Strategy games have held their own for decades, and it doesn’t seem that the genre is going to go into a decline.
Here we’ve collected some of the best modern strategy games that are worth playing if you are looking for some game of this sort.
Game | Release | Video | Developer | |
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Battlefleet Gothic Armada | 2016-04-21 | Tindalos Interactive | ||
Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 | 2019-01-24 | Tindalos Interactive | ||
Sid Meiers Civilization 4 | 2005-10-25 | Firaxis Games | ||
Sid Meiers Civilization 5 | 2010-09-23 | Firaxis Games | ||
Sid Meiers Civilization 6 | 2016-10-20 | Firaxis Games | ||
Endless Legend | 2014-09-18 | AMPLITUDE Studios | ||
Hearts Of Iron 4 | 2016-06-06 | Paradox Development Studio | ||
Stellaris | 2016-05-09 | Paradox Development Studio | ||
Shogun Total War Collection | 2000-06-13 | Creative Assembly | ||
Total War Shogun 2 Collection | 2011-03-14 | Creative Assembly | ||
Total War Warhammer | 2016-05-24 | The Creative Assembly | ||
Total War Warhammer 2 | 2017-09-28 | The Creative Assembly | ||
Total War Warhammer 3 | 2022-02-17 | The Creative Assembly | ||
XCOM 2 Collection | 2016-02-04 | Firaxis Games | ||
XCOM Enemy Unknown | 2012-10-11 | Firaxis Games |
Battlefleet Gothic: Armadas (1 and 2)
Release: | 2019-01-24 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | Tindalos Interactive |
Based roughly on the tabletop game under the same name, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is all about deep space battles between massive starships of the Warhammer 40k.
There are, of course, smaller ships, but the Gothic cathedrals, with the twisted, chaotic versions of them, or the gigantic bioships are where it’s truly at.
During the campaign, you’ll manage officer promotions, ship upgrades, and otherwise, prepare the ships for battles. The skirmishes themselves take place on a flat plane, on which you can chart the flight paths, order salvos, and watch the massive ships shoot trails of smoke,
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Civilization VI
Release: | 2016-10-20 |
Genre: | Economy |
Developer: | Firaxis Games |
By now probably everyone has heard about Civilization VI.
The legendary series of turn-based games about taking a culture from a single city to a continent-spanning empire is nearly thirty years old and each entry makes improvements and brings new features.
As you compete against other cultures, you’ll send scouts out, decide which technologies are being developed, or which wonders to build. There are many possible win conditions, from a conquest to being the first to launch a rocket into space, and it’s up to you to decide which one you’re pursuing.
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Crusader Kings II
Release: | 2018-11-13 |
Genre: | RPG |
Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
If you want to learn a little about the nitty-gritty of medieval politics on the scale of individual noble houses, then Crusader Kings II is the game you should check out.
It allows you to govern all facets of a chosen (or created) family policies and action against the canvas of Medieval Europe.
As with most games from paradox, it’s full of systems, which do a good job simulating the many moving part of the depicted reality. The flipside is that many would find it quite hard to get into because of them. But once you do, you get a deep and complex strategy with more than just a few shades of a roleplaying game.
Crusader Kings 2 is free to play game.
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Endless Legend
Release: | 2014-09-18 |
Genre: | RPG |
Developer: | AMPLITUDE Studios |
Endless Legend takes the classic 4X mechanics and solutions and plants them on the fertile ground of an original fantasy setting.
You pick one of the fantastic peoples to help it flourish in a somewhat hostile environment.
Endless Legend gathers excellent reviews from critics and audiences both, and with good reason. It looks great, work even better, and like the best 4X games, gives the player the tools to build an empire. If you fancy the fantasy genre, it’s a great option.
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Hearts of Iron IV
Release: | 2016-06-06 |
Genre: | Simulation |
Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
The Hearts of Iron series takes the look on World War II on a scale no other video game series does.
Far above the level of individual soldiers, or a single battle, HoI games are concerned with the grand design: the movements of armies, the war economy, and the great theories of warfare.
It’s also a Paradox game, so unsurprisingly it’s very complex and requires a lot of dedication to be any good at managing all the details. Hearts of Iron IV is the latest mainline release, carrying with it the expertise sharpened on previous installments
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StarCraft II
Release: | 2015-11-10 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment |
StarCraft II is the end of the storyline began in the late 1990s, split into three chapters dedicated to each of the three sides of the conflict.
It also happens to be an almost archetypal real-time strategy, ripe for e-sports.
StarCraft 2, like the predecessor, is asymmetrical. The three sides: Terrans, Protoss, and Zergs each are played in very different ways, enabling certain tactics impossible or inefficient for other factions.
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Stellaris
Release: | 2016-05-09 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
A 4X Space Strategy from the minds of Paradox, Stellaris is a fantastic strategy game for fans of science fiction.
It’s a story of a space-faring people, playing out to the backdrop of the entire galaxy, with tons of other nations and species.
In addition to directing the course of expansion and progress if the species you choose, you also need to investigate some mysteries embedded into the procedurally generated galaxies. There are even quests providing dramatic storytelling to an otherwise story-light conquest.
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Total War: Shogun 2
Release: | 2011-03-14 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | Creative Assembly |
Japan has a long and storied history, and Creative Assembly’s Shogun 2 allows you to play through some of it.
Although it’s not as complex as a Paradox game would be, it’s still great at modeling an inter-factional war. While the economy and politics and more abstracted, the military side gives you direct control over your troops.
Total War games play out on two levels. One is the strategic layer, where you move armies, govern your provinces, or engage in diplomatic negotiations. The other half are real-time battles between hundreds or thousands of units. In Shogun it gives an interesting glimpse into old Japanese armaments and military units.
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Total War: Warhammer (1&2)
Release: | 2017-09-28 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | The Creative Assembly |
The Warhammer Fantasy setting was created for the purposes of a tabletop wargame.
It saw several strategy games in its time, and in 2016 the time came for Creative Assembly to take the setting and make a Total War game on its basis.
The adoption of Games Workshop’s universe allowed Creative assembly to make the faction wildly different from each other, as opposed to making them roughly symmetrical like in previous games. In TW: Warhammer Skaven play differently from Dwarfs, who play differently from Elves etc. In addition to classically Total War gameplay, it also captures the aesthetic of Warhammer Fantasy, complete with many recreated units from the tabletop.
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XCOM 2
Release: | 2016-02-04 |
Genre: | Strategy |
Developer: | Firaxis Games |
XCOM 2 is a story about a resistance group fighting to liberate humanity from its alien overlords.
It’s also a very competent tactics game, with more than a little strategic thinking required. it’s hard, and often seems unfair, but it’s oh, so satisfying.
The core of XCOM 2 are turn-based more or less covert missions against overwhelming forces of alien-led ADVENT. There are several classes with unique abilities limited by charges and cooldowns, and on the strategic layer, you can assign research and construction tasks in your mobile headquarters. There is a lot of moving parts, but never more than necessary to stop the game from moving forward.
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Decisive victory
This concludes our list of ten strategy games which are definitely worth recommending. Certainly, there are many more great ones to talk about, and we will certainly update this article with more games in the future.