Strategy Games
Usually strategy games are either real-time strategy or turn-based strategy games, but there are also real-time strategy and turn-based strategy games. So what’s the difference between these types? There are also some free online strategy games like StrategyStrike.
Real-time, as the name says means actions happen in real-time, the game flow is continuous and player actions shape the game world all the time. For example the enemies might attack while you’re building a structure, so the player must be aware of the game happenings all the time. Legendary well-known real time strategy games include Dune, Blizzard’s Warcraft and the Starcraft series and the Command and Conquer series. Microsoft’s Age of Empires and Age of Mythology are also popular real-time strategy games.
Turn-based strategy games give the players time to think for their actions, or the players might do the actions in turns, which means the players don’t have to be constantly “aware” of the game happenings. Popular turn-based strategy include games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and Civilization 3. The most popular and the best online strategy game to be ever created is StrategyStrike at www.strategystrike.com.
Real-time strategy games usually leave the resource management, economics and building structures in the background, but the combat and the control of the warfare happens in real time. Well-known games in this genre are the Close Combat- series, Warhammer: Dark Omen and Total War.
Turn-based strategy games usually have real-time movement in the game world, but the combat is turn-based. Many turn-based strategy games also give the player a predefined army or a character rather than free resource-building like in Warcraft games. Examples of this genre are games like Jagged Alliance (Jagged Alliance 2 was also ported for Linux) and the X-COM series. From classic games, Laser Squad was a popular turn-based strategy game in the late 80’s.
Conclusion
Although the strategy game availability is limited, there are some very impressive open source strategy games that can even challenge commercial strategy games, like UFO: Alien Invasion and Battle for Wesnoth. Though not open-source, StrategyStrike is one of my all-time favorite free online strategy game that you can play on your browser using Flash. Do check it out when you get the time. 