Jul 09, 2019 This game almost reflects the life of an actual city. Sim city 4 is a bit harder than other city building games, so if you are just getting started, it’s not the best game to pick up (I recommend Sim City 2000 instead), but if you are looking for some challenge it’s a must-have.
When it comes to strategy games on Mac, there are a lot of impressive choices. Some of these are available through Apple Arcade, while others are just a download away from the Mac App Store. Here are our current favorites.
Civilization V
When it comes to turn-based strategy games, you can't do better than Sid Meier's series of Civilization titles. In this fifth edition, you begin with 20 historical leaders, and your job is to slowly take over the world from the dawn of man into the space age. Along the way, you'll get to discover surprising new civilizations and wonders, excellent gameplay systems, and much more.
Currently, Civilization V offers 10 in-app purchases, including Brave New World and Gods and Kings. With these options, you get to decide just how far you want to go through the game.
How far will you go?
Civilization V
Diplomacy or War?
Sid Meier's Civilization V offers a brilliant story that's advanced further with a lengthy listing of in-app purchases big and small.
Source: Aspyr Media, Inc.
And here we go again! Similar to the previous installments, Civilization VI has one goal for players: to create and maintain a lasting civilization. In this most recent installment, you achieve victory through military domination, technological superiority, or cultural influence. It offers a nice mix of new and old civilizations. There's also renewed emphasis on the terrain and fresh artificial intelligence mechanics for computer-controlled opponents.
The game's first expansion pack, Rise and Fall, features entry into a prosperous Golden Age and terrifying Dark Age. There's also a Heroic Age. The second expansion pack, The Gathering Storm, features ecosystem difficulties that could impact the entire planet, including floods, volcanoes, and more.
The newest in the series
Civilization VI
Bigger than ever
This game is the newest in the long Civilization series and was first introduced to Mac in 2016.
Source: Dinosaur Polo Club
Being stuck in traffic is never fun unless you're playing Mini Motorways! The strategy simulation game gives you the power to keep existing roads clear while also expanding your digital city by adding new locations and road networks.
Featuring different color modes, including colorblind and night, Mini Motorways is for anyone with an imagination. Better still, like all Apple Arcade games, it comes without in-app purchases or any additional costs.
They will come
Mini Motorways
Create your city
As your city expands, make sure it remains easy to get from point A to point B. Otherwise, no one will be happy.
Source: Feral Interactive
Offering 3D real-time battles on land and at sea, Total War: Empire allows you to lead one of 12 great nations. Your success is determined by your diplomatic skills and military force, when necessary. Set in the 18th century, the game allows you to conquer overseas territories to establish colonies and profitable trade networks. Along the way, you'll need to learn more about your enemies and beat them on the battlefield accordingly.
First introduced on Mac in 2014, Total War: Empire is the fifth installment in the Total War series, which, as a whole, comes recommended. The turn-based strategy game was released for Windows in 2009. Before purchasing the game, just check the Mac App Store for compatibility with your Mac, since some older machines aren't supported.
Non-stop action
Total War: Empire
How will you succeed?
Empire is a thrilling installment in the Total War series. Just make sure your Mac supports it!
Source: Blindflug
In this multi-player real-time strategy game, you are fighting for control of distant planets. You have just seven minutes to destroy your opposition or the world as you know it will collapse and explode right before your eyes.
To accomplish your goal, you slowly gain access to rockets, tanks, and stealth generators. Futuristic troops are also available if you can find a way to unlock them.
Stellar Commanders is currently one of the best-reviewed Apple Arcade games available. Download it today.
Fly those rockets
Stellar Commanders
The world needs your help
You have seven minutes until success or destruction. Which path will you take?
Source: Tortuga Team
Old-school meets the 21st century in this impressive turn-based strategy game from Tortuga Team. Featuring a unique system of dynamic turn-based battles that last no more than 15 minutes, Spaceland features 10 different enemies from alien animals to unnerving monsters.
Offering a squad of space rangers, each with a unique fighting style, the game includes an exciting backstory about a mysterious planet, which you must protect. Use rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and more to get the job done. Fail, and you must start again!
Single player fun
Spaceland
Protect this fascinating world
Shoot, kick, blow up, and destroy and achieve greatness in this Apple Arcade game.
Source: iMore
In This War of Mine, you aren't a great commander or a space fighter looking to protect the outer reaches of the universe. Instead, you're just one in a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city. Along the way, you must struggle with the lack of food, water, and medicine. At the same time, there's a constant worry that snipers and hostile scavengers could cause further pain.
This War of Mine has been well-received since it was first released and continues to receive kudos with each new expansion. While it's not necessarily a 'fun' game to play, per say, it tells a relevant and emotional story that should not be missed.
