15 side missions as well. I love watching this trend of strategy games fully embracing singleplayer as the main component of their gameplay, something we players have been asking for two decades at least.
2 – Total War: Warhammer 40,000
- Developer: Creative Assembly
- Publisher: SEGA
- Release Date: To be announced
- Steam Page
I’m a massive fan of the Total War: Warhammer fantasy trilogy, because those did a lot to prove that the Total War formula of game is still far from being exhaustive, and all it needed was to step away from the historical setting it had first pioneered to try something new and reinvent itself. Fortunately, that endeavor went incredibly well, with the games from the Warhammer series becoming some of the top-selling strategy games of the last 20 years. Because of that success, we will now see Total War move to the 40K universe, and from the look of the available gameplay trailers, it’s going to be a massive change of pace by blending together interplanetary bombardements, a bigger focus on long-range fighting, destructible environments, and whatever else it hasn’t been shown yet. Of course, I suspect this is going to be the first game of a series of Warhammer 40,000 entries, meaning that we might see a gigantic Immortal Empires-style campaign in space.
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