Best iOS Games 2018

Battle of Polytopia pares down the 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) genre of strategy games into a mobile-friendly format. Players take command of one of the game’s many tribes with the goal of racking up the highest score possible in 30 turns by exploring the map, developing their civilization, and dealing with neighbors. The game’s quick-playing mechanics and short time limit cuts out the fat from the 4X formula to provide a sleek and mobile-friendly strategy title that doesn’t skimp on strategic choices. The addition of asynchronous online multiplayer adds another wonderful layer of replayability to an excellent mobile strategy game.

If you want the full fat complexity of a 4x game and will accept no substitutes, you’re in luck. Aspyr just released an iPad port of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, the premier historical 4x game that has you leading one of Earth’s great civilizations from the Stone Age to the future. Explore the world, exploit its resources and develop your culture and sciences while carefully balancing your military and diplomatic needs in this gripping strategy title. The game lets you demo the first 60 turns for free, after that, you’ll need to pay full price ($60) for the rest of the game, and you’ll need a fairly new iPad to run it as well.

Rubicon returns with Epic Little War Game, the latest installment in its light-hearted wargame series. Epic Little War Game is a fun romp, filled with cartoon humour that clearly doesn't take itself too seriously. But don't let those cute graphics fool you: ELWG packs a lot of bang for your buck, with a full campaign mode, skirmish gaming, co-op play, a random map generator and online multiplayer battles against other players.

Kingdom Rush developers Ironhide offer more mobile strategy madness with Iron Marines. The game fuses Starcraft-style RTS unit and base command with Kingdom Rush’s signature tower defense management as you lead your troops and heroes through a 14-mission campaign doing battle against alien threats. Multiple difficulty modes give replayability, while special levels provide extra challenge. The game is a premium title, but does include in-app purchases to unlock heroes or extra credits.

Wave Light Games moves from fantasy worlds of its Demon's Rise games to the far future with Strike Team Hydra, a tactical RPG that puts players in command of an elite strike team taking on the might of the bio-engineered Sethari. Players need to take advantage of their characters' special abilities and the terrain to defeat waves of enemies and achieve their objectives. Strike Team Hydra uses an action point system, challenging players to balance movement, attacks, and special abilities with a finite amount of APs every turn.

Nerial's Reigns was a surprise hit, combining royal intrigue, quirky humor, and the swiping simplicity of Tinder. Reigns: Her Majesty continues the fun, only this time, you’re the queen looking to outwit your kingdom's powerful factions and those who wish to depose you and the king. Every new year brings new problems, as you pick your response by swiping left and right. Her Majesty has the familiar simplicity of Reigns, but adds a new perspective, while a new inventory system adds expanded options to your choices.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Rome: Total War, the iPad port of the PC empire building classic. As head of one of the great noble families of Rome, players will manage provinces and march at the head of the legions as you guide the Eternal City from obscurity to the days of Republic and Empire. Rome Total War is a sprawling empire sim, with players managing the growth of their noble line, the diplomacy and politics, economics and development, and real time battles against rival empires and barbarian hordes, giving players hours of strategy gaming fun at a premium price.

Warbands: Bushido copies the look and feel of a collectible miniatures wargame, only without all the fiddly bits like assembling finicky plastic kits. Players take command of a team of samurai in short turn-based skirmishes, using positioning, special abilities, and command cards to subdue the other team. Players can engage in short campaign play and skirmishes, as well as competitive multiplayer. The game comes with no in-app purchases, and everything is unlocked through coins earned in-game and via daily challenges.

Risky Labs' Warbits is a love letter to the classic Advance Wars series of light wargames that has players commanding virtual armies to settle differences between galactic empires. Go to war over the great pressing issues that divide your stellar realms, such as whether a tomato is vegetable or a fruit. Warbits' humor and whimsical art style mix well with the game's simple but challenging gameplay that has players commanding a varied mix of units to engage the enemy and capture their HQ. A single player campaign gives ample challenges, skirmish mode adds replayability, and an online asynchronous multiplayer mode lets you take on players worldwide.

Supercell's free-to-play Clash Royale may be a surprising addition to a list of old-school wargames, but Clash Royale features a cool mix of tower defense and lane pushing gameplay, all within tight 3-minute rounds. Players must carefully balance offense and defense, and with the game’s quick play rounds, a single mistake can swing an entire match. That said, Clash Royale is free to play, so expect some grindyness as you slog through matches to earn reward chests (which you must also wait to unlock), unless you shell out cash for premium currency. Still, there's a reason Apple's App Store selected Clash Royale as the top game of 2016.

Respawn Entertainment's latest venture into the Titanfall universe is a mobile lane control strategy game, not unlike Clash Royale. As opposing commanders in the Colonial Militia or the IMC, players battle it out either to destroy the enemy base, or dominate the battlefield by seizing control points through the use of soldiers, elite Pilots and massive Titan mecha. The control point mechanic adds a new dimension to Titanfall: Assault, challenging players to balance between pushing their enemy's base or dominating the battlefield.

A Planet of Mine does the neat trick of taking the notoriously complex 4X genre and trimming it down into a mobile-friendly format, and with a free-to-play monetization scheme that doesn't feel exploitative. Rather than spread itself out, A Planet of Mine focuses on building and developing the planets of your budding space empire, with players assigning workers to harvest resources and build structures on a rotating globe. As your civilization develops, you can colonize other worlds and encounter other species to befriend or wage war upon. The game comes with a number of races to start with and a Discovery game mode, while in-app purchases unlock other races and focused game modes.

Instead of saving the world, the morbidly funny Plague Inc. has you destroying it. Players oversee a nascent pandemic, slowly evolving a disease to make it more virulent, resistant and lethal as it spreads across the globe. A variety of expansion packs are available as in-app purchases, each providing new diseases to play, such as the mind-controlling Neurax worm, the zombie Necroa plague or the Simian Flu.

Stoic Studios' Viking-inspired epic continues in Banner Saga 2 which takes the original's turn-based tactical combat and gorgeous art design and dials it up a notch. Players take control of the giant Iver and a caravan of human and Varl survivors fleeing an invading horde of the stony Dredge, along the way becoming a symbol of hope for the broken world. As the characters flee to safety, the game introduces a gritty parallel narrative with the berserker Bolverk and his mercenary Ravens who carve a path of blood and fire in their struggle for survival. The game spices up combat with a variety of new allies and foes, each introducing new mechanics and special abilities to mix up the original's tight, if occasionally repetitive combat.

This stylish cyberpunk infiltration game mixes turn-based strategy and puzzle gameplay. As leader of a small team of fugitive agents, you pit yourself against all the technological might of the world’s great megacorps, infiltrating their strongholds to make off with valuable information, tools and resources. Invisible, Inc. features procedurally generated levels as well as campaign and endless game modes. With a roster of unlockable agents, gear and hacking programs, you'll find yourself coming back for more.