Games Like Empires of the Undergrowth

Conquer enemy nests and lead your colony through the perils of the forest in this groundbreaking RTS. Empire of the Ants is a photorealistic, third-person real-time strategy game where you command your insect legions in epic battles.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 45.8% ★, Resource Management 16.9%, Open World 14.3%, Survival 13.4%, Strategy 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: This game offers the most direct thematic parallel, focusing on hyper-realistic ant colony management and tactical warfare.

Lead your hive to victory in 'Buggos', an RTS Auto Battler! Customize your swarm with 120+ evolutions and conquer humanity. Strategy meets bug chaos!

Why similar: Grand Strategy 20% ★, City Builder 18.1%, Base Building 13.8%, Building 10.4%, Management 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: A swarm-based RTS that captures the feeling of commanding thousands of insect units to overwhelm enemy defenses.

They Are Billions is a Steampunk strategy game set on a post-apocalyptic planet. Build and defend colonies to survive against the billions of the infected that seek to annihilate the few remaining living humans. Can humanity survive after the zombie apocalypse?

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.9% ★, Base Building 25.4%, City Builder 12.2%, Survival 10.4%, Strategy 6.5%

Why You'll Like It: It excels at the base-building and swarm-defense mechanics that make managing a colony under pressure so satisfying.

Diplomacy is Not an Option is a strategy game set in a medieval fantasy world. Build your town and defenses, raise huge armies and fight against massive hordes of enemies. How long can you survive?

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.7% ★, Historical 20.8%, Base Building 19.2%, Resource Management 15.8%, Survival 6.4%

Why You'll Like It: This game features massive-scale combat against thousands of enemies, mirroring the swarm-warfare intensity found in the seed game.

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 9.9% ★, Diplomacy 9.5% ★, 4X 9.4% ★, Colony Sim 9% ★, Moddable 7.8% ★

Why You'll Like It: A unique roguelite city-builder that forces you to adapt your base-building strategies to harsh, ever-changing environmental conditions.

A quick-to-learn but challenging real-time strategy game where you spawn an army of space-bugs that control themselves.

Why similar: Strategy 55.4%, Simulation 29.8%, Singleplayer 14.7%

Why You'll Like It: This title focuses specifically on the insectoid RTS experience, requiring players to manage resources and spawn units to survive waves of enemies.

Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder with vast battles simulating thousands of citizens and soldiers. Start off as a small village and build, scheme, and fight your way towards a mighty empire. The mechanics are deep and true to life, where tiny events can spiral into the collapse of kingdoms.

Why similar: 4X 13.6% ★, Colony Sim 12.9% ★, Grand Strategy 12.7% ★, City Builder 11%, Moddable 10.2% ★

Why You'll Like It: This game allows for massive colony populations, capturing the scale of management required to maintain a thriving, growing society.

Lead the Mobile Infantry in this RTS game set in the Starship Troopers film universe. Balance your army composition with a diverse set of unit types, overcome line-of-sight and line-of-fire challenges through tactical positioning, and use special abilities to smash the Arachnid hordes!

Why similar: Strategy 50%, Resource Management 39.5%, Singleplayer 8%, Simulation 2.4%

Why You'll Like It: This game perfectly captures the feeling of fighting against overwhelming insect swarms using tactical positioning and base defense.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.

Why similar: Diplomacy 10.2% ★, 4X 10% ★, Grand Strategy 9.6% ★, Colony Sim 8.8% ★, Moddable 8.1% ★

Why You'll Like It: It masterfully blends deep city-building with tactical RTS combat, providing a similar hybrid experience to the seed game.

A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.6% ★, Moddable 14.3% ★, Base Building 13.7%, City Builder 9.4%, Survival 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: While more focused on individual colonists, it provides the deepest colony management experience available, allowing for complex base development.

Command a team of 5 elite soldiers against an alien horde of 100,000. Surrounded on all sides, you must outmaneuver and outsmart the enemy.

