Top 10 Amiga Strategy Games

Strategy Games on Amiga were a plenty. There were literally hundreds of them, most good and many were mixed with other genres. This list, from ground up, is bound to fail even though I try to pick the best and accommodate mixed genres as well. All because of the sheer amount of strategy titles and that most people will have choices for certain spots of their own. That said, I hope that at least some of my picks will be similar to yours. And you know what? You should let me know in the comments below. :)
I make those videos in my spare time and currently work towards replacing a mic, couple of bits here and there in my rapidly aging editing rig (as it has developed a nasty habit of crashing my editing software on a totally random basis) and hopefully a camera. So, if you like what I do here and feel generous, I would appreciate any help towards these goals. You can donate either via PayPal or Skrill or support me on Patreon. You don't have to though if you can't or don't feel like it. A like and Subscribe is great too!
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0:00 Introduction
1:05 Rampart
2:24 Centurion
3:36 Warlords
4:35 Battle Isle
5:36 North & South
6:38 Sid Meier's Colonization
7:42 Dune II Battle for Arrakis
8:42 The Settlers
9:50 UFO Enemy Unknown
11:02 Sid Meier's Civilization
For the purpose of creating this video I've used WinUAE emulator which I recommend to anyone at least semi-interested in Amiga gaming and not willing to spend money on real hardware. All that is required to play the games is:
- The WinUAE emulator (winuae.net)
- Amiga's kickstart file
- ADF files with games
ADF files are disk images corresponding to floppy disks used for Amiga games. You can easily find them with a bit of googling usually by typing something akin to "game title adf amiga download". Same could be said about kickstart files but these can also be purchased via Amiga Forever website with one of their packs (www.amigaforever.com) or even cheaper (last time I checked it was $0.99) on Android as a part of Amiga Forever Essentials. And these files can be easily moved to PC.
#best #top10 #commodore #amiga #strategy #strategygames #turn-based #turnbased #turnbasedgames #turnbasedtactics #realtimestrategy #games #a500 #1200 #amiga500 #amiga1200 #amiga600

[@Tchillix]

i've searched for Rampart only with Keywords Amiga Strategy Cannon...and you brought it back to me. THANK YOU

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Glad I could help! :) If you're interested in any other Amiga games, I have a 10-part series "10 years of Amiga gaming" covering like 500 Amiga games or so... :)

[@SpeccyMan]

Dune II was one of my favourites on the Amiga back in the day and I still play Dune Legacy on my PC today. It's a classic. Big fan of The Settlers too and still play the occasional game.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah, Settlers was a classic. And probably the first real time strategy/management game that I played in multiplayer on a single system. It was a dream! :)

[@ste105]

Thanks from making this list. Im going to replay a few on my Mini A500 😊

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Oh, enjoy! I am hoping to remake those lists in a little while as they're a bit old and working on my 10 Years of Amiga Gaming series opened my eyes to the games I've clearly did not remember about when working on the Top 10s.

[@DanElgaard9]

For me 'Warlords' is the best strategy game of all time - still play it almost every day. I was, however, surprised to not see 'Feudal Lords' on the list - also one of those gems to be remembered.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Strategy games as much as RPGs and adventure games are tough to rate on the Amiga. There were just so many of them and most to good, every list (unless complete) is bound to miss some of someone's favourites. I'm glad you found at least one title to your liking. :)

[@DanElgaard9]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You're right - Stretegy games really became synonomus with the Amiga, and it is hard to pinpoint the very best - it will always be different from person to person.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@DanElgaard9 True. Mine's however pretty clear. :)

[@nickharvey7233]

Loved many of those games, but I'd have to inkcude Chris Crawford's Balance of Power (1990 editon) - as masterpiece of the time - i remember my minf being blown by the detail

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Now, it's a very old video, this one, and I'm sure I'd change some of the picks today. What would the games be? Hard to tell out of the top of my head like that, but it would definitely not be identical to this one. I may remake it at some point. :)

[@funkypine419]

Amiga was the King of Gaming in the 90's!!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Late 80s/Early 90s, yes. :)

[@pnvgordinho]

Rampart and North and South are amazing. You forgot Space crusade. Great game.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks for watching! :) And as I go through making those history of Amiga games videos, I realise with each one how many games I've skipped for my top 10's just because I forgot about them or didn't found them with a quick search. So, perhaps at some point a rework for all those lists will be necessary.

