Which are the strategy games to play now? Here are the best ones ranked

1. Best Strategy War Games Free Download
2. Best Real Time Strategy Games
3. Best Strategy War Games Ps4
4. Best Strategy War Games For Ipad
5. Best Strategy War Games Online
6. Best Strategy War Games Online

The best strategy games on PC Offworld Trading Company. Total War: Warhammer II. Civilization VI. Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Endless Legend. Crusader Kings II. StarCraft II. Supreme Commander. Strategy Games Strategy games give your brawn a break and help you bust out the brain power within. Armor Games offers a wide variety of strategy game that are sure to flex the mental muscles while scratching that gaming itch.

1. Touted as one of the best Total War games, it is definitely worth your time. Total War: Warhammer II is a thoughtful blend of turn-based strategy and real-time tactics gameplay. The game revolves around the territory control, the Vortex. The armies wage a war to grab hold of the seal, which is the key to unlocking the army of chaos.
2. Best Strategy Games of 2019 (So Far) We're only half-way through February, but already there's been some pretty decent releases in strategy gaming that you'll want to check out: Fantasy General II; Age of Wonders: Planetfall; Raiders of the North Sea; Field of Glory: Empires; Total War: Three Kingdoms; Fort Sumter; Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark; Wargroove.

Strategy games have been making a welcome comeback in recent years. After so long with only genre juggernauts keeping things afloat, we now see an explosion of creative brilliance across many platforms. The revival of XCOM especially has led to many innovators and imitators, with Into The Breach and Frostpunk being just a couple of shining examples.

If the world of strategy has ever felt overwhelming to you in the past, worry not, as Trusted Reviews has compiled some of the biggest and best you can play right now. Many of these are friendly to newcomers while still offering a staggering amount of depth for veterans ready and willing to dedicate themselves. Regardless of your knowledge with this long-running genre, it’s time to get started!

Into the Breach

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch

Pros:

• Ingenious combination of block puzzle and tactics
• Creates stories through its gameplay systems
• Beautiful musical score

Cons:

• Won’t necessarily convert those who don’t enjoy the genre

Into The Breach takes the world of turn-based tactics and shrinks it down into something small, digestible and immensely satisfying. Confined to an 8×8 grid, you control a series of mechanical robots doing battle with evil insects amidst myriad different environments.

You’ll also need to take surroundings into constant consideration, as the buildings being attacked by our creepy crawling enemies are the very same that power our only means of the defense. This leads to a melodic sequence of movements, attacks and strategic thought that isn’t afraid to challenge the player at every conceivable turn.

Upon failure, you’ll need to start again, although select upgrades and modes of progression will be carried over as you embark on another run. Into The Breach is an addictive marvel, and one of the best strategy games to emerge in 2018.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Linux

Pros:

• Tight tactical gameplay
• Dynamic and unpredictable
• Wider strategy full of tough, meaningful decisions
• New stealth options work well
• Strong cinematic presentation

Cons:

• Views don’t always provide necessary information

Where Into the Breach is a tiny perfect snack of tactics, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is an all you can eat buffet. It’s a gigantic, globe spanning game with dozens of systems layered on top of each other, all combining to make you break your keyboard when your favourite soldier gets nailed with a poorly thrown grenade.

While the first game had you defend earth against alien invaders, the second presumes you’ve already lost, and are now mounting a resistance against an occupying force. The fantastic War of the Chosen DLC adds more to this, with various resistance groups and recurring villain aliens hampering your fightback. Simply the best execution of the venerable XCOM concept yet.

Company of Heroes

Platforms: PC, Mac

Pros:

• Incredible micro-management depth
• The best RTS to play co-op vs AI
• Amazing levels of tension

Cons:

• Sometimes overwhelming

The genius of Company of Heroes is to scale the RTS right down. Every squad of soldiers has a massive range of micro-management options, but there are few enough of them that those of us who aren’t professional Starcraft players can use them properly.

When encountering a machine gun a rifle squad will dive to the deck, suppressed by the hail of fire, but by carefully maneuvering them around cover and tossing a grenade, they can take that emplacement out. The Opposing Fronts DLC is a must have, adding two exciting new factions, while the Soviet themed sequel isn’t quite as good as the original.

