Strategy Games

Strategy games reward thinking a few steps further than the game strictly requires. In practice that covers tower defence, where you commit resources before you know exactly what is coming; management games about balancing income against expansion; turn-based tactics where positioning decides the fight before the fighting starts; and idle games that ask which upgrade compounds fastest. Sessions run longer here than anywhere else on the site, because a plan needs time to be right or wrong, and most of these games are more interesting an hour in than a minute in. The learning curve is real but rarely steep — the first playthrough usually teaches you what you should have done, and the second one goes much better. If you want something you can put down after three minutes, this is the wrong category; try arcade instead.

1 game