[@gumdeo]

Colonization had to be one of the most musical strategy games of the time, so many tunes!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Oh yeah, music-wise definitely the best game on this list!

[@nicholsliwilson]

It’s not a genre of game I’ve ever got on with but Settlers was amazing & the Amiga hade a library of great strategy games as you’ve shown here. Excellent video, thanks.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Settlers was so much fun when played in the split-screen mode! Nowadays it seems moot as we have online multiplayer but the fact that you could only experience multi in person back then, made the memories so much better than the ones that I make now playing with people I've never seen or spoke to.

[@mattx5499]

Yeah. Amiga was probably first computer that really made use of mouse controls and it was shipped with a mouse, so it was perfect platform for ambitious strategy/RPG/adventure games. Also the high-resolution and detailed graphics for he time made it easier to create clean user interfaces.

[@nicholsliwilson]

@@mattx5499 I have a “tank mouse” with an optical conversion kit in it & it’s great. Modern response with the original feel, it’s great.

[@mattx5499]

@@nicholsliwilson Agree. When people look at tank mouse they think it was horrible, but the truth is it wasn't that uncomfortable. The switches were pretty sturdy and could be replaced with the common ones available in electronic parts stores. The precission wasn't much worse than in newer ball mice used with PC's in the late 90's. Of course optical upgrade makes it more precise. I'm emulatin Amiga on my Linux laptop, so I can use whatever wireless mouse I want. There are also DB9 to USB adapters, so you can use any modern USB mouse on Amiga including the wireless ones.

[@elliskaranikolaou2550]

UMS, Universal Military Simulator is a must Amiga Strategy game ...

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It doesn't ring a bell. I'll have a look for it. Thanks!

[@phantasma669]

I liked syndicate and theatre of death a lot as well. Great games

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

They sure are. But to be honest despite general opinion that Syndicate was a strategy I never considered it as such. For me it was a "different" Cannon Fodder with a story behind it and upgrades. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it just never thought of it as being a strategy.

[@phantasma669]

​@@OldAndNewVideoGames I liked Syndicate much more than Cannon Fodder. I consider it to be a strategy game since you have to make dicisions on where to act, how to act and with what means to act.

[@daishi5571]

A nice list of games, with a couple I had forgotten. Did you know that Command and Conquer has been released for the Amiga now? You said that X-Com on the Amiga showed it was one of those games that by 1995 was on it's dying breath. Let me ask you did you try running this on a 286 PC?? No because minimum spec on a PC was a 386 With preference for a 486. You ran this on a system with tech from 1985/1987 and you didn't upgrade like you would have had to do on a PC. Why would you expected it to run as fast as a much newer PC??. I ran X-Com on a A1200 with a 68030 @ 50MHz and it ran plenty fast (along with Colonization and Civilization) The Amiga is consistently singled out for not being upgraded despite upgrades available. The Amiga was perfectly fine running games like this, but just like a PC if you want speed you had to have a system with speed. I write this for those that don't know the Amiga ecosystem like those of us that lived with it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

All fair points, every single one of them. And I agree. Amiga was expandable. But Amiga also died because of the mis-management. So, with each passing month or year it was harder and harder to upgrade or replace it at a reasonable cost. While PC kept getting new parts and older kept getting cheaper and cheaper. Amiga is my most favourite computer of all time and I often wonder what would our World look like if Workbench would be what Windows is now. But despite my love for the system, I stand by what I said, It was on its last dying breath and it ceased to exist soon after. Would I prefer that it didn't? Yes, definitely. But it did regardless of what I wanted. :(

