Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Age of Empires II with Star Wars units, and that is not an insult. LucasArts built it on Ensemble's Genie engine, so it plays like a solid 2001 RTS with air power added: six civilizations, plus two more in the Clone Campaigns expansion. The Saga edition bundles everything for six dollars on Steam and GOG.
- Released
- 2001
- Developer
- Ensemble Studios
- Genre
- Strategy
- Platforms
- PCMac
Playing it today
Still a good RTS, and the cheapest one Star Wars has. Under the art it is Age of Empires II: Ensemble's Genie engine, resource gathering, a tech tree, and armies of up to 200 units a side, with air units added. The Saga edition includes Clone Campaigns, which brought the Republic and the Confederacy in 2002. Steam's reviewers recommend it at 91 percent.
Both store versions install and run on current Windows. For the best experience, many players add the community-made All-In-One Patch, which fixes the broken color palette PCGamingWiki reports on modern systems and adds widescreen support; it is unofficial. It is also the only Ensemble-engine game never to get an HD re-release, and modders fill the gap with projects like Expanding Fronts.
Skip it if you want the scale and space battles of Empire at War. Buy it if you played Age of Empires and want the same thing with walkers.
Where to play it
On sale today · checked September 24, 2026
- GOGSaga edition: base game plus the Clone Campaigns expansion, DRM-free$5.99
- SteamSaga edition: base game plus the Clone Campaigns expansion$5.99
The Saga edition from either store; both charge $5.99 and both include Clone Campaigns. GOG adds an offline installer, Steam adds cloud saves.
There is no console version and no remaster. It was released on PC and Mac only.
List prices in USD. Stores change prices and listings; check before you buy. Where to buy old Star Wars games
Games like Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Sources: Steam store page; GOG store page; PCGamingWiki; All-In-One Patch (Steam Workshop guide); Expanding Fronts mod.