The Armchair General’s Guide to Free War, Combat & Strategy Games
So many games, so little time. You’re an avid gamer, been so for probably many years. The store shelves are full of games that seem like they’d hold your interest and provide a few hours of challenging fun. So, you liberate a few each month from public display, in hopes of giving them meaning and purpose on your computer’s hard drive. Groovy!
Then comes high school, college, a job, friends, maybe even (dare I say it?) dating, and, uhh, whatever that leads up to. All those mundane, needless evils we come to know as real life. Suddenly, the constraints of not enough hours in a day and way too many other things vying for your hard earned dollars declare war on your gaming passion. Those games that once sat lifeless on the store shelf now sit lifeless on your shelf. "Someday, I’ll get to play them." But someday rarely comes, and soon the thrill is gone, and you’re left to wonder the how-to’s and what-for’s.
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Button that chinstrap, gamer! Back a few years ago, someone invented this thing called the Internet, ‘a series of tubes’ connecting other gamers just like you and their computers all around the whole world. While many argue it’s ultimate purpose is for stalk- er, enjoying news and photos (ok, mainly photos) of Alyssa Milano, gamers know that it’s best used for gaming. "But," you may say, "they don’t also call it the World Wide Web for nothing. It’s a big place, after all. How can I quickly find the best games on the Internet to help feed my gaming hunger without devouring my money?"
Presenting The Armchair General’s Guide to Free War, Combat & Strategy Games! Like a 90-degree Patton-led armored assault, Armchair General arrives to save wargamers across the globe from the aggressors against our time and money. We have conscripted a legion of the best war, combat and strategy games to be found wandering the expanse of cyberspace and given them a home here. No longer must you spend your quickly fading daylight hours looking for an interesting game to play – we’ve done that for you. No longer must you spend money you don’t have anyway on a game – these games are all free!
The Armchair General’s Guide to Free War, Combat & Strategy Games (aka TACGGFWCSG – just kidding!) is something that’s been developing since the creation of ACG‘s website and the Armchair Forums. Since the first time the question was asked, "What are some good free wargames to play?", every resulting answer has sparked an entry into the Guide. We here at ACG just finally felt it was time to compile the lengthy list into one compendium, saving everyone who has asked and will ask a likewise question both the time and effort of searching through hundreds of Armchair Forum posts and/or thousands of websites looking for their answer.
The Guide has conveniently categorized the games herein into two genres: Browser Games and Download Games. Browser Games are those that open up and are played directly through whatever Internet browser you use. Currently, the most common browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Where found, the Guide will also alert you to whether a game works best or not at all with specific browsers. Since the majority of these games use common webpage applications like Flash and Shockwave, chances are they work on your browser. Usually the gaming site itself will tell you such information, so no worries!
Download Games are those that require you to download files onto your computer’s hard drive to play. Some are as small as a few megabytes, while others are a couple hundred megabytes in size. Unlike browser games, the download games operate about the same as games you buy from the common market, meaning that some attention should be given to making sure your computer has the appropriate hardware and software to run them. Again, the Guide will alert you to such notices, and provide helpful links along the way.
The Internet is a world without end. The same cannot be said for many of the websites that make it up, however. Therefore, the Guide will be a constantly changing and updated entity. Look for monthly updates to be published, as we do our best to keep track of gaming websites that no longer exist, introduce new free wargames that spawn in cyberspace, and look in depth at a couple of games in the Guide, in an attempt to give you a better idea of what games are like before you try them out yourselves. Keep your eyes on the official Armchair General’s Guide to Free War, Combat & Strategy Games post in the Armchair Forums for all the latest Guide news, to talk about games you like and dislike, and to even submit a game you think should be included into the Guide.
So, what are you waiting for? Game on!Â
Browser Games
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Download Games
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Many of the Download Games links do not work.
This article was published in 2007, Dave. Undoubtedly, some of the sites have shut down since then; it is the nature of the Net. Hopefully, you’ve found some that you’re interested in that are still working. Thanks for stopping by ACG.