Zenith Frontier

Zenith Frontier

Zenith Frontier is an interstellar strategy simulation game. Explore and colonise hostile exoplanets and help humanity survive the struggles of 2040 and beyond.

Zenith Frontier features several novel mechanics in the context of traditional 4X and grand strategy gameplay elements. Experience visionary strategic gameplay set in an evolving procedural galaxy populated by billions ot autonomous citizens and private companies. Build a faction with a rich background and strong identity, then oversee their interstellar efforts to advance their position within the precarious New Space Age.

New Gameplay Features:

  • A Shared Origin: Factions start in the same overpopulated, suffering home system and compete to expand outwards in the year 2040. This is made possible by the recent discovery of –REDACTED– which allows high-tech spacecraft to slip into subspace.

  • Volatile Subspace: Exploration of this newly accessible subspace is incredibly dangerous. This chaotic region is thick with dark matter and swirling dark energy fields, but the ability to travel interstellar distances in considerably shorter timeframes may be worth the risk. Known safe routes will become critical to sustaining your remote holdings, but beware - subspace is neither static or stable and these routes may change!

  • Information is Essential: Unshielded signals will be destroyed in subspace and must be carried through by comm drones. News that arrives at your capital from a distant colony will be out-of-date - the situation will have evolved and you will have to consider this when planning your response. Additionally, perhaps the illegal hijacking of another’s comm drones will glean some strategic information - and prevent it from arriving at its intended destination!

  • Special Relativity: Spacecraft travelling at incredible speeds and colonies established within deep gravity wells will experience first-hand the effects of special relativity and time dilation. Time will progress more quickly for the crew of your –REDACTED– spacecraft making a long journey at high speeds than the colony they are destined for.

  • Geospatial Resource Pricing: A supply and demand model for price determination within a dynamic economic system that includes taxes, import/export fees and transportation costs mean that resource prices will vary throughout the galaxy. Plan your economic developments accordingly - or invest in this interstellar network infrastructure to take a slice of your rival’s operations.

  • Top Level Direction: Shape your faction from the top down by issuing orders, directives, and edicts to your military staff, governors, and private sector. These are executed autonomously, which can lead to surprising outcomes. This indirect control poses interesting strategic challenges.

Traditional Gameplay Features:

  • Diplomacy and Politics

  • Research and Technology

  • Military Conflict

  • Management and Governance

Zenith Frontier’s Design Pillars:

Zenith Frontier is being designed and developed in line with these pillars.

  • Emergence - A rich, living world that generates unique emergent scenarios.

  • Strategic Depth - A semantic network of interconnect systems.

  • Gameplay Over Graphics - A high quality interactive system that priotises gameplay.

  • Self-Directed - The player is primarily working towards self-selected goals in open gameplay.

  • Top Level Decisions - The player provides direction from the top-down to autonomous agents.


Read More: Best 4X Grand Strategy Games.


Zenith Frontier on Steam

SAND CASTLES

SAND CASTLES

SAND CASTLES is a Kingdom and Castle Building Real-Time Strategy / 4X game with a full 3D Graphics Engine. The game supports up to 6-players (human player or computer Artificial Intelligence). The game features true fog of war within the 3D game world. Your available resources are Gold, Sand, Lumber, and Food.

Command armies by grouping together companies. Each company has a Commander with a Rank up to a 4-star General. Commander Abilities affect company combat with Morale / Health / Strength levels. Company commanders earn points during combat and will be promoted by Rank. Use the Level-Up dialog for Core commanders to spend points on abilities.

  • Skillfully use army Formations during melee combat.

  • Capture enemy kingdoms by waging Siege Warfare.

  • Form Alliances with other kingdoms using the Diplomacy dialog.

  • Share troops and resources with Allies.

The Alpha Release Version features:

  • First 7 scenarios of the Human Campaign (you versus the Computer AI)

  • Multi-Player Maps to play on the Steam Network

  • 2 Races - Human and Barbarian

  • Peasants

  • Spies

  • Light Infantry

  • Archers

  • Catapults

  • Sappers

  • Boiling Oil

  • Tar Traps

  • Spike Traps

  • Moats

  • Keep

  • Wall

  • Gate

  • Square Tower

  • Build and Save Castle Layouts

The Full Human Campaign is tentatively scheduled for release in 2022 and will feature:

  • 14 Scenarios

  • Many more Multi-Player Maps

  • 1 additional Race (to be announced)

  • Heavy Infantry

  • Light Cavalry

  • Heavy Cavalry

  • Crossbows

  • Ballista

  • Battering Rams

  • Siege Towers

  • King

  • Queen

  • Royal Guard

  • Water Transports

  • Air Reconnaissance

  • Round Tower

  • Castle Building Upgrades


Read More: Best 4X Action RTS Games.