Can you survive?
The War of Mine
There's no escape
Can you find and explore all of the different outcomes of the game?
What's your favorite?
Strategy games and Macs go together well. Which games are you currently enjoying on your desktop or laptop? Let us know in the comments below. Perhaps we'll add it to our list on a future update!
macOS Catalina
Main
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Fishing timeC.J.'s next Fishing Tourney will be in July
There are four Fishing Tourneys each year in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Here's when they are and what the rules are for participating.
Do you like City Builder Games where you can design amazing cities, communities and settlements?
These type of games are the perfect way to express yourself and be creative, sometimes without restriction. City management games or general management games on the other hand let you manage everything, whether it’s a city, a business or any kind of system.
It is also very similar to strategy games, but the main difference is that in city builder games or management games your success is not physical survival, but more financial survival.
The main goal is to make money and reach your goals. Most city building simulators have a sandbox mode meaning you can build with an unlimited budget and don’t have to worry about balancing your finances.
These type of games also give you problems to solve, whether it is traffic related or managing your resources, it is always fun to come up with a solution. Build bigger, better and become virtually rich! Here is a list of the best City Builder Games and Management Games you can play!
What is your favorite city building game? Tell me in the comments. If you like this post, please share it with your friends.
The Best City Builder Games
Best Free Civ Building Games Mac Games
1. Cities Skylines
Cities Skylines is the ultimate city builder game you can play right now.
It has so many possibilities and features for players to create their dream city.
Cities Skylines challenges the player’s management and creative skills, whether you play with money or in sandbox mode.
In the beginning of every city create you will experience the need to expand quickly and get more people to move there.
Until… traffic becomes a problem!
That is one of the main challenges in the game, to find innovative way to solve traffic and expansion problems.
Traffic management, policies, taxation, infrastructure planning, resources, city connections ect. are only a few things you’ll manage during the game.
It also has massive modding capabilities and a big community with a number of awesome DLC content, so customization is virtually unlimited.
What are you waiting for, the people want to move in.
Don’t miss the latest DLC, Industries, which is definitely one of the best!
Find it here – Industries DLC
Get building!
Best Civs Civ 5
Buy Cities Skylines
2. ANNO 1800
ANNO 1800 is a real-time city building game and it’s the latest edition into the series.
The ANNO Series has the ultimate blend between being a city builder and a city management game while you play through some super interesting campaigns.
The setting is focused around the 1800’s of the Industrial Revolution highlighting colonial trade with a touch of Victorian Era style.
You will have to manage many different aspects to conquer ANNO 1800, like production, supply chains, trade routes, political management and keeping your people happy.
You will ultimately decide what kind of ruler you will be.
Will you be an innovator or an exploiter?
Are you a liberator or a conqueror that rules with an iron fist?
Whichever you choose, be ready for an epic journey. Enjoy this city builder in singleplayer, multiplayer and sandbox mode.
ANNO has visited a few different eras, both historical and future, each giving you a rich storyline which will give you hours of playtime.
My favourite so far was ANNO 1404, but the new ANNO 1800 will definitely be one of the best. What is your favourite?
Buy ANNO 1800
3. Tropico 6
When you are looking for a fun city builder game that is not too serious, the Tropico series might just be perfect for you.
Tropico 6 is one of the latest city building and management games for the genre, with a list of new features.
You are taking the role of “El Presidente” the mayor on your very own little island, build a community from the ground, manage resources, politics, trade and much more.
Playing the main campaigns takes you through 4 time periods all with unique ways to build your settlements:
- The Colonial era
- The World Wars era
- The Cold War era
- The Modern era
Tropico 6 is a super fun game and you can play it in a variety of ways with several outcomes by implementing different policies, making decisions based on various factors and growing your rule in across your islands.
A new feature allows you build on various small islands throughout the 4 time periods and later connect them together, which was not the case in previous titles.
Even enjoy some multiplayer city building games with up to four friends.
Will you manage to keep your people happy, balance your production and supply, grow your empire?
You are the major and the choice of how to build, manage and rule is up to you.
So go and create an economy that your virtual people will be proud of!
Buy Tropico 6
4. Banished
Banished is a city building strategy game that lets you build and manage an isolated society. You literally start with nothing except a few people to control.
The main goal of this village building game is to develop a sustaining settlement for your people to survive through the various conditions.
It sounds easy enough right, but the thing is people will die if they are not fed or warm enough in the Winter.
You should order them to build, gather, farm and mine to keep your people alive. Banished has all the seasons where you will face challenges during each. For example, in Spring and Summer you need to grow food and gather wood to build houses and have enough firewood.
