The Best Strategy games, Ranked

A medieval grand-strategy soap opera where your dynasty’s drama is the real game.

For many fans the definitive Civ: hex tiles, one-unit-per-tile combat, and endless "one more turn".

Perfect-information tactics distilled to a chess-like puzzle: small, flawless, endlessly replayable.

The 4X flagship: empire-building with city districts that reshaped the formula.

Tense, brutal turn-based tactics where every soldier you lose actually hurts.

Grand-scale fantasy battles married to turn-based campaign strategy at its most diverse.

The most character-driven Total War, blending Romance and Records modes beautifully.

A society-survival city-builder full of agonising moral choices in a frozen apocalypse.

The RTS that refuses to age, lovingly remastered and still fiercely competitive.

A confident modern RTS that respects the classics while sharpening the formula.

Sci-fi grand strategy with the most imaginative emergent stories in the genre.

Fully 3D space RTS, remastered: still unmatched for scale and atmosphere.

Cover-based WWII RTS with cinematic battles and a deep competitive scene.

A sandbox of medieval warfare, politics, and economy you fight in first-hand.

A gorgeous, intricate city-building economy sim set in the industrial revolution.

A steampunk survival-RTS where one breach in your wall can end everything.