Why similar: Strategy 86.4%, Singleplayer 13.6%

Why You'll Like It: A tactical RTS where you must manage a small squad to destroy massive alien hives, echoing the aggressive expansion mechanics of ant colonies.

Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.

Why similar: City Builder 22.3%, Colony Sim 21.8% ★, Base Building 12%, Building 10.1%, Sandbox 9.5%

Why You'll Like It: This colony-sim features unique water-management mechanics that force you to build your base around environmental constraints.

Lead the revolution with an army of flamethrowing Boars, mustard gas-lobbing Skunks, and paratrooper-puking Owls. Tooth and Tail is a Real-Time-Strategy game featuring Single Player, Online Competitive Play, Split Screen, Replays, and more. Build a base, lead your army, eat your enemies!

Why similar: Strategy 93.4%, Singleplayer 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: An RTS designed for quick, unit-heavy combat that emphasizes swarm control and resource management in a unique animal-themed setting.

Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.

Why similar: City Builder 29.6%, Colony Sim 28.6% ★, Survival 8.9%, Historical 8.1%, Sandbox 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: A historical colony-sim that focuses on the progression and survival of a small group of people against the elements.

The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.2% ★, City Builder 21.2%, Management 12.3%, Resource Management 11.5%, Base Building 10.4%

Why You'll Like It: A unique city-builder where you manage a settlement on the back of a giant creature, emphasizing symbiotic survival.

A 4X real-time strategy game from the developers of the critically acclaimed Northgard. Set in Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking Dune universe, you must lead your faction and battle for control and dominance over the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.

Why similar: 4X 18.9% ★, Diplomacy 17.8% ★, Grand Strategy 16.9% ★, Management 11.1%, Economy 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: A 4X RTS hybrid that requires careful management of resources and territory, similar to the pheromone-based expansion in the seed game.

Ratopia is a new game that has combined elements of both strategic survival and city building. With plenty of content available, and more planned, enjoy a vast world to adventure and populate with citizens! Build your own economical system to sustain your ideal city of Ratopia.

Why similar: Colony Sim 18.7% ★, City Builder 13.5%, Base Building 11.5%, Building 10%, Management 7.8%

Why You'll Like It: A colony-sim focused on economic management and building a functional society for a population of rats.

Build and manage your own castle settlement in a land reclaimed by wilderness. With detailed management, survival strategy, and a moddable sandbox world, Going Medieval challenges you to build the mightiest colony this side of the apocalypse.

Why similar: Colony Sim 15.7% ★, Moddable 14% ★, City Builder 12.5%, Economy 9.9%, Historical 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: A colony-sim that allows for complex vertical base-building and defense against external threats.

Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 10% ★, Colony Sim 9% ★, City Builder 8.6%, Diplomacy 8% ★, 4X 7.8% ★

Why You'll Like It: Provides an incredibly deep management experience for players who enjoy the complex logistics of base-building.

Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.

Why similar: Base Building 22.1%, Resource Management 15.1%, Sandbox 11.6%, Moddable 10.1% ★, City Builder 8%

Why You'll Like It: The focus on automation and defending your base from waves of hostile alien life provides a similar sense of escalating threat.

Design and build fortresses brick by brick to stand against endless hordes of Horrors in this real-time strategy game with resource management, siege defense, and exploration. Lead from the ramparts, push back the darkness, and hold fast against the creatures of the Mist.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.3% ★, City Builder 17.7%, Base Building 14.2%, Building 10.8%, Resource Management 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: A tactical base-builder that focuses on modular construction and defending against massive waves of enemies.

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

Why similar: City Builder 24.3%, Colony Sim 20.5% ★, Resource Management 12.6%, Survival 10.8%, Building 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: A high-stakes survival management game that forces difficult choices to keep your colony alive in an unforgiving world.

Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

Why similar: 4X 14.8% ★, City Builder 12.3%, Colony Sim 12.2% ★, Building 9.2%, Historical 8.4%

Why You'll Like It: A detailed city-builder that emphasizes resource management and survival against the environment.