During Autumn and Winter, people will die if they are not warmed from fire and starve if they run out of food. The game has a few complex systems to understand and overcome before you can really build a large town, but it’s worth every minute.
If you like a real challenge and want to build your own little settlement, Banished is a great game to play.
It’s time to gather some firewood for the Winter!
Buy Banished:
5. Surviving Mars
From the same publisher’s as Cities Skylines, Surviving Mars is another challenging builder.
It is more focused around colony building and survival the different conditions than your usual city builders. Your mission is to build a sustainable settlement on Mars and survive the challenges that is thrown at you.
Being on Mars, there are a lot of factors that can affect the way you build your city which is really fun when you start to understand what needs to happen.
Surviving Mars has a lot of exciting gameplay, challenging environments and many customization to enjoy.
If you like a good colony builder game, this will be perfect for you.
Buy Surviving Mars
6. Frostpunk
The end of our civilization as we know it came fast during the 19th Century, which was supposed to be the peak of human achievement.
Frostpunk is a survival city building game that puts you in charge of managing the last city on earth. With a great story and many different ways to play it, you are fighting to survive while its your duty to manage both the people and the infrastructure.
There are many things that plays together, from workers, resources, building strategy, politics and much more.
What decisions will you make to ensure the survival of the human race?
You must do whatever it takes, just survive!
Buy Frostpunk
7. Aven Colony
Aven Colony is a city building game for PC, Xbox and Playstation. You find yourself on Aven Prime, an alien planet several light years from earth, where you need to build a new human colony and survive the conditions.
Like many city builder games, Aven Colony has a lot of challenges in store for you to overcome like the management of resources, environmental factors and the aliens themselves. It can be quite a hard game at first, but when you get into the phase where you know how to balance everything it can be great.
In order to keep your people alive, you need to mine resources, set up defenses and do research in order to overcome some of the challenges you may face. One moment the sun can be shining and the next moment a giant sandstorm approaches to blow everything away.
There are also a variety of different aliens that can attack your colony, from plague spores, hovering guardians and cultist airships. You can defend against attacks by building defensive buildings and do research to improve them.
With all that going on, you will also have to deal with and balance the morale of the people in your colony, as they will hold elections and can vote you out if you don’t take care of their needs. These can be things like crime, food supplies, living conditions, social policies and more.
There are also the option to expand your colony into sub-colonies and grow your population. That is a whole other challenge on it’s own.
Aven Colony can be really challenging at times, but offers you the satisfaction when you keep going.
Go save your people and build your settlement on a totally unknown planet.
Buy Aven Colony
8. Life is Feudal: Forest Village
Life is Feudal: Forest Village is extremely similar to Banished I listed earlier, just with a few more advanced features like the management systems and graphical enhancements.
The key is to build your settlement from nothing with a few peasants, by gathering, harvesting, mining and a lot more.
The setting is in the medieval time with a realistic world, famine, disease and harsh winters. The game has a dynamic ecosystem with changing weather and the world you play on is randomly generated which gives you a unique experience for every town you build.
Life is Feudal is a great game to relax and not take everything too serious, so do you have what it takes to build your own medieval settlement?
Buy Life is Feudal: Forest Village
9. Rise of Industry
Rise of Industry is a complex strategy game in which you are the CEO of your own blossoming company – building an industrial empire that produces and delivers essential products to a growing population
Gather resources by building farms, mines, oil and gas wells and many more.
From the most basic materials there will be a wide range of products you can manufacture and ship to towns.
Keep the economy moving and keep the masses’ needs fulfilled.
Facilitate the transportation of both raw and finished products at every stage of production with the help of roadways, trucks, trains, ships, and even zeppelins.
Each mode of travel has its own advantages and drawbacks, and it’s up to you to sort the logistic puzzle.
Rise of Industry is complex enough to keep you entertained for hours and the development team seem to be very active and trustworthy.
So if you love complex strategy game and building your own successful business sounds good then Rise of Industry is a game for you!
Buy Rise of Industry
10. Simcity Complete Edition
Buy Simcity Complete Edition
11. Stonehearth
Buy Stonehearth
12. Kingdoms and Castles
Buy Kingdoms and Castles
13. Urban Empire
Buy Urban Empire
14. Cities in Motion 2
Buy Cities in Motion 2
Conclusion
What is your favorite city builder game?
Did I miss one?
Share it in the comments!
Now that you have a long list of great city builder games to choose from, you can be sure to have hours of fun! I listed the best city simulation games you can still play in 2019.
Please share my post with your friends if you found this post helpful or interesting.
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