[@daishi5571]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I think we all agree that the Amiga failed because of Commodore. By the time of X-Com the Amiga was dying/dead, not because of it's capabilities but because of a lack of upgrading, and that's not just Commodore's fault. Upgrades were available with both systems and hardware and could easily show the Amiga was competitive. Take for instance when Doom came out (1993) it was said the Amiga couldn't run Doom! fast forward to when the source code was released and behold, Amiga could run Doom! just like a PC you needed a beefy system (both systems and upgrades were available at the time) but again that's no different to the PC!. Everyone says well PC's were so much cheaper, but that only became true in the 90's. There was a time period the Amiga was both available in a super cheap and convenient package (A500) and an incredibly cost competitive and flexible package (A2000) But the PC ecosystem did a much better job at convincing everyone to get used to upgrading, with literally every PC magazine pushing every tiny incremental upgrade as the next essential upgrade. I think that is a good part of what pushed the PC market to get bigger in that it was "the system that got all the upgrades" whether you wanted or needed them. And this consistent upgrade cycle on the PC is what pushed down prices.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@daishi5571 Oh, we can definitely agree. On all points. I think ultimately, it was the standardised office software that popularised the PC. And with office software, when some of those PCs got home, so that the workers could finish up on what they didn't at work, in the off time they could be used as gaming machines. And since they weren't very useful for it, upgrades began to sprung up. And since they were everywhere they became dominant. That said, for quite a long while Amiga had near monopoly in video editing for small and medium TV stations. Which could but sadly didn't lead it to have a longer life than it did.

[@chriscowey7464]

@@daishi5571 Yep I priced up an A1200 with 4gb ram, 120mb hd, I built a 486-sx33(overclocked to 40) for the same price (though I scored on the memory was given 8mb, when I paid for 4 (Was a massive price difference at the time). It was not that the Amiga could not be upgraded, it was the cost.plus I need the pc for college, yes I could faff around with crossdos and text word processors (which I did do for a year with my A500) but it was just far easier to have word 2.0 installed in windows, from that point on though, it was bascially pc gaming all the way. Also No K240 or Populous games?

[@daishi5571]

@@chriscowey7464 Did a bit of detective work and end of 1992/beginning of 1993 a 486 sx 33 (inc monitor, 200MB HDD, 4MB RAM but still no sound card) cost ~$2000 A1200 $499, 68030 @40 MHz + 4MB RAM $499, multisynch monitor ~$499, 200MB HDD ~$339, Total ~$1900 (it's almost what I had back then). Now if you want to go big box then the A4000 was more expensive no doubt (the 68040 version which was way more powerful than your PC was ~$2500) However what is missing in these Amiga prices is how flexible the systems were. Want to run Mac software faster than a Mac, yep we can do that. Want to run PC software for compatibility, Yep we got you covered (yes it runs slower, but it runs) and what's fun is to run Amiga, Mac and PC software all at the same time. Now if you have an A4000 you get to have the ability to run PC software just as fast as a PC with a bridgeboard and use PC expansion cards if you want, as well as using Amiga expansion cards. It was years before the PC could touch that and you needed a cutting edge machine. The biggest advantage of the PC, had nothing to do with tech and everything to do with marketing. With so many PC magazines espousing the virtue of everything PC (after all they were selling magazines) pushing the "You need to upgrade and be happy about it, you peasant" line. The Amiga had never been in that same situation. Where the PC was a work in progress, the Amiga was a complete, stable system. If you bought an A1000 in 1985 there was software readily and easily available for it (maybe a memory upgrade and a kickstart) right up to when Commodore went bankrupt (show me a PC from 1985 that could claim that kind of support). Commodore was one company and even if they had been run well it was a tough sell. PC's on the other hand had hundreds of companies (advertising in magazines) vying for the market, and most of them were so willing to fight for market share they would sell so cheaply they would go bankrupt (I have a smirk when people say the Amiga failed, when literally hundreds of PC companies went bankrupt) Word even back then was a great product, and through the magic of Mac emulation you could have run it on the Amiga without issue, nice and speedy :-) I think part of the Amiga's demise was that despite all it's capabilities, it was so understated thus unknown (I have shown so many people the Amiga doing things that would make them go huh! I didn't know it could do that) K240 and Populous (especially 2) were great.

