Best Fantasy Management Games

Highlights

• Management games offer a wide range of experiences, from colony simulators to business sims, making it difficult to find specific themed games.
• Unique management games that embrace the fantasy genre provide a different and immersive experience.
• The article highlights several fantasy-themed management games, such as Travellers Rest, The Wandering Village, Kingdoms And Castles, Battle Brothers, Against The Storm, and Dwarf Fortress, each offering their own unique challenges and gameplay mechanics.

Management games are arguably one of the most saturated and popular genres on Steam, packed with all kinds of experiences, from colony simulators like RimWorld all the way to business sims like Two Point Hospital. With a genre so saturated, it can be hard to find the diamonds in the rough, especially when searching for games with a specific theme and style.

Arguably due to the fact that management games often feature an abundance of simulated elements, they usually incorporate themes that are grounded in reality or science fiction. However, there are a variety of unique management experiences on the market that embrace the fantasy genre, too.

7 Travellers Rest

Building And Managing A Fantasy Tavern

Taking clear inspiration from life and farming sims like Stardew Valley, Travellers Rest provides players with a management-heavy RPG experience that tasks them with expanding and managing their own tavern in a fantasy world.

Although Travellers Rest is more like a Harvest Moon-inspired life-sim than it is a full-on management game, it consistently gives players a lot to manage. Overall, Travellers Rest provides a more user-friendly experience that may not appeal to hardcore management fans but offers a satisfying and accessible affair for newcomers thanks to its Stardew Valley-adjacent approach.

6 War For The Overworld

A Dungeon Management Game

This Dungeon Keeper-inspired strategic management game tasks players with building and managing a dungeon. In War For The Overworld, players excavate an underground cavern, building traps and managing their various minions efficiently in order to defend against bloodthirsty heroes.

War For The Overworld takes clear inspiration from Dungeon Keeper, both the original and its sequel. Unfortunately, War For The Overworld does little to differentiate itself from its predecessors, despite its fresh coat of paint. However, for those looking for more of what Dungeon Keeper has to offer, War For The Overworld is the perfect fit.

5 The Wandering Village

Managing A Colony On The Back Of A Moving Creature

This fantastical city-builder simulation game takes place in a fantasy post-apocalypse. Players lead a colony of survivors who live on the back of a colossal creature and must manage both their colony and their relationship with the colossus in order to succeed.

In The Wandering Village, players must use the limited space on the back of the colossus efficiently if they’re to succeed. The world of The Wandering Village is extremely hostile, and players will have to manage a multitude of systems at all times, all while doing their best to plan ahead.

4 Kingdoms And Castles

Base-Defense City-Building Management

This fantasy city-builder tasks players with defending their ever-expanding Kingdom from Viking raids and vicious dragon attacks. Each of these enemies requires a different strategy to take down, and players will have to simultaneously contend with plagues and starvation while maintaining a steady income.

Kingdoms And Castles gives players plenty to manage, including creating a steady supply of food, managing taxes, and even ensuring their Kingdom has a solid firefighting force. Finances, happiness, and the strength of the player’s armies are all integral to success in Kingdoms And Castles, making every aspect of the game’s management systems equally important.

3 Battle Brothers

A Mercenary-Sim Sandbox RPG

This tactical turn-based sandbox RPG tasks players with leading and managing a company of mercenaries in a dark, low-fantasy world. The game features a gritty atmosphere and tone, tabletop-style visuals, and deep RPG character progression.

Battle Brothers can be brutally unforgiving at times, and the game is often unafraid to wipe out the player with a nasty ambush. Although Battle Brothers has a steep learning curve and its gameplay is more focused on combat than management, it features deep management systems that allow players to heavily customize their company of mercenaries.

2 Against The Storm

A Rogue-Lite City-Builder

This heavily stylized fantasy management game combines the city-builder genre with a roguelite structure that emphasizes the honeymoon phase of city-builder games. Against The Storm condenses the fun of setting up and managing an efficient settlement into short play sessions packed with tough decisions and strategic choices.

This innovative combination of genres is both well-crafted and, at times, difficult. Against The Storm gives players plenty to manage, but its progression system ensures that those playing can make progress between runs.

1 Dwarf Fortress

A Deep And Complex Experience

After over a decade of time in development, Dwarf Fortress was released on Steam in 2022 with a polished tile set that makes the game more visually pleasing and a plethora of other quality-of-life changes that drastically increase the game’s accessibility. Dwarf Fortress may have been an experience for a niche demographic, but after the success of RimWorld and the added alterations, the game is finally appealing to wider audiences.

In Dwarf Fortress, players build an ever-expanding fortress using a colony of dynamic dwarves, each with their own personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Dwarf Fortress features an abundance of interconnected systems, deep colony-sim management, and massive replay value that makes it worth learning.