You know how it is - sometimes, you just get an urge to take over the entire world. Unfortunately that's frowned on in polite society, but luckily, computer games have your back!

There have been a great many games dedicated to letting you play through the history of the world, creating great art, building vibrant cities, and crushing other civilisations under your fancy boots. But which of them is the best?

No, I don't mean anything crass like 'gameplay'. What we want to know is: which of them lets you conquer the most nations on the planet?

1999 - Age of Empires II



Sequel to 1997's Age of Empires, which featured 16 civilisations mostly from Europe, and prequel to 2005's Age of Empires III, which had 14, AoE II takes the crown in its series with no less than 31 nations present. Europe is of course heavily represented, but Northern Africa gets its dues too (there are 4 African nations, counting Saladin's Saracens). Asia has a fair showing, but Australasia is left out entirely, and the Americas have only three nations between them (the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca).

It's worth noting that the reason AoEII has so many nations, and so much global representation, is that they've actually been adding new expansion packs recently. To a 20-year-old game. It's good stuff.

2003 - Rise of Nations



Microsoft's entry into the genre only has 24 civilisations, but in some ways they actually come out ahead. I'm not talking about that huge blue blob in Africa - that's 'Bantu', which is a really broad term. But the Americas are up to 6 nations (only 1 less than Europe!), and two of those are extant Native American tribes ('Lakota' and 'Iroquois').

2005 - Empire Earth II



Once again, the second in the series takes the throne. Empire Earth (2001) actually had more nations, hitting 21, but two of those were fictional, and the others were heavily concentrated in Europe (they are the only entry in this page to let you play as Israel, though). Empire Earth III (2007) had... three. We don't talk about that.

EEII, however, has a nice set of 18, spread around the globe. Compared to the previous entries, it's lacking in a lot of areas, though it does have the unique-in-this-post existence of the Maasai.

And now, it's time to jump genres...

2016 - Civilization VI



Because you can't talk about conquering the world without talking Civ. I've chosen to use the most recent entry here, but they're all pretty heavy on the nations:

-Civ (1991): 14
-Civ II (1996): 21
-Civ III (2001): 31 (matching AoE II)
-Civ IV (2005): 34
-Civ V (2010): 43
-Civ VI (2016): 42... so far

And there is a lot of coverage here. Asia is almost full, and places like Brazil, Australia, and Canada get their first appearances alongside the likes of Georgia and Scotland. We've got a new entry in the Native American roster - the Cree. Even Africa gets a good deal out of Civ, with Arabia and Phoenicia (Carthage) sharing space with Egypt, Nubia, Mali, Kongo, and Zulu.

Now, I'm not about to declare Civ the single best way to conquer the history of the world - I'm sure there are other options! So what are they, and do any of them do anything with Australia other than put some guy in a funny hat?

hS

PS: I really wanted to include Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, which lets you play as a dozen different countries. But really, there's only two sides, with the nations just a way to pick your unique unit. Still, though - "It will be a sssilent ssspring..." ~hS