10 Best Crusades Games on PC – Strategy, Action, and Medieval Warfare

by Nitemare / Articles, Lists / 13 Aug 2025

The Crusades are PC gaming heaven. It’s an age that has it all: the soaring romance of knighthood and the blood-and-mud brutality of medieval warfare. It’s a clash of empires, of ideologies, and of steel, all under a blistering sun. It is the perfect backdrop for grand strategy, hardcore action, and grim sieges.

Whether you’d rather be the Machiavellian king siphoning crusade funds into a slightly larger wine cellar, or the lone knight charging headlong into combat with a prayer in your heart, there’s a game for you. So sharpen your broadsword, pack your waterskin, maybe a granola bar… and let’s go on a crusade!

1. Crusader Kings 3

Play it for: The glorious, messy drama of juggling the personalities behind the war.

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. This is the undisputed winner, the GOAT, the game that is literally about being a Crusader King. The beauty of CK3 is that the Crusade itself is often secondary to your own personal soap opera. The Pope may call a great war for the Holy Land, but you’re far more interested in getting your rival, Duke Pustule of Burgundy, an unfortunate, front-line assignment. It’s the ultimate medieval story generator, where a holy war is just another fantastic, chaotic chapter… in which you’ll probably try to marry your cousin.

2. Medieval II: Total War: Definitive Edition

Play it for: The unadorned, Hollywood-style spectacle of a full-scale Crusader battle.

Where CK3 is subtle backroom politics, Medieval II is the decadent, blood-soaked payoff! This is the game for anyone who wants to command from a general’s hilltop, watching thousands of heavily-armoured knights charge into enemy ranks with the force of a freight train. Amassing a Crusading army—full of fanatical pilgrims and elite knightly orders—and marching it across a continent is a thrill unlike any other. It may be a bit clunky, but its scale remains breathtaking.

3. Stronghold: Crusader Definitive Edition

Play it for: The stressful micromanagement of actually running a castle in the desert.

Stronghold Crusader Definitive Edition – Full Breakdown & Features

“You have not enough wood, my lord!!” Forget grand conquest; Stronghold: Crusader is about survival. It’s a brilliant, quirky combination of city-builder and RTS where your worst enemy isn’t Saladin, it’s the dawning realization that you’ve built a thriving apple-based economy in the middle of a desert… and have zero stone for your walls. Hearing the iconic insults from your AI enemies as they test your elaborate murder-holes is a classic PC gaming moment.

4. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Play it for: The journey from solitary warrior to crusading lord, forged in the dusty corners of the world.

While most of these games put you in command from on high, Bannerlord puts you down in the mud. You start with nothing but a rusty sword, a bad attitude… and the combat effectiveness of a startled goose. What you do next is up to you. Want to live out a crusader fantasy? Pledge your sword to an empire, recruit a band of followers, and wage your own private war. This is your story, not a kingdom’s.

5. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Play it for: The classic “Wololo” thrill of convincing an enemy knight, through sheer chanting power, that your team is way cooler!

You can’t have a list of classic PC strategy games without AoEII. Its heart beats to the rhythm of the holy trinity of combat: pointy sticks beat horse guys, horse guys beat crossbow nerds, and giant wooden catapults beat everybody! The Teutons and their nigh-unstoppable Teutonic Knights are a crusader army in a box, ready for you to unleash upon your unsuspecting friends.

6. Assassin’s Creed

Play it for: A historical tour of the Holy Land, with some stabbing on the side.

No other game captures the atmosphere of the Third Crusade’s cities like the original Assassin’s Creed. You are not a soldier in an army; you are Altaïr, a silent predator picking his way through the chaos… who also happens to be a world-class eavesdropper and an obsessive flag collector. This is a street-level view of the intrigue and espionage that flourished in the shadows of the great war.

7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1/2

Play it for: A grim, brutal education in what it was really like to be a medieval warrior.

Set against the backdrop of the Hussite Wars, this game trades deserts for forests. You are Henry, a blacksmith’s son, and you are no hero. You’re a nobody who can barely swing a sword, and your first real fight will likely end with you bleeding out in a ditch… because you forgot to eat breakfast. KC:D is a stunningly realistic RPG about the bleak reality of war, not the romance of chivalry.

8. Chivalry 2

Play it for: The hilarious, gory, and chaotic mosh pit of medieval battle.

Okay, technically it isn’t set during the Crusades, but come on. The DNA is there! Chivalry 2 strips away all the politics and leaves just the good stuff: the combat. It’s a multiplayer masterclass in glorious, hysterical melee. You’ll charge into battle, get your head lopped off by a stray axe, accidentally set your friends on fire, and launch chickens at your enemies!! This is the frontline experience, only with more battle cries and less dysentery.

9. Blasphemous

Play it for: A heavy-metal album cover version of zealous faith, brought to hellish life.

This one is a thematic cousin. Blasphemous doesn’t take place in our world, but its spirit is forged in the fires of fanatical, militant religiosity. You play as The Penitent One, a silent knight on a pilgrimage through a land afflicted by a terrible miracle, wearing a pointy helmet presumably full of said guilt… Guilt, martyrdom, and bloody-minded faith are all that matter here. It’s what the Crusades might feel like in a collective nightmare, and it’s absolutely stunning.

10. Field of Glory II: Medieval

Play it for: Deep, turn-based tactics for the armchair general who finds Total War too arcadey.

If you find Total War too simple and believe that true joy is a spreadsheet calculating the morale penalty for a flank charge in light rain, this is your game! Field of Glory II: Medieval is a hardcore, tabletop-style tactical wargame. With its Crusader States DLC, you can re-enact historical battles with authentic units and tactics. It’s the thinking person’s crusade—a tough and richly rewarding simulation for the purest of grognards.

Bonus:

Empire Eternal: Is This the Empire Earth Successor We’ve Been Waiting For?

Eyes of War: This New RTS Lets You Build Like Age of Empires & Fight Like Mount & Blade

Nitemare

I am a gamer by day and by night. I started out writing game reviews for small online forums as a hobby way back in 2005. Since then, I have grown my knowledge for writing and gaming to continue my journey into something more.

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