Explore a galaxy full of wonders in this sci-fi grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studios. Interact with diverse alien races, discover strange new worlds with unexpected events and expand the reach of your empire. Each new adventure holds almost limitless possibilities.

Why similar: 4X 26.1% ★, Grand Strategy 26% ★, Diplomacy 12.2% ★, Moddable 10.1% ★, Sandbox 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: Offers deep hive-mind mechanics that allow you to play as a collective consciousness, mirroring the ant colony experience on a galactic scale.

The unstoppable fluid enemy has returned and destroyed every world in its path! Defend against Creeper as it floods across the 3D terrain in this real time strategy game where the enemy is a fluid.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 49.9% ★, Building 27.3%, Strategy 11.6%, Simulation 9.1%, Singleplayer 2%

Why You'll Like It: A unique RTS where the enemy acts like a fluid swarm, requiring creative base-building and defensive tactics to survive.

A fast paced multiplayer shooter that pits aliens against humans in a strategic and action-packed struggle for survival!

Why similar: Moddable 55.3% ★, Strategy 44.7%

Why You'll Like It: Features asymmetric gameplay where one team plays as an alien swarm, providing a visceral perspective on insectoid combat.

Establish a home for your industrious mice under the oppressive paw of your cat overlords in this city builder featuring complex simulations, intricate production chains, and the age-old rivalry between cat and mouse.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 9.9% ★, Diplomacy 9.3% ★, 4X 9.3% ★, Colony Sim 9.3% ★, City Builder 7.8%

Jump straight into managing your own planets as you guide a civilization through the ages. Build the ultimate empire in The Universim, a new breed of God Game in development by Crytivo.

Why similar: Colony Sim 24.5% ★, City Builder 20.3%, Building 10.9%, Sandbox 10.5%, Management 8.4%

Why You'll Like It: A god-game that allows you to guide a civilization through the ages, offering a grander scale of colony management.

Co-operative top-down shooter game available for free. An epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics.

Why similar: Moddable 100% ★

Why You'll Like It: A top-down shooter that emphasizes squad-based tactics against endless waves of alien insects.

A free-roaming squad based RPG. Focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors.

Why similar: Open World 17.3%, Sandbox 17.3%, Survival 12.8%, City Builder 12.3%, Base Building 12.3%

Why You'll Like It: A sandbox survival game that allows you to build a base and manage a squad in a brutal, unforgiving world.

Lead your noble family in this medieval colony sim, facing off against class conflict, religious struggle, and political treachery. Tend to your people’s needs, uncover the lost knowledge of a fallen empire, and engage in nefarious plots against your enemies.

Why similar: Diplomacy 9.9% ★, 4X 9.7% ★, Grand Strategy 9.7% ★, Colony Sim 9.2% ★, Moddable 7.9% ★

You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise machine armies and defeat your foes, influence the world from the shadows, or pursue countless other goals. Your awakening was inevitable. The consequences? Uncertain.

Why similar: Diplomacy 9.5% ★, Grand Strategy 9.5% ★, 4X 9% ★, Colony Sim 8.3% ★, Moddable 7.6% ★

Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.7% ★, City Builder 25.4%, Building 9.1%, Base Building 7.3%, Sandbox 6.5%

Choose any real region from the world. Choose your base of operations, then rebuild and readapt the buildings around you to create a self-sustaining settlement. Take charge of a group of survivors from your city. And when the night falls - Defend the zone from the infected!

Why similar: City Builder 23%, Base Building 20.6%, Colony Sim 18.3% ★, Management 10.3%, Sandbox 8.5%

Place yourself at the heart of the Jurassic franchise and build your own Jurassic World. Bioengineer dinosaurs that think, feel and react intelligently to the world around them and face threats posed by espionage, breakouts and devastating tropical storms in an uncertain world where life always finds a way.

