For PC players, the strategy genre includes a wide range, with real-time, turn-based, 4X, and tactics games all vying for the title of the single, finest strategy game. It can make producing a list like this a pretty difficult task, but we here at RPS try to have a broad perspective, so instead of dividing them up into their own sub-genres, the games we’ve chosen below are all strategy games we think you could love and play right now. But enough blathering—time to have some fun! These are the top 10 PC strategies and tactics Games.
Between the strategy and tactics genres, there is a tight line. Managing all war components, such as gathering energy resources and erecting bases or troops, is a standard duty in strategy games. The StarCraft video games are a great illustration. On the other hand, the focus of tactics games is often on unit movement and other aspects of warfare. Gears Tactics is a good example of the genre. The games in any category can run in real-time or turn-based modes.
1. Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns, a strategic card-based tactics game from the creators of XCOM, pits some of Marvel’s most recognizable heroes against Lilith and her wicked supernatural powers. To create a streamlined and quick turn-based game, Midnight Suns do away with a lot of the RNG and grid-focused fighting. Battles are dynamically limited by card-based ability decks, but the incredibly distinct and versatile heroes more than makeup for it. Enjoy character interactions a la Fire Emblem outside of battle to get to know your fellow heroes.
2. Tactics Ogre Reborn
Once for the PSP, this classic SNES strategy game has been remastered for PC and modern systems. Tactics Ogre Reborn has high-definition pixel pre-mastering, fully voiced English and Japanese story sections, rerecorded soundtrack, and rebalanced gameplay while retaining the sprite-based charm, isometric perspective, and fiercely tough tactics. The emphasis on grinding has been removed, and more dynamic character constraints have been added, forcing you to play tactically.
3. Triangle Strategy
Fans of the category will find this captivating tactical RPG to be a standout since it deftly combines narrative-based decision-making with sophisticated fantasy and strategic components. Triangle Strategy, previously available on the Nintendo Switch, is now available for PC users. It features outstanding turn-based combat, an engrossing narrative, and a great cast of people for you to get to know as you decide the fate of a continent. A complex and satisfying RPG is the result of decision-driven plot elements, good characters, and synergistic combat systems.
4. Company of Heroes
The film Company of Heroes made World War II appear unfamiliar. It succeeds in fusing the RTS elements with Band of Brothers’ humanity. Company of Heroes convinces you that every man matters, even when you send in reinforcements to replace a squad that just perished while you were off on a blunder. That’s in part because of the precise portrayals made possible by the Essence Engine, but it’s also because of the missions’ deliberate pacing.
5. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
The third and final StarCraft II expansion is an excellent way to wrap up Blizzard’s real-time strategy story and a perfect way to start playing one of the most challenging yet rewarding video games ever created. Legacy of the Void does not require you to own any earlier editions of the game, in contrast to the preceding StarCraft II expansion. It is entirely independent. Legacy of the Void is one of the greatest PC games ever made when you take into account its varied single-player story, beautiful cinematic, and new noob-friendly co-op features.
6. DEFCON
The strategy game that will most likely cause you to break out in a cold sweat is DEFCON. The anxiety grows along with the DEFCON level in this fictitious simulation of a nuclear attack, and hasty negotiations end in sour betrayal. People are reduced to numbers in this game (and ashes). Megadeaths are used to calculate scores, although in the default configuration, killing a million of your own population only costs you one point compared to two points for killing a mega death on your opponent’s land.
7. Gears Tactics
The main series of Gears of War games are cover-based shooters where you take control of ripped warriors defending mankind from the Locust mutant horde. Amazingly, Gears Tactics from Xbox Game Studios—the franchise’s first foray into the turn-based tactics genre—retains many of the series’ defining characteristics, such as wild melee executions, locations with lots of covers, and waves of overly aggressive foes. The game’s tactical components are provided through action points, travel lines, range cones, and the capacity to enlist new troops. However, shoddy enemy spawning might be aggravating at times.
8. Halo Wars 2
A real-time strategy game called Halo Wars 2 is set in the well-known Halo universe created by Xbox Game Studios. The goal of Halo Wars 2’s warfare system is modeled around a rock-paper-scissors game, which is to build up bases and troops to fight against enemy alien forces.
It’s simple to develop the appropriate troops for the task at hand, whether that is seizing enemy bases, defending your own base, or surviving enemy waves, once you become comfortable with your units and resource production. Halo Wars 2’s straightforward design makes the RTS experience approachable for both newbies and veterans, but aside from including the sports-friendly Blitz mode, the game accomplishes little to revitalize the genre.
9. Supreme Commander 2
Supreme Commander 2 by Gas Powered Games obviously doesn’t merit the word “supreme” in its title, but changing it would defeat the point of creating a sequel. This game is a good sequel to the one from 2007, but it’s clearly designed for a larger (and impatient) audience.
Supreme Commander 2 is less of a proud member of a distinctive series and more of a standard real-time strategy game with the micromanagement details much reduced or eliminated. Even so, if you can get past the altered gameplay, it’s a tonne of fun.
10. XCOM: Chimera Squad
The XCOM video games are not for the hurried or weak-hearted. The cruel, turn-based tactic gameplay mainly relies on chance, unavoidable unit death, and a lengthy, meticulous resource management-intensive campaign. Unfortunately, novice strategy enthusiasts can find the process intimidating. On the other hand, XCOM: Chimera Squad, which was created by Firaxis, is a friendlier and more approachable XCOM game.
The XCOM series’ setting and general vibe are maintained in this spin-off game, but the stakes are lowered by giving players just one city to defend a small squad of varied (and pre-created) units, and a more forgiving combat system.