Invisible Inc

Platforms: PS4, PC, Mac, Linux

Pros:

• Terrific aesthetic
• Masterful tension
• New agents play vastly differently

Cons:

• Very difficult for beginners

Invisible Inc takes the turn based tactics of XCOM and applies it to the tension of the stealth game genre. Each mission involves a team of agents infiltrating an procedurally generated base, with the alarm steadily rising as they become more aware of your presence. This means you’re constantly being pushed forward, whilst also desperately trying to stay unseen.

Worse still, knocked out guards will only stay knocked out for a few turns, meaning you need to get past them and get invisible again quickly. Initially it can be brutally difficult, but eventually you come to understand the games quirks, then you’ll unlock another agent, which changes the way the game plays considerably. Eminently replayable, hyper stressful, fun.

Stellaris

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Pros:

• Vast amount of different approaches for different empires
• Constantly being updated with new features
• Full of great mini sci-fi storylets
• Crisis keeps endgame interesting

Cons:

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• Diplomacy not as interesting as war
• Managing large empires can get fiddly
• Generally not as fun to play as a ‘good guy’

Stellaris is the ultimate space opera simulator. It lets you create a custom space empire, fulfilling pretty much any science fiction trope you can think of, and then expand to the stars. Along the way you’ll find little Star Trek-esque nuggets of story, tales of cosmic wonder and horror. You’ll also find allies and enemies, making peace and war over hundreds of years before being forced to deal with an existential threat.

Playing Stellaris is like writing your own sci-fi novel, charting the rise and fall of a strange interstellar community made up of religious mushrooms and warmongering penguins. It’s also constantly being improved and updated, so even if you don’t like one particular system, there’s a good change it’ll change in a few months.

Civilization 6

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Pros:

• Deep, engrossing strategy from start to finish
• Fantastic presentation and personality
• Great new additions to the fundamental mechanics
• Refinements and improvements make all of its existing mechanics even better

Cons:

• Religion can be a little spammy

One of the unique appeals of the Civilisation series is that with each new installment a new lead designer gets to come up with their own interpretation of the classic “take an empire from the stone age to the stars” concept.

Civilization 6 is notable for its use of urban sprawl, with cities growing to take up several adjacent map times. This means that planning your settlements ahead and growing them effectively is incredibly important, you’re fighting against the terrain as much as you are opposing rulers.

Total War: Warhammer 2

Platforms: PC, Mac

Pros:

• New, faster-paced style of campaign
• A new world and new races to explore
• Big on weird and wonderful unit types
• Stupidly fun, absorbing and addictive

Cons:

• Hard work to field and support more than a couple of armies
• Requires major commitments in both times and effort

Total War has become a dominant force in the strategy genre, providing players with historical backdrops to wage war across wonderous locations with famous faces at the helm. This trend continues, although Creative Assembly takes a more fantastical approach with Total War: Warhammer 2

Games Workshop’s beloved fantasy series has been translated into the virtual realm with immense love, care and attention as you control an abundance of different races with their own traits and attributes. The conflicts are absolutely huge, requiring a keen eye to best take advantage of the battlefield.

It’s superior to its predecessor is almost every single way, but with a stroke of genius, Creative Assembly has made it possible to combine both games into one huge, cohesive map; allowing you to choose between double the factions and locations.

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

Platforms: PC, Mac

Pros:

• A fitting end to the StarCraft II saga
• Superb campaign missions
• Beautiful design and animation
• More accessible online and co-op play

Cons:

• Minor difficulty and pathfinding issues
• Still a very traditional RTS game

It feels weird to even call Starcraft 2 a strategy game, it exists on a separate plane from the rest of these games, and can’t really be measured against them. As the top strategy game esport, Starcraft is arguably watched more than played.

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But this unique status is what makes it deserve a place on this list. If you enjoy playing strategy games competitively against other humans, there is simply no substitute. By contrast if you don’t, then Starcraft really isn’t for you.

Cities Skylines

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch

Pros:

• Incredible mod scene
• Deep infrastructure simulation
• Strong DLC support

Cons:

• I hope you like managing traffic

For years Maxis’ SimCity dominated the city building genre, but recently it has been Finnish developer Colossal Order who’ve picked up the flag. Cities Skylines started out as very much a spiritual sequel to SimCity, but over time and many DLCs it has developed its own character, such as a deeply european focus on public transport. The community around the game has also grown strong, with a thriving mod scene even leading to a distinctly different playstyle, which eschews win/loss conditions in favour of studious decorating tiny model towns.