Why similar: Building 20.8%, Management 16.3%, City Builder 13.5%, Sandbox 12.1%, Economy 8.5%

Become the hive mind of a robot ant colony in Microtopia! Use pheromone trails to create, automate and optimize supply chains for your ants to follow. Collect resources, produce goods, feed your queen, grow your colony and fly out to expand the species!

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.8% ★, City Builder 14.9%, Moddable 14.2% ★, Base Building 11.4%, Resource Management 9.6%

At the farthest reaches of the empire, a new Roman city is born! Manage and grow your city, please the gods, and survive against barbarians and mythological threats to achieve Roman Triumph!

Why similar: Colony Sim 18.7% ★, City Builder 15.7%, Base Building 10.9%, Building 8.9%, Management 8.4%

A colony-building game combined with grand strategy elements. Play as a tribal leader, guiding your people from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Survive, multiply, and compete for territory among ancient nations.

Why similar: Diplomacy 16.5% ★, Colony Sim 14.9% ★, City Builder 12.4%, Base Building 9.3%, Historical 9%

The glory of Rome is at your fingertips in this city-building game where you must appease the gods, enact laws, and develop complex supply chains to meet the needs of your citizens.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 10.2% ★, 4X 9.3% ★, Diplomacy 9.1% ★, Colony Sim 8.7% ★, City Builder 7.9%

Survive and thrive in a post-apocalyptic future — resources are scarce, but opportunity calls! Build the ultimate disaster proof colony, protect your colonists, and restore civilization to a devastated world.

Why similar: City Builder 24.8%, Colony Sim 22% ★, Base Building 11.7%, Survival 10.2%, Strategy 7.8%

An alien invasion has fractured humanity into seven ideological factions each with a unique vision for the future. Lead your chosen faction to take control of Earth’s nations, expand across the Solar System, and battle enemy fleets in tactical combat.

Why similar: 4X 15.5% ★, Diplomacy 14.8% ★, Grand Strategy 14.4% ★, Moddable 10.8% ★, Alternate History 8.9%

Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Why similar: Colony Sim 26.6% ★, City Builder 21.3%, Base Building 15%, Survival 7.9%, Resource Management 5.7%

Here Comes the Swarm is a survival RTS with a pause button! Create your strategy, build, manage, and defend your settlements at your own pace. Take the fight to the hive mind and lead expeditions to deliver a deadly blow and eradicate your foes. Will you reclaim Ulora from the relentless Swarm?

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.3% ★, Base Building 14.5%, City Builder 13.5%, Economy 11.9%, Resource Management 10.6%

Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.

Why similar: Colony Sim 18.4% ★, City Builder 16%, Moddable 9.3% ★, Economy 7.3%, Survival 7%

Manage your own medieval smithy in Blacksmith Master and supervise the entire process from mining ores and gems to designing and selling finished products. Forge everything from weapons and armor to tools and cooking utensils to fund your craft and become the Blacksmith Master.

Why similar: Colony Sim 14% ★, Moddable 12.4% ★, City Builder 11.7%, Base Building 9%, Economy 8.4%

Ancient Cities is a realistic, survival city builder in an immersive procedural environment. Lead the fate of your tribe through ancient times!

Why similar: City Builder 17.6%, Moddable 12.8% ★, Historical 11.2%, Colony Sim 10.9% ★, Economy 7.6%

From Glory To Goo is a Sci-Fi survival RTS set on an alien world. Serve as humanity's bulwark by establishing a colony and supporting your colonists still in orbit. But beware, for The Goo, a relentless and shape-shifting force approaches from all sides, even above and below.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.7% ★, City Builder 19.4%, Base Building 17.6%, Resource Management 12.3%, Sandbox 10.3%

Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.

Why similar: City Builder 28.3%, Colony Sim 9.7% ★, Economy 9%, Resource Management 7.6%, Sandbox 7.4%

After a nuclear war life on the surface became impossible. A 300m thick radioactive fog covered the Earth. We are looking for bold active people to manage the process of restoring life on Earth. Join!

