There are so many great strategy games on PC nowadays that it can be difficult to keep up. Fortunately, indie publisher Hooded Horse, which has had an impressive year for several of its top strategy, city-building, simulation, and management games, is offering a holiday sale across Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store to let you catch up on some great options for cheap. If you’ve completed Command and Conquer, combed through Civilization 6, smashed StarCraft 2, trounced Total War Warhammer 3, annihilated Age of Empires 4, and extracted from XCOM 2, these might be the ideal options to see you into 2024.
Against the Storm is a gorgeous city-builder that puts a modern spin on some classic ideas, pulling from classics like Warcraft 3 and Majesty but with its own, unique design. Our Against the Storm review calls it “a near-perfect roguelike strategy game,” and it’s also a masterclass in smart user interface design, making its engaging and deep mechanics approachable to even strategy newcomers, encouraging you to hone your skills and push to that next level, and it’s currently 35% off following its 1.0 launch earlier this month.
If you’re an XCOM fan, there’s 25% off Xenonauts 2, which is heavily inspired by the classic roots of the turn-based strategy game series and saw great success following its launch via Steam Early Access earlier in 2023, and just saw its first major update in November. Alternatively, the minds behind the beloved XCOM ‘Long War’ mods are offering 30% off Terra Invicta, their space-based grand strategy game.
Colony sim Necesse, which combines the exploration and crafting elements of games like Terraria with the management of Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress, just got a big update, and it’s a hefty 50% off. Alternatively, there’s 25% off Clanfolk, the Scottish Highlands colony sim with a focus on farming and family.
For a grander-scale experience, you can get 35% off Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic, which tasks you with taking the reins of an impoverished ex-Soviet republic and transforming it into a burgeoning industrial superpower. It’s currently in early access with its campaign mode arriving in January, on the road to 1.0. Civ-style historical 4X game Old World just announced its next DLC, Wonders and Dynasties, but you can get 25% off the base game if you’re looking for an alternative to the likes of Crusader Kings 3.
Rounding out the deals are a pair of promising early access RTS games. There’s 30% off Nebulous: Fleet Command, a tactical fleet management game focused on epic space battles between hordes of intricate, detailed ships, each packed with all manner of weapons and equipment to fit the right situation. On the other end of the size spectrum, Empires of Undergrowth is 20% off, and sees you commanding a swarm of ant colonies against all manner of other insects and larger animals in a bug-based, base-building RTS.
The Hooded Horse holiday sale runs until Thursday January 4, 2024 on Steam and GOG, and until Wednesday January 10, 2024 on the Epic Games Store. You can find all the games on Steam, but many are also available via Epic or GOG if you prefer.
Alternatively, have a browse through more of the best indie games you might have missed, or save yourself even more money by trying out the best free Steam games instead.
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