Best 4X Games on Steam
Strategy games about exploring, expanding, exploiting resources, and conquering rivals.
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1Sid Meier's Civilization® V - Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Sep 21, 2010
In this game, you can…
- open your borders to Gandhi, then watch him pillage your land, annex cities, denounce you, and launch nukes anyway.
- send a nuclear fleet across the world, punch through a submarine blockade, fire the warheads, then drop XCOM squads to seize the top superpower's capital before the space race ends.
- absorb a nearby city-state instantly, then trigger a chain-reaction war where your allies help wipe out an empire.
- start in 4000 BC with one settler and build a world empire.
- win wars by pure positioning, using terrain choke points while cities shoot enemies from two tiles away.
- bribe leaders and city-states into alliances until a few denouncements turn into a globe-spanning world war.
- fight late-game resource wars where uranium decides everything, nuclear subs blockade coasts, cruisers break through, and XCOM drops capture capitals.
- race two victories at once, then lose one turn before winning because another nation hits a different win condition first.
- build famous wonders in completely wrong places, like the Great Pyramids in Honolulu or the Great Wall of Portugal.
2Crusader Kings III - Love, fight, scheme, and claim greatness. Determine your noble house’s legacy in the sprawling grand strategy of Crusader Kings III. Death is only the beginning as you guide your dynasty’s bloodline in the rich and larger-than-life simulation of the Middle Ages.
Sep 1, 2020
In this game, you can…
- make the pope your vassal, imprison him over a feast insult, seize Rome, force-convert him, and banish him.
- create a custom religion with rules like forced nudity or ritual cannibalism, then use conversion to control and humiliate rivals.
- start as a two-year-old empress, face near-total revolt, then grow into a famous conqueror and reformer.
- play a dynasty where you die, then keep ruling as your heir.
- lose your wife to concubinage, rescue her decades later, then adopt a feral "wolf-boy" and raise him into a kingdom-building heir.
- turn a rumor into a chain of spying, blackmail, secret murders, and a land-claim war that drags the whole realm into marching armies.
- breed a "perfect heir" through dynasty genetics until your family tree becomes strategically useful and completely tangled.
- revoke an empire's election laws with a single decision, then deal with powerful nobles resisting the change and testing your rule.
3Total War: WARHAMMER II - The forces of Lustria await your command. Choose your Legendary Lord, expand your armies, forge alliances in a strategic turn-based campaign, and unleash the might of your monstrous forces in fast-paced real-time battles.
Sep 28, 2017
In this game, you can…
- get ambushed, eat a tactical nuke minutes into the fight, then rebuild your entire battle line mid-chaos and still win.
- lead an army of thousands of rats with poison bombs, lightning cannons, and rapid-fire guns that can erase units fast.
- play on a stitched-together mega-map where every race from both games is in one campaign with wildly different starting situations.
- race other empires to complete world-shaking rituals, then hold off enemy counterattacks long enough to finish yours.
- set up a chokepoint defense where one perfect position and timed spells lets you beat multiple elite armies at once.
- send a single hero into the front line to fight whole groups alone, then swing the battle with healing or devastating magic.
- slam cavalry into a line hard enough to rip it open, then follow up with hydras, dragons, and phoenixes to finish the collapse.
- pull 10,000 gold from a shipwreck, drop it straight into new buildings, then use the upgrade to launch your next conquest.
4STAR WARS™ Empire at War - Gold Pack - Command or corrupt an entire galaxy in the definitive Star Wars strategy collection. It is a time of galactic civil war. Will you take up the reins of the Rebellion, assume control of the Empire, or rule the Star Wars Underworld?
May 25, 2010
In this game, you can…
- build the Death Star, park it over a planet, and erase the entire world on command.
- play as a crime syndicate and take over the galaxy with bribery, kidnapping, racketeering, and piracy instead of straight conquest.
- target specific ship systems in space fights, like hangar bays or tractor beams, to shut down fighters or stop captures.
- run a planet takeover in two stages: win the space battle, then land troops and fight on the ground to actually claim the world.
- drop Darth Vader into a ground battle and let him carve through an entire base while your army pushes in behind him.
- mass an absurd armada, then watch it collide with an even bigger one, like 10 Star Destroyers facing 35 Mon Calamari cruisers.
- zoom out from a single starting world to controlling a galaxy-wide war map where every build choice changes the next battle.
- install total-conversion mods that jump eras, letting you field Clone Wars fleets like the Malevolence and rewrite what units even exist.
5Against the Storm - A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.
Dec 8, 2023
In this game, you can…
- pause anytime, pick up most buildings, and relocate them without penalty to rebuild your whole layout mid-crisis.
- open a new glade and immediately get stuck with a timed curse or ruin you have to deal with.
- draft only a few random buildings each run, even if they don't match what you can currently make.
- burrow through the forest to uncover new glades.
- burn down an abandoned temple or restore it for different consequences and rewards.
- turn one food into many by swapping ingredients, like making skewers from meat, eggs, mushrooms, or larvae.