Darkest Dungeon

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Pros:

• Beautiful presentation
• Deep and involving
• Sumptuous atmosphere

Cons:

• You’ll die…
• … and go insane
• … and die again

Darkest Dungeon arguably straddles the divide between strategy and RPG. You assemble a party of adventurers and then journey into dungeons, engaging in turn based tactical battles that rely enormously on positioning.

But then there’s the twist, which is that you’re not playing as these adventurers but their sponsor, and between dungeon runs you’ll find yourself rebuilding a small town to finance further expeditions. The individual adventurers are interchangeable, and you’ll replace them frequently as they die or simply collapse under the stress of the lovecraftian environment.

Your real focus is the town, and sustaining it, no matter how many characters die in the dungeon below.

Homeworld Remastered

Platforms: PC, Mac

Pros:

• Sympathetically updated visuals
• Superb RTS gameplay
• Well judged difficulty curve
• Epic sci-fi feel

Cons:

• Camera controls feel clunky
• Changes might upset old fans

19 years on, there is still no other strategy game like Homeworld, which challenges the player to truly 3D space-borne combat. It’s easy to see why, as it’s difficult for us ground based humans to get our heads around, but the result it still spectacular.

That it marries this innovation to a surprisingly touching story about the last survivors of an alien race desperately seeking a new home. Homeworld Remastered‘s tale meshes with the terrific soundtrack and gorgeous visuals to create a real sense of a mournful but majestic cosmos.

Battletech

Platforms: PC

Pros:

• Has a style of its own
• Challenging in a fun way
• Giant mechanical crushing exosuits

Cons:

• Novices will struggle
• Fiendishly difficult later on
• You have to seek out guides for information

Battletech’s appeal is simple: big honking mechs. An adaptation of the classic tabletop game, it offers an astonishing level of depth to its giant stompy robot suits. The campaign too is deep and complex, as you struggle to get new gear for your mechs whilst constantly risking damage or destruction in missions. It’s full of hard choices and that, ultimately, is what strategy games are about.

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The Rundown

• Best Overall: Civilization 6 at Amazon, 'Allows you to achieve domination both aggressively and diplomatically.'
• Best Science Fiction:Stellaris at Steam, 'This niche strategy game is vast and unlimited in its potential.'
• Best Fantasy:Total War: Warhammer II at Steam, 'This game pits elves against lizardmen in fantastical brawls.'
• Best Business: Offworld Trading Company at Steam, 'Success isn't just down to violence, but keen business acumen.'
• Best Military: Imperator: Rome at Microsoft, 'This is a tale of political intrigue and violent battles.'
• Best for Epic Battles: Total War: Three Kingdoms at Walmart, 'The best game that the franchise has ever seen over the course of two decades.'
• Best for Novice Players:StarCraft II at Amazon, 'Relies on heavy intense strategies to counterbalance your opponents. '
• Best Console Game:Halo Wars 2 at Amazon, 'An epic game that faces you off with space marines and aliens.'
• Best Combat: X-COM 2 at Amazon, 'Want to shoot aliens and not worry about resource gathering? X-COM 2 has you covered.'

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: Civilization 6

Considered one of the finest strategy games ever, save yourself the time and immediately buy Civilization 6. The beauty behind it is its sheer sense of scale and potential. The idea is that you develop a civilization from a tiny rudimentary settlement and eventually turn it into a world power that's capable of great things.

What kind of world power your civilization becomes is mostly down to you. You can achieve victory through military domination (wiping out all other empires), through technological superiority or even cultural influence. Compu crane app. It's all down to the many steps you take as you progress in your bid to achieve some form of fame within the world. Being able to choose a kinder path or a more violent route is a great twist in a genre that's typically more aggressive.

It's possible to explore and discover new cities and technologies that are scattered around the world, as well as engage in trade talks and negotiations with other world leaders. In every session, how things unfold is randomized so you can't predict how the A.I. opponent will react based upon past game sessions, giving the game plenty of longevity and replayability. There's also multiplayer in both competitive and cooperative modes, allowing you to join up with friends online.

