Forge of Empires

Forge of Empires is a free-to-play, browser-based city-building and strategy game developed and published by the German studio InnoGames, launched in 2012 and later released on iOS and Android. Players begin in the Stone Age with a small settlement and guide their city through the ages of human history, advancing from antiquity through the medieval, industrial, modern and futuristic eras as they research technologies, construct residential, production and cultural buildings, and manage a growing population's needs. Beyond city management, the game features turn-based tactical battles on a hex grid for expanding territory and raiding rivals, alongside trading, questing and guild-based cooperation. A signature element is the construction of 'Great Buildings', landmark wonders that confer powerful bonuses and encourage social interaction as players help build one another's. As a long-running free-to-play title supported by optional microtransactions, Forge of Empires became one of InnoGames' flagship successes, sustaining a large player base and receiving continual content updates that added new ages, events and features over many years. Accessible and steadily paced, it sits within the popular wave of browser strategy games that brought long-term city-building and empire progression to a broad, casual-friendly online audience. More than a decade after launch it remained active, a testament to the staying power of well-supported browser strategy games.