Summary
Thereal-time strategy(RTS) genre has had an unusual journey these past few decades. Unlike evergreen genres like RPGs and shooters, RTS games have gone through tremendous dips and rises in terms of demand, production, and quality. While some consider their golden age to be in the ‘90s and ‘00s, others embrace how the genre has evolved and radiated since.
Regardless of preference, there’s one feature that stands at the core of most RTS games, and that is players pitting their settlements against the world in a massive conquest. Whether it’s a lone Medieval village, a sovereign nation, or an alien civilization in the stars, putting it to the test in conquest mode is often the highlight of an RTS experience. Some of the best are here, ranked by the playability and replayability of their conquest mode.
Since its 2007 release,Universe at War: Earth Assaulthas become somewhat of a cult favorite for its unique melding of Eastern-style mecha units and more Western-style alien invaders, a laWar of the Worlds. Its conquest mode lets players attempt to conquer the entire world via a Risk-like map, and uniquely, it only does so after Earth has fallen to its alien invaders.
The conquest mode inEarth Assaultis not a way to retake Earth for humanity, but instead a way for whatever competing alien faction is strongest to win a monopoly on Earth. The Conquer the World mode requires the chosen faction to conquer each of Earth’s many territories, and each faction does so almost entirely uniquely. The Hierarchy, for example, are unique in that they eschew the building of settlements entirely, instead producing units from their own mobile mechs, ensuring an aggressive, nomadic conquest.
TheStar Warsfranchise is a natural fit for the RTS genre, with all its iconic vehicles and creatures. Like its predecessor,Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds,Star Wars: Empire At Wartakes full advantage of the settings and iconography, using it all to craft a thoroughly enjoyable RTS experience.
The game’s conquest mode is just what players would hope for, encouraging them to amass fleets and capture the galaxy,planet by planet. Each planet is conquered by defeating the resident army in space and on land, ensuring no starfighter or walker goes unutilized.
After a few hiccups in previous entries,The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdomfinally recaptured the magic of gems likeThe Settlers II, offering a rewarding and surprisingly customizable RTS. Its conquest mode is similarly rewarding, never playing out the same way twice.
The game heavily emphasizes economy management but allows players to choose to win by military might if they wish. The battles play out pretty typically for aconventional RTS, although the cinematic music and storyteller narrator help make them feel fun and even exciting.
It is possible to get lost for hours in the conquest mode ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth. It takes players on a sweeping adventure through all the iconic locations from the films, showcasing all of its major characters and creatures, and even keeps track of individual units across campaigns.
It’s that last feature that helps make the conquest feel worthwhile throughout its duration. One Elven archer or Gondorian ranger might have been at the player’s side from the very first mission to the very last, which is true for unique hero units as well, and it makes any extended game inBattle for Middle-Earthengaging.
In many ways,Endless Legendis a standard 4X game with a hexagonal tile map and the usual blend of turn-based exploration to reveal enemies and resources. Where it stands apart, however, is its eye-candy fantasy setting and large rosters ofunique playable heroesand creatures.
Every faction truly is its own animal inEndless Legend, with units ranging from hydras to merfolk to dragon-men to crystal constructs. Because battles drop players into separate mini-maps each time, the constrained space and wide variety of units make each fight feel like every move matters. In addition, the colorful maps and sparsity of resources help to push players to always push for one more battle and therefore one more territory.
As the premiere tabletop wargame,Warhammer 40Kis built to simulate conquest. Naturally, its PC RTSWarhammer 40,000: Dawn of Waris also almost entirely one big conquest, and it does the format justice.
Unlike most other RTS games, which emphasize building central settlements and creating units from there,Dawn of Warforces players to fight first and then fight later. The only way to grow armies in the game is by capturing checkpoints, upgrading, and capturing more. Combined with the almost impossibly over-the-top aesthetic, the heavily aggressive conquests capture the spirit ofWarhammer40Kwell.
If conquest of a single planet is not enough, players can conquer an entire solar system of planets inSins of a Solar Empire. With maps fully customizable, the size and scale of players’ conquests can even range into the hundreds of stars if they’re ambitious enough.
With a suitably powerful PC,Sins of a Solar Empirecan handle multiple battles of dozens, or even hundreds, of spaceships apiece. If that sounds daunting, the game also has a remarkably useful UI to switch between any units or planets in their empire, helping keep the frantic star combat from devolving into uncontrollable chaos.
Rise of Nationsis often compared toAge of Empires, and it doesn’t just borrow the latter’s general gameplay and UI. It also delivers just as much addictive RTS gameplay and just as many endlessly entertaining military conquests.
LikeAge of Empiresand its many clones,Rise of Nationsutilizes the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense, encouraging players to maintain vast armies of varied units in order to secure their territory and capture others. Thanks to the age system, which lets players progress from caveman to the nuclear age, the game also features a unique amount of asymmetric combat as well, adding unpredictability to each conquest.
While it’s worth mentioningSid Meier’s Civilization IVas a game with an excellent conquest mode, it was not untilCivilization Vthat the series perfected the tempo and strategy of the format. By reducing every tile of the map to a single unit (except a few special units like leaders), the game forces players to analyze, prepare, and continually reorganize.
The map, civilizations involved, amount of resources, and many other facets of conquest are up to the player, but the goal remains the same: capture every enemy capital by whatever means necessary. The end result, with so many disparate AIs controlling the various civs, is a new conquest every time, always different and always deeply tactical.
There is no conquest mode like those of theTotal Warfranchise, and that is largely because the games take place almost entirely within the mode. As the franchise name suggests, conquest is the name of the game for all of theTotal Wargames, none of which are as well-reviewed asEmpire: Total War.
Ironically for a conquest mode, the reasonEmpirestands out from others in the series is its features that slow and even counter the actual combat. Its focus on musket warfare, a much slower and more methodical style of combat than traditional spear warfare, paces the gameplay out and makes every battle feel more like a chess match than a frantic game of spit.