SAND CASTLES on Steam

DR4X

DR4X

The Game

DR4X is a fast paced dark fantasy turn based strategy game with horror elements In a world with many…dimensions to uncover!

The game has simple, fun, fast paced, dynamic gameplay where each type of faction uses different resources and completely unique playstyles.

Play in an evolving world, filling up with horrors and monsters if you don’t try to stop their spread, unique events and so on.

It also has a very reactive world map and an in depth skirmish creator. With multiple possible win conditions to choose from based on your skirmish choices.

Research powerful stacking technologies to dominate your enemies, or let the other factions and even the nearby gremlin horde learn how to cause more trouble for you with their own technologies.

Do you want to fight other empires? Or perhaps just defeat the monsters infesting the realm. Or maybe even be the monsters infesting the realm! It is your choice!


Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.


DR4X on Steam

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition

This was one of the few games I played over and over as a teen.

I’ll be honest, I never got into the sequel, because I didn’t like the way the planets were depicted (though it probably made influence more intuitive). So I don’t know how this one holds up to GalCiv II. But on its own merits, it’s a good game.

In Galactic Civilizations, you start out as ruler of united Earth. The various alien races, having gotten the secret of hyperdrive from the humans, have turned off their massive wormhole portals and scrapped them for hyper-capable colony ships. The real space race has begun, and it’s up to you to determine the path you want humanity to take.

Real player with 194.6 hrs in game

In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#291 out of 612)… it’s time for Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition.

You might know Galactic Civilizations by its other name: “Oh, yeah, there was a game before Galactic Civilizations III, wasn’t there?” Indeed there was! The obvious question here is: why should anyone play Galactic Civilizations 1 when the third game exists, and is so, so good? Historical context? Pure, unadulterated whimsy? A PC so old and out-of-date that it doesn’t even qualify as a toaster? Galactic Civilizations I has got fewer features, less polish, and less depth all-around. Furthermore, you’re in for one hell of an uphill battle if you’re even -thinking- of trying to get the game to run on a modern operating system. Galactic Civilizations does not play nice with anything more advanced than Windows XP!

Real player with 24.6 hrs in game

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition on Steam

Empires of the Void II

Empires of the Void II

Conquer the galaxy - or befriend it! Empires of the Void II is a beloved board game with deep strategy and a compelling story that you write yourself. This is a digital recreation of that board game, allowing you to play with friends (or strangers) in the same room, or across the world. Choose a race and befriend the native species, or crush them under your merciless heel. The power card deck contains dozens of missions that connect to the deep story underpinning the galactic fringe. Save innocent lives from a gigantic rampaging beast, kidnap the leader of your enemies, or gamble with space pirates. Every playthrough feels unique and interesting. Minimalistic graphics and atmospheric music set the tone without getting in the way. Create your own adventure at the fringe of the galaxy!

Empires of the Void II on Steam

Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition

Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition

In a word: Addictive. Yes, addictive in that terrifying, inescapable, “just-one-more-turn” way. Galactic Civilizations II is what you get if you take Master of Orion II, expand it so that the galaxy, tech tree and ship customisation are roughly a hundred times as huge without ever becoming boring, bump the graphics up to a standard still respectable today for a TBS, give each civilization some serious make-or-break differences (hint: the Drengin and the Yor almost always end up dominating most of the galaxy that ISN’T YOU), and shove it out there to give almost every other space-based TBS a serious poke in the eye.

Real player with 216.8 hrs in game

I decided to pick up a new 4x space game after pouring many hours into Endless Space. Endless Space lacked complexity and I searched for a more in depth game. Galactic Civilizations 2 fulfill that criteria. I started playing this in 2015 so I have no nostalgic feelings for it. The game is quite good and fun despite its age and limitations, in fact it is the best 4x space game I have played so far (other space 4x I’ve played are MOO2, Endless Space and Sword of the Stars). Take a good look at the pros and cons because some points might put you off.

Real player with 196.7 hrs in game

Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition on Steam

Neverdark

Neverdark

_On December 24th, 2030 a global blackout occurred. In an instant the world lost access to electricity, and suddenly so many things that we had taken for granted were gone; the Internet, global communications, electronic devices… all gone.

War emerged as governments fell and society collapsed in upon itself. Guns, medicine and food became the new currencies while survival and protection became the sole necessities. Conflicts continued for years as ordinary people battled against famine, disease, the elements, and other humans.