[@mourdebars]

All greats, but Col is the one I still enjoy at least once a year (PC version).

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's a unique game with excellent even if simple presentation and beautiful music design. Also, hella fun to play!

[@ArdaKaraduman]

Wow :) nice memories ! Civ and Xcom would be my top two as well. I sank many hours into Civ with my 1mb 2 floppy A500. Xcom was too much pain to play, and I upgraded to a PC by that time, so didnt play much on the miggy. I wonder if its more bearable in emulation with a faster setup ?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's better but I wouldn't approach it with a configuration below 030 for any serious gameplay either. Preferably 040. 020 was what I used for this video so clearly that's not enough.

[@astrophotographyuk]

A nice collection. I have to admit I was never into RPG's BUT I quite enjoyed Dune. My personal favourite though has to be The Settlers. The animation was amazing as was the music, well on the Amiga anyway. I must have played it for weeks, months, years at a time by myself and then two player mode with my partner and friends which great fun too. I still do play it today via Emulators since I got rid of my Amiga 500+, 600 & 1200, sad but true, and I regret it to this day. Yes the graphics may look a little dated (Blocky) now but the gameplay sure makes up for it. If ever I I see a review like this or hear the tune (In-Game Music) online or even if it pops into my head... I need to play it! Can anyone guess what I'm gonna do now? LOL ;-) Thanks for this top 10 my friend

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks a lot for watching! The first Dune indeed was sorta adventure game mixed with some rpg elements. Second was pure real-time strategy. Both great, both entirely different games. I will make a video for best RPGs in the future too.

[@DerDude1977]

I would choose to make a list with turn-based strategy games and "realtime" strategy games (I not only mean the RTS genre we all know today which more or less began with Dune 2, but games like Popoulus 1 & 2, Mega Lo Mania, Power Monger, The Settlers, etc. were as well real time strategy games... .) as there were so many good strategy games for the Amiga. Maybe even an extra list for games with strategic aspects whicht weren't clearly pure strategic games- -

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Interesting idea. Definitely doable. That said, I've quite a few other videos planned, or more precisely ideas to choose from. But, I'll keep your suggestion in mind. Thank you!

[@DerDude1977]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Thank you, too! By the way good list of strategy games in this video. Some of them like Colonization, UFO or Warlords I still play nowadays from time to time.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@DerDude1977 Until maybe 2012 or 2013, I used to replay original UFO Enemy Unknown every single year in January. It was like a little tradition for me. But I played PC port because of, well, obvious reasons. I don't anymore but I suppose there's so many great classics and new games coming out now, and also day-to-day job is busier than ever, so I can't just replay the same thing time and time again when there's so many more to try out, enjoy or remember years after.

[@DerDude1977]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yeah. Playing UFO at least once in a year was also a tradition to me until about 10 to 15 or so years ago. Until 2002 or so I even used to play it on my Amiga 1200 but then the Hard Drive of it didn't work anymore so I went to the PC-version. I also played games like Panzer General regularly for many years. Later Jagged Alliance 2 and some other classics. I know the "problem" of playing those games. If you don't have the time but you just have to play "one more round"... and then hours after hours you recognize that there are only 4 hours left to find sleep... . At the moment I am not very interested in modern games. But there surely are many interesting titles. I have so many titles for the PS4 alone which I want to play or finish... . But I usually don't play as much as I did when I was younger for many reasons.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@DerDude1977 Well, playing as much as we did back then is just impossible because of, well, life. But I still play both modern and old games when I get a chance. I just like gaming, I consider games to be movies where I actually have an influence on an outcome of the story. And some of them, especially modern RPGs and strategies have a lot of story and/or content to sink hours in. Jagged Alliance 2 and later Wildfire were ace! I have the latter installed on my Steam Deck now. I didn't get around to test it out on Deck yet but it's waiting. I've probably around 2k hours in XCOM and 600-ish in XCOM2, so I kinda stayed faithful to the series even in newer outings. If you do enjoy them I strongly suggest "Long War" mod for both. It makes the game much ore difficult but also much bigger with more things to do, find and conquer.