- run one town with multiple species that want different luxuries and excel at different jobs.
- win a settlement, take permanent upgrades back to your hub city, then launch another expedition with a totally different opening puzzle.
6Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition - Spanning the most turbulent era in Western history, your quest for territory and power takes you through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and even onto the shores of the New World.
Nov 15, 2006
In this game, you can…
- assassinate the Pope, sack Rome, then get welcomed back into the Church when a new Pope gets elected.
- trade a marriage proposal for a whole castle and a new general in your family.
- fight off Mongol and Timurid invasions, including armies with armored elephants carrying cannons on their backs.
- join a crusade, capture Cairo, exterminate it, then trade the city to get Rome.
- send spies to stir unrest, blockade ports to stop repairs, then storm a city while your agents open the gates.
- convert a settlement between city and castle, then specialize it as a trade hub or a knight-producing fortress.
- watch generals and princesses pick up life-derailing traits like "Ugly woman," "Wife Is Horrid," or alcoholism that change how they perform.
- sail west after the "World is round" event and end up fighting the Aztecs on their home continent.
- play huge Lord of the Rings total conversions where you break the Black Gate, take Barad-dûr, and fight Sauron.
7Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic - Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.
Jun 20, 2024
In this game, you can…
- turn building a single asphalt road into an end-to-end chain: quarry gravel, mine coal, generate power, refine oil into bitumen, then feed an asphalt plant and coordinate pavers and trucks.
- trace one barrel of oil from distant pumps to trains, through storage tanks and a refinery, then split it into fuel for stations and bitumen for asphalt.
- sell oil, build and sell planes, fly in tourists from either side of the border, and turn that revenue into a fully self-sufficient republic.
- build a coal power plant that only works after you've set up mining, processing, storage, conveyors, transport lines, and a worker bus network to staff everything.
- deadlock a city by fixing one problem at a time: add buses for workers, run out of fuel, build a gas station, then realize the gas station has no electricity.
- run a realistic power grid with substations, transformers, switches, and line capacity instead of citywide "power coverage."
- choose who can own cars by controlling how many are sold and who's allowed to drive or park, shaping the whole transit system.
- process crimes through courts and jails, then bus prisoners to job sites so the prison system becomes a labor network.
8Kingdoms and Castles - Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.
Jul 20, 2017
In this game, you can…
- build castle walls and towers block by block, then stack them absurdly high to mount long-range weapons on top.
- watch a dragon fly over your fortifications and burn your fields or granary from the middle of town.
- toggle archer and ballista jobs right before an attack so villagers man the defenses, then turn them off to stop paying garrisons.
- lure Viking raiders around your walls and funnel them through a kill corridor of archer towers and ballistae.
- get your walls smashed open by an ogre, sometimes brought along with a Viking raid to break your defenses.
- run an island kingdom with multiple outposts, then ship goods back and forth to keep the scattered towns supplied.
- take offerings to a witch in the forest every few years and earn rewards for winning her favor.
- build a bridge and a big gate as a choke point, then watch raiders jump into the river, swim around it, and attack from the other side.
9Empires of the Undergrowth - Command swarms of warriors at an unprecedented scale of warfare in this blend of RTS and base-building. Lead ant colonies against the many fearsome threats of the insect world, while building intricate nests, developing pheromone-based tactics, and evolving to meet growing dangers.
Jun 7, 2024
In this game, you can…
- build living pontoons out of ants to cross gaps and scale huge creatures in later missions.
- stage ridiculous arena fights like one American bullfrog versus 1,000 ants just to see what happens.
- steal and mix traits from other ant species, building hybrid armies as you unlock new genetics through missions.
- command hundreds of ants in real-time battles while acid-spraying artillery lobs volleys over the frontline.
- carve out an underground nest from a single queen, laying nurseries, storage rooms, and tunnels you have to defend.
- set scent trails and assign multiple ant groups different jobs and patrol routes without clicking every unit.
- grow leafcutter colonies that harvest leaves, haul them home, and farm fungus as your main food supply.
- climb onto massive predators as a swarm, piling on to bring them down instead of just biting from the ground.
10Rome: Total War™ - Collection - Control and conquer the greatest empire ever known to man.
Aug 28, 2007
In this game, you can…
- light hundreds of pigs on fire to scare war elephants into routing off the field
- pick a Roman family, ignore the Senate, invade whoever you want, then start a civil war against the rest of Rome
- fight battles on the exact hills, forests, and city streets you stood on in the campaign map, then watch that terrain decide the whole fight
- win an ambush by feinting cavalry charges to pin a spear wall, then repeatedly slam hidden horsemen into its unguarded back
- hold a besieged city by abandoning the walls, regrouping in the town center, and winning with fewer than 100 survivors after your leader dies
- watch shield walls buckle as entire formations collide, get pushed back meter by meter, and collapse when archers find the weak spot
- lose a war, rebuild for a generation, then come back with five armies to finish an invasion of Rome
