Best Strategy Games of All Time: 4X, RTS and Tactics

"Strategy" covers very different games. A 4X game like Civilization asks you to plan centuries ahead, a real-time strategy game asks you to make dozens of decisions a minute, and a tactics game asks you to solve one battle at a time. This list picks the best of each kind, explains what makes it work, says where to play it today and who it suits, so you start with the one that fits how you like to think.

A game ranks higher if its decisions stay interesting after many hours, if it can still be bought and played on current hardware, and if later games openly borrowed from it. Where a series has a newer entry, the entry says which version to start with. Prices and platforms change, so check the store before you buy.

Firaxis "unstacked" the city in this entry: wonders and specialist districts sit on separate map tiles around each city, so where you found a city and what terrain surrounds it matters more than in any earlier Civilization. You lead one civilisation from the Stone Age to space flight and can win by science, culture, religion, diplomacy or conquest. The two expansions, Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm, add eras, loyalty and climate change, and they make it a much fuller game.

• Where to play it now: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One and iOS. Civilization VII (2025) splits each campaign into three Ages and plays quite differently; VI with both expansions is the more complete game to start with.
• Who it suits: players who enjoy long sessions of "one more turn".

Blizzard's real-time strategy game has three factions that play nothing alike: the adaptable Terran, the swarming Zerg and the expensive, powerful Protoss. Competitive play demands fast decisions and fast hands, and it was one of the defining esports of the 2010s. The campaign, which runs across Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, has a lot of variety in its missions.

• Where to play it now: PC and Mac. The multiplayer and the Wings of Liberty campaign have been free since 2017.
• Who it suits: players who like quick decisions and a ranked ladder, and anyone curious about the campaign.

Firaxis again, this time with turn-based squad tactics. Aliens have already won, and you run a resistance from a flying base. Soldiers who die stay dead, so you get attached to the ones who survive. Many missions have turn limits, which stops you from crawling forward slowly. The War of the Chosen expansion (2017) adds three rival enemy leaders and is the version most players recommend.

• Where to play it now: PC, PS4 and Xbox One; the XCOM 2 Collection is on Switch and iOS.
• Who it suits: players who want tense, short battles and a campaign that remembers your losses.

Creative Assembly mixes two games: a turn-based campaign map where you build armies and settlements, and real-time battles with thousands of soldiers. The Warhammer setting gives every faction its own rules, from daemons to the ogre kingdoms. Owners of the earlier games can also play Immortal Empires, one huge campaign map that combines factions from the whole trilogy.

• Where to play it now: PC only.
• Who it suits: players who want empire-building and big battles in one game, and have a capable PC.

Subset Games, who made FTL, built a tactics game on an eight-by-eight grid where enemies show you exactly what they will do on their next turn. Your job is to push, block and redirect those attacks with three mechs, often making monsters hit each other. Battles take minutes, a full run takes about an hour or two, and the free Advanced Edition update in 2022 added more units and missions.

• Where to play it now: PC, Switch, and iOS and Android through Netflix Games.
• Who it suits: puzzle lovers and anyone with little time.

• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (2019) - the classic medieval RTS, still updated. PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
• Crusader Kings III (2020) - you play a medieval dynasty, not a country; marriages, plots and heirs matter as much as armies. PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch, 2019) - grid tactics plus a school calendar, with four routes that tell the same war from different sides.
• Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (Switch, 2023) - a remake of the Game Boy Advance tactics games and the gentlest way into the genre.
• Factorio (2020) - you build ever-larger automated factories; the Space Age expansion (2024) takes it to other planets. PC and Switch.
• Slay the Spire (2019) - a deck-building roguelike where every fight is a small strategy puzzle.

• Want one game for months: Civilization VI.
• Want quick, clever puzzles: Into the Breach.
• Want a story with real stakes: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.
• Grew up on the Saturn or GBA: the games like Dragon Force list covers army-scale tactics from that era.

For more turn-based picks, see the turn-based RPGs list and games like Advance Wars. If deck-builders are your thing, the roguelikes like Hades post covers Slay the Spire's neighbours.