Summary
- Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak offers a unique ground-based real-time strategy experience with excellent skirmish gameplay.
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War introduces strategic gameplay focusing on hero units, adding a twist to traditional RTS mechanics.
- XCOM 2 stands out with its turn-based combat approach, allowing players to build synergistic squads for skirmish battles.
Strategy games come in different flavors. There are grand strategy games that are played strategically, real-time strategy games that are more tactical in nature, and turn-based strategy games that require careful planning of each move. Many of these games provide replayability in the form of skirmish battles. Either against AI enemies, or against real people in multiplayer mode.
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Not every strategy game has a skirmish mode though, and others that do, are somewhat lackluster. However, there are some great games that include skirmish games that are either simply great and are infinitely replayable, or offer a unique twist over and above the more common ways that skirmish games are played.
7 Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak
Discover Homeworld Lore
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS
- Released: January 20, 2016
- Developer: Blackbird Interactive
- Genre: Real-time strategy, Strategy
Readers may not be aware that the Homeworld franchise contains a real-time strategy game that is based on the ground, instead of in space. Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak is based on the expedition to locate the original mothership, which was used as a basis for the events of the original Homeworld game.
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The best grand strategy games are often played out over several centuries, with some leaning into the immersion and role-play aspects of these eras.
Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak has an excellent skirmish mode. Opponents can be either A.I. Controlled or other players. What makes the skirmish mode great in this game, is that players are forced to move around the map, securing resources and protecting them, rather than just setting up a base and sitting safely behind its walls in this real-time strategy game.
6 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War
RTS Done A Little Differently
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War
Prepare yourself for the grim, dark future of the 41st millennium, where alien races battle mankind for galactic domination in a universe of unending war.
Personalize your armies with a revolutionary unit customization tool that gives you the ability to choose your armies insignias, banners, squad colors and names.
Command the elite chapter of the Blood Ravens in an original epic tale of treason and conspiracy as you serve the Emperor and protect humanity from the scourges of Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Command your Space Marines, Orks, Chaos and Eldar in epic battles and master their distinct abilities, weapons, and tech trees to eradicate the enemy and rule the known universe.
Appropriately scaled terrain, vehicle physics and dynamic lightning contribute to a level of realism never before displayed in a real-time strategy game.
Realistic unit animations immerse you in intense brutal combat.
Innovations such as cover, squad-based combat, and morale add new strategic depth to real-time warfare.
Test your true combat abilities in two-to-eight player battles providing endless re-playability
- Released
- September 20, 2004
- Developer(s)
- Relic Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Microsoft Windows
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
Many real-time strategy games revolve around building an overpowering force of different types of units, and then going on the attack. However, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War does things a little differently.
In skirmish mode, a player can build units, but it is the pre-supplied hero units that are the most powerful. So rather than all-out battles, the game has to be played tactically, using hero units to accomplish goals, but backing them up with player-trained standard units. Overall, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War offers enough of a twist over standard RPG mechanics to make it unique.
5 Stronghold Crusader 2
Castle Building Strategy
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, GeForce Now
- Released:September 23, 2014
- Developer: Firefly Studios
- Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Skirmish mode in Stronghold Crusader 2 is pretty old school. The general idea is to procure resources, build a castle, set up defenses, and then build an attacking army. As long as the player can fend off any early game attacks before they have completed their defenses, they can then sit safely behind their castle wall and start amassing troops.
The result of this traditional RTS gameplay in Stronghold Crusader 2, is that the real action in skirmish mode tends to take place quite late on, when each side has trained a large army. This leads to some truly epic battles, that can involve hundreds of units.
4 Homeworld 3
Fleet Combat In Space
Homeworld 3
- Released
- May 13, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Blackbird Interactive
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
No list of strategy games would be complete without at least one space combat game, and Homeworld 3 fits the bill nicely here. The game takes the classic Homeworld gameplay, and simplifies it to make it more accessible to a wider audience. Yes, it is less complex than either of the two previous Homeworld games, but this simplification means far less micromanagement when playing a fast-paced skirmish game.
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Skirmish matches in Homeworld 3 can be played against the AI, real players, or a combination of the two. Setting up a skirmish map is simple, and just requires the player to select which map the match will be played on, and select whether the match will be a multiplayer game, or simply offline against the AI. Skirmishes start off quite slowly, but quickly escalate into large fleet battles.
