10 Best Strategy Games With Custom Army Formations (2026)

The army is large enough. The question is whether it is standing somewhere useful. A good formation system makes the gap between a collection of units and a working force feel worth thinking about.

These games approach that idea at different scales, from arranging a small company to directing an army across a battlefield. Some concentrate on deployment and let the battle play out; others ask you to keep changing the shape during the fight. The ranking favours decisions about frontage, support and position that make the army behave differently.

10. Totally Accurate Battle Simulator

For arranging an army and watching the plan collide with reality · PC · Single-player or multiplayer

The line looks respectable until the first charging unit sends it in a direction you had not intended. Totally Accurate Battle Simulator makes deployment a wonderfully visible experiment, using deliberately unsteady fighters to test a layout you built yourself.

You choose units and place them before letting the battle unfold. Frontline protection, supporting fire and the space between groups can matter even when the result is ridiculous, and revising the arrangement is part of the fun.

Its place here is about pre-battle positioning rather than commanding disciplined ranks throughout a fight. Choose it when you want an accessible way to ask what a formation might achieve, with enough chaos to make a failed plan entertaining as well as informative.

9. Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2

For testing deployments on an enormous scale · PC · Single-player

An empty field becomes a very different thing when you fill it with opposing armies. Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 gives you a sandbox for arranging large forces and seeing how their placement affects the collision that follows.

The attraction is experimenting with numbers, unit types and the shape of a deployment. You can create a defensive line, change where support sits or simply investigate how an implausible matchup behaves when the two sides finally meet.

This is primarily a battle sandbox, so the formation is part of the scenario you create rather than a reward earned in a campaign. Pick it for curiosity and spectacle: it offers room to test a question that would be much harder to stage inside a conventional strategy game’s story.

8. Hadean Tactics

For arranging a small force around a changing deck · PC · Single-player

The next encounter might be easier if the unit doing the important work were not the first one the enemy reached. Hadean Tactics connects positioning to an autobattling force you support with cards during a journey through the underworld.

You recruit units and develop combinations of skills, alliances and card effects. The initial arrangement matters, but so does how you influence the fight once it starts, giving deployment a place inside a larger tactical plan.

It suits players who enjoy revising a formation around the resources a run actually provides. A familiar layout may need changing when the next recruit or card creates a useful interaction. The reward is making a small group work coherently, rather than merely gathering individually strong pieces.

7. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

For building the formation inside each squad · PC · Single-player

Moving a squad across the map is only part of commanding it in Symphony of War. The people arranged inside that squad determine much of what happens when it meets an opposing force during Tahnra’s growing conflict.

You develop soldiers, choose roles and organise the group around protection, reach and the work you want it to perform. Larger battlefield decisions then give those internal formations a test against terrain, enemies and the needs of the campaign.

That second layer makes it especially satisfying for players who enjoy preparation. A modest change inside one unit can alter the result without changing the route across the map. Pick it when the idea of an army made from carefully assembled teams appeals more than controlling every soldier separately.

6. Battle Brothers

For a company whose starting positions matter · PC · Single-player

A recruit with promising potential may still need somebody experienced standing in front of him. Battle Brothers gives you a mercenary company to maintain, with the battle line reflecting the people and equipment you have managed to keep together.

You arrange the company, develop its members and fight individual tactical turns. Front and rear positions matter to weapon reach and protection, so a formation needs to make sense for the actual roster rather than an ideal army you do not own.

The wider campaign gives that preparation weight because losses and contracts affect the company beyond one fight. Choose it for a smaller, personal scale of formation building, where learning a fighter’s place can make a group feel like a working organisation.

5. Ultimate General: Civil War

For reading terrain before committing a battle line · PC · Single-player

The hill is useful, but reaching it with the right force is a different question. Ultimate General: Civil War asks you to organise troops around terrain, morale and the shape of a battle rather than simply send the whole army toward the nearest opponent.

You develop the force through a campaign and direct its units across historical battlefields. The placement and movement of infantry, cavalry and artillery need to support one another, particularly when a promising line begins to stretch too far.

It rewards players who enjoy understanding why an army occupies a particular piece of ground. The formation is part of a decision about pressure and support, not a decorative arrangement. Pick it when a carefully prepared position sounds as interesting as the moment the attack begins.

4. Homeworld Remastered Collection

For formations that use more than a flat battlefield · PC remastered collection · Single-player or multiplayer

Protecting a vulnerable ship becomes a different problem when danger can approach through three-dimensional space. Homeworld Remastered Collection follows a displaced people across the stars, giving fleet organisation a strong place in both the battles and the journey.

You group ships, assign formations and use different classes together. The useful arrangement depends on what the group is supposed to do, with support and positioning helping turn a collection of hulls into a fleet.

It offers a valuable change of perspective on this list. Formations have to make sense around moving ships rather than ranks on a field, and the campaign gives you reasons to care about preserving them. Choose it for large-scale command with a particularly strong sense of distance and place.

3. Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

For formations inside a much larger military organisation · PC · Single-player

A force can look impressive on the map and still be poorly prepared to carry out an order. Grand Tactician connects its Civil War campaign to tactical battles, making the organisation and support behind the army part of how it performs.

You manage commanders, supplies and the forces they lead, then direct those troops on battlefields where deployment and reserves matter. A formation belongs inside that larger chain of decisions, rather than acting as an isolated button that guarantees a good result.

It is a demanding choice for players who want the machinery around command as well as the fighting itself. The satisfaction lies in making a broad plan work through people and units whose limitations you understand, with battlefield arrangements giving that plan a practical shape.

2. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

For ordering a formation and riding alongside it · PC · Single-player; separate multiplayer modes

A shield wall looks different when you are standing close enough to depend on it. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord lets you organise troops and issue formation orders while also taking a direct role in the fighting.

Infantry, archers and cavalry need space and support that fit their jobs. Terrain and timing affect whether an arrangement works, so changing formation can be a response to the battle rather than something you decide once before it begins.

The campaign gives those soldiers a place in an expanding personal story across Calradia. Choose it when you want to move between command and participation: the appeal is seeing a plan from the field, with the chance to help when one part of the army needs more than another distant order.

1. Total War: WARHAMMER III

For an army built around very different kinds of threat · PC · Single-player or multiplayer

A line of ordinary soldiers has a difficult afternoon ahead when the opposing army includes flying monsters. Total War: WARHAMMER III makes formations interesting by asking them to support forces whose capabilities are often dramatically different.

You arrange units, adjust frontage and move groups while managing missiles, cavalry, magic and larger creatures. Protection and spacing matter because a strong unit still needs a useful place in the plan.

It takes the top spot for the range of tactical questions those combinations create. A formation can be a screen, a trap or a way to give a specialist enough room to do its work. Pick it when you enjoy adapting the same fundamental ideas of support and position to armies that rarely ask exactly the same thing twice.

Which game should you try first?

Total War: Warhammer III offers the broad battlefield, Battle Brothers makes a small company’s position matter and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator turns deployment into an inviting experiment.

For another direction, why not switch lanes and check out our 10 Best Strategy Games to Play in 2026 and 10 Best Games With Destructible Environments lists?