Being able to tackle things in completely different ways ensures that this is an ideal strategy game for aggressive players as well as more diplomatic and thoughtful types. It's a must-have for strategy enthusiasts.

Best Science Fiction: Stellaris

Many strategy games aren't considered the most accessible strategy games out there. As the name suggests, they tend to focus on the loftier ambitions of the genre - being convoluted and involving a lot of careful thinking and planning. Stellaris is one of the more accessible strategy games out there while still easily challenging its players along the way.

Set in space, players take control of a species during the early stages of that race's quest to explore space. Arguably, that's the most fascinating part of any science fiction journey and it leads to plenty of potential from Stellaris. You can choose to manage an empire, engage in a plethora of warfare, or learn to pursue the diplomatic route and forge partnerships with other civilizations. There's a certain amount of flexibility here with each route offering a different form of challenge.

The game's broken up mostly into three key areas - the early game of exploring and colonization, followed by governing, and finally, the ability to trigger galaxy-wide implications based on your actions. That means that Stellaris is always thrilling stuff. With seemingly endless choices available to you, this is something that will last hundreds of hours.

Best Real Time Strategy Games

Best Fantasy: Total War: Warhammer II

The Warhammer fantasy universe is a rich and diverse world to use in the context of strategy gaming, and Total War: Warhammer II truly embraces it. Kind of like a more bloodthirsty version of Lord of the Rings, Total War: Warhammer II has you pitting different factions against each other in an epic war.

There are four factions to choose from including Lizardmen, High Elves, Dark Elves, and Skaven. Each forms part of the narrative-driven campaign mode so there's a compelling story to follow along in conjunction with the action. Combat is available in two different ways too. There's the turn-based open-world campaign mode, as well as a real-time strategy option. In either case, planning many moves ahead is vital to your chances of success.

You need to concentrate on army building and conquest, as well as resource gathering to stand a chance of surviving. That means plenty of multi-tasking and figuring out which objective to prioritize and when. Researching new technologies is just as important here as dominating through sheer force. Being able to discover new areas is a particular joy, invoking Age of Empires style memories. No longer do you have to focus on just having the biggest army.

Elsewhere, there's a multiplayer mode as well, so you can spend time competing with friends and other players online, with the promise of no two games being the same. If you previously owned the first Total War: Warhammer game, you can combine the two to gain access to a huge combined campaign called Mortal Empires which further extends the fun. For fans of the Warhammer universe, it's a bit of an unmissable game that can easily last hundreds of hours.

Also check out our picks for the best PC war games.

Best Strategy War Games Ps4

Best Business: Offworld Trading Company

Economic warfare is the name of the game in Offworld Trading Company - a game that tackles strategy from a more original perspective than most. Set on Mars, players are placed in charge of one of four off-world trading companies. It's down to their shrewd business skills if they want to become the winner. This is achieved by buying a majority stake in every off-world trading company in the game and it's far from a simple task.

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The key to success mostly comes down to resource gathering. The game has 13 different resources including materials such as water, aluminum, iron, silicon, carbon, as well as more complicated ideas such as Hydrolysis reactors which can break water apart into oxygen and fuel. How the resources work out for you depend on how the game plays out. As in other forms of business, supply and demand fluctuate constantly so it's down to you to figure out when to buy and sell and how best to work your way up in the trading world.

The underground black market also plays a part if you want to get your hands a little dirtier with the option to purchase things like underground nukes that can wipe out resources before your opponents reach them, or arrange mutinies to slow them down further. There's a keen sense of real science and real economics here which makes Offworld Trading Company more distinctive than most. In particular, it'll really grip those with an active interest in financial systems or business ethics.

Best Military: Imperator: Rome

For those players who look at the Ancient Roman Empire and wish they could participate in it in some way, there's Imperator: Rome. It's a vast experience that primarily focuses on nation-building and empire accruing. Because of that, it can be quite daunting at times.

You have to keep an eye on a lot of things such as how best to develop your population, but also best to keep them happy. An unhappy population can lead to treachery and rebellion which anyone with a brief knowledge of history will know never leads to a good ending for the leader. Combat also plays a significant role here with each culture having a different way of waging wars, so your choice at the outset of which clan to use makes a big difference in the long term.

