Strategy that punishes autopilot

IT

Into the Breach

Subset Games

Perfect information and eight turns, so every loss is your fault and you can see exactly where. The tightest tactics design there is.

X2

XCOM 2

Firaxis Games

A turn-based squad game where the tension comes from the dice and the permadeath, and the strategic layer makes you care about the people you send out. The 95% miss is a design feature, not a bug.

ST

Slay the Spire

Mega Crit

Invented the deckbuilding roguelike and is still the cleanest one, because every card is legible and the difficulty comes from the choices rather than from hidden information.

ON

Oxygen Not Included

Klei Entertainment

A colony sim where the physics is the antagonist: heat, gas pressure and germs all obey rules you can learn. The steepest and most rewarding learning curve here.

S

Stellaris

Paradox Development Studio

The 4X that lets you be something other than a human empire, and takes the consequences of that seriously. The early game is the best part and it is a very good part.

F

Frostpunk

11 bit studios

A city builder that asks what you are willing to do to keep people alive, and then holds you to it. The moral ledger is the mechanic.

AO

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Forgotten Empires

Twenty-five years of patches on a game that was already balanced, and it is now the best-supported RTS there is. The campaign archive alone is a history course.

AT

Against the Storm

Eremite Games

A city builder built as a roguelite, so every settlement is a run rather than a permanent commitment. Solves the genre’s late-game problem by ending the game before it arrives.

TW

Total War: Warhammer III

Creative Assembly

The culmination of a trilogy that lets you play the whole map with every faction, which is an absurd amount of content. The battles are spectacle and the campaign map is the strategy.

BB

Battle Brothers

Overhype Studios

A mercenary company simulator where your men die permanently and the world does not scale to you. Ugly, brutal, and more tactically honest than the games that look better.

V3

Victoria 3

Paradox Development Studio

A game about the nineteenth century where the interesting decisions are economic and political rather than military. The most ambitious simulation Paradox has shipped.

HO

Hearts of Iron IV

Paradox Development Studio

The Second World War at the level of production queues and supply lines, which is either the best or the most exhausting version of it depending on your appetite.

EU

Europa Universalis IV

Paradox Development Studio

Four centuries of world history with a diplomacy system nobody has improved on. The learning curve is a wall and there is a genuinely great game behind it.

CS

Cities: Skylines II

Colossal Order

A city builder with a simulation underneath that can be read and reasoned about, which is what separates it from the ones where the traffic is decorative. Rough at launch and much better now.

SG

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Mimimi Games

Real-time tactics with a rewind button, which turns save-scumming from a vice into the design. The studio closed after making it, and it is a good note to end on.

DS

Dune: Spice Wars

Shiro Games

A 4X that runs in real time and keeps the length down, so the politics and the desert both matter. The most faithful use of the setting in a strategy game.

CO

Company of Heroes 3

Relic Entertainment

Tactical combat at the scale of a few squads, where cover and line of sight do more than numbers. The campaign is uneven and the skirmish is excellent.