Best iOS Games 2018

The iOS version of this premier historical 4x game had been an iPad-only affair, but now iPhone owners can get in on the world-building fun — provided you've got a smartphone with the horsepower to handle Sid Meier's Civilization VI. (You'll need an iPhone 7 or later.) You're tasked with 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, which includes a local multiplayer mode. The game lets you demo the first 60 turns for free, after that, you’ll need to make a in-app purchase for the rest of the game. (Normally, that's $60, but the price is currently cut to $25 for the iPhone launch.)

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.

A new strategy game from Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-COM, Chaos Reborn has you waging war against your fellow wizards in intense tactical battles as you summon and maneuver your minions or cast devastating spells. Chaos Reborn has you balancing your dual roles as war leader and wizard as you manage your mana, direct your army, and play mind-games with the enemy wizard through the use of illusion spells. Players can engage in multiplayer duels or play through a narrative single-player campaign mode.

A pint-sized city builder without the pitfalls of free-to-play monetization, Pocket City captures the magic of a proper urban planning game like SimCity, but in a mobile-friendly package. As mayor of a fledgling town, it's up to you to see to the needs of your citizens, laying down roads, zones, and utilities to attract your citizens while keeping an eye on your tax income, spending, traffic congestion, and other variables. It may sound like a handful, but a lot of information is accessible in easy-to-read infographics and charts, giving you a quick look at your city's needs and problems so you can get down to fixing them quick. Pocket City includes a progression system that unlocks new buildings and upgrades as you level up your city, while also adding a light layer of sidequests and objectives to achieve as your city keeps growing.

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.

Daylight Studios takes a pun-filled incursion to the void with Holy Potatoes! We’re In Space? For this tongue-in-cheek space odyssey, you guide sisters Cassie and Fay in their quest to rescue their grandfather Jiji from the clutches of the nefarious Eclipse fleet. The game takes inspiration from strategy masterpiece FTL, but with a turn-based twist, as you explore the universe, find weird and wacky gear and crew, and engage in turn-based battles in which you pick apart an enemy ship’s systems while trying to keep your own weapons and crew intact. Avoid this game if you can’t tolerate puns, though.

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.

Build the skyscraper of your dreams in Project Highrise. While the building management sim has made the jump from PC to mobile devices, gameplay is exactly what the title suggests. You build, manage and develop your own high rise tower, enjoying hours of gameplay as you add restaurants, stores, apartments, and offices. All the building must balance the budget while keeping your tenants happy. Players can engage in a variety of story scenarios or play the game in sandbox mode. You also get all of the extra content added into the PC version, such as the Tokyo Towers, Miami Malls, and Las Vegas expansion packs.

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, you 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, where you must manage the growth of your noble line, the diplomacy and politics, economics and development, and real time battles against rival empires and barbarian hordes. That translates to hours of strategy gaming fun at a premium price. Previously an iPad exclusive, the game has since received an update to support the smaller screens of iPhones, complete with a reworked interface and control scheme.

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.

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.

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.