A new world rose from the ashes of the old one. Each survivor enclave had a different idea on how to shape their new society: bands of raiders, religious cults, biker gangs, idealistic democratic communes and organisations built around charismatic leaders. Cities were once again battlegrounds, but it was no longer for survival, it was now for domination._

Neverdark is a pausable RTS game which throws you into a post-apocalyptic world. Following a global blackout, society has collapsed, and it will be your goal to rebuild it.

You lead a group of survivors, and you will need to contend with other factions over the control of the city. Invest resources and expand your influence to take over the city, street by street. Neverdark is as much about politics and social evolution as it is about combat.

In Neverdark you play in a fallen and ruined city. It is in desperate need of being rebuilt, and it will be your task to adapt it to the harsh conditions with makeshift infrastructure. Each map takes the shape of a real, existing city: Paris, New York and Tokyo. You will find yourself leading your citizens and expanding across familiar streets, taking over existing buildings and repurposing them. Perhaps you might want to use the Louvre Museum as the seat of your Black Market, or it might be a good idea to grow your crops on Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn. Building placement needs to be strategic and thoughtful. Where they’re placed, and the consequences of that choice, rests entirely in your hands.

A new type of society has emerged – one without a central government. Your goal is to react to dynamic, random events which force you to decide between doing what is ethically right and what is politically advantageous. New laws must be passed, and edicts must be enforced if civilisation is to evolve and adapt to ever-changing conditions.

One way or another you need to deal with other groups competing for control of the city. Both you and your enemies have powerful and influential agents at your disposal. You will need to send those agents, known in-game as specialists, across the city to perform political and military tasks. A Political Agitator in a neighborhood where two factions are fighting for dominance may help sway the locals into supporting you. But should that fail, and you find the enemy has gotten there first, a good long-range ‘motivator’ with a rifle could be equally effective. Inevitably the streets must turn crimson with bloodshed, and it will be your duty to lead your crew of specialists in tactical, turn-based combat missions.

Neverdark on Steam

World of Asgabas

World of Asgabas

In World of Asgabas, you take control of a faction with its unique gameplay and fight your way to conquer of the world. Explore the world, expand your territory, exploit your lands and exterminate your opponents.

  • All the factions are unique Join the Knights, the Vikings, the Cowboys or the Pirates and play a different experience each time. The factions are designed to offer a different gameplay, unique progresses, buildings and units.

  • Take advantage of the terrain Build your fortresses to be impregnable or conquer rich soils to take over your opponents. Each faction has bonuses related to the terrain that you’ll have to consider.

  • Manage your armies Battles between armies take place in a small battlefield and are entirely automated. Organize your armies to take the best out of your units.

  • And more to come… There are only too many possibilities to add content to this game. New factions, new concepts, new objectives. The game is released in Early Access and new free content will be frequently added.

World of Asgabas on Steam

Bow & Crystal Tower Defense

Bow & Crystal Tower Defense

If you click fast enough you have a machine gun.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

pretty terrible

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

Bow & Crystal Tower Defense on Steam

Line War

Line War

Line War is a multiplayer Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game heavily influenced by other strategy genres including 4X, War Game, Auto Battler, and Real-Time Tactics.

  • Endless number of asymmetric procedural worlds

  • Players select their starting territories in an innovative and fair “picking phase”

  • You draw commands that units will follow

  • Reduced micro-management, Actions per Minute (APM) is not important

  • No control of individual units, they all follow commands and directives

  • Traditional, recognizable, and well balanced militaristic units

  • Conquer territories, build towns, cities, industries, ports, and trade routes to earn capital

  • Produce energy with refineries and powerplants for sustained mobility of tanks, air force, and navy

  • Visual commands

    This game has a never-before-seen approach that lets you focus on drawing commands and executing a strategy rather than managing individual units. Chain commands and execute orchestrated operations for coordinated attacks against your opponent. This command system sets Line War apart from other strategy games.

  • Familiar Units

    Line War dares to break the trend and has only one race with familiar units to widen the audience and ease the learning curve. Each unit has a distinct and carefully balanced role.

  • Strategy

    Line War focuses on strategy. We’ve designed the game around the typical RTS-problems to remove the steep learning curve and need for ultra-fast micro-management so you can focus on planning and executing a strategy.

During Early Access; Line War is a multiplayer-only game! We will add single-player campaigns for the full release in 2023. As an Early Access customer, you will receive the single-player campaigns for free once the game is fully released.

Line War on Steam