Evony: The King's Return

Seven kingdoms, one crown, and a long queue of rivals who all had the same idea. Evony: The King's Return is a real-time strategy MMO in which you start with a single city, raise it into an empire, and compete for the throne against other players doing exactly the same thing on the same world map.

Your civilization sets the look and flavour of the empire: American, Chinese, European, Russian, Korean, Arabia and Japanese styles are all on the table. Inside the walls, you govern — managing resources, researching improvements and keeping construction moving. Outside them, you train troops across more than four types, from ground infantry to siege engines, and watch battles unfold in real time on the animated world map.

Historical generals give the armies their edge. Lincoln, Washington, King Arthur, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Oda Nobunaga and Yi Sun-sin can all be recruited to lead troops or develop your cities, and enemy generals can even be captured and turned against their own side. Alliances carry the social half of the game: members coordinate through voice and text chat with automatic translation, plan campaigns together and cover for each other.

Odd as it sounds, the empire is only part of the app. Evony also packs in survivor-style stages where you move, dodge and shoot with one finger, evolving your weapons as you clear levels, plus puzzle-flavoured challenges between battles. It is free to play with optional in-app purchases. The empire side runs around the clock, so progress is partly planning and partly simply showing up.