From humble sandcastles to the pyramids of Egypt, colourful plastic blocks to magnificent metropoles – humanity sure loves to build. It’s no wonder then that some of the most popular games on the App Store involve base building, where you get to build mighty bases, help them prosper and defend your creations from those who want to tear them down. Here are our favourites:

One of the genre’s pioneers, Clash of Clans has been going strong ever since its debut in 2012. In this colourful fantasy world, you’ll build a village of your own, protect it from those who want to plunder your gold and elixir, then send your army to loot others in return.

Aspiring builders will find plenty to tinker with, optimising your base’s layout and defences so that attackers’ efforts will be in vain. And then you’ll get to do the opposite, exploiting other bases’ weaknesses so that your army can storm in. In the Builder Base mode, combat elements become more important as you engage in real-time one-on-one battles with other players.

History books may not record that time Cao Cao teamed up with Charlemagne and Mehmed II to take on barbarian hordes, but you can be sure it happened in Rise of Kingdoms. Pick a civilisation such as the Japanese or Germans, and start building your own kingdom to make a mark on history.

To grow and prosper, you’ll need to harvest resources, research technology, upgrade buildings and train troops. But above all, you’ll have to enlist the help of famous commanders across history. Cleopatra can help you grow the economy, Richard the Lionheart will boost the strength of your legions and Yi Seong-Gye can devastate enemy forces with his legendary archery skills.

Other base-building games may be about starting a civilisation, but State of Survival is about surviving its demise. To ensure there’s a tomorrow for humanity, you’ll reclaim land from zombie hordes to build your base, send out expeditions to defeat the undead, rescue survivors and gather resources.

Much of your success will depend on your powerful heroes, who will lead your troops to battle. There are also special tower-defence missions, in which your heroes will battle zombies at close quarters. Along the way, your team will discover what led to the zombie outbreak and what’s up with the mysterious GigaCorp.

Top War is a base-building game with a twist – you can upgrade your buildings and troops by merging them. The more you merge, the more powerful they become. And then you can send your tanks, planes and warships to reclaim land and expand your base.

As your base grows and your army levels up, you can send them out to battle the Dark Army on the world map, fight humongous robots, join alliances and more. Keep on merging!