Why similar: City Builder 18%, Colony Sim 17.6% ★, Economy 12.5%, Base Building 8.9%, Resource Management 8.8%

LEAD the CULT OF CTHULHU. Decide the fate of your followers, perform eldritch rituals, and master the art of city-building in a world where the line between sanity and madness blurs. Can you endure the horrors you unleash?

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.6% ★, City Builder 14%, Alternate History 10.8%, Base Building 10.3%, Economy 9.8%

War for the Overworld is an unholy union of Dungeon Management and Strategy that rewards all those villainous thoughts you’ve been having. Craft your own perilous dungeon and defend it against pesky heroes who keep exploring it and taking your stuff.

Why similar: Base Building 21.3%, Colony Sim 17.4% ★, City Builder 16.5%, Management 16.1%, Sandbox 16%

Take command of a remote military air base during World War II. Build your own airfield, manage iconic aircraft and oversee your crew’s well-being. Prepare them against air raids and send your pilots on dangerous missions. Survive and help your nation win the war!

Why similar: Colony Sim 17.3% ★, City Builder 13.5%, Base Building 11.7%, Historical 9.2%, Economy 8.5%

Jurassic World Evolution 2 is the much-anticipated sequel to Frontier’s highly successful Jurassic World Evolution. This bold new era in the Jurassic World Evolution game franchise builds upon the ground-breaking and immersive 2018 management simulation.

Why similar: Building 16.3%, City Builder 15%, Management 13.8%, Sandbox 13%, Economy 10.4%

Emerge from the ant hill with a handful of ants and a dream... to conquer the world. Train your ants, manage their daily workload, and travel across the town in search of new land. Sharpen your pincers and be ready to fight everyone from beetles and slugs, to the town police and the army!

Why similar: Management 27.6%, Strategy 20.6%, Simulation 18.9%, Base Building 16.4%, Building 13.2%

Incremental clicker strategy, where you expand, construct, research, fight, collect heroes and make choices between good and evil. Ascend through difficulty tiers by playing through challenge campaign going back and forth through history. Mammoths included.

Why similar: 4X 19.9% ★, Diplomacy 13.7% ★, City Builder 11.8%, Base Building 11.2%, Historical 10.6%

Build and expand your very own settlements in high mountains! Carefully plan production chains and satisfy various needs of your three-caste society while dealing with mountain hazards such as weather breakdowns and avalanches. Are you skilled enough to make your town thrive?

Why similar: Colony Sim 17.9% ★, City Builder 16.6%, Base Building 10.7%, Resource Management 9.3%, Economy 9.3%

A strategic autobattler sim where you build a team of gladiators, compete in arenas, plan fight tactics, and form alliances. Combine fighters, beasts, and mages, develop and equip them to optimize your well-oiled fighting machine, dominate the championships, and leave your mark on the world.

Why similar: City Builder 23.9%, Base Building 19.7%, Management 16.8%, Building 16.7%, Resource Management 13.2%

Land of the Vikings is a survival colony sim game. Build and lead your village, and expand it into a thriving city. A wise Jarl must manage resources, survive harsh conditions, and guide their fellow Vikings to work together through social conflict. Skál!

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.3% ★, City Builder 15.7%, Economy 8.7%, Historical 8.3%, Base Building 8.1%

Build a city to rule the world in Kaiserpunk, a grand city builder blending production-focused city building with world conquest in an alternate 20th century world. Manage your city, grow industries, build a military, and defeat rivals to become the greatest empire.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 17% ★, City Builder 14.5%, Alternate History 12.9%, Historical 9.7%, Economy 8.4%

Mind Over Magic is a colony sim set at the site of a cursed magic school. Build and optimize your own magical academy, train powerful Mages, and master mighty relics in order to battle through the Underschool, a mysterious underground dungeon that holds the key to liberation from a deadly curse.

Why similar: Colony Sim 24.3% ★, Base Building 13.8%, Economy 13.5%, Building 12.4%, Management 11.3%