Back into the pressroom
Strategy that lives in a tab

Four strategy games
for an evening of long, slow planning

Certain evenings want a plan, not a quick reflex. The four free-to-play browser strategy games below all expect you to think in days rather than seconds: three of them put a country in your hands on a shared map at different moments of history, while the fourth gives you a city to raise and an army to lead out of its gates. Nothing requires installing, and each account costs nothing to make.

Supremacy 1914 key art
01 · Grand strategy set in 1914

Supremacy 1914

Take charge of a European nation in 1914 and run everything behind the front as well as on it: coal and iron, factories, railways and troop trains. Provinces take hours to cross, so orders are written in advance, and the sharpest weapon in the game is usually a well-timed conversation with the neighbour on your flank.

Good for
Readers of history who like economics and diplomacy as much as battles.
Typical session
Ten minutes, morning and evening
Where it runs
Desktop browser; an official mobile app exists too
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Raise production in your home provinces before you move a single army outwards.
  2. Write to both neighbours in the first hours; a friendly border is cheaper than an extra corps.
  3. Keep armies supplied and rested, because a tired stack loses fights it ought to win.
Open Supremacy 1914, freeOpens supremacy1914.com in a new tab
Call of War key art
02 · Grand strategy set in the Second World War

Call of War

Command a nation through a Second World War campaign that can run for a fortnight or more. Research opens better tanks, aircraft and ships while your provinces feed the war effort, and land, sea and air units travel in real time. Other players hold the borders around you, so every front is also a negotiation.

Good for
Patient commanders who enjoy research trees and combined operations.
Typical session
A few minutes, several visits a day
Where it runs
Desktop browser; an official mobile app exists too
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Pick a research path early and stay with it rather than spreading points thinly.
  2. Leave standing orders before you log off, since armies march through the night.
  3. Scout with cheap units; walking blind into a defended province is the usual first disaster.
Open Call of War, freeOpens callofwar.com in a new tab
Conflict of Nations key art
03 · Grand strategy in the present day

Conflict of Nations

A present-day world map where drones, naval groups and mechanised divisions move in real time and a match lasts weeks. Doctrine choices shape what your country can build, logistics decide how far it can reach, and the quiet work of scouting and supply matters far more than any single engagement.

Good for
Strategists who like modern hardware and genuinely long games.
Typical session
Short check-ins across the day
Where it runs
Desktop browser; an official mobile app exists too
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Choose a doctrine that matches your starting country instead of the one that reads best.
  2. Build airfields and depots forward; range, not firepower, limits most early plans.
  3. Join a coalition in week one, because shared scouting removes most of the guesswork.
Open Conflict of Nations, freeOpens conflictnations.com in a new tab
Total Battle key art
04 · City building with tactical battles

Total Battle

Grow a city of workshops, farms and barracks, then take what it produces out onto a living map of monsters, resource nodes and rival players. Battles are resolved unit against unit, so the make-up of an army matters, and clan events give the week a rhythm of goals to work towards together.

Good for
Players who want building and tactical fighting in the same place.
Typical session
Fifteen to twenty minutes
Where it runs
Desktop browser; an official mobile app exists too
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Keep resource buildings ahead of barracks, or your army will outgrow its supper.
  2. Read what a map target is made of before you send troops to meet it.
  3. Join an active clan quickly; shared reinforcements save whole armies.
Open Total Battle, freeOpens totalbattle.com in a new tab

All four, column by column

Supremacy 1914Call of WarConflict of NationsTotal Battle
GenreGrand strategy set in 1914Grand strategy set in the Second World WarGrand strategy in the present dayCity building with tactical battles
PaceReal time, counted in daysSlow real time across weeksReal time over several weeksSteady, with bursts of combat
Dealing with other playersTreaties and betrayals between playersCoalitions across one shared mapCoalitions and shared intelligenceClans and live map events
Typical sessionTen minutes, morning and eveningA few minutes, several visits a dayShort check-ins across the dayFifteen to twenty minutes
Where it runsDesktop browser; an official mobile app exists tooDesktop browser; an official mobile app exists tooDesktop browser; an official mobile app exists tooDesktop browser; an official mobile app exists too
CostFree to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.

Where free to play stops being free

Joining any of these four costs nothing, and so does staying. There is no wall across the map that only money opens, and a great many veterans have never once reached for a card.

Each studio also runs a shop in-game, selling premium currency, resource packs and boosts that shorten timers. You can see a match through from start to finish without opening it once. Should the machine be shared with someone younger, spending caps live in the studio account rather than in the game.

Your first evening, step by step

Press the button beneath a game and that studio hosts the rest: its own site loads in a separate tab, registration usually wants an email address and little else, and a country or a city is in your hands a minute later.

Do the opening tasks before you attempt anything ambitious. Supply, movement and building are explained in the sequence that a real match demands, and jumping ahead is the usual reason a first country collapses.

Fitting a long map into a short week

These maps run whether or not you are watching. Armies march, buildings finish and research ticks over with the tab closed, which is why a look in at breakfast and another after supper keeps you level with people who play far more.

Use the short visits for housekeeping: collect what is finished, queue the next job, answer your coalition and set marching orders. Save the choices that cannot be undone, such as opening a new front or committing a fleet, for an evening when you are not in a hurry.

Guarding four separate accounts

The account is held by whichever studio built the game, which means its password belongs on that studio’s pages and nowhere else. Use a different one on each of the four, and switch on whatever extra sign-in step a studio happens to offer.

Genuine staff have no reason to request a password by email or in a chat box. A stranger offering free premium currency is angling for the account, not doing you a favour; refuse, then report the message.

Why these four sit on the shelf together

  • An ordinary computer browser runs all four, with no launcher and no download beforehand.
  • Signing up costs nothing and the whole game stays open to free players; the shop is there to be ignored.
  • Every map carries on without you, so a two-minute look in still moves your plans along.
  • All four have been running and receiving updates for years, with players to talk to at any hour.

No. A normal desktop browser opens every one of them, and no launcher or extra software is involved.

Yes. Sign-up is free, play is free, and whatever a shop sells inside the game can be left alone.

No. They belong to four separate studios who build and operate them; our buttons only open the official site of each so you can register.

No. Registration sits with each studio in turn, which makes four free accounts in all.

Orders carry on being carried out. Troops keep moving and timers keep running, so a look in twice a day is usually enough.

Total Battle, because the city gives you something to build while you learn how its map fights. Supremacy 1914 is the slowest paced of the three nation games.

Yes. All four put players into alliances, coalitions or clans, so you can agree to join the same round and work the same corner of the map.