Clash of Clans

Chief, this is the one that started the era. Clash of Clans is Supercell's village-building war strategy game: raise a village from a town hall and some huts into a fortress, train an army of mustachioed Barbarians, fire-wielding Wizards and stranger troops besides, and take both halves — building and battling — as seriously as each other.

Defense is architecture: customize your layout, level up every building, and ring the village with towers, cannons and bombs so raiders pay for every resource they plunder — plundering being exactly how you'll fund your own upgrades. Offense is composition: countless combinations of troops, spells and Siege Machines, led by heroes — the Barbarian King, Archer Queen, Grand Warden and Royal Champion among them — and sharpened in the Laboratory.

The social engine is the Clan: join one, defend each other's Clan Castles, and fight Clan Wars against millions of players worldwide, with Friendly Challenges and Friendly Wars for practice against your own people. Ranked Mode adds competitive ladder battles; a single-player campaign wages war on the Goblin King; Practice mode exists purely to experiment with army combinations; and across the sea, the Builder Base runs a second fortress with its own buildings, characters and fights.

Terms, in the familiar Supercell print (this is the studio's fifth and founding entry in this catalog): free to download and play, some items purchasable for real money including random items, disable-able in settings; a network connection is required; camera and notification permissions are optional; and the listing notes an IGRS 15+ rating. Standing: 500M+ downloads and 4.5 stars — the template that a decade of base builders, including half this catalog's strategy shelf, was traced from.