3 XCOM 2
Fun Turn-Based Combat
XCOM 2
- Released
- February 5, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Firaxis Games
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, RPG
XCOM 2 has an interesting take on skirmish battles, that is very different from every other game on this list. When setting up a skirmish game, the player must first choose their squad. A squad has 4 soldiers, and the player must decide which classes they want to take into a match.
When selecting units to fill a squad, unit skills and equipment can also be changed. This means that the player is free to build a synergistic squad that is greater than the sum of its parts. The player can also choose the kind of map the skirmish battle will take place on. Unfortunately, skirmish battles are not multiplayer in XCOM 2, and can only be played against the AI.
2 Ashes Of The Singularity
Absolute Chaos
Ashes of the Singularity
The human race has expanded into the galaxy thanks to the wonders of the technological singularity. You have become so powerful that you can manage vast armies across an entire world that provide you with an ever greater galactic empire.
Now, humanity is under assault by a new enemy. Calling themselves the Substrate, they seek to annihilate the human race from existence. You, as an up and coming member of the Post-Human Coalition, must deal with both this new menace as well as renegade humans trying to lay claim to their own worlds.
Play as the Post Human Coalition or their eternal foes the Substrate and battle for control of the galaxy. Experience maps of unprecedented size and detail with the unparalleled power of the world’s first native 64-bit RTS engine, Nitrous.
Enjoy the game online with friends in ranked or unranked multiplayer mode or play it by yourself against a powerful non-cheating AI in skirmish or campaign mode. No matter what mode you play, strategy is the key: deciding what technologies to research, where to send your armies, how to manage your economy, and what units to construct are crucial to victory.
Experience a massive-scale real time strategy game where you wage war across worlds with thousands of units. The conflict has escalated, and it’s time to choose a side.
- Released
- March 31, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Stardock Entertainment, Oxide Games
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
In many ways, Ashes Of The Singularity is something of a spiritual successor to the classic Total Annihilation RTS game. This is a game that is all about quantity over quality, because quantity has a quality all of its own. Battles can involve hundreds of units, huge battles, and a profusion of explosions.
Skirmish games in Ashes Of The Singularity utilize the map in the same way that the campaign does, with resource nodes being dotted around the map. The player will need to advance, secure, and defend these nodes to continue expanding their forces. But of course, the enemy factions will also try to capture the same resource nodes, and this is where many of the huge battles take place.
1 Starcraft
Helped Start The Esports Scene
StarCraft
THE ONLY ALLIES ARE ENEMIES.
THREE UNIQUE ALIEN SPECIES
Whether you command the nomadic Terran, mysterious Protoss, or voracious Zerg, you must devise totally unique strategies to master the specialized units, abilities, and technologies of each.
MULTIPLE THEATERS OF BATTLE
Engage in a deadly mix of space combat, planetary assault, and covert base infiltration. Command Ghost Espionage Agents, Wraith Stealth Fighters, Protoss High Templars, and Zerg Defilers as you seek to conquer the galaxy.
REVOLUTIONARY SPECIAL EFFECTS
Real-time light sourcing, true line of sight, and an advanced translucency engine combine for incredible visual effects and unparalleled tactical realism.
INTENSE INTERNET COMPETITION
Challenge players worldwide with FREE access to Blizzard's Battle.net gaming service. Up to eight players supported for head to head, allied, or team play. Enhanced features include worldwide player rankings, tournaments, and challenge ladders.
UNEQUALED CAMPAIGN EDITOR
Construct individual missions or entire campaigns with unrivaled ease! Set victory conditions, customize speech & sound, and create unique heroes while building enormous single and multiplayer worlds complete with your own story lines.
- Released
- March 31, 1998
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Platform(s)
- Microsoft Windows
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
Starcraft was released over two decades ago, back in 1998. Yet it is still one of the most popular esports titles today. Starcraft is such an influential real-time strategy game that it generated the entire concept of a rush game, and the use of the word “Zerg” to imply an overwhelming attack of cheap units in an RTS gam e.
Skirmish games in Starcraft can be brutal, and are definitely on the fast-paced side. Furthermore, each faction has its own unique strategies based on its strengths and weaknesses. Overall, Starcraft deserves the top place on this list, simply because it is such a classic, which paved the way for the more modern games covered above.
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