Just to give you even more things to consider, you also need to manage the Senate and keep court together and well controlled. Plus, there's the matter of investing in infrastructure and maintaining your resource bases. The game has over 7000 cities to discover, along with over 83 different regions so you're definitely going to have plenty of time to sink into the world of Imperator: Rome.

Best for Epic Battles: Total War: Three Kingdoms

When it comes to real-time strategy games, the Total War series stands the test of time. But in the case of Total War: Three Kingdom, developer Creative Assembly went above and beyond expectations to craft the best game that the franchise has ever seen over the course of two decades. At its most basic level, it explores the Chinese Three Kingdoms period in a respectful and absolutely gripping manner.

Real-world heroes like Liu Bei stand in for iconic figures from Western history for a massive, complex game with a campaign mode as fascinating and endlessly entertaining as its singular battles. With a setting that works well with the Total War brand and balanced mechanics to level it all out, it's a remarkable showcase of not only developer talent but the massive potential for the genre as well. Even if you find the setting uninteresting, you might change your mind after a few rounds of battle.

You may also be interested in checking out our picks for the best PC games of the year.

Best for Novice Players: StarCraft II

Debatably the most popular Real Time Strategy (or RTS game) series in existence, StarCraft II is the sequel to the 1998 hit game StarCraft. Where most games that center on a war features only two factions, the plot of the StarCraft games are all about a rock-paper-scissors approach to the combat and playable guilds. The military might of the Terrans fight the insect-looking Zerg who also fight the Protoss alien race in a three-way brawl to control the galaxy.

Unlike most other eSports titles, StarCraft II relies on heavy intense strategies to counterbalance your opponents. Each one of the three factions that you play as has their set of pros and cons. Blizzard (the company behind the game) has a tendency of making their games easy to play, but hard to master.

It boasts a single player mode of over 70 missions with three different campaigns, huge multiplayer content and community made arcade modes. StarCraft requires more time-sensitive strategically made decisions with the constant feeling of urgency. If you’re up for a challenge and faster-paced gameplay, StarCraft is the choice.

Starcraft is one of the best PC exclusives ever. Check out our list of the best PC games you can buy right now.

Best Console Game: Halo Wars 2

Based on the ever-popular first-person shooter games, Halo Wars 2 is an epic real-time strategy game that picks up right in the middle of the story. The set-up is simple but the lore is expansive: there's a war raging on between the Covenant alien forces and the humans trying to prevent them from annihilating the universe using ancient forerunner technology. In Halo Wars, you control armies, ground vehicles, aerial brigades, and even the occasional laser from outer space. You'll see plenty of familiar Halo-centric staples, such as the energy swords the Elites wield, the Spartan super soldiers, and the Warthog jeep.

Similar to another great series, Command & Conquer, Halo Wars will also have you gathering resources, building units, and attacking the enemy defenses. The developers focused on creating a story focused campaign, by paying attention to every detail in the cut scenes to preserve the rich narrative the Halo games have built up for two decades now (between comics, web series, novels, and more).

Halo Wars is also the best RTS game on consoles because the first game was designed to be played with a controller. It removes some of the hassle more complicated games in the genre can have and makes the controls streamlined so you can play this RTS from your couch in comfort. This allows the multiplayer to feel just like the Halo shooters, which makes it all the more fun.

For more rad multiplayer options, take a look at some of the best split-screen PC games. Also, peek through our list of the best offline strategy games.

Best Combat: X-COM 2

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Keen to blow stuff up but also want to think ahead and plan your moves carefully? X-COM 2 is the game for you. Part of a franchise that's been around since the 1990s, it focuses on the efforts of a military organization trying to fight off an alien invasion.

Oftentimes, that means levels play out much like a game of chess. You and the AI enemy take turns to position your troops and trying to snipe at them from a distance. Cover plays a hugely valuable role here with a soldier out in the open pretty much destined to be killed. It's important to think ahead and work out safe routes to get near enough to the enemy to be able to take them out. That's made all the tenser by the fact that your soldiers can die permanently (depending on the difficulty level you set) meaning you can feel surprisingly sad at the death of a loyal part of your squad if you screw up.

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The soldiers can be upgraded along with your base so that you end up more powerful and with better equipment and weaponry. There's no focus on resources gathering here though, unlike other strategy games, with the emphasis squarely on combat. If you're keen to fight first, talk later, this is the strategy game for you.