[@Mintcar923]

I had a funny feeling about what would be the top two.. I never played the old versions tho.. I didn't discover I'd love Civ until the first sequel.. Also, I had Centurion which was great.. Damn, I didn't realize Ubisoft had been around that long.. Funny how I'm still obsessed with the Sid Meier style games & the like over 30 years later..

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

There were so many games that tried to better, to change the formula... But to no avail. Sid Meier's Civ each and every time it releases just gets better. Not necessarily when it releases, sometimes it requires few patches and a DLC, but when they mature, they're usually better than the previous instalment was.

[@Mintcar923]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames The only slightly similar games on Amiga I played were Defender of the Crown & Overlord but I’m not sure if they’re regarded as 4x.. My two favorite all around titles were Sid Meiers Pirates & Cinemaware’s Wings on the platform from what I recall.. Just picked up Civ 3 & 5 recently.. Had 4 pc & 6 Switch for a while tho.. It’s my favorite game but still trying to decide my preferred version overall.. Picked up a strategy guide for Civ 4 this morning as a member of fact

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@Mintcar923 I never liked one thing about older civs. That you could capture a city, or have your captured with just a single unit approaching it when there were no units of your own stationed there. But that's me. The one I had most fun with and played it the most with a friend of mine was Civ 5 with all addons and (and that's important) VOX Populi mod. That mode made this great game just a masterpiece. And I can't recommend it enough.

[@Mintcar923]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Its the greatest game ever made.. But even that isn’t absolutely perfect.. It seems each installment has its positives & negatives.. I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life playing it.. I’m also excited about the new one coming out.. But in the meantime I’m gonna spend some time with Old World and perhaps some of the other interesting spin-offs

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@Mintcar923 I have those too but I've no time to actually play anything for any longer than few hours a week now. When I win the lottery though... ;)

[@generalkilbabathemadmansch3602]

Nice like just I don't think you included Colonization or Defender of the Crown (which is a little basic but still a very fun sort-of strategy game) (Ooops I noticed you do have Colonization haha! Sorry :D)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks! Defender of the Crown is a great game indeed. But it just didn't made the cut... I may however make a separate video with it as I'm sorta thinking about a Cinemaware dedicated one. But I have to think it through as no doubt that one would be quite long, probably close to 40+ minutes. And I'm not sure anyone would want to watch that...

[@gabormiklay9209]

Settlers and Civilization were he bests! 👍

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Great games, not gonna dispute that! :)

[@steinarvilnes3954]

It was really these games that made me low the Amiga, and prefer computer to game consoles.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah, I have all current systems now but for years was only a computer gamer too. And Amiga I have the most nostalgic memories of.

[@marcoganz6276]

Mega-lo-Mania and Utopia

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Great games indeed. And it's an old video. That said, I don't think I'll be doing top10's any time soon. If I decide on re-doing any of my old lists, I'll do them as top20's. Amiga had a lot of awesome games in most genres and limiting them to 10 only leaves a lot of amazing games out, and viewers disappointed.

[@iwantagoodnameplease]

What game(s) were shown in the intro?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Battle Isle

[@snesoey]

Did you play Deuteros?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I have indeed, but it was so long ago. xD

[@disasterincarnate]

+10 for a good list, -5 for not including Deuteros: The Next Millennium.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

So... A solid 5? ;)

[@disasterincarnate]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames solid yes, but could be higher :D

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@disasterincarnate I take my wins whenever I can, be it small or large. ;)

[@LiquidBoogie]

Surprised you did not include Mega Lo Mania?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I did not consider it that good. That said, as I make my current 10 Years of Amiga Gaming series i re-discover many games and most of my lists could take a slight re-work, I feel. ;)