None of these games are ours. They are four free-to-play browser titles from other studios, and the spread is deliberate: a wartime squad you command one order at a time, the shared map that invented this genre, a ship you keep bolting plating onto, and a cartoon farm where nobody is shooting at you at all.
All four open in the browser already in front of you. Nothing to install, no launcher, nothing to patch. Each entry gives the same four things: what it is, what it is good at, how long a sitting runs and what it costs.
The usual version of this page lists fifty games and leaves you no wiser about a single one. Four is few enough that each entry was written after playing. Four conditions had to hold:
You do not play a soldier, you play a squad: a handful of men who die one at a time while you keep giving orders. Second World War settings, matches over in minutes.
Roman, Gaul or Teuton villages on a map everyone shares, where troops march in real hours and the diplomacy matters more than the sword. The grandparent of this genre.
Open water, a ship you keep bolting things onto, and other crews with designs on your hold. Scrappier and more immediate than the strategy games here.
A bright cartoon farm with animals that need feeding and fields that need turning over. No opponent, no clock, and a surprising amount to organise.
The session column is the one that decides things. What really separates these four is how often they expect to see you, not what they are about.
| Game | Genre | A typical sitting | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enlisted | Squad Warfare | 10 to 15 minutes a match | Desktop and laptop. |
| Travian | Empire Strategy | Short daily check-ins | Desktop, laptop and tablet. |
| Seafight | Pirate MMO | 20 to 40 minutes | Desktop and laptop. |
| Farmerama | Farming Sim | 10 to 20 minutes | Desktop, laptop and tablet. |
All four are free to open and free to continue with, and all four sell something: a premium account, a currency, a faster timer, a crate of parts. That is how they are funded, and stopping at the word "free" would be leaving out the half you need.
The test that matters is whether the game is still a game for somebody who never pays, and here it is, four times over. What money buys is mostly waiting removed. If you intend to spend, choose the figure before the shop is open in front of you.
A browser game is the only kind you can start on one machine at lunch and carry on with at home without moving a single file. The convenience is paid for in a few places:
Farmerama, if you want an hour with no opponent in it - it is the calmest thing on this page and there is far more to organise than the art suggests. If you would rather something was shooting at you, Enlisted puts you in a squad inside two minutes.
No. All four are played in the browser. A couple have optional desktop clients you can safely ignore.
They load on one, but they expect a mouse and room to see. Phone for a quick look, laptop for an evening.
Most will, because the game keeps your progress between sessions. That account is theirs, not ours.
No. All four are free to play and each sells optional extras, which is what keeps them running. None of them locks the interesting part behind a purchase.
There is not one. They belong to other studios and they are here because the people who run this site actually play them.
A short list of free-to-play browser games kept by the people who run this